Engraved Gems : From antiquity to the present.

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Many are no larger than a fingertip. They are engraved with symbols, magic spells and images of gods, animals and emperors. These stones were used for various purposes. The earliest ones served as seals for making impressions in soft materials. Later engraved gems were worn or carried as personal ornaments - usually rings, but sometimes talismans or amulets. The exquisite engraved designs were thought to imbue the gems with special powers. For example, the gods and rituals depicted on cylinder seals from Mesopotamia were thought to protect property and to lend force to agreements marked with t.

Preface / Wim Weijland ; Introduction / Ben van den Bercken ; 1. Roman Gems in Old Collections and in Modern Archaeology / Martin Henig ; 2. Cassandra on Seals. Ring Stone Images as Self-Representation: an Example / Marianne Kleibrink ; 3. Some Cameos in Leiden {u2013} Roman to Neoclassicism / Gertrud Platz-Horster ; 4. The Original RMO Engraved Gem Collection: Gem Identification and Applied Research Techniques / Hanco Zwaan and Christine Swaving ; 5. An Important Collection of Mesopotamian Cylinder Seals / Diederik J.W. Meijer ; 6. Sasanian Seals: Owners and Re-users / Rika Gyselen ; 7. Invocations to Hermes and Aphrodite on Two Engraved Gems in Leiden / Attilio Mastrocinque ; 8. The Importance of Gems in the Work of Peter Paul Rubens 1577-1640 / Marcia Pointon ; 9. Post-Classical Cameos, their Makers and Users / Claudia Wagner ; 10. Princely Splendour: Some Cameo Vessels from the Middle of the Seventeenth Century and their Patrons / Jørgen Hein ; 11. ?A Treasure, a Schoolmaster, a Pass-Time? Dactyliothecae in the 18th and 19th Centuries and their Function as Teaching Aids in Schools and Universities / Valentin Kockel ; 12. Non Grylloi, Baskania Sunt. On the Significance of the So Called Grylloi/Grilli or Grylli in Greek and Roman Glyptics / Carina Weiss ; 13. Another Perspective on the So Called Grylloi / Selkit Verberk ; 14. Some Unpublished Scarabs from the Leiden Collection / Ben van den Bercken.

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