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WOMEN IN THE BIBLE

                          JEWELRY


Survival 
Almost all of the jewelry from ancient times was destroyed. A few pieces survived because they was placed, long ago, in hiding places for safe-keeping during wars and invasions. They were left untouched for millennia in their hiding places because the few people who knew where the jewelry was, were slaughtered or taken as captives, never to return. 

Style

 We have very little to go on, but we know that the Jewish people borrowed craftsmen from surrounding countries like Phoenicia. These men produced designs similar to the ones they made in their native countries, so it is fair to assume that Jewish women wore jewelry similar in design to Egyptian, Mesopotamian and Assyrian pieces. During the later Greek and Roman periods, admiration among the upper classes for foreign fashions and design was strong, and Jewish women wore jewelry similar to pieces worn in ancient Greece and Rome.

Links with the Bible

      * During the reign of Solomon's son Rehoboam, Judah was overrun by the Egyptian ruler Shoshank I, 22nd Dynasty. Rehoboam was forced to pay a ransom to get rid of him, including not only the Temple treasures, but the jewelry belonging to the royal women of Judah, which was probably taken back to Egypt to be melted down and re-used in Egyptian jewelry (see 22nd Dynasty jewelry below).
      * 'The Assyrian came down like a wolf on the fold, and his cohorts were gleaming with purple and gold....'.   King Sargon II of Assyria (721–705) is famous for his conquest of Israel. He took the ten tribes of Israel, the Lost Tribes, into captivity (2 Kings 17:6). See Nimrud Jewelry below.
     * The woman at the window, with her head adorned, is a frequent motif in the ancient near-Eastern world. Jezebel is described like this immediately before her death (2 Kings 9:30-37); see the ivory plaque below.
    *  See also Genesis 24:53, Exodus 32:24, 35:22, Hosea 2:13.

 
 


The jewelry of Queen Puabi in situ, as found in her tomb at Ur in Sumeria - where Sarah and Abraham were born.

 

 

 

                       
Jewelry taken from Queen Puabi's tomb at Ur in ancient Sumeria, 3rd millennium BC. 
The illustration at far right is part of the crown - the various components could be arranged in several different ways


 

 
 
Polished beads found in the tomb of Queen Puabi

 

 
 

Gold jewelry from Troy II, 3rd millennium BC

 

 
 
Egyptian, 5th dynasty, collar and anklet

 

 
 


Mycenaean gold pendant, 17thcentury BC

 

 
 
Jewels of a princess, c1500BC

 

 
 
Necklace circa 14-13th century BC, found at Mari, a flourishing city west of the Euphrates 

 

 
 
Necklace beads, 13th century BC

 

   

THE NIMRUD JEWELRY
'Last year, exploring an inner room of the palace, a team of laborers (headed by Muzahim Mahmoud Hussein, leader of the Iraqi team at Nimrud) stumbled across a tomb that contained a small collection of necklaces, earrings and gilded pins. In April, Muzahim found what looked like a piece of pavement. When he and his workers cleared off the dirt, they uncovered a small ceramic pipe resembling an air vent. The "pavement" turned out to be the arched roof of a small rectangular tomb. Inside: a dusty sarcophagus. "I pried the top off with an iron bar," says Muzahim. "There was more dust inside, but when I held up the light, it was reflected back into my eyes by the gold."

Much of that gold turned out to be priceless jewelry draped around the skeleton of a young princess named Yabahya, tentatively identified as the daughter of one of Assyria's most renowned and feared kings, Sargon II. Nearby, still more jewelry and gold ornaments were piled. Mingled with the dried bones were dozens of delicately sculpted gold rosettes, scattered like flowers over the body of the dead princess.' (Quoted from Time magazine article, Philip Elmer-Dewitt, October 13 1989)

 
 
Necklace from the tomb at the ancient city of Nimrud, in Iraq. 
Nimrud was the capital of Ashurnasirpal II, an Assyrian king of the 9th century BC

 

 
 
Nimrud: ugal or headdress worn by the Queen

 

 
   


Nimrud: gold bracelets

 

 
 
Nimrud: gold necklace

 

 
 
Gold jewelry from the tomb at Nimrud

 

 

 


The woman on this ivory plaque wears an Egyptian-style wig and an elaborate ornament with pendants in her hair. The image fits the description of Jezebel in 2 Kings 9:30-37. This type of jewelry was found buried with a royal woman of the Assyrian court at Nimrud.

 

 
 
Egyptian, 22nd dynasty. During the rule of this dynasty, Shoshenq I invaded the kingdom of Judah and Israel, and overran Jerusalem and nearby cities in about 925 BCE. He took the Temple and palace treasures, including the golden shields of Solomon, back to Egypt.

 

 
 
Gold diadem embellished with blue, green, red, and white enameled flowers; from a tomb at Canossa, 3rd century BC

 

 
 


Greek diadem, 300BC. In Israel, construction of the 2nd Temple had begun

 

 
 
Gold bracelet and earrings from Pompeii

 

 
 
Statue of Antonia Minor wearing what would have been a beaten gold tiara

 

 
         
Left, gold hairnet fragment; right, woman with hair covered by hairnet, probably gold filigree

 

 
 

       
Hairstyles, early Roman period

 

 

 
 

                                
Various designs of jewelry from the Fayum coffin portraits