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At the sites on the Middle and Lower Danube, especially in the civilian settlements next to the big military camps, was found a great number of cameos made of semi-precious stones, variations of opal, onyx and agate, on which is represented a woman’s bust in profile, turned to the right or to the left. The characteristics of the face are in the most cases schematic, while the hairstyles are represented very precisely, according to the fashion dictated by the empresses from the dynasties of Antonini and Severi. On the basis of these facts were separated the chronological groups of these finds, which show that the most intensive production of the cameos of this type took place in the periods from 160 to 180 and from 200 to 230. Most numerous are the finds of cameos with the female busts combed like the empresses from the dynasty of Severi, when the cities on Danube lived in prosperity. To this group belongs also a cameo in the gold medallion, discovered in 2006 in one grave in Viminacium (Nº 25). From this site comes the greatest number of these cameos (probably 11), which, together with the finds from Upper Moesia, points that the important workshops for their production can be located in Viminacium, Novae and Durostorum, while some smaller glyptic centres worked in Thrace and Pannonia. The female busts on cameos are the models of the faces of empresses, so we look at this material as a form of dynastic propaganda.

ROME — For much of the last century, the Torlonia Collection, the largest collection of classical sculpture still in private hands, remained hidden to the world. A private museum founded in 1875 to showcase the antique marbles amassed by Prince Alessandro Torlonia and his father in the tradition of noble families — like the Borghese, Barberini or Doria Pamphilj — was originally open only to a select public, and, after a few decades, not at all. Most scholars knew the 620 works — an assortment of Greek and Roman statues, busts, vases, sarcophagi and reliefs dating from the 5th century B.C. to the 4th century A.D. — only through the photographs in a catalog that was published in 1884.

“When he [Attila] saw a painting of the Roman Emperors sitting upon golden thrones and Scythians lying dead before their feet, he sought a painter and ordered him to paint Attila upon a throne and the Roman Emperors heaving sacks upon their shoulders and pouring out gold before his feet.” This account of Attila’s reaction to seeing the decorative frieze in one of the basilicae in the city of Mediolanum neatly encapsulates the changed balance of power between the Roman emperors and their most feared barbarian antagonists of the fifth century, the Huns. It conveys the new realities of the contemporary political situation: the predominant position of Rome and her empire, represented by dead barbarians beneath enthroned emperors, replaced by the image of Attila receiving golden tribute from the newly subservient Romans. The relationship between Rome and the barbarians had been turned on its head, and the compiler of the tenth-century Suda used Attila’s reaction to the painting in Mediolanum torelate this pivotal moment in the history of the ancient world.

Garnets, famous for their magnificent colours and light refractive properties, are now the most intensively studied of all the gemstones used for glyptics and jewellery in the ancient world. Scientific analysis of ancient garnets to date has focussed on identifying garnet sources, a topic addressed with equal enthusiasm in the first ancient texts on gemstones. As with other precious stones, factors such as the difficulty of extraction or acquisition, the distance stones must travel from source to destination and the reliability of their supply, in combination with their beauty, determine their value. In the modern period pinpointing sources contributes to our understanding of cross-cultural contacts and trading patterns in the ancient world, and current research, concentrated almost exclusively on garnets set in cloisonné made in the Early Medieval period in Europe, has established links with sourcesin India and Europe

Preface; History of the Collection; Abbreviations; General Introduction; The uses of Gems; The choice of designs on gems; The technique of gem engraving; The materials used for ancient gems; Appreciation and collecting of gems; Gem engravers and their signatures; Forgeries; Catalogue; I. Greek; II. Etruscan and Italic; III. Roman intaglios by Gisela M. Richter 2006,

ROMAN INTAGLIOS AND SEALINGS FROM NORFOLK, 2002–08 by Adrian Marsden This article presents a catalogue of Roman intaglios and sealings discovered in Norfolk between 2002 and2008 and examined by the Identification and Recording Service. The catalogue is followed by a discussion of these objects and their changing role as the aesthetic and social developments of the third century led to signets falling into disuse and emphasis being increasingly laid on brightly coloured ring settings.

Papers from the Staffordshire Hoard Symposium

The quality of contextual information regarding the Bronze Age gold objects is highly variable with the consequence that many times only limited details are known. In fact, many objects were found accidentally by farmers labouring in the fields or by workmen during activities such as digging for turf, ploughing, quarrying or building; other objects were excavated by metal detectorists with subsequent excavations by archaeologists and only few objects were excavated by archaeologists using modern excavation methods. In general, gold objects during the Early Bronze Age were placed in funerary contexts whilst those during the Middle-Late Bronze Age were placed with other gold objects in hoards in landscape or riverine contexts.