In 1873, on a hill in northwestern Turkey, the German businessman turned archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann announced that he had found the treasure of King Priam of Troy. His wife, Sophia, was soon photographed wearing it, a gold diadem’s curtain of chains framing her face, in what became one of the most famous images in archaeology. The attribution was wrong. The gold came from a layer of the site now dated to around 2400 BC, more than a thousand years before any Trojan War could have been fought.
The error matters less than what the photograph captured: the wish to wear something that ties you to a world far older than your own. That wish never went away, and it raises two questions for anyone drawn to coin pendants, serpent rings or symbols from Norse and Greek mythology. Why do these ancient shapes still work so well? And how do you tell historically inspired jewelry for men made with real understanding from a piece that merely borrows the look?
Borrowing From Antiquity Is an Ancient Habit
Wealthy Romans of the third century made a fashion of setting gold coins, usually stamped with an emperor’s portrait, into openwork frames to wear as pendants, and the style lasted until the early seventh century. The coin pendant, in other words, is at least 1,700 years old.
The nineteenth century turned the habit into a movement, the Archaeological Revival. As excavations at Pompeii and in Etruscan tombs filled Europe’s museums, the Castellani family of Rome made its name with jewels in the ancient manner, reviving the Etruscan art of granulation, in which gold grains as fine as sand are fused to a surface. The method behind the finest ancient work wasn’t fully recovered until 1933, when an Englishman, H.A.P. Littledale, patented a process that reproduced it.
Then, in 1922, Howard Carter found the tomb of Tutankhamun, and scarabs, lotus flowers and falcon wings flooded the jewelry of the Art Deco era. Each revival had the same trigger. A discovery made the ancient world feel close enough to wear.
Five Ancient Motifs That Still Shape Jewelry Design
The serpent. Few motifs solve their own design problem so neatly. A snake’s body is already a band, so it coils naturally around a finger or wrist. Its meaning has proved just as adaptable. One of the earliest known images of the ouroboros, a serpent swallowing its own tail as a sign of eternity, comes from that same tomb of Tutankhamun. And when Prince Albert gave Queen Victoria her engagement ring in 1839, he chose a gold serpent with an emerald, her birthstone, set in its head.
The coin. A coin arrives as a finished composition, with an image in low relief, a lettered border and a raised rim to protect both. That ready-made balance is why the coin pendant outlived the empire that made it fashionable. The best modern versions treat the coin as a small sculpture, cast deep enough that the portrait or emblem catches the light from every angle.
The endless line. The meander, or Greek key, takes its name from the Maeander, a river in what is now Turkey so famous for its winding course that it gave English a verb. The pattern is one unbroken line folding back on itself. Celtic interlace runs on the same principle, its knotwork often woven from a single continuous strand. On a ring band or the edge of a cuff, both read as pattern from across a room and as precision up close.
The eye. An eye looks back at whoever looks at it, which may be why so many cultures trusted it to ward off harm. Egyptians wore the wedjat, the Eye of Horus Pendant, as a protective amulet. Athenian potters painted staring eyes onto wine cups, and the blue glass evil eye bead still hangs in homes and cars from Athens to Istanbul. In jewelry it makes a natural focal point, best given a pendant or a ring’s bezel to itself.
The skull. In one Pompeii dining room, Romans ate within sight of a mosaic of a skull above a butterfly and a wheel of fortune, a reminder that death levels rich and poor alike. By the sixteenth century, Europeans were wearing the same message as memento mori rings, decorated with skulls and inscriptions urging the wearer to remember death. As design, the skull is hard to beat for legibility. It reads instantly at any size, and in oxidized silver its hollows supply their own shadows.
Why Ancient Shapes Make Good Modern Design
These forms were tested on the human body long before anyone wrote design theory. A coin hangs flat against the chest, and a coiled serpent moves with the wrist rather than against it. An endless pattern never needs an awkward join. Centuries of wear edited out whatever didn’t work.
The rest is depth. Ancient motifs were made for relief, and relief is what gives silver its character. Darken the recesses by oxidizing them, polish the high points, and a design becomes legible from a distance while still rewarding a closer look. Even the method has deep roots. The earliest known object made by lost-wax casting is a copper amulet from Mehrgarh, in present-day Pakistan, around 6,000 years old. Much of today’s cast jewelry starts the same way, though the wax model may now come off a 3D printer rather than a carver’s bench.
Meaning counts as well. A symbol gives a piece a reason to exist beyond decoration, and for many men in particular, that reason is what turns a first purchase into something worn every day.
Pastiche or Design? How to Judge Historically Inspired Jewelry
The ancient world is free to borrow from, so plenty of jewelry borrows it badly. Three questions help separate the two:
- Is the symbol right? A meander that doesn’t connect, an interlace that breaks its own strand, an eye with garbled markings: these are the signs of a designer copying other jewelry instead of studying the source.
- Is there one idea? The strongest pieces commit to a single motif. Pile every ancient emblem onto one pendant and history turns into costume.
- Is the metal honest? Solid sterling silver or stainless steel will survive decades of daily wear. Thin plating over base metal won’t, so ask what sits under the surface.
Wearing the Ancient World Now
The modern way to wear historically inspired jewelry is through contrast. Let one ancient motif meet contemporary clothes: a coin pendant against a plain black T-shirt, a serpent ring with sharp tailoring, a meander band beside a steel watch. The tension between old and new is what keeps the look current. Choose a symbol whose story you’d be happy to explain, because someone will ask.
The range is wider than most people expect. The London Men’s Jewellery label Illicium London, for one, groups its men’s designs by civilization, from Egyptian and Norse symbols to Greek and Roman motifs.
The ancient world left us its jewelry because it was made to last. That remains the fairest test of anything made in its image.
Images from Fresh Face Spotlight: João Oliveira Lamartine – see full story here.
