Adorned by Nature

Adorned by Nature

by | Reviews

Adornment of the South Seas

Adorned by Nature

Amidst all the glitter of metals, glass and (semi)precious stones, it’s easy to overlook the perishable materials that have been used in adornment for millennia. Organic material rarely survives in the archaeological record, and when it does, it has lost its colour, fragrance, texture and sound. Seeing the splendour of such pieces in all their vividness is one of the many reasons I love adornment from the vast realm of Oceania, and so when I learned of the Adorned by Nature book project by Wolfgang Grulke, I was all too happy to jump aboard and pre-order a copy.

This heavy, full colour book is an excellent introduction into the material culture of the South Seas. The perspective of the book is that of collecting and collections, and the history of collecting is woven into every chapter and theme. This approach also highlights the interaction between creators and collectors, an aspect that is not often illustrated with this clarity in other books on adornment from the South Seas. Just one example is the short discussion on fossils used in adornment on Papua New Guinea, where the development of ornaments from simple containers to elaborate pieces is described as a consequence of dealership (p. 173). Throughout the book, you will find 19th century collections, notes, and photographs alongside modern pieces and photos – the history of adornment in the South Seas is ongoing and the book showcases these transitions. This is one of the aspects I liked the most about this book, its appreciation of change. Instead of presenting adornment ‘as it should be’, the author places adornment in a context of perpetual development and adaptation.

The book is divided into 4 main chapters. An introductory chapter on the South Seas presents origin stories and other myths as well as aspects of society and rituals from various cultures throughout this geographical area, as well as the history of collecting of adornment. The maps on the inside of the cover are just stunning in their 3D-rendering of the ocean floor and land mass in the curve of the globe: much more than a traditional map, this view is a great visual aid in understanding the spatial vastness of the area presented.

The next 3 chapters are constructed like an encyclopedia or a bundle of essays. Within each chapter, short illustrated texts zoom in on one particular type of material, object or tradition. A very strong point of the book is its use of images: these do not merely illustrate the text, but form an indispensable component of the narrative. The entire book is a visual delight and the illustrations further our understanding of adornment beyond the text itself. It is immensely helpful to not just read about cassowary bones and claws, but to see the creature itself, to see how a Papua spoon is carved out of a shell, to understand which plants, beetles and seeds are used and how these are grown, harvested and traded. I especially liked the part on ‘artificialia’ – non-natural elements that were incorporated in existing traditions, such as chinaware saucers used in kap-kap’s, porcelain imitations of dog teeth and Reckitt Blue facial paint. In these incorporations, we see cultural interaction and its consequences.

Trade, cultural exchange, rituals and traditions are addressed in the last two chapters of the book. Starting out from pieces of adornment again, we learn of brideprice and showing of wealth, the distribution of motifs and materials across long distances and the importance of objects as carriers of personal value. Finally, a postscript acknowledges the perspective of collecting once again, as the viewpoint from a cultural outsider. The personal approach of the author is clearly worded as well as his desire to give back to the community whose material culture he collects and presents in this not-for-profit book.

The value of this book is not so much in its theoretical underpinnings, as these are few and brief, nor in a desire to be ‘complete’. What you will absolutely love this book for is its wide and kaleidoscopic approach combined with its strong visuals. The collection of numerous short essays is an excellent starting point to explore adornment from the South Seas. The author unlocks the world of adornment in bite-sized nuggets of information that are easily digested and understood, all the while containing a plethora of details. The photographs, drawings and diagrams are fantastic and will certainly have you immersed in this vast world of water and islands for hours on end. There is just so much to see in these pages!

If you are just starting out as a collector, this book offers a delightful first introduction to the length and width of material culture of the South Seas. If you are a seasoned collector, this book will line up details at a glance and offer a starting point for more exploration. For this, you are referred to the accompanying website: the book itself has no references or bibliography. And finally, the very last line of the book entertains the thought of a second volume… I am looking forward to it already!

Adorned by Nature. Adornment, myth and exchange in the South Seas, by Wolfgang Grulke.

355 pp, full-colour, in English. Available with the publisher At One (see also many sample pages on the website!) and online.

The book was purchased during the fundraiser for publication.

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On a personal note: drawing a comparison between archaeological jewellery of organic material that has not survived and current-day societies that create such adornment is by no means meant to imply these modern societies are somehow living in the past and never made it out of the Stone Age. Quite the opposite, I would say: the mastery achieved in certain jewellery pieces from the South Seas is unparalleled to begin with. The values they express, the networks they are part of and the interaction between jewellery pieces and humans is of a complexity and depth that we could learn a thing or two from when clicking ‘buy it now’ on a random Tuesday evening. It’s these concepts that I am interested in as an archaeologist: not to compare a current-day culture 1:1 with the past (oh look, they make necklaces of shells, too), but to try and get a remote beginning of an idea of how I might look at and understand the past through the lens of the present – not to see the present through the lens of the past. Adorned by Nature offers plenty of food for thought.

Sigrid van Roode

Sigrid van Roode is an archeologist, ethnographer and jewellery historian. She considers jewellery heritage and a historic source. She has authored several books on jewellery from North Africa and Southwest Asia, and on archaeological jewellery. Sigrid has lectured for the Society of Jewellery Historians, the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden and the Sultan Qaboos Cultural Center, among many others. She curates exhibitions and teaches online courses on jewellery from North Africa & Southwest Asia.

Lover’s Eyes

Lover’s Eyes

by | Ancient jewellery, Reviews

miniature art

Lover’s Eyes

The eye has been a powerful motif since the earliest pieces of adornment were created. It protects the wearer and features in either stylized or natural form. At the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th century, a new category was added to this millennia-old repertoire: miniature portraits of the eye of an actual person, so-called ‘Lover’s Eyes’. The book ‘Lover’s Eyes’ presents a superb private collection of these tiny masterpieces.

‘Lover’s Eyes’ is the name given to these jewels, as a love story is what first comes to mind. That is because the most famous commissioner of such a portrait was the Prince of Wales, later to be King George IV: he sent a jewel with an image of his eye to his beloved Maria Fitzherbert. They married secretly and she commissioned a similar portrait for him to carry with him at all times. Over the years, they exchanged several of these jewels, and of the 10 pieces Maria had had created for him, nine were returned to her after his death – the 10th piece is still with him following his final wishes. But there is much more to them than secret love interests, and that is what makes this book such a wonderful read.

More than 130 eye-jewels from the collection of Nan and David Skier are presented in this book. The book is based on the exhibition catalogue that appeared in 2012 alongside the exhibition ‘The Look of Love’ in the Birmingham Museum of Art, but has now significantly been updated, expanded with four new chapters and additional jewellery pieces. The new chapters open up a treasure of history and background details against which to interpret these pieces.

One of these new essays deals with the settings of these portraits. The eye miniatures themselves are exquisite, but their setting adds to their meaning. In the spirit of Georgian expression, gemstones formed a language as well. The essay ‘Symbol and Sentiment’ explores these added capacities. I found it fascinating to learn that in this timeframe, too, coral was highly valued because of its protective capacities, and as the author writes it is indeed interesting to wonder if a coral setting of an eye miniature protects the person wearing the piece or the person depicted in the piece, or perhaps both (p. 48). Garnets, as a symbol of friendship, may indicate a piece was intended as gift to a close friend rather than to a lover, while pearl points more to love, and so the variety of gemstones present in eye miniatures is discussed.

That same added visual language is also present in the flowers depicted, which is explored in the essay on Floriography. Here, we learn about the history of floral symbolism in England. As the author remarks, there are relatively few pieces that combine floral motifs with eyes (p. 71), which is noteworthy for such a longstanding tradition. I could not help but wonder if the absence of floral language is informative in itself and tells us a little about how these eye portraits were perceived. Flowers communicate virtues and values about a person depicted to the onlooker. The eye jewellery however, while publicly worn, balances on the threshold between private and public: it combines presence with absence, identity with anonymity: could it be the use of added messages was mostly refrained from, so as to not give away too much to the onlooker? It’s just a thought, but this and other topics show how these eye portraits remain enigmatic objects in certain respects. Another tradition that is very much present in eye miniatures is the use of hairwork, as present in the second half of the essay on Symbol and Sentiment. These are not only to be understood as mourning or memorial jewellery – the gifting of hairlocks also occurred among friends and relatives.

The advent of photography is one of the factors that contributed to the dwindling popularity of eye miniatures. Yet, they never disappeared completely, as the last essays ‘Fake or Fashion and ‘Love never Dies’ explore. Eye jewellery was again popular in the late 19th and in the beginning of the 20th century, but these miniatures were no longer portraits of actual persons. The book walks us through the differences and development of styles, into the area of falsifications. As with all fakes, forgers are increasingly ingenious, and I found the section on methods to reveal fakes very enlightening: I would not be able to discern an authentic piece from a fake with the naked eye (no pun intended), but I found the discussion very helpful, also in its regard of what actually constitutes a fake. After all, eye miniatures continue to be made today: the exhibition in 2012 itself sparked another round of interest in these objects and inspired new creations reflecting our own timeframe. Here, the original Lover’s Eyes merge with older forms and meaning of eye depictions. The Eye of Time as designed by Dalí for example (p. 105) recalls both eye jewellery from the Mediterranean in its shape as the lover’s eyes in the addition of a teardrop, and the large eyes painted on the cassette ceiling of Blenheim Palace mix the other way around: their general shape is reminiscent of the watchful eye, but they are related to the eye jewellery miniatures in their depiction of the actual eyes of the Duke and Duchess of Marlborough (p. 103).

Jewellery, especially talismanic jewellery, tells us a lot about its wearer. This category of jewellery does even more so, as it captures traits of actual persons. They speak of love and loss, and as such hold incredibly personal stories that we may never know in detail. I loved the amount of detail this book provides to place these pieces in context: the other imagery of the time, such as the language of gemstones and flowers or their use as sentimental jewellery. The essays on the ‘Artist’s Eye’ and ‘The Intimate Gaze’ on Richard Cosway, who painted the eye miniatures for the Prince of Wales, shed light on the practical sides of this artistic genre – like the prince ordering, but rarely if ever actually paying.

The design of the book itself reminds me of a jewellery cassette: square and, upon careful opening, filled with wonderfully photographed pieces. The catalogue takes up about half of the book and showcases each piece against a dark background: I found it particularly helpful that the text consistently refers to catalogue entries, which makes for easy comparison. Many of the catalogue entries are discussed in detail in the main text, and where needed, extra information is added in the catalogue section. The book is referenced throughout with endnotes with each essay – don’t miss out on the notes, they contain even more fascinating tidbits!

This is a very complete, accessible overview of one of the most intriguing jewellery types of the last centuries, that should definitely be on the shelf of anyone interested in Georgian and Victorian jewellery, sentimental jewellery or European jewellery!

Lover’s Eyes. Eye miniatures from the Skier collection. Edited by Elle Sushan. Giles Art Books, 2021. 280 pages, full colour. In English

Available with the publisher and online stores such as Amazon.

The book was gifted as advance reading copy by the publisher

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Sigrid van Roode

Sigrid van Roode is an archeologist, ethnographer and jewellery historian. She considers jewellery heritage and a historic source. She has authored several books on jewellery from North Africa and Southwest Asia, and on archaeological jewellery. Sigrid has lectured for the Society of Jewellery Historians, the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden and the Sultan Qaboos Cultural Center, among many others. She curates exhibitions and teaches online courses on jewellery from North Africa & Southwest Asia.

Numerology in jewellery

Numerology in jewellery

by | Magic & Amulets

magic of numbers

Numerology in jewellery from the Middle East

Updated November 21, 2025

Numerology and jewellery: an introduction to numbers in adornment

Numerology—the belief that numbers carry symbolic meaning—has played a subtle yet powerful role in jewellery design across the Middle East and North Africa. In this post, I explore how numbers like three, five and seven are woven into the forms of adornment.

These are not decorative choices alone: they reflect magical thinking, protection, and deeply held cultural associations. From dangling elements arranged in odd-numbered clusters to elements alluding to the heavens, numerology has left its imprint on the very structure of traditional jewellery.

Odd and even: why uneven counts matter in Middle Eastern jewellery

That visualization of numerology starts with the difference between even and uneven numbers. Why is there often an uneven number of dangles on a pendant, for example? In jewellery, symmetry and evenness are preferably avoided. Usually, the number of bells and dangles on a particular pendant or amulet will be uneven, which is believed to be a way of warding off the evil eye.

In some regions, an even number is considered to be outright dangerous as the symmetric perfection of an even number will, it is believed, attract the evil eye. Click here to read more about the evil eye in jewellery.

The power of three: triads, triplets and jewellery symbolism

Three is considered to denote the sacred cycle of life (birth, existence and death) and spells are often recited three times.

Many festivities last for three days to enhance their efficacy and good fortune, and triangles, having three sides, are considered a powerful charm. Three is also the old conjunction of man, woman and child and as such was an important number in Antiquity.

Many deities were grouped into trinities or triads, and one deity could also be venerated in three forms. Those three forms would be based on the cycle of life and death, and usually are some manifestation of beginning, middle and end.

In jewellery, three-sided symbols or forms made of three’s are said to have great power: the six-pointed star of hexagram is a double triangle, for example. The threefold repetition of decorative motifs is another way to include the power of this number in jewellery.

Five and the khamsa: the number 5 in amulets and protection

Five is the number most commonly used in jewellery, and some cultures consider the fifth day of the week, Thursday, to be sacred, believing that anything undertaken on this day has more chance of success than activities undertaken on other days of the week.

That is because the number five is associated with the five pillars of Islam, the five fingers of the hand and the five daily prayers.

Five also has a profound cosmic meaning: it visualizes humankind in the center of the four cardinal directions, and as such is a beautiful metaphor for Creation itself.

In jewellery design, five becomes apparent through the arranging of elements in groups of five, or the number of dangles underneath pendants.

And of course it manifests in the khamsa: click here to read more about the powers and history of the khamsa!

Seven and the starry sky: celestial numbering in jewellery design

Seven has been symbolically meaningful since ancient Egypt, where the goddess Isis, renowned for her magical powers, is surrounded by seven scorpions.

Many shrines in North Africa and Southwest Asia need to be circumambulated seven times. This also holds true for the Kaaba in Mecca, which pilgrims circle seven times counterclockwise.

Seven has a cosmic meaning as well: in Antiquity, the seven visible planets were an important element of astronomy and astrology. Click here to read more about astrology in jewellery.

How numerology operates in Middle Eastern jewellery design

All these numbers are repeatedly worked into general jewellery decoration as well, and that is how numerology influences jewellery design. [1] Take a moment to closely at your favourite piece of jewellery. Count its dangles, observe its design: do you notice a motif often occurs in three’s, five’s or seven’s?

Triangles with three points, squares with four points, crosses with five points (the intersection is seen as a point as well), and their combinations, all provide geometrical decorations generally designed to ward off evil.

When actual, written numbers are worked into a magic square, they combine their powers into an effective amulet tailored for the person wearing it.

Understanding jewellery through numbers: a closing reflection

So you see, the arrangement of elements in jewellery may look general, and even be standardized patterning, but it finds its origin in the highly meaningful rendition of numbers.

The use of numerology in jewellery offers a key to understanding how form and meaning intertwine in traditional adornment of the Middle East and North Africa. Numbers such as three, five and seven are embedded in amulets, pendants and jewellery structures—not simply as decoration, but as carriers of cultural logic, ritual purpose and protective power. For collectors, museum curators or anyone drawn to the material culture of the region, recognising these numeric patterns opens a richer appreciation of both jewellery and the societies that produced it.

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Where can I learn more about symbolism in jewellery design?

Six ways how magic influences jewellery design: want to know how? Download your free e-book on amulets here!

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Find out more about the magic of numbers in the e-course on Amulets and Magic in Jewellery!

This post is based on the chapter ‘The Evil Eye and Other Problems’ in my book Desert Silver.

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References

[1] Westermarck, E, 1904. The magic origin of Moorish designs, in: The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol 34

Lead image has been created adapting works from The British Libary and HmmlOrientalia.

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The Bedouin Silver Jewellery Blog: Sigrid van Roode

Sigrid van Roode is an archeologist, ethnographer and jewellery historian. Her main field of expertise is jewellery from North Africa and Southwest Asia, as well as archaeological and archaeological revival jewellery. She has authored several books on jewellery, and obtained her PhD at Leiden University on jewellery, informal ritual and collections. Sigrid has lectured for the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden, Turquoise Mountain Jordan, and many others. She provides consultancy and research on jewellery collections for both museums and private collections, teaches courses and curates exhibitions. She is not involved in the business of buying and selling jewellery, and focuses on research, knowledge production, and education only. Sigrid strongly believes in accessibility of knowledge, and aims to provide reliable and trustworthy content: that’s why the Bedouin Silver blog provides references and citations.

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Personal Adornment

Personal Adornment

by | Reviews

the construction of identity

Personal Adornment

When you have been reading other articles on this blog, you know personal adornment as a historic source is one of my main research interests. Who are we? Who do we want to be? Who do we definitely want to disassociate ourselves from? How do we want others to perceive us? We use our personal appearance to create our personal and group identity in many ways, but it creates who we are in as many ways. And it always has, as becomes more and more clear of studies into personal adornment in the past. Personal Adornment and the Construction of Identity presents a superb overview of the many possibilities that jewellery research in an archaeological context has to offer. While I speak of ‘jewellery’, the book deals with bodily adornment in the widest sense.

First, let me walk you through the book. This is a series of papers resulting from a conference session, and reading them made me wish from the first page I had had the opportunity to attend that conference! Eight chapters discuss case studies from across the globe and from varying timeframes, and a thorough introduction at the beginning and a concluding chapter at the end bookend these, providing the necessary cohesion between the chapters. On the very first page of text, which is really only just the acknowledgements, the editor Hannah V. Matson expresses her hope that readers ‘will contemplate how items of bodily adornment may serve not as nonutilitarian items of wealth or decoration, nor as symbols or materializations of underlying social relations and categories, but as active and key components in the constitution of identity.’ (p. v): if that does not make one want to dive fully into the pages ahead, I don’t know what does!

So, what to expect in this volume? You will find the first chapter very useful in its comprehensive presentation and discussion of the evolving views in archaeology when it comes to personal adornment. Jewellery is (for the most part) no longer treated as ‘Look, lots of jewellery! This must be a princess!’, but as a very relevant source that ties in with virtually every aspect of past worlds we are trying to understand. Jewellery actively constructs identity, and in a way, reality. Let me illustrate that briefly by means of another recent study, by Karsten Wentink, on prehistoric grave goods including personal adornment. He argues that the deceased were buried with objects that reflected a world of travel and all the social codes that went with that: drinking beer together, extending hospitality, being a gracious guest by sharing stories of places far and wide…Apparently, they expected this for their final journey as well, and personal adornment buried with them was making that a reality for the afterlife.

What I found particularly interesting in Personal Adornment and the Construction of Identity was the section on personal adornment and social memory. Just like ornaments can be actively creating reality, they can commemorate and even re-create a past, and as such are incredibly powerful parts of our lives. Mette Langbroek touches upon this aspect of medieval beads as well in her chapter Beads from Dorestad in the volume Dorestad and its networks. Communities, Contact and Conflict in Early Medieval Europe, and reading a more elaborate introduction in the theoretical underpinnings of personal adornment and its mnemonic modalities through which people (in any timeframe) negate their present was absolutely enriching.

This entire book is filled with food for thought, as you can tell by the number of sticky notes in the above image of the book. We see how in the early Neolithic a shared use of ornamentation leads to new group identities in which hunter-gatherers and farmers interact (paper by Perlès), how dress and language both form deep expressions of identity that disappear together from the record (Olko), how objects of adornment can be group property instead of individual property (Prociuk, which reminded me strongly of how certain healing beads with the Bedouin in southern Palestine are group property as well), the changes in early Medieval society that are not just reflected in brooch types, but actually instigated by them (Glørstad), and many other case studies of jewellery research at its best. This is exactly how one would like to see jewellery studies approached: as an integral part of and source about the past, not just as adornment.

This is obviously very much an academic book, but very well readable due to its clarity of writing (the paper by Cifarelli is the most jargon-heavy in its theoretical approach at times), and the introductory and final chapters both do a great deal to integrate all the fascinating research in between into a coherent framework. Having read this book, you will have a clear and up to date overview of the deep possibilities jewellery research has to offer: not just for archaeological pieces, but for any type of personal adornment. If you are a curator or academic researcher in the field of personal adornment, this is simply a must-read, and if you love jewellery and your interest in its capacities beyond the ornamental has been piqued, this is a great introduction into the length and width of jewellery as a research field!

Personal Adornment and the Construction of Identity. A Global Archaeological Perspective (2021). Edited by Hannah V. Matson.

224 pp, b&w with 10 colour plates, in English.

Available with the publisher Oxbow Books and in bookstores (offline and online) worldwide.

The book was gifted as review copy by the publisher.

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Sigrid van Roode

Sigrid van Roode is an archeologist, ethnographer and jewellery historian. She considers jewellery heritage and a historic source. She has authored several books on jewellery from North Africa and Southwest Asia, and on archaeological jewellery. Sigrid has lectured for the Society of Jewellery Historians, the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden and the Sultan Qaboos Cultural Center, among many others. She curates exhibitions and teaches online courses on jewellery from North Africa & Southwest Asia.

Magic of Amber

Magic of Amber

by | Magic & Amulets

Magic of amber

amber throughout history

Amber Amulets

Updated Jan 17, 2024

One of the most used components in jewellery from North Africa and Southwest Asia is amber. This fossilized resin has been popular as adornment since prehistoric times, and has been attributed with a variety of magical capacities throughout millennia. What is the significance of amber? Let’s explore how amber has been the go-to substance in a surprisingly large field of problems!

The power of amber: the Roman period

Amber was already highly valued by the Romans, who attributed a great deal of capacities to this material. It was thought to help against throat diseases, to alleviate fever, solve ear aches and problems with sight, and cure stomach pains and problems in the urinary trajectory. [1]

Notably, amber was believed to be specifically effective for women and children; when a woman dreamt of amber ringer rings, this was considered a beneficial omen. [2]

Its scent may also have played a role in its magical powers: rubbing an amber object firmly produces a resinous fragrance. Evidence of amber dice that have been rubbed vigorously in the past may show that gamers sought to influence their throw by activating the magical powers of amber [3], although, as we shall see, I think its static capacity may also have helped to attract winners’ luck.

The fragrance of amber may also be the reason why it was sometimes burned in ritual settings: archaeology only recovers the remains, but it may have been its smell that was the key behind this practice.

Amber in medieval amulets

Amber continued to be much appreciated in the Middle Ages. What people in Europe thought of its powers only becomes clear in the 13th century, when it is listed in a book on the healing capacities of stones as excellent remedy against stomach ache. [4]

A piece of amber was to be put in wine, beer or water and left to sit there for some time, after which you would take it out and drink the fluid – this method of transferring the magical capacity of a substance to a fluid that can be consumed has existed for millennia.

The use of amber against urinary problems was also still very much alive in the Middle Ages: imbuing milk with amber as described above would lighten your load. Here again, the magic works following the lines of analogy, this time because of its yellow hues.

Coral and amber Draa Valley necklace
A glorious Draa Valley amber and coral necklace with colourful woollen tassels

Amber in amulets from the Middle East

In Arabic, amber is called kahramān. Here another magical use reveals itself: the name is related to kahrabah, meaning electricity. When real amber is rubbed, it becomes slightly static. This makes it an excellent substance to attract the love of a husband, as the Bedouin in Palestine believed. [5]

And who knows, maybe the amber carving of Amor, the god of love, from the Roman period served the same purpose…?

Amber also is very powerful against the evil eye in general. The combination of its fragrance (as was already the case with the Romans) and its quality to keep evil at a distance makes it a highly valued prayer bead: these are also held, rubbed and passed through the fingers many times. [6]

Amber in amulets from North Africa

Like in many other parts of the world, amber is used to dispel teething pains. [7] In a way of analogous magic similar to that of earlier periods and cultures, it is considered a warming and invigorating substance. This is why the Amazigh also consider it very useful against rheuma and respiratory inflictions, as well as against skin diseases.

Additionally, to the Amazigh amber represents the warmth of the sun, and as such forms a natural pair with silver elements that invoke the power of the moon. As amber was so highly valued for its beneficial properties as well as visual expression of wealth, amber beads were often strung with small felt pieces in between to keep the beads from damaging. [8]

The long history of amber as an amulet

So what you see, is that the qualities of amber occur in more or less similar forms time and again. It was believed to be useful against ear aches in both ancient Rome and modern Egypt, it works its magic against stomach aches and respiratory problems from the Maghreb to the Levant, and has helped babies through their teething pains since the Middle Ages. Amber has captivated the human imagination since forever!

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What other materials were used in amulets?

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References

[1] Koster, A. 2013. The Cemetery of Noviomagus, p. 174

[2] Davis, G. 2018. Rubbing and Rolling, Burning and Burying: The Magical Use of Amber in Roman London, in: Parker, A. & S. McKie 2018. Material Approaches to Roman Magic. Occult Objects and Supernatural Substances. Oxbow Books, Oxford, p. 71

[3] Idem, p. 75

[4] Hildegard von Bingen, Heilsame Schöpfung, übersetzt und eingeleitet von Ortrun Riha, Beuroner Kunstverlag 2016, p. 278

[5] Biasio, E. 1998. Beduinen im Negev, Zürich, p. 221

[6] Idem, p. 221-222

[7] Draguet, M. 2021. Berber Memories, p. 350

[8] Berber Women of Morocco, Fondation Pierre Bergé/Yves Saint Laurent 2014, p. 73

Would you like to quote this article? Please do! Here’s how:

S. van Roode, [write the title as you see it above this post], published on the Bedouin Silver website [paste the exact link to this article], accessed on [the date you are reading this article and decided it was useful for you].

Sigrid van Roode

Sigrid van Roode is an archeologist, ethnographer and jewellery historian. Her main field of expertise is jewellery from North Africa and Southwest Asia, as well as archaeological and archaeological revival jewellery. She has authored several books on jewellery. Sigrid has lectured for the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden, Turquoise Mountain Jordan, and many others. She provides consultancy and research on jewellery collections for both museums and private collections, teaches courses and curates exhibitions. She is not involved in the business of buying and selling jewellery, and focuses on research, knowledge production, and education only.