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Saturday, November 18, 2006

Sterling Silver Jewelry History: Jason The Argonauts And The Lydians

During the 6th and 5th Centuries before Christ, the Lydian empire with its impregnable capital of Sardis perched high on Mount Tmolos changed world history. Contrary to the neighboring Phrygians, who had been in Anatolia since just 1200 B.C., the Lydians were an ancient race whose origins were planted in earlier Hittite cultures. Lydia, lying at the Mediterranean end of an ancient trade route that led all the way to the Arabian coast of Mesopotamia, had always been prosperous, but under the reign of King Alyattes II and later his son and heir Croesus, it became one of the richest empires in Asia.

After beating back the attacking Cimmerians, who had previously overrun King Midas’ neighboring state of Phrygia, Lydia absorbed Phrygia, its wealth and all its lands including the source of King Midas’ wealth: the electrum-rich Paktolos River. To extract precious metals from the river, the Lydians dredged the river’s sediments, filtering out the electrum, gold, and silver particles using sheepskins. The lanolin, a waxy material found in wool, captured the precious metals but allowed sand to wash over it. The fleece, now laden with glistening precious metals was then hung, dried and then burnt at a high temperature. After the fire burnt out the gold and silver metals were easily extracted from the ashes, it is widely believed that this method of extraction gave rise to the legend Jason and the Argonauts and the ‘The Golden Fleece’. However, contrary to the myth, concrete proof of Lydia’s metallurgical prowess and its use of the river’s precious gold and silver ores were later found at archeological excavations near Lydia’s capital city, Sardis.

Archeologists, on discovering an ancient industrial quarter near the Paktolos River just outside Sardis, exposed a variety of objects including a blow-pipe nozzle, bellows, ovens, crucibles, cupules, and waste-materials, which corroborate that the local smiths had the ability to separate gold and silver from placer electrum by cementation and cupellation processes. Further discoveries of stone moulds also testify to the Sardians' utilization of their local supplies of gold and silver for the making of fine jewelry.

However, the gold and silversmiths of Lydia didn’t make history with their ability to produce fine jewelry, but with the world’s first monetary system. While the much earlier established civilizations of Mesopotamia and Egypt were still bartering in the form of silver ingots, silver rings, and other items of precious metals, Lydians were using coins with a mark of authority at a fixed exchange value.

In the 6th Century B.C. under King Alyattes II coins, as defined in Webster’s dictionary as “Gold, silver and copper metal certified by marks upon it to be of a definite exchange value and issued by government to be used as money.” were produced in great numbers.

The ‘Trite’, the most common Lydian denomination of its time, was made from electrum alloys and usually consisted of 53% gold, 45% percent silver and 2% percent copper. It was supposed that the coins were minted for trading, in respect to the fact that Sardis was located at the western end of a major trade route that extended east all the way to the Babylonian gulf in Southern Mesopotamia. However, this has been largely dispelled due to the fact that these gold and silver electrum coins being of far too large a value: about a month's subsistence in total.

Also, despite the large quantities of production, no gold and silver electrum coins were found in or around archeological digs associated with market trade in the Lydian empire, or elsewhere along the extensive connecting trade routes used at the time. It is instead believed that these gold and silver electrum coins were intended as trade for tax payments, religious offerings, wedding presents, hospitality offerings, or salaries to mercenaries.

Whatever the case, Lydia was the first example of the transition from an agricultural barter economy to a commercial monetary urban economy. Today, scholars believe that the Lydians invented the world's first free market, and created gold, silver and electrum coins because they were the first to recognize their profit-making potential. This was proved in Lydia’s economic growth, which in less than a hundred years under King Alyattes II and his son and heir Croesus saw it go from a kingdom to an empire. Indeed, it is from this period that the expression ‘As Rich As Croesus’ is derived.

This monetary phenomenon quickly spread through the rest of Asia, Asia Minor and Europe. It was during the reign of Croesus, who had begun to build diplomatic ties with mainland Greece, that the Athenian statesman Solon visited Lydia. During his stay Solon, who later formed the weight standards for the silver Athenian drachmas, became influenced by Lydia’s ingenious gold and silver monetary reforms and carried the idea back to Greece.

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Written for SilverShake, an online retailer of 14k gold plated sterling silver jewelry and sterling silver jewelry at wholesale prices. Purchase today and get silver jewelry worth up to $60...Free!

Friday, November 17, 2006

Sterling Silver Jewelry History: King Midas And The Paktolos River

After King Priam’s defeat at the hands of Agamemnon’s Greek army led by Achilles, Troy was eventually absorbed into the Hittite empire. More than a hundred years later, in 1200 B.C., the great walls of the northern-most outpost of Asia-Minor fell again, this time to the Phrygians.

By 1190 B.C. the Phrygians, a race of people originating from southern Europe definitively ended the Hittite reign of Anatolia with the sacking of their capital Hattusas, and eventually penetrated as far south as the Assyrian border to the east of Anatolia. By the 8th Century B.C. they had created the political state of Phrygia in western Anatolia. The states capital Gordian, originally named after a poor peasant farmer called Gordias, was located slightly southwest of what is today modern Ankara.

According to Phrygian legend, the farmer Gordias was appointed King by the gods. In tribute to them he tied up his ox-cart outside the temple as a reminder to all not to forget the nobility of humble origins. As time passed into centuries another legend grew around the bound cart.

According to the oracle of Gordian, only the rightful ‘King of Asia’ could unravel the ‘Gordian Knot’ that tied the cart up. In the winter of 333 B.C., an army of mercenaries led by a young man called Alexander came to Gordian. As had many before him, Alexander rose to the undefeated 400-year challenge, but instead of trying to untie it with his hands Alexander took his sword and slashed the knot in two…that Alexander became ‘Alexander The Great’.

Today, the saying cutting the "Gordian Knot" is an expression meaning to solve a difficult problem with a bold solution. However, this is not the most famous of Phrygian legends. King Gordias, having had no heir to succeed him had adopted a son who came to the throne in 725 B.C., his tale is one of the first and most famous legends on the perils of wealth:

According to classical mythology Dionysus, or Bacchus as the Romans knew him, was the Olympian god of wine. Unsurprisingly popular, he was especially venerated in the Asian Minor city-state of Phrygia where he held a cult status. Dionysus, son of Zeus, was followed by a group of satyrs, half-human half-goat figures. One day Silenus, the eldest of the satyrs and also Dionysus' tutor, drunk himself paralytic and passed out in the King of Phrygia’s rose garden. The Phrygian ruler who took great pride in his roses was no less than King Midas. After Midas had found the aging satyr, he treated his alcohol poisoning and guided him back to good health.

Dionysus, in gratitude for saving Silenius’ life, asked what King Midas wanted in return. After some consideration Midas asked that everything he touched should turn to gold. Granted with his wish Midas amused himself by touching everything around him, watching it turn to gold. However, his gift soon manifested itself as a burden when he found that even the food he touched turned to gold. Dying of hunger he asked his daughter to feed him, but in the process she too turned to gold. Consumed with grief Midas pleaded that the gift, turned curse, be lifted. Dionysus instructed Midas that if he washed in the Paktolos River that flowed through the kingdom, he would be cured. Midas did as he was told and after bathing the spell lifted. But in cleansing the King of his curse the river became laden with the precious metal.

One of the first parables created on the evils of excessive wealth, the ‘Midas Touch’ is the stuff of legend. However, neither King Midas nor his bounty of precious metals is myth. King Midas ruled over Phrygia during the 7th Century B.C. until he committed suicide when Gordian fell to the Cimmerian invasions. Up until then, under Midas, the Phrygian city-state witnessed a golden age.

This wealth was due to the Paktolos River, which also ran through the neighboring city-state of Lydia. The Paktolos, still flowing in Anatolia today, was laden with a naturally occurring precious metal called electrum: an alloy of gold and silver. Enriching the economies of both Phrygia and Lydia, the Paktolos River’s bounty of precious metals ensured that the two regions became the most coveted areas of Anatolia and the known civilized world.

“…Paktolos glad to gratify Dionysus murmured as he poured the gold sowing water upon the purple sand, and the gilded fish went swimming in wealthy sounding where the rich ore lay deep.” – From Nonnos Dionysiaca Greek Epic 500 A.D.

In 696 B.C. Cimmerian attacks ended Midas’ rule of Phrygia and the sacking and burning of Gordian. Having occupied Phrygia and assumed its wealth the barbaric Cimmerians, from whose name Crimea is derived, continued to invade Anatolia pushing into the neighboring city-state of Lydia until the 620 B.C. when the Lydian armies finally defeated them. Phrygia’s wealth of gold, silver and electrum was then absorbed into the Lydian empire where it would be forged into a radical concept that would change the world forever…

Copyright © SilverShake Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

Written for SilverShake, an online retailer of vintage jewelry and sterling silver jewelry at wholesale prices. Purchase today and get silver jewelry worth up to $60...Free!

Thursday, November 16, 2006

History Of Sterling Silver Jewelry: The Indus Valley

In the majority of Neolithic India, as in most parts of the world at that time, people fashioned jewelry out of seeds, feathers, berries, flowers, bones and shells. But in the northern Indus valley cities of Mohenjo-daro and Harappan, men and women were already wearing jewelry made of gold, silver, copper and set with precious and semi-precious gemstones.

The Indus valley civilization, preceding the Vedic, existed from 3000 B.C. to 1500 B.C., and was built in and amongst the fertile lands of what is known today as Pakistan. The Neolithic Indus valley people like others, domesticated animals and harvested crops of cotton, sesame and barley. However, contrary to the belief that these regions only possessed an agricultural economy in this period, archeological evidence of jewelry and other fine items found at the Indus cities of Mohenjo-daro and Harappan, show the people as having been sophisticated urbanites whose cities were bastions to art and culture.

The brick cities, acting as focal points for a kind of centralized state, towered high above the Indus plains and were established along important trade routes that connected the ‘Far East’ with the ‘Near East’. They were visible for large distances, a landmark to the prosperity of their rulers, inhabited by generations of merchant classes, skilled artisans, farmers and sea-faring adventurers engaged in extensive trading.

Proof of the Indus people’s impact on Neolithic trade was found when archaeologists excavating Mohenjo-daro and Harappan found engraved seals written in cuneiform, the world’s first written language whose origins lay in Mesopotamia in the Near East. The seals, describing the contents of sacks, were used to close bundles of merchandise, as cord marks on the reverse side testify. Similar seals were also found in ports on the far-away Persian Gulf near modern Bahrain, and amongst Mesopotamian sites at the city of Ur.

The seals originating from the Indus sites described cargos of textiles, and luxury goods such as semi precious gemstones, ivory, carnelian beads, pearls, mother of pearl and jade sent to Persia and Mesopotamia in exchange for gold, silver, tin, copper, lapis lazuli and turquoise. Bitumen from Mesopotamia, where it occurred naturally, was also imported and used as the binding glue in mother of pearl inlay in precious items of jewelry and ornamentation. These products and their seals found in various Indus archeological sites bare testament to the presence of foreign traders living amongst the Indus people.

The Indus civilizations were ethnically diverse incorporating many cultures and creeds. Many terracotta, bronze and stone figurines found at the Indus sites display a variety of different styles of clothing, headdresses and ornamentation indicating a multi-ethnic civilization. Some of the figurines were adorned with multiple chokers and necklaces, which appear to represent beaded ornaments of gold, silver, and semi-precious gems. The complex casting techniques used in the production of the metallic figures, made by the French ‘Cire-Perdue’ meaning ‘Lost-wax’, also points towards a culture of knowledgeable and sophisticated metallurgists far in advance of their epoch.

Further excavations of Mohenjo-daro’s lower levels, revealed the living quarters of metal workers specializing in the production of copper and bronze implements, and also weapons. Flat axes, spears, knives, arrowheads, chisels, saws and razors were caste in smelting furnaces then hammered into shape. Silver, reserved for smaller precious objects, was smelted and molded into vases, vessels, seals, pendants, and brooches. Other crafts in the city included the manufacturing of beads made in a variety of different shells, ivory and semi precious gem types such as alabaster, lapis lazuli and turquoise from Persia, amethyst from Maharashtra, and jade from Central Asia. However, by the third century B.C., after the reign of Buddhist emperor Ashoka, India was mining its own extensive gemstone resources, and had become the world’s leading exporter of precious and semi-precious gemstones.

By 2000 B.C. the Indus valley civilizations were disappearing due to internal decline. The eventual demise of the Indus Valley Civilization came about in 1500 B.C with Aryan invaders from the north firstly destroying the outlying villages and then overrunning the cities of Harappan and Mohenjo-daro. The Indus civilization with their highly advanced knowledge of process metallurgy, gem cutting and jewelry production were eventually pushed further south into India where they created a legacy of fine arts for which India is known the world over.
Copyright © SilverShake Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

Written for SilverShake, an online retailer of vintage jewelry and sterling silver jewelry at wholesale prices. Purchase today and get silver jewelry worth up to $60...Free!

Monday, November 13, 2006

Caring For Your Sterling Silver And Rhodium Plated Jewelry


Silver in all its luminous apparitions, has co-reigned alongside gold for more than 6000 years as the ‘Queen of Precious Metals’. However, of all silver’s heirs it is sterling silver with its intrinsic beauty, value and durability, that has ensured itself a place in the history books as one of the most popular mediums of personal adornment.

Owning a prestigious item such as sterling silver jewelry should be undertaken with an eye on the future. Like all precious metals, sterling silver’s value increases with time, and one day your jewelry could well become a priceless family heirloom, so looking after it now can only pay dividends in the future. However, to understand the proper care and maintenance of your sterling silver jewelry it is first necessary to look into sterling silver’s background.

Both silver and sterling silver are precious metals, and both closely related, but they are not the same. Pure silver is quite soft and because of this won't hold its shape; sterling silver was invented as a more durable form of this highly malleable and lustrous metal, lending its hardwearing properties to the creation of frequently worn jewelry.

Sterling silver is 92.5 percent true silver; the remaining 7.5 percent is comprised of an alloy, usually copper or zinc. Sterling silver tarnishes, this is caused by a reaction between the silver and the sulfur containing oxygen particles of the air. The following guide gives you some useful advice on preserving your sterling silver gemstone jewelry in the state you want for future generations.

Storage

Store your sterling silver jewelry in a dark, cool place away from direct sunlight or other sources of extreme heat such as radiators. A perfect place is in a jewelry box in amongst your clothes.

Sterling silver jewelry, as is the case with all fine jewelry, should be stored alone in a separate compartment in a jewelry box or in its own soft pouch. Not doing this will eventually result in scratches, or even breaks if there are gemstones in the jewelry.

Never store your sterling silver jewelry in paper, cardboard, or cotton filled boxes, as these contain trace elements of sulfur. For best results, place the items in a sealed, airtight plastic bag or jeweler's sulfur-free tissue prior to boxing and wrapping.

Cleaning & Polishing

Over time, sterling silver will develop a mellow patina caused by ‘Oxidization’, which results in an ‘Antique’ look where tarnish builds up in the fine details giving your sterling silver jewelry a beautifully unique air. You may or may not appreciate this aspect; you should consider this before making any attempts at cleaning your jewelry.

The best way to preserve and encourage the tarnished ‘Antique’ look to sterling silver jewelry can be done by not cleaning the jewelry with water, and not wearing the jewelry in the shower or bath.

The best way to prevent tarnish is to wear your sterling silver jewelry as often as possible.

If your sterling silver does become tarnished, it is easily restored to its former glory by using warm water with a mild soap, rinsing it and then making sure to thoroughly dry it with a fine soft cloth. Soaking is discouraged.

Use a soft cloth, similar to the cloth provided with spectacles, in light even strokes for cleaning the wider surface area, and cotton buds or Q-tips in the same manner for getting in to more difficult corners.

Never use tissues or hard brushes, including toothbrushes, when cleaning or polishing your sterling silver, as they will leave scratch marks. This is especially important if there are gemstones such as pearls mounted into your jewelry.

Polishing should be done quickly, and all traces of polish should be removed afterwards. Leaving traces of polish behind can dull the design by clogging engraved areas.

Silver pastes, treated polishing cloths or other sterling silver cleaning materials should be used under the guidance of your local jeweler, this is especially true if there are gemstones as these chemicals can destroy them.

The Dos’ & Don’ts

Always take your sterling silver jewelry off before applying suntan lotion, skin creams, and swimming in chlorinated or salt water.

Never wear your jewelry when working with detergents, bleaches, ammonia or alcohols; these chemicals will cause discoloration, damage and loosen any gemstones.

Never use an ultrasonic cleaner, ammonia or any chemical solution to clean opaque gemstones, such as turquoise, malachite, onyx, lapis lazuli and opals. They are a porous stone and may absorb chemicals, which build up inside the stone and cause discoloration. Simply wipe them gently with a moist soft cloth until clean.

Rhodium Plated Sterling Silver Care

Some sterling silver jewelry is plated with rhodium; this is designed to make your jewelry tarnish resistant. Caring for rhodium-plated sterling silver jewelry requires a different approach than non-plated sterling silver jewelry.

Clean it with a soft polishing rag or fine cleaner, but never use chemical based silver cleaners because this will damage the rhodium finish and also the inlaid gemstones.

If you own antique sterling silver jewelry or rhodium plated sterling silver jewelry we recommend that you seek expert advice from your local jeweler who will be able to instruct you on the best brands of jewelry cleaning products in your area.


This article was written by David-John Turner for the Silvershake website, an online retailer of silver jewelry at wholesale prices. Purchase today and get gemstone silver jewelry worth up to $60...Free!


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