Bracelets from Viminacium and Sirmium as evidence of Palmyra goldsmithery influences on local jewelry production

Abstract

The jewelry worn in the Roman times by the women of Palmyra is best known to us from the tombstones. The archaeological confirmation for the use of these adornments represented on Palmyrene reliefs is a pair of golden bracelets discovered in Viminacium. Very close analogy for this jewelry is a pair of silver bracelets from a treasure discovered at the site Rhetel in Gaul. One less luxurious specimen made of bronze and discovered in the course of systematic investigations of Sirmium in 1976 also belongs to this distinct group of Roman bracelets. Jewelry from Sirmium, Viminacium and Gaul, shows that decorative system, originating from Palmyrene bracelets, quickly entered, in the middle and during the second half of the 3rd century, the repertoire of some goldsmiths' workshops in the West, where experienced various transformations.