Byzantine Medallions

For this project we were introduced to the history of the Byzantine Empire. We covered the history of the Empire itself and the people who lived in the Empire. The Empire was surrounded with gold and therefore the people of the Byzantine Empire were known for wearing these medallions. There were different classes in the Empire, the upper and lower class. Depending on the class you were in made a difference in how your medallion looked. The more jewels and design were upper class along with the medallion being gold, and the lower class usually just design not a lot of jewels and sometimes bronze or copper. I was chosen for the lower class so I couldn't use big jewels to represent mine. We first started out by laying out what kind of design we wanted to use on paper and then we got our piece of clay. We were to roll our clay out to the thickness of a pencil. After that we had to cut out what shape we wanted and made sure we engraved our names on the back. We used a wooden tool but a pencil could work as well and we poked a hole in the top to make sure you could put the yarn in and hang the medallion from your neck if you would like. Then with the tool I engraved the design I wanted on my piece, not digging in too hard but enough so you could see the design and then added some not so "fancy" beads so it showed I was of the lower class. Then I painted the clay with a bronze type color of paint to show my class as well.
An extension of this project could be that the students need to write a history paper on the Byzantine Empire or of what class they chose along with the medallion. They could explain what role their "class" played during their time in the Byzantine Empire and explain why they made their medallion the way they did.