Condition
Intact; light weathering.
Description
Rectangular spacer-bead in the shape of an elongated plaque with raised and ribbed ends pierced by a transverse thread hole. The underside is glossy and concave; the upper side is decorated with a raised, stylized ivy leaf, laid sideways in the center.
Comments and Comparanda
In Mycenaean Greece, the use of glass reached its peak between 1400 and 1200 BCE. Glass products were mostly beads—simple and relief ones—almost always of dark blue glass cast in open molds (Haevernick, Thea Elisabeth. [1960] 1981. “Beitrage zur Geschichte des antiken Glases Ill: Mykenisches Glas.” In Beiträge zur Glasforschung: Die wichtigsten Aufsätze von 1938 bis 1981, ed. Axel von Saldern, 71–83. Mainz: von Zabern. [Originally published in Jahrbuch des Römisch-Germanischen Zentralmuseums 7 (1960): 36–50.]; Haevernick, T. E. [1963] 1981. “Mycenaean Glas.” In Beiträge zur Glasforschung: Die wichtigsten Aufsätze von 1938 bis 1981, ed. Axel von Saldern: 109–112. Mainz: von Zabern. [Originally published in Archaeology 16, no. 3 (1963): 190–193.]; Haevernick, Thea Elisabeth. [1979] 1981. “Ausgrabungen in Tiryns 1977: Kleinfunde aus Glas, Fayence, Fritte, Karneol und Bernstein.” In Beiträge zur Glasforschung: Die wichtigsten Aufsätze von 1938 bis 1981, ed. Axel von Saldern, 404–410. Mainz: von Zabern. [Originally published in Archäologischer Anzeiger 1979: 440–447.], pp. 71–83, 109–112, 190–193, 440–447; Nightingale, Georg. 2000. “Mycenaean Glass Beads: Jewellery and Design.” In Annales du 14e Congrès de l’Association Internationale pour l’Histoire du Verre, Italia/Venezia-Milano, 1998, 6–10. Lochem: AIHV., pp. 6–10; Nightingale, Georg. 2018. “Glass of the Mycenaeans.” In Aspects of Late Bronze Age Glass in the Mediterranean: Proceedings of JIAA Late Bronze Age Glass Workshop Held at 27th–28th September, 2014, in Kaman, Turkey, ed. Julian Henderson and Kimiyoshi Matsumura, 30–60. Anatolian Archaeological Studies 21. Tokyo: Japanese Institute of Anatolian Archaeology., pp. 30–60). Relief beads appear either as a plaque with the motif pressed on it, or else entirely in the shape of the depicted motif. The decoration on relief beads consists of floral, faunal, anthropomorphic, and mythological themes, objects, and other abstract motifs. The motifs most widely present are the rosette (cats. 511–512), the lily, the ivy leaf (cats. 516–518, cats. 525–527), and the papyrus flower. Common animal motifs are the single and double argonaut (cats. 513–515, cats. 530–531), the triton shell, and, rarely, the octopus. The most common object motifs are the curl, the volute (cats. 528–530), the wave or bracket (cats. 509–510, 532), the circular ornament, the figure-of-eight shield (cats. 519–524), a libation jug, and the bi-concave altar. Motifs of human and/or mythical figures include the sphinx, the Minoan/Mycenaean Genius, and the woman in formal Minoan/Mycenaean dress (Nightingale, Georg. 2018. “Glass of the Mycenaeans.” In Aspects of Late Bronze Age Glass in the Mediterranean: Proceedings of JIAA Late Bronze Age Glass Workshop Held at 27th–28th September, 2014, in Kaman, Turkey, ed. Julian Henderson and Kimiyoshi Matsumura, 30–60. Anatolian Archaeological Studies 21. Tokyo: Japanese Institute of Anatolian Archaeology., p. 36).
Molds have been unearthed in and around palaces, indicating centralized production of these items. In addition to beads (but only seldom), other objects, such as seals, sword hilts, gaming pieces, and pins, were made of glass. Although many of the beads have two holes and thus would have served as spacer-beads holding together several strings of beads, in the Mycenaean period they were strung together to form necklaces, sewn on garments, or even used as diadems.
For comparanda, see Haevernick, Thea Elisabeth. [1960] 1981. “Beitrage zur Geschichte des antiken Glases Ill: Mykenisches Glas.” In Beiträge zur Glasforschung: Die wichtigsten Aufsätze von 1938 bis 1981, ed. Axel von Saldern, 71–83. Mainz: von Zabern. [Originally published in Jahrbuch des Römisch-Germanischen Zentralmuseums 7 (1960): 36–50.], pp. 71, 73, figs. 1, 3; Yalouris, Nikolaos. 1968. “An Unreported Use for Some Mycenaean Glass Paste Beads.” Journal of Glass Studies 10: 9–16., p. 11, figs. 5–6, LH IIIB–C; Harden, Donald B. 1981. Catalogue of Greek and Roman Glass in the British Museum, vol. 1: Core- and Rod-Formed Vessels and Pendants and Mycenean Cast Objects. London: British Museum., p. 43, no. 42 [ivy leaf]; Stern, Eva Marianne, and Birgit Schlick–Nolte. 1994. Early Glass of the Ancient World, 1600 B.C.–A.D. 50: Ernesto Wolf Collection. Ostfildern: Gerd Hatje., p. 152, no. 16; Nightingale, Georg. 2000. “Mycenaean Glass Beads: Jewellery and Design.” In Annales du 14e Congrès de l’Association Internationale pour l’Histoire du Verre, Italia/Venezia-Milano, 1998, 6–10. Lochem: AIHV., p. 6, type 1.7; Adam-Veleni, Polyxeni, and Despoina Ignatiadou, eds. 2010. Gyalinos kosmos / Glass Cosmos. Thessaloniki: Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki., p. 226, no. 94, Olympus, thirteenth century BCE/LH IIIB.
Provenance
By 1974–1988, Erwin Oppenländer, 1901–1988 (Waiblingen, Germany), by inheritance to his daughter, Ingrid Reisser, 1988; 1988–2004, Ingrid Reisser (Böblingen, Germany), sold to the J. Paul Getty Museum, 2004
Bibliography
Saldern von, Axel, Birgit Nolte, Peter La Baume, and Thea Elisabeth Haevernick. 1974. Gläser der Antike. Sammlung Erwin Oppenländer. Mainz: von Zabern., p. 91, no. 240.
Walton, M. S., A. Shortland, S. Kirk, and P. Degryse. 2009. “Evidence for the Trade of Mesopotamian and Egyptian Glass to Mycenaean Greece.” Journal of Archaeological Science 36, no. 7: 1496–1503..
Exhibitions
Gläser der Antike: Sammlung Erwin Oppenländer (Hamburg and Cologne, 1974–1975)