From lockyert@mweb.co.za Thu Nov 28 14:16:59 2002
Received: from mailscan2.cac.washington.edu (mailscan2.cac.washington.edu [140.142.33.16])
	by lists.u.washington.edu (8.12.1+UW01.12/8.12.1+UW02.11) with SMTP id gASMGwrw026108
	for <classics@reallists.u.washington.edu>; Thu, 28 Nov 2002 14:16:58 -0800
Received: FROM mxu3.u.washington.edu BY mailscan2.cac.washington.edu ; Thu Nov 28 14:16:57 2002 -0800
Received: from starcraft.mweb.co.za (starcraft.mweb.co.za [196.2.45.78])
	by mxu3.u.washington.edu (8.12.1+UW01.12/8.12.1+UW02.11) with ESMTP id gASMGtDd029213
	for <classics@u.washington.edu>; Thu, 28 Nov 2002 14:16:57 -0800
Received: from rdg-dial-196-30-237-12.mweb.co.za ([196.30.237.12]:1030 helo=al40)
	by starcraft.mweb.co.za with smtp (Exim 4.10)
	id 18HWxo-00086t-00
	for classics@u.washington.edu; Fri, 29 Nov 2002 00:16:53 +0200
Message-ID: <001f01c2972b$fd646c00$0ced1ec4@al40>
From: "Terrence Lockyer" <lockyert@mweb.co.za>
To: "Classics List" <classics@u.washington.edu>
Subject: piercings (was: Nipples on Statues?)
Date: Fri, 29 Nov 2002 00:16:24 +0200
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain;
	charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
X-Priority: 3
X-MSMail-Priority: Normal
X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.50.4133.2400
X-MIMEOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.50.4133.2400

Didn't the body found somewhere in the UK and fairly recently, to much
newswire fanfare, claimed to have been that of a Gallus have earrings?  If
so, it should be possible to surmise whether they were made for pierced ears
(did the ancients have any other method of attaching earrings, and, if so,
what?).

There are some pretty impressive earrings in

- Dyfri Williams and Jack Ogden, Greek Gold:  Jewellery of the Classical
World (London : British Museum Press 1994) [ISBN 0-7141-2202-5 /
0-7141-2205-X]

but I don't recall any of the photographs being helpful as to means of
attachment.  Some of the pieces in

- M. I Artamonov, Tamara Talbot Rice (intr.) and Werner Forman
(photographs), Treasures From Scythian Tombs in the Hermitage Museum,
Leningrad (London : Thames and Hudson 1969)

appear definitely to be for pierced ears (as, for example, the pair in
plates 85 and 86), but the pieces here are not all Hellene in origin.


Terrence Lockyer
Johannesburg, South Africa

.