Signum and self: engraved gemstones and the expression of identity at Herculaneum

Abstract

The replication of conventionalised motifs on engraved gemstones of the Roman imperial period has often prompted their dismissal by scholars who deem them too frivolous, too plentiful, and too small to be taken seriously as image-bearing objects, or else prioritise their workaday capacity as seals. Foregrounding gems’ function as personal adornment, this paper uses examples excavated from Herculaneum to argue that the repetition of certain images was, in fact, central to their agency as markers of identity, signalling the gender, age, and in some cases, social status of their wearer through the propagation of easily recognisable visual paradigms. Where other studies have emphasised the ways in which Roman jewellery communicated identity publicly, this paper also brings the material properties of gemstones into play to consider alternative, more intimate modes of viewing and suggest how engraved gems enabled the private self-bolstering and imaginative negotiation of identity as much as – or perhaps even instead of – its outward expression. On cover:Late Roman wall, the portion immediately south of the West Gate (Porta Oea) with re-used blocks from first-century mausolea (Drawing by Francesca Bigi) and Tombstone of Regina from South Shields (Arbeia) (Tyne and WearArchives and Museums/ Bridgeman Images). E-ISSN (online version) 2611-3686 ISSN (print version) 0065-0900