Roman Jewellery

The British Museum has many pieces of Roman Jewellery but below you can find examples from the empire excavated from Merida. Soldiers from Merida served in Britain. Permission to use this material is kindly granted by Consorcio Ciudad Monumental de Mérida.

If you look at these simple closed hoops, created with knotted gold threads, you will see that they have several turns around the closure. This type of jewelry was intended to be worn permanently. (between the year 27 BC and the year 14 AD). One of the rings retains part of a spiral gold wire pendant that was used to hold some type of ornament that has now disappeared.

Notice the hook on these earrings made in the shape of an “S” so that they can be put on or taken off easily. The piece is completed with a stem decorated with three gold balls, the end of which once housed a bead.

Garnet was widely used in jewellery in its various shades ranging from orange-red to reddish brown, and there were even yellow and green garnets. For the Romans, garnet, like all red stones, it had healing properties against blood diseases. Used as an amulet, it increased the courage and security of the person who wore it.

Earrings with two or more suspended beads produced a characteristic sound when they collided.
For this reason, Roman writers described them as heralding the arrival of wealthy women. Sometimes its weight was such that it deformed the ears. The most prized ones had several pearls hanging from them, but due to their high cost, it was common to make them with other materials.

The snake in ancient times symbolized life and death, eternity, fertility, fecundity and marital fidelity.

These pieces belonged to a woman, Norbana Severa, born in Lancia (Portugal) and buried in Augusta Emerita at the age of 55. The designs were fashionable throughout the empire during the 3rd century. Its owner used the gold ring as a personal seal. The letters are engraved in negative, so they can be read correctly on the wax.

References

The full list of illustrations and explanation is below and the original Spanish document is found at https://www.consorciomerida.org/biblioteca/publicaciones/brillo