A pleasure not just for the eye: Multisensorial engagements with ancient gems

Although gems were experienced primarily through sight in antiquity, as today, they also stimulated other senses: touch, obviously, but also occasionally hearing, taste, and even smell, not only for the craftsmen who fashioned them but also for those who owned, used, and wore them on their bodies. This essay explores diverse sensory experiences aroused by Greek and Roman gems, utilizing the thirty-seventh book of Pliny the Elder’s Natural History and other ancient sources. It also addresses non-canonical senses—such as scale, memory, time, place, movement, rhythm, well-being, and wonder—that were stimulated by these marvellous miniature objects in diverse contexts.