Fashion with a function.
While excavating a wine factory dating back to the Byzantine era, archaeologists in Israel unearthed a gold ring featuring what they presume to be an amethyst stone — leading them to believe the ring may have been worn for “hangover prevention” purposes.
That’s because historians already know that the ancient Greece word “amethystos,” from which the gem’s name is derived, translates to “not drunk,” according to the Gemological Institute of America (GIA), LiveScience reported.
“Amethysts are mentioned in [the] Bible as one of the 12 precious stones worn by the high priest of the Temple on his ceremonial breastplate,” said Amir Golani, an expert on ancient jewelry, and one of the scientists with the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) who examined the ring. “Many virtues have been attached to this gem, including the prevention of the side effect of drinking — the hangover,” Golani said in a statement on Nov. 2.
The bauble was discovered at a winery located in the city of Yavne, which operated sometime between around A.D. 330 to 1453, and thought to have been one of the largest producers of the era, IAA said. There, they brewed and bottled a type of white wine, dubbed “Gaza wine” or Ashkelon wine,” for the ports by which the drink would then be sailed to Europe and Asia. Researchers believe it may have produced some 500,000 gallons of wine each year.
The ring itself was found in a portion of the factory dating back to the 7th century, near a warehouse where wine jars were stored, though such a ring was known to be worn by wealthy Romans as early as the 3rd century. This lead researchers to speculate that it may have been an heirloom passed down through several generations before becoming lost at the winery.
Amethyst is a semi-precious variety of quartz with a signature deep purple to lavender hue. While relatively common today, it was once considered as valuable are rubies or emeralds — until a rich source was uncovered in Brazil during the 19th century, according to GIA, making amethyst widely available and thus devalued.
The IAA has said that they can never truly know the ring’s progeny. Said IAA director Eli Eskozido, “The small, everyday finds that are discovered in our excavations tell us human stories and connect us directly to the past.”