Museum of Antiquity: A Description of Ancient LifeYaggy, L. W. (Levi W.)
History
Museum of Antiquity: A Description of Ancient Life
Yaggy, L. W. (Levi W.)
Civilization, Ancient; Classical antiquities
"Of the six gold bracelets two are quite simple, and closed, but
consist of an ornamented band one-twenty-fifth of an inch thick and
one-fourth of an inch broad. The other three are double, and the ends
are turned round and furnished with a head. The princess who wore
these bracelets must have had unusually small hands, for they are so
small that a girl of ten would have difficulty in putting them on.
"The fifty-six other gold ear-rings are of various sizes, and three
of them appear to have also been used by the princesses of the royal
family as finger-rings. Also gold buttons were found, or studs,
one-sixth of an inch high, in the cavity of which is a ring above
one-tenth of an inch broad for sewing them on; gold double buttons,
exactly like our shirt studs, three-tenths of an inch long, which,
however, are not soldered, but simply stuck together, for from the
cavity of the button there projects a tube, nearly one-fourth of an
inch long, and from the other a pin of the same length, and the pin is
merely stuck into the tube to form a double stud. (See Fig. No. 16.)
These double buttons or studs can only have been used, probably, as
ornament upon leather articles, for instance upon the handle-straps of
swords, shields, or knives. I found in the vase also two gold
cylinders above one-tenth of an inch long; also a small peg above
four-fifths of an inch in length, and from six one-hundreths to eight
one-hundreths of an inch thick; it has at one end a perforated hole
for hanging it up, and on the other side six encircling incisions,
which give the article the appearance of a screw; it is only by means
of a magnifying glass that it is found not to be really a screw. I
also found in the same vase two pieces of gold, one of which is
one-seventh of an inch, the other above two inches long; each of them
has twenty-one perforations.
[Illustration: SIX GOLDEN BRACELETS WELDED TOGETHER BY THE
CONFLAGRATION.]
[Illustration: GOLD PINS WITH SET GEMS.]
"The persons who endeavored to save the Treasure had fortunately the
presence of mind to stand the silver vase, containing the valuable
articles described above, upright in the chest, so that not so much as
a bead could fall out, and everything has been preserved uninjured.
"M. Landerer, of Athens, a chemist well known through his discoveries
and writings, who has most carefully examined all the copper articles
of the Treasure, and analyzed the fragments, finds that all of them
consist of pure copper without any admixture of tin or zinc, and that,
in order to make them more durable, they have been wrought with the
hammer.
[Illustration: GOLD EAR-RINGS OF TROY.]
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