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Crafts of the Past

A look back at ancestral handicrafts such as knapping flint tools, creating silver filigree, preparing gold amalgam for coating silver, creating ceramic objects, winding glass beads and more.

  1. Antique Yemen Silver Bawsani Filigree Amulet Necklace with Prayers

    by on 03-16-2013 at 03:11 PM (Crafts of the Past)
    Quote Originally Posted by CraftsofthePast View Post


    This magnificent old Yemen silver filigree necklace still contains the tiny booklet of prayers and blessings that it was meant to contain. The top panel slides and allows the book to be removed if the owner wishes to do so. I have never touched the sheaf of bound papers on which the blessings are written. I have only looked
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  2. Ancient Bactria Copper Bronze Seal Cruciform Floral Design Published

    by on 07-05-2012 at 09:04 PM (Crafts of the Past)
    Quote Originally Posted by CraftsofthePast View Post


    This ancient copper seal also labeled as bronze by some scholars was created by artisans of Bactria. It repeats a traditional motif of a series of petals or circles that are arranged so that when looking at the impression of the seal the viewer sees the + shape crossed by an x shape. This seal has another common feature of seals and amulets of the third millennium B.C.
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  3. Middle Paleolithic Mousterian Style Flake Tool Found in Jordan Desert

    by on 06-21-2012 at 10:22 AM (Crafts of the Past)
    Quote Originally Posted by CraftsofthePast View Post


    A weekend outing as an amateur archeologist in Jordan often took me off the beaten track in search of uncharted Stone Age sites. But this particular site was just off the main road and onto another paved road. And it had the ruins of a stone building standing among the flint (actually quartz) scatter of stone age tools.

    I collected this flake tool
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  4. Ancient Bactria Steatite Cosmetic Flask over Three Thousand Years Old

    by on 06-14-2012 at 11:08 AM (Crafts of the Past)
    Quote Originally Posted by CraftsofthePast View Post


    This ancient flask that once contained cosmetics was found in the ruins of ancient Bactria in Afghanistan. The vessel, once found, would have been taken to the nearest city to an antiques merchant and sold. The antiques merchant then sold it to an international dealer and we bought it for our collection from that dealer. For assurance that this is Bactrian, you can
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  5. Antique Gilded Silver Yemen Wedding Necklace Amulets Granulated Beads

    by on 02-15-2012 at 08:03 PM (Crafts of the Past)
    Quote Originally Posted by CraftsofthePast View Post

    Antique Gilded Silver Yemen Wedding Necklace Amulets Granulated Beads and Many Fertility Symbols

    This is an antique gilded silver wedding necklace worn by a woman in Yemen in the early nineteen hundreds. It probably belonged to a woman whose family could afford the extra cost of apply a gold wash to all parts of this piece except the handmade chain that passes
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