The looting of Mithridates’s dactyliotheca led to a craze for acquiring carved examples of these objects among Roman elites. For 10 points each:
[10e] Name these objects that ancient artisans engraved to make intaglio portraits. Typically, only cut examples of these objects were set into signet rings.
ANSWER: engraved gemstones [or gems or jewels; prompt on rocks, stones, or minerals]
[10m] Intaglio gemstone carvings contrast with carvings known by this five-letter word, in which the figure of the image is raised above the plane of the ground. A large sardonyx carving from 23 CE is known as the “great” one of these “of France.”
ANSWER: cameos [accept cameo carving or Great Cameo of France]
[10h] One of the finest gemstone carvings of antiquity is this Mycenaean or Late Minoan artwork found in the Griffin Warrior Tomb. In this circa 1450 BCE artwork, a long-haired warrior plunges his sword into the neck of another man.
ANSWER: Pylos Combat Agate
<TH, Visual Arts>