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Neva, Elena

Dr. Elena Neva was guest lecturer at Columbia- and Harvard University, author of “The Art of Ancient Jewelers (Central Asia 4BC-4AD)” Boston,2008

Gast docent Columbia- en Harvard University, auteur “The Art of Ancient Jewelers (Central Asia 4BC-4AD)” Boston,2008

Experience :
  • Boston School of Modern Languages
  • Bunker Hill Community College.
  • PAX coordinator .Program of Academic Exchange
  • Boston Center for Adult Education,
  • Haifa University – Israel, Department of Archaeology,
  • Tajik Academy of Sciences, Department of Art History,
  • Senior Research Associate
  • Research Associate
  • Research Assistant           
Education :
  • Institute of Art, Tashkent, Uzbekistan
  • Ph.D. in Art History
  • Moscow State University, Russia
  • BA/MA in History and Art History, Cum Laude                                
  • Dushanbe College of Music, Tajikistan
  • BA in Music theory, history & composition
t. / f. (781)391-18-25
m. 617-872-3807
e. lenasu@msn.com
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 Articles by this Author

The surviving jewelry fragments, casting molds and models testify that most of the jewelry was produced by casting method. For instance, differently shaped rings (see Treasures of Oxus, Tajikistan Tillya-tepe, Afghanistan) could be created in casting forms made of sepia shells or fine-grained sand

Ancient jewelry from Central Asia

The art of jewelers is one of the most pronounced phenomena in Eastern cultures. It is distinguished in its fulfillment and originality of artistic images, and carries within immense sources of expression. Jewelry art of ancient Central Asia is a complex, non-synonymous phenomenon. In order to comprehend its conformity to natural laws, as well as such conformity of Central Asian culture as a whole, it is necessary to understand its meaning on the basis of new information provided by the latest developments and discoveries in science, especially archaeology.

The aesthetic language of art encompassing a vast historical period is very complex and can be difficult to read. In order to understand those artistic facets that make jewelry art from IV BC-IV AD unique we will utilize the following tools:

1. A set of major concepts used in applied art (i.e. a type of “dictionary”)
2. A set of rules that define how these concepts can be blended and transformed within the “text” of the aesthetic language (i.e. “grammar”)


Variety of forms and designs is an identifying feature of ancient Central Asian jewelry. The major types of adornments that existed during the given time period are distinguished by principles of wearing, resulting from ritual and socio-cultural peculiarities of the given type of article. Thus, classification of articles depends on direct connections with the conventions of social etiquette and the aesthetic forms of everyday behavior, hence we distinguish: head, temple, ear, neck, chest, hand, and foot adornments, as well as sew-on pieces, and finally votive plates and small articles. Let us consider the most frequently found types and forms of jewelry.

Buddhist tradition in Tajik jewelry

Jewelry is one of the most conservative arts, where technology and decorative elements prevail without fast changes. It is a property of jewelry art that give us for example a great opportunity to find Buddhists elements in 19th-20th centuries. One of the many examples of Tajik jewelry is a diadem. Traditional wedding crown or diadem is well-known as a "Kosh-tillo" or "Tillya-Kosh" (Golden eyebrows) has a heraldic composition of lion, monkey and turtle figures. These three animals are representative of Buddha.

Oxus jewelry Each jewelry item represents a certain information symbol. Drawn from everyday life, as well as from epos and myths, apothropaic emblems found in jewelry had a magic power. The popularity of every particular subject was associated with concepts of the epoch. The jeweller was involved in the events of his epoch; ideas and concepts of the time were not foreign for him and were frequently reflected in his art.

Ancient Jewelry from Afghanistan

One of the well-known treasures of XXth century was found in the Northern Afghanistan- “Golden Hill” or Tillya-tepe.

Tillya-tepe provided researchers with samples of ensembles of adornments. Here in 1978, a joint soviet-afghan expedition uncovered six rich burials (five female and one male), in which many adornments that date back to the begging of this era were preserved. Altogether, 20000 gold jewelry articles with insertions of precious and semi-precious stones were found. The female complexes differ stylistically from each other reflective not only of the differences in the ethnicity of the buried women but also of the differences in fashion. The abundance of jewelry articles in these burials suggests the existence of a jewelry workshop, for such a large amount of sew-on disks could have only been made by several masters.

Kulfi girebon - "lock" on the collar

My acquaintance with the art of Hovaling, had only found an insignificant part of jewelry articles that included "brooches-fibulas," which is known as "kulfi-girebon".[1] The Fund Collection of jewelry articles, at the Museum of Ethnography, replenished its collection with jewelry pieces made by Kulyabian jewelers. These articles also include the well-known brooches. These brooches were not only made of silver, but also from German silver (an alloy of nickel and copper).

Today it is not a favorable time for the country wanting some humanitarian assistance to trouble about vogue’s fancies and nevertheless, what in vogue there recently? Surely jewelry is. Why? This is hardly a single reliable thing, which still is valued both in internal and international market. Mostly, by the way, due to the outstanding properties of Soviet precious metals, but only … In the present volcanic situation people seek for guarantees of stability, for their investments.

The present information is the first attempt to comprehend the Haifa University ancient jewelry collection, as well as stone, bone and glass adornment as a whole. It will be recalled that the museum was founded in 1984 by Reuben and Edith Hecht, whose rich art collection gave name to the museum. Diverse relics and monuments of history, archaeology, culture and art from the Canaanite period (3150-2200 BC) to XX century, presented mostly by paintings in separate Gallery wing form the present museum exposition. Jewelry monuments are in the first and second floor show cases naturally supplementing the other archaeological findings.