 |
Stay
informed with our email
newsletters.
Greece
Like us today, people in ancient civilizations participated in a global marketplace. They mass produced goods to sell at home or as far away as Africa and China. The manufacture and trade of specialty goods included glass, bronze, and ceramics. Here are a few highlights from the Museum's Greek and Roman artifact collection, which includes full-size replicas of three of the most famous ancient Greek sculptures, excellent examples of painted pottery, votive sculptures, and over 100 pieces of Roman vessels, jewelry, ornaments, and tools made of gold, bronze and glass.
 |
Replica
of Discobolos
Gift of Zenas Crane
This is a full-size plaster copy of the famous statue of a man throwing a discus, the first segment of the Olympic pentathalon. The Discobolus exemplifies several important characteristics of Classical Period sculpture: it is a representation of the human body that is both naturalistic and idealized, and it creates the sense of a body simultaneously in motion and in a state of equilibrium through the use of balanced s-shaped curves.
|
 |
Calyx
Krater
Greece
Gift of Zenas Crane
In Ancient Greece, food was served in a complex selection of ceramic ware. Each vessel had a particular use based on its shape and size. This Greek vessel, called a Calyx Krater, was used to mix wine and water for drinking at social gatherings called symposiums, where Greek men drank and discussed important issues of the times.
|
 |
Gold
Wreath
Greece
Anonymous Gift
In ancient Greece, gold wreaths were created to assume the likeness of various leaves and were used for many different purposes. They were often bestowed upon victors of sporting events, buried with the dead, or used during religious rituals. This laurel wreath was used as a crown of honor for heroes and scholars, since the laurel leaf is sacred to Apollo, god of light and intellect.
|
|
|
Roman
Jewelry
Earrings,
top image Necklace, lower image
Rome
Gift of Zenas Crane
Roman jewelry was an indication of a person's wealth and status in society. Earrings, necklaces, armbands, pins, and other ornaments were often fashioned out of gold with accents of glass or polished stone. Although affluent citizens enjoyed ostentatious displays of wealth, Roman law frowned upon excessive use of gold jewelry. In addition to its aesthetic function, jewelry was also worn for religious purposes, with amulets worn as protection from evil. |
|
Roman
Glass
Rome
Bequest of Z. Marshall Crane
Glass was a popular luxury item traded throughout the Mediterranean World and adapted regionally.
Ancient peoples mixed quartz sand and an alkali binder and heated it to very high temperature, turning it into a molten state that was then worked around a core or into a mold before it cooled into glass. Later the Romans heated the molten mixture in huge furnaces, picked it up by a hollow pipe, and blew it into a finished vessel.
|
<
Back to Ancient Civilization Gallery Page
|
