423-434

Middle Byzantine Glass Bracelets : Contribution to Issues of Distribution, Production, Typology and Use

Articles

• Αντωνάρας, Αναστάσιος
• ΑΝΤΩΝΑΡΑΣ, Αναστάσιος

Bracelets made of glass are known from Egypt since the second millennium BC, but remained rare in the Mediterranean until at least the third century AD, during which period they enjoyed a significant distribution. In regions of the development of Islam they continued in use during Early Byzantine times, whereas in Byzantium they disappeared, to reappear in the Middle Byzantine period, in large numbers (Figs 2-12) both in the Asian and the European territories, as well as in regions under its political domination. After the wide diffusion from the late ninth or the tenth century, bracelets gradually decreased and by the thirteenth or fourteenth century had disappeared. The phenomenon of the reappearance of glass bracelets in this period can be linked with the general political and economic circumstances prevailing in the Byzantine State, with the revival of cities and the reconstitution of the empire. Correspondingly, the gradual disappearance of glass bracelets in Late Byzantine times is linked with the economic circumstances of the period, with the drastic reduction in citizens' purchasing ability. In contrast to Arab regions, the use of glass bracelets was not revived in Ottoman times, nor even in the nineteenth century, when they were particularly popular throughout the rest of the Muslim world.

• History and Archaeology
• Arts

• Τέχνη
• Αρχαιολογία

856: https://ejournals.epublishing.ekt.gr/index.php/deltion/article/view/4291, DOI: https://doi.org/10.12681/dchae.500

• http://ejournals.epublishing.ekt.gr/index.php/deltion/article/view/vol45_40
• http://dx.doi.org/10.12681/dchae.500