IF THE CRAFTSMEN OF ANTIQUITY had
possessed flex shafts, CAD, or 3D printing, no doubt
they would have used them. Having developed ways to
refine metal ore, alloy copper and tin to create bronze,
and produce exquisite gold granulation, those legendary
pre-Columbians, ancient Egyptians, Etruscans, and
their like did not sit around a charcoal brazier saying,
“You know, we could save a lot of time and money if we
used electrical equipment and digital technology — but
let’s not. We’re content with the old ways.”
Besides such pesky facts as they didn’t speak English and so on, the
ancients didn’t say such things because back then their ways weren’t all
that old, might barely have qualifi ed as traditional, or even were brand-
spanking new. These people didn’t reach awe-inspiring cultural heights
simply by honing known skills. They were innovators, too, springing
forward with new methods of building, farming, traveling, conquering,
decorating, distilling, calculating, singing, writing, molding, and otherwise
modifying their surroundings with, among other items, objects of beauty
and splendor.
Recently, archaeologists discovered yet more splendid artifacts in Pylos,
adjacent to one of the Aegean’s most fabled golden-object-producing cit-
ies, Mycenae, glowingly described in the Iliad and fl ourishing centuries
before classical Greece. The new fi nds show cultural ties to the earlier
Minoans on the island of Crete and to the mainland Mycenaeans who
thrived later, apparently forging another link in a chain we can trace on
down through ancient Athens and Rome... to ourselves, and to many of
the tools and techniques we use to craft jewelry to this day.
The ancients’ accomplishments are extraordinary, but so are our own.
They borrowed developments from civilizations before them and made
their own advances, as we still do today. Living millennia later, we simply
have the luxury of many more choices: charcoal braziers and oxy-acetylene
torches, sketch pads and CAD/CAM, centuries-old hand tools and hand
tools today’s innovative smiths have designed by also building upon the
technological inheritance we all share.
In composing the Iliad and the Odyssey, which chronicle the great
events of his past, the poet Homer frequently employed what are now
known as Homeric epithets. These pithy phrases, such as “wily Odysseus”
and “the wine-dark sea,” are often repeated in his long narrations to help
us keep track of all the characters and settings involved. The way to iden-
tify Mycenae, Homer told us long ago, is to remember it as “Mycenae, rich
in gold” — which, if you look at the gleaming treasures uncovered from its
environs, it certainly was, but Mycenae was a civilization rich in innovation
as well.P.S. Discover a few contemporary innovations in hand tools in “Hammer Formed
Fine Silver Bangles,” page 34, and at http://www.shop.jewelrymakingdaily.com.[email protected]Mycenae, Rich in Innovation
MY TURN
from the editor
EDITORIAL
CONTENT STRATEGIST, JEWELRY GROUP
Jean Cox
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GROUP MANAGING EDITOR Mallory Leonard
JEWELRY EDITOR Karla A. Rosenbusch
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CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Tom & Kay Benham,
Lexi Erickson, Sharon Elaine Thompson
ART
ART DIRECTOR Amy Petriello
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Stacie BergerLapidary Journal Jewelry Artist (ISSN 1936-5942) is
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