Every time I see a pair of ancient earrings, I am mesmerized by both how delicate and clunky they are. I don’t know if that’s a survival bias where we just don’t see the super delicate things, but it always stands out in my mind.
There are some super fine pieces but I always wonder about that too! Which ones are the ‘normal’ ones? Which are an ordinary artisan’s work? Which are botched jobs? Are the really refined ones the sort of thing you hear about four kingdoms away? Or is it just that so much has been broken, lost, and melted down through the years that we have only a fragment of a picture?
It’s why I’m immensely awed by archeologists who study this stuff and can identify periods and styles of even small artifacts by very real and clearly explained criteria. Piecing together the past.
I also imagine the elements have done a number on many of these.
That looks incredibly uncomfortable
