Making an Impression: The Art and Craft of Ancient Engraved Gemstones

The practice of engraving precious stones with miniature images began as early as the seventh millennium BCE in Mesopotamia (ancient Iraq) and the Indus Valley before spreading throughout the ancient Mediterranean, taking new forms, and peaking in popularity from the first century BCE under the Roman empire before declining in the third century CE. These were personal objects, used primarily as signets pressed into lumps of wax or clay to seal documents and secure property, both private and official. The motifs they carried, and the impressions they made, consequently acted as personal emblems and identifying signatures, and we can assume a certain amount of individual choice went into the selection of a motif. Gems’ color, luster, and translucency, as well as their often-exotic provenance, were also important, enhancing the stone’s capacity to make an impression in less literal ways. Worn as eye-catching personal ornaments and valued as precious luxuries, gems were indicative of cultural sophistication, status, and wealth. They were also utilized as magical and medicinal amulets. In all instances, stone and image worked together to guarantee, protect, and promote the identity of the wearer, not only communicating his or her social identity but also his or her aspirations, anxieties, and desires.

Highly polished and small in scale, engraved gems are hard to look at, requiring close-up, slowed down viewing. In antiquity, this was part of their allure. Greek and Roman authors describe the pleasures of examining gems carefully and slowly, admiring the skillful work of the engraver and the material splendors of the stone. You are invited to do the same.

This exhibition is focused on the Michael C. Carlos Museum’s collection of Greek and Roman engraved gemstones, the majority of which were donated by the Estate of Michael J. Shubin (1950-2008). Shubin was a passionate collector, who acquired most of his gems at auction or from dealers of ancient art in the United States and Europe; many were acquired from the California-based dealer Joel Malter (1931-2006). None of the Shubin gems have documented archaeological provenance, and few have collection histories that can be traced beyond Shubin or Malter and their acquisition in the 1990s and 2000s. Although this lack of provenance can mean that we do not know with certainty where or by whom these gems were originally worn, the stone type, shape, motif, and style of carving indicates when and where in the ancient Mediterranean the gems were carved, and therefore their likely context of use. Gems are by their nature portable and passed through many hands both in antiquity and their post-antique afterlives. This reminds us that gems’ function, symbolism, and value was always in flux.

This exhibition has been made possible through generous support from the Michael J. Shubin Endowment, the Evergreen Foundation, the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, Krista Lankswert, and New Roman Creative. Identification and technical analysis of gems was carried out in collaboration with William B. Size, Lisbet Thoresen, the California Institute of Technology, the Field Museum, Chicago, and the Gemological Institute of America. Thanks also to student interns Ellen Archie, Christopher Askew, Sophie Vo, and Olivia Willingham.

Click HERE to view a virtual tour of the exhibition by curator Ruth Allen.

Click HERE to view a conversation between curator Ruth Allen and master gem carver Chavdar Chushev.

Click HERE to view a conversation on classical images and issues of personal adornment and identity between curator Ruth Allen and tattoist Lauren Visconti.

Click HERE to view the lecture "What are we Mining Now?" by New York Times reporter Dionne Searcey.

Click HERE to view the lecture "The Geopolitical Landscape of Gems and their Sources in the Classical World" by independent scholar Lisbet Thoresen.