|
CHAPTER IX.
|
||
|
|
||
|
ENGRAVING ON PRECIOUS STONES.
Engraving was well understood by the ancients, and was,
probably, one of the earliest of the fine arts, having been practised by the Babylonians, Assyrians, Egyptians, Phoenicians, Hebrews, Greeks, Romans, Peruvians, and Mexicans, and, possibly, by other nations ; but this, like all the other fine arts, was lost during the turbulent period of mediaeval times, and with them, was recovered at the general revival of learning. None of the ancient arts have been so important to the historian and the archaeologist as engraving, on account of its permanence, arising from the indestructible nature of the materials employed. Architecture, sculpture, and painting, are more or less perishable ; hence, they have left only partial records of the past, or have been utterly destroyed, leaving no traces of their existence save in the annals of the historian ; while gems, on the contrary, owing to their physical qualities and diminutive size, have suffered little or nothing from the ravages of Avar or political revolutions which could affect the inscriptions they bear. They have, in many instances, been the conservers of the more perishable creations of the sculptor, the painter, the architect, and the poet. They illustrate the myths, legends, historical events, manners, and customs of the early races, and represent the portraits of distinguished persons, the costumes of the different nations, their implements of warfare and domestic use, and their religious rites and ceremonies, M5
|
||
|
|
||