Junyi Wu, College of the Holy Cross, Class of 2026

The necklace was probably made on Cyprus, a small island located on the eastern side of the Mediterranean Sea. Though it was far from the political center of the Byzantine Empire in Constantinople (today's Istanbul), Cyprus was near the eastern border of the empire that witnessed conflicts with the neighboring Persians starting from the early 600s. 

Despite conflict, the eastern frontier of the Byzantine Empire saw an unprecedented connectivity of different cultures and ethnicities that included, but was not limited to, Byzantines, Persians, Ethiopians, and Georgians. Cyprus itself, as an island, was also a stage open to human mobility in the 500s and 600s. "No longer is any place inaccessible to me: calm waters are traversed by Italian ships from the northern Black Sea to the far reaches of Ethiopia”--this verse, written by a poet from Constantinople, vividly captures the dynamic interconnectedness of the region, while also hinting at changes happening in the Byzantine Empire.