Manchester Memoirs, Vol. Ix. (1916), No. 12. II 



numismatists to be intended to represent pearl orna- 

 ments.'- 8 



Theophrastus, writing about 300 B.C., mentions the 

 gems, and describes them as the product of shell-fish. In 

 his day they were valued for necklaces or bracelets. 

 Pliny also refers to other Greek writers on the subject. 

 Like the Persian nobles, Grecian men of rank wore one 

 pearl earring in the right ear, while the women wore one 

 in each ear.- 9 



Interesting evidence of the ancient appreciation of 

 pearls in the neighbourhood of the Crimea is furnished 

 by the discovery of gold earrings with pearl centres, 

 probably of the first half of the third century A.D., in a 

 tomb close to the site of the ancient town of Chersonesus, 

 and of earrings and pins set with pearls, from the 

 neighbourhood of Tiflis. An earring of fourth century 

 date made of gold wire, on which seven pearls are 

 threaded, said to have been found on the site of the 

 ancient Greek colony of Olbia, is of special interest in 

 view of the fact that the pearls are drilled. Another 

 interesting find, also of the 4th century A.D., is that of a 

 brass dress pin with a sphere of amber, surmounted by a 

 pearl, found near the village of Mzchet Caucasus. 30 



The custom of wearing a ring, ornamented with 

 corals, pearls or precious stones, was prevalent among the 

 fashionable Tartar ladies of Astrakhan, in the 18th cen- 

 tury. This was worn suspended from the perforated 

 right nostril, and recalls a similar practice among the 

 women of Persia (supra, p. 9). ;!1 



28 Ibid., p. 409. 



29 Streeter, op. cit., p. 35 ; Kunz and Sievenson, op. cit., p. 8. 



30 Kunz and Stephenson, op. cit., p. 410. 



31 G. A. Cooke, " System of Universal Geography," London (1801), 

 vol. i., p. 448. 



