Glyptography - Definition and Meaning
[glip-tog-ruh-fee] glyptography : Greek glyptó ( s ) carved + - graphy - graphy : a combining form denoting a process or form of drawing, writing, representing, recording, describing, etc., or an art or science concerned with such a process i.e photography. Handmade silver ring 925o with quartz. It is the art of making representations on stone and precious stones using glyfida (chisel). The carved stones were used either as utilitarian objects (eg seals) or as ornamental (eg cameo). Before the word ''Glyptography'', they used the term ''Lapidary''. The carving of the stones was used at 4.000 BC by the people of Mesopotamia and later by the Egyptians, Cretans, and the Romans. There were major historical periods where the gems had very little meaning to humans and their use had died down or forgotten . This probably happened in classical Greece, after the Dorian invasion, since very few referen