Technological and scientific study of the gold from the Artemision at Ephesus

Since the excavations by D.G. Hogarth, which took place at the beginning of the 20th Cent., and which were continued in 1965 by the Austrian archaeologists, the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus has been an endless source of small finds in various materials - amber, ivory, glass, ceramics, metal- from the archaic time. Amongst these stand out the innumerable gold objects, pieces of jewellery, amulets, anthropomorphic and animal figurines, which have been partly published, but are mostly unknown to the public, and which are to be studied in view of the general publication of the finds from the archaic temple. The research proposal plans to study the technical aspects of the nearly 1000 gold finds, which are being conserved at the Archaeological Museums of Istanbul and Selçuk. In fact, beside the chronological, typological and stylistic study of the gold, the knowledge of the material and the goldsmithing techniques used in the production and the decoration of an object is, in the view of today`s specialists in the field of ancient jewellery, capital for our understanding not only of form, decoration, style and function, but also of the ancient craft of the jeweller in general (tools, working methods, exchanges and influences, existence of workshops, identification of goldsmiths). The aim of the present work is to study, describe and document, with the aid of a stereomicroscope, the goldsmithing techniques that appear in Ephesus, as well as to undertake the chemical analysis with non-destructive X-Ray Fluorescence of the gold alloys, to compare the results with those obtained in other regions of the Mediterranean, to underline the specific characteristics of the Ephesian gold, aspects which will serve as starting points for a discussion on the provenance of the raw material, localisation of production, influences, imports, identity and mobility of the goldsmiths. The interest of the research lies in the fact that the Ephesian gold comes from a closed and well dated ( 8th - to 6th Cent. BC) archaeological context, and in the fact that no systematic study either of the Ephesian gold or of the ancient craft of the jeweller in archaic Anatolia has ever been undertaken until now.

Since the excavations by D.G. Hogarth, which took place at the beginning of the 20th Cent., and which were continued in 1965 by the Austrian archaeologists, the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus has been an endless source of small finds in various materials - amber, ivory, glass, ceramics, metal ...- from the archaic time. Amongst these stand out the innumerable gold objects, pieces of jewellery, amulets, anthropomorphic and animal figurines, which have been partly published, but are mostly unknown to the public, and which are to be studied in view of the general publication of the finds from the archaic temple. The research proposal plans to study the technical aspects of the nearly 1000 gold finds, which are being conserved at the Archaeological Museums of Istanbul and Selçuk. In fact, beside the chronological, typological and stylistic study of the gold, the knowledge of the material and the goldsmithing techniques used in the production and the decoration of an object is, in the view of today`s specialists in the field of ancient jewellery, capital for our understanding not only of form, decoration, style and function, but also of the ancient craft of the jeweller in general (tools, working methods, exchanges and influences, existence of workshops, identification of goldsmiths ...). The aim of the present work is to study, describe and document, with the aid of a stereomicroscope, the goldsmithing techniques that appear in Ephesus, as well as to undertake the chemical analysis with non-destructive X-Ray Fluorescence of the gold alloys, to compare the results with those obtained in other regions of the Mediterranean, to underline the specific characteristics of the Ephesian gold, aspects which will serve as starting points for a discussion on the provenance of the raw material, localisation of production, influences, imports, identity and mobility of the goldsmiths. The interest of the research lies in the fact that the Ephesian gold comes from a closed and well dated ( 8th - to 6th Cent. BC) archaeological context, and in the fact that no systematic study either of the Ephesian gold or of the ancient craft of the jeweller in archaic Anatolia has ever been undertaken until now.