Lustre: the pearl trade in antiquity
Creators: name: Hope, Deborah
Publisher: name: Macquarie University
Year: 2024
Subjects: classificationCode: 399999
subject: Other education not elsewhere classified

description: This thesis analyses the ancient literary, epigraphic, material and numismatic evidence to provide a detailed account of the pearl trade in antiquity and to assess the importance of pearls as a luxury commodity in the Roman economy. It additionally draws on the evidence to demonstrate the political, spiritual and social status of pearls in the Roman world, focusing on but not restricted to the period from Augustus to the age of Constantine. This thesis departs significantly from earlier scholarship on the ancient pearl trade in two respects. First, it emphasises the economic significance of pearls in the Roman economy as a source of considerable State tax revenue. Second, it demonstrates through coin iconography the role of pearl adornment in political messaging and in Roman power struggles at the highest level. 
The extensive ancient evidence for the pearl trade is documented in Chapters 2, 3 and 4. The literary and epigraphic evidence is analysed in Chapter 2. Finds of archaeological pearls and pearl jewellery, and representations of pearl adornment in the public and private spheres, are considered in Chapter 3. The evidence analysed includes Pompeiian wall paintings, Fayum mummy portraits and Palmyrene funerary sculpture. The more than 2000 archaeological pearls cited by this thesis, found either as single specimens or in pearl jewellery assemblages, are listed in the Appendix. The political role of pearl adornment imagery, assessed in Chapter 4, draws on the substantial evidence offered in Roman coin iconography. 
In Chapters 5, 6 and 7 this thesis examines Roman engagement with pearls in everyday antique life. Chapter 5 analyses the use of pearls to project power, prestige and status, the function of pearls as markers of transformational social and cultural change, and their importance to Imperial Roman women as a form of portable wealth. The spiritual symbolism of pearls in ancient devotion is considered in Chapter 6. The Evidence for a parallel industry in ‘faux’ pearls is analysed in this chapter. Emphasis is also given to the central role of pearl divers, pearl-fishing practices and traditions. In Chapter 7, this thesis examines the mystique surrounding pearls and the role of allure in driving Roman demand. The ancient metaphysical response to pearls is contrasted with modern scientific understanding of the geomorphology and environmental factors underlying the development of a pearl-fishing industry and long-distance pearl commerce. 
This thesis presents the case for the economic importance of pearls as a luxury commodity in the Imperial Roman economy in Chapter 8. It considers the radical shift in scholarship as a result of a new appreciation of the extent and considerable worth of Rome’s Eastern trade, and analyses State intervention to secure and expand the immense revenue stream it generated. It also addresses the problem of the sparse evidence for the price of pearls in the Imperial Roman period. The evidence illuminating source to market organisation of long-distance pearl commerce is scrutinised in Chapter 8, as are some of the main players behind a flourishing long-distance trade.