Western Asiatic Jewellery (1974)

by K. R. Maxwell-Hyslop • Methuen • ISBN: 0416812903
Condition: Good • Offered by Crappy Old Books

If you think bling began with hip-hop videos, K. R. Maxwell-Hyslop would like a quiet word—preferably over a tray of electrum rosettes. Western Asiatic Jewellery is the definitive archaeological catwalk show for everything glittering between the Aegean and the Indus, c. 3000–612 BC: Sumerian diadems that could stop traffic, Assyrian lion-headed earrings with opinions, and Persian goldwork so fine it practically purrs.

Maxwell-Hyslop—cool, meticulous, and armed with a loupe—walks you through the deep logic of ancient ornament. Not “pretty things,” but portable status, technology, and theology in metal and stone. You’ll watch lapis lazuli commute from Afghanistan, carnelian wink from the Gulf, and goldsmiths trade secrets along caravan routes like early R&D labs on legs. Techniques get their due: granulation that looks like sugared sunlight, filigree that’s basically gold handwriting, repoussé and chasing, lost-wax casting, inlay and bezel wizardry—all mapped to sites, cultures, and dynasties.

Inside, expect:

• Ur, Nimrud, and friends: royal tombs, hoards, and the kind of grave goods that make modern jewelry counters look shy.

• Motifs that travel: rosettes, ibex, winged genies, palmettes, starbursts—how symbols migrate faster than armies.

• From amulet to anthem: seals, pendants, pectorals, collars, torque-like neck-rings, hoop and lunate earrings, and bracelets terminating in animal heads that will not be ignored.

• Supply chains before spreadsheets: mines, workshops, and the economics of sparkle—who made it, who wore it, and why it mattered.

• Plates & plans: crisp photographs and line drawings that let you trace the solder seams of history without leaving the sofa.

It’s Methuen-era scholarship with a jeweler’s steadiness—no fluff, no hand-waving, just the satisfying click of evidence fitting into context. By the end, you’ll recognize a region’s entire conversation—about power, protection, beauty, and belonging—spoken in gold, silver, electrum, faience, lapis, carnelian, agate, and shell.

Condition (because you’re shopping, not time-traveling)

Graded Good by your ever-honest Crappy Old Books: solid binding, clean text, sensible shelf wear, and pages with that gentle archaeological patina (age-toned, not tea-soaked). The plates and drawings remain sharp enough to make your magnifying glass feel useful rather than theatrical.

Why this belongs on your shelf

Because history isn’t only told in chronicles and broken walls. It’s told in clasps and closures, in a rosette that means “I belong,” and a pair of lion heads that say “approach with reverence.” This book is the field guide to those messages—the jewelry box that explains an entire world.

Crappy Old Books: curating civilization’s accessories, one gloriously nerdy volume at a time.

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