In archaic art, ear-rings are frequently represented or their traces are
left in the perforated ear lobes of early statues. After the 4th century
such perforations occur seldom. In one instance, a Greek inscription
records the weight of the detachable gold ornaments on a statue, among
which a pair of ear-rings is included. Ear-rings of characteristic form
are frequently discovered by excavation. In Egypt, a system of pendent
chains is found hanging from a disk. In Assyria the decoration consists
of pendants or knobs attached to a rigid ring. In the early civilization
represented by Dr Schliemann's Trojan investigations, pieces of gold
plate are suspended by parallel chains. In the Mycenaean period,
ear-rings are infrequent in Greece, but have been found in abundance in
the Mycenaean finds of Enkomi (Cyprus) in the form of pendent
bulls'-heads, or of decorative forms based on the bull's head. In the
tombs of the Greek settlers in the Crimea (4th century B.C.), ear-rings
are found of marvellous complexity and beauty. The lexicographer Pollux,
speaking of the names given to ear-rings, derived from their forms,
mentions caryatids, hippocamps and centauresses. Jewels of the same
class, of exquisite beauty and of workmanship that is truly wonderful,
have been rescued from the sepulchres of ancient Etruria. Ear-rings of
comparatively simple forms, but set with pearls and other stones, were
the mode in Rome. In some instances, the stones were of fabulous value.
During the Byzantine period they once more attained an extravagant size.
Researches among the burial places of Anglo-Saxon Britain have led to
the discovery of jewels in considerable numbers, which among their
varieties include ear-rings executed in a style that proves the
Anglo-Saxons to have made no inconsiderable advances in the arts of
civilization.
[Illustration: From _La Grande Encyclopedie_.
FIG. 2.--Thetis crossing the sea, with the armour of Achilles. Ear-ring
from the Crimea, Hermitage museum.]
These same ornaments, which never have fallen into disuse, enjoy at the
present day a considerable degree of favour, and the tide of fashion has
set towards their increased use. Like all other modern jewels, however,
the ear-rings of our own times as works of art can claim no historical
attributes, because they consist as well of reproductions from all past
ages and of every race as of fanciful productions that certainly can be
assigned to no style of art whatever. As one of the curiosities of the
subject it may be mentioned that Antonia, wife of Drusus, is said by
Pliny to have attached a pair of ear-rings to her pet lamprey.
EARTH (a word common to Teutonic languages, cf. Ger. _Erde_, Dutch
_aarde_, Swed. and Dan. _jord_; outside Teutonic it appears only in the
Gr. [Greek: eraze], on the ground; it has been connected by some
etymologists with the Aryan root _ar-_, to plough, which is seen in the
Lat. _arare_, obsolete Eng. "ear," and Gr. [Greek: aroun], but this is
now considered very doubtful; see G. Curtius, _Greek Etymology_, Eng.
trans., i. 426; Max Mueller, _Lectures_, 8th ed. i. 294). From early
times the word "earth" has been used in several connexions--from that of
soil or ground to that of the planet which we inhabit, but it is
difficult to trace the exact historic sequence of the diverse usages. In
the cosmogony of the Pythagoreans, Platonists and other philosophers,
the term or its equivalent denoted an element or fundamental quality
which conferred upon matter the character of earthiness; and in the
subsequent development of theories as to the ultimate composition of
matter by the alchemists, iatrochemists, and early phlogistonists an
element of the same name was retained (see ELEMENT). In modern
chemistry, the common term "earth" is applied to certain oxides:--the
"alkaline earths" (q.v.) are the oxides of calcium (lime), barium
(baryta) and strontium (strontia); the "rare earths" (q.v.) are the
oxides of a certain class of rare metals.