Late Byzantine Rings, 1204-1453

Contributor Biography - English JEFFREY B. SPIERAugust 2004-present: University Associate, Department of Classics, University of ArizonaGuest Curator, The Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas, for the exhibition Picturing the Bible: the Earliest Christian Art, to be shown November 18, 2007-March 30, 2008December 1999-to September 2002: Faculty Research Associate, Literae Humaniores, Oxford UniversityMarch 1998-June 1999: Honorary Research Fellow, Department of Hebrew and Jewish Studies, University College LondonFebruary-April 1997: Guest Curator, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia, for the exhibition San Marco and Venice1988-1997: Honorary Research Fellow, Institute of Archaeology, University College London. Lecturer in Greek Numismatics, 1991-92, 1993-94; Greek Vase Painting, 1996.Academic Training:October 1983-April 1988: Merton College, Oxford. D.Phil., Classical Archaeology (Faculty of Literae Humaniores), for the dissertation Minor Arts and Regional Styles in East Greece, 700-500 B.C., under the direction of Professor Sir John Boardman.September 1976-September 1977: Research Assistant to Professor George M.A. Hanfmann at the Archaeological Exploration of Sardis (Turkey), Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.September 1973-June 1977: Harvard College, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. B.A. degree in Classical Archaeology.Honorary positions:Elected Fellow of the American Numismatic Society, New York, October, 2005Publications:Books:- Ancient Gems and Finger Rings. Catalogue of the Collections, The J. Paul Getty Museum (Malibu, 1992)- San Marco and Venice (exhibition catalogue, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 1997) [with G. Morrison]- A Catalogue of the Calouste Gulbenkian Collection of Gems (Lisbon, 2001).- Late Antique and Early Christian Gems (Wiesbaden, 2007)- Picturing the Bible: the Earliest Christian Art (New Haven and London, 2007, in association with the Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth)- Treasures of the Ferrell Collection (Wiesbaden, 2010)- Byzantium and the West: Jewelry in the First Millennium (London, 2012)Articles (only recent):- Catalogue entry no. 13, "Ring Engraved with the Standing Virgin Holding the Christ-Child," in M. Vassilaki, ed., Mother of God: Representations of the Virgin in Byzantine Art (Exhibition catalogue, Benaki Museum, Athens, 2000), pp. 294-295- Catalogue entries describing seals, jewelry, and rings in C. Stiegemann, ed., Byzanz. Das Licht aus dem Osten (Exhibition catalogue, Mainz, 2001), pp. 235-238, nos. III.7-10; p. 241, no. III.15; pp. 298-299, nos. IV.16-17; p. 321, no. IV.48; and pp. 323-335, nos. IV.50-79.- "The Demirler, Lycia (c. 1972) Hoard (CH 1.6, 8.40, 9.351)," in A. Meadows and U. Wartenberg, eds., Coin Hoards, vol. IX (London, 2002), pp. 87-93 [with M. Arslan and A. Dervisagaoglou]- Catalogue entries in J. Michael Padgett, ed., The Centaur's Smile. The Human Animal in Early Greek Art (Exhibition catalogue, Princeton, 2003), pp. 136-137, no. 14 ("Seal with Centaur and Archer"); p. 138, no. 15 ("Seal with Centaur"); and p. 139, no. 16 ("Double-Sided Seal with Centaur and Two Men")- "A lost consular diptych of Anicius Auchenius Bassus (A.D. 408) on the mould for an ARS plaque," Journal of Roman Archaeology 16 (2003), pp. 350-354- "Middle Byzantine (10th-13th century AD) Stamp Seals in Semi-precious Stone," in C. Entwistle, ed., Through a Glass Brightly. Studies in Byzantine and Medieval Art and Archaeology Presented to David Buckton (Exeter, 2003), pp. 114-126- Descriptions of gems in Jane Biers, ed., A Peaceable Kingdom. Animals in Ancient Art from the Leo Mildenberg Collection, Part VI (Mainz, 2004), pp. 9-11, nos. VI, 13-17; pp. 59-60, nos. VI, 60-61; p. 64, nos. VI, 68-69; and p. 68, no. VI, 75- "Late Antique, Early Christian and Jewish Gems," on the Beazley Archive website, Oxford University:http://www.beazley.ox.ac.uk/gems/styles/late-anti