Roman Voyager Amphora Necklace

Across the ancient Mediterranean, the amphora was a vessel made to travel.

Packed into the holds of merchant ships and carried between distant ports, amphorae moved with the currents of Roman commerce. Within their ceramic walls travelled wine, olive oil and other commodities, connecting vineyards, workshops, merchants and markets across an enormous geographical world.

Some of those voyages ended beneath the waves.

Ancient shipwrecks have revealed amphorae still gathered together as cargo, silent remnants of journeys interrupted almost two thousand years ago.

Yet amphorae were not always enormous transport vessels. Smaller vessels known as amphoriskoi translated their characteristic two-handled form into something more intimate, sometimes carrying precious perfumed oils.

The Roman Voyager Amphora Necklace takes inspiration from this world of vessels, merchants and Mediterranean voyages.

Rather than reproducing a single archaeological object, Shinar has reduced the amphora to an abstract impression. A slender vessel emerges from the textured gold, surrounded by curling handles and an irregular surface reminiscent of something recovered and marked by time.

The design's ancient character later carried it into another world when the Roman Voyager Amphora Necklace was supplied to Warner Bros. for Game of Thrones.

From the cargo holds of the Roman Mediterranean to the imagined worlds of the screen, its story continues to travel.

A vessel once made to carry treasure, transformed into a treasure of its own.