The Multifaceted Possibilities of Small Objects: Notes of the Potential of Southern Levantine Signet Rings

Abstract

Signet rings constitute a class of materials whose study lies at the intersection of ancient jewelry and glyptic. Traditional approaches to the study of this artifact class have focused almost exclusively on issues related to typology, iconographical apparatus, and art historical analyses, with little consideration to the cultural and social interconnections. Signet rings may constitute a case study in their fundamental importance for a more complete picture of the trade networks, people and material movements and interconnections between peoples, cultures, and societies in the world of the Southern Levant within the context of the Eastern Mediterranean basin.