Posted by vrcvanderbilt on Monday, October 23, 2017 in Events, HART, HART in Nashville, Lectures, News, VRC.

Gold earrings, necklaces and bracelets represented real wealth in the ancient world, and men and women wore jewelry on specific occasions to show off their own social position in the community, particularly in religious and funerary rituals. Alexis Castor, associate professor of classics, Franklin & Marshall College, Lancaster, PA, will deliver the AIA Lecture, “More than Glitter: Jewelry in Ancient Greece and Etruria,” at the Nashville Parthenon on Tuesday, October 24, at 6 pm.

Castor will address how Greek and Etruscan elite classes in general, and women in particular, used jewelry to express their status. She will discuss how people of all ages wore personal ornaments as protective amulets to avoid harm, to show badges of office, to enchant, and to display wealth. Jewelry also served as wearable wealth that could be melted down in times of crisis. Her lecture will explore ways that jewelry functioned as bridal gifts, heirlooms, and even played a role in espionage. Beyond the shimmer of metal, these ornaments served as a beautiful, practical form of personal wealth.

The 2017 Anita Krause Bader Lecturer in Mediterranean Archaeology for the AIA’s National Lecture Program, Castor received her MA and PhD degrees in Near Eastern and Classical Archaeology from Bryn Mawr College. Her most recent publications include “Macedonian Lionesses: A New Paradigm for Female Jewelry Use (ca. 325-275 BCE)” in the Journal of Greek Archaeology (volume 2, 2017), and More than Glitter: Jewelry in Greece and Italy (1st millennium BCE), in progress, a monograph-length study that investigates the ways that men and women wore jewelry in Greece and Italy.

This lecture, free and open to the public, is cosponsored by the Archaeological Institute of America and The Conservancy for the Parthenon and Centennial Park. Those who plan to attend the AIA lecture are encouraged to call the Nashville Parthenon at 615.862.8431 to reserve a seat.