Zendaya faces backlash for 3,000-year-old earrings made by Sienna Spiro's father

[TaylorSwift 162,158]

Zendaya faces backlash after wearing 3,000-year-old Glenn Spiro (Sienna Spiro's father) earrings at 'The Odyssey' London photocall.

While many thought this was a fun Mediterranean motif, the earrings were later revealed to be genuine historical artefacts dating back 3,000 years to Iran. 

Fans were first clued in when Harper’s Bazaar listed the earrings as a pair “from Barron London, constructed from 1st-millennium BC ancient discs.” 

The Barron London website in turn says the jewellery is from Glenn Spiro’s collection. Spiro owns a very private and exclusive jewellery house for the uber wealthy.

The gold pieces are described as “a pair of Ziwiye gold medallion plaques, circa 1st millennium BC, Iran. Mounted by Glenn Spiro with diamonds in yellow gold” on the website.  

The discs, which were turned into earrings by Spiro, are believed to be a part of the Ziwiye hoard, alongside a number of other artefacts that were found uncovered in a plot of land outside of Ziwiyeh Castle, near the city of Saqqez in Kurdistan province, Iran, in 1947. 

An Instagram creator by the handle @dr_archaeology pointed out the murkiness around the way the artefact was sourced.

She claimed the pieces were “likely looted from Iran” and are “gracing the ears of an American actress from a country that just bombed Iran.”

“Let’s be real, the point of these earrings is not to showcase legitimate ancient artistry, it is to fetishise the past, to be a commodity, stolen from the elite … this is about class signalling,” she continued in the video, which has sparked debate. x

 

[timdrake 1,856]

“gracing the ears of an American actress from a country that just bombed Iran.”

“Let’s be real, the point of these earrings is not to showcase legitimate ancient artistry, it is to fetishise the past, to be a commodity,

 

1. Zendaya didn’t bomb Iran. The actions of a country do not speak for every citizen. There are many Americans who do not support this.

2. Tiktokers loooove to speak on what the intent was without any proof whatsoever. 

 

What’s crazy is that there are surely some real criticisms to be had for wearing such old, most likely “looted” artifacts, but these extra ridiculous arguments laid on top to try and malign a person’s character just make it seem like a bitter tear down. 

Edited 3 hours ago by timdrake

[Kayioshka 3,271]

Again, Iran is being dispossed from it’s art and culture... This hurt me a lot since I have Iranic roots and that this whole culture is falling apart because of the West interfering in the worst ways and it's own Islamic regime being terrible.

Stars taking the public’s domain artefacts is not new, they're so annoying. Kim K wearing Marylin Monroe's dress was so irritating because she deteriored it.

Edited 3 hours ago by Kayioshka

[Bronco 24,503]

Right. So

Iran is currently stuck between 2 genocidal quasi dictatorships warring over the natural resource value of the land the iranian people live on. 

With ongoing bombings being conducted against the region.

And the white gen z american left is *checks notes*

Complaining about Zendaya wearing earings. 

[Kayioshka 3,271]

21 minutes ago, Bronco said:

Right. So

Iran is currently stuck between 2 genocidal quasi dictatorships warring over the natural resource value of the land the iranian people live on. 

With ongoing bombings being conducted against the region.

And the white gen z american left is *checks notes*

Complaining about Zendaya wearing earings. 

It's more complex than that. It’s symbolical violence coming from the very privilleged class who earn advantages from the war their same class is financing.

Even if we speak we cannot do nothing concretly. But to remember and to point out this, seems necessary.

Also why taking an Iranic/Kurdish artefacts for a Greek movie's premiere ? When I saw her looks for the first time, I didn’t know that the accessory wasn’t Greek.

It’s in the ultra-richs will to do this. But saying it means nothing is dangerous.

From the Bezos space trip, to the Leo's collection of dino's skulls, to Kim destroying Marylin Monroe's dress, to Dula Peep's renting a whole public place in Italy... It’s not nothing because there are negative conscequences on us.

These earings probably belonged to some Kurdish/Iranic nobles who represented the elite class of their people. By taking it from it’s homeland, a part of their History is getting dipossesed.

The war is terrible for the population's survival sure. But the memory of one's culture will be erased too, and that's how people forget what was their attach. And then they stick to radical Islam or any other ideology serving as an identity to fill the void. This also create frustration. That's how radical nationalists appear. See what happened to the Pagans cultures...

I have Iranic, these lives being taken and the History being destroyed/stolen feel like a double-pain.

Edited 3 hours ago by Kayioshka

[FfFfFfFF 58,002]

This makes me anxious. 

These historical artefacts need special light‚ humidity conditions. They need to be respected as heritage objects.

[Bronco 24,503]

18 minutes ago, Kayioshka said:

It's more complex than that. It’s symbolical violence coming from the very privilleged class who earn advantages from the war their same class is financing.

Even if we speak we cannot do nothing concretly. But to remember and to point out this, seems necessary.

Also why taking an Iranic/Kurdish artefacts for a Greek movie's premiere ? When I saw her looks for the first time, I didn’t know that the accessory wasn’t Greek.

It’s in the ultra-richs will to do this. But saying it means nothing is dangerous.

From the Bezos space trip, to the Leo's collection of dino's skulls, to Kim destroying Marylin Monroe's dress, to Dula Peep's renting a whole public place in Italy... It’s not nothing because there are negative conscequences on us.

These earings probably belonged to some Kurdish/Iranic nobles who represented the elite class of their people. By taking it from it’s homeland, a part of their History is getting dipossesed.

The war is terrible for the population's survival sure. But the memory of one's culture will be erased too, and that's how people forget what was their attach. And then they stick to radical Islam or any other ideology serving as an identity to fill the void. This also create frustration. That's how radical nationalists appear. See what happened to the Pagans cultures...

I have Iranic, these lives being taken and the History being destroyed/stolen feel like a double-pain.

There's a few things worth talking about it here. 

Firstly, the Ziwiye hoard allegedly contains treasures from multiple iron age occupants of modern age Iran including the Parthians from what is now North-Eastern Iran. This is important for understanding their design, because the Parthians were in the 6th century BC were assimilated into the Achaemenid empire which stretched into Northern Greece and by the 4th Century BC were part of the Hellinistic-Seleculid empire following conquests by Alexander the Great. 
Their design looks greek because they culturally were connected to the ancient Greeks through geopolitics. 

Now, I said allegedly. The Ziwiye hoard isn't proven to be real. There are no records of the archaelogical dig attributed to them. The Ziwiye hoard by all the evidence we can prove, came into existence after these pieces had floated through the antiquities market for a number of years and their provenance as ancient artefacts is dubious as a result. There is a belief in archaelogical circles that the Ziwiye hoard is effectively a myth created by numerous dealers to sell pieces - with many of the pieces being questioned as potential forgeries. 

Now. I didn't say it meant nothing. But I was pointing out, that in the current climate creating uproar and funelling activist resource into it is counter-productive. 
Because even if the Ziwiye hoard is real, fighting to protect these treasures (which aren't at risk of destruction) is the equivalent of fighting to protect the various pieces of art, metal work etc confiscated by the Nazis as part of the holocaust. It is absolutely a bad thing, but what is the priority to save here with the resources available to us as activists? Human life from the cultures who produced these pieces at one point, or the cultural artifacts themselves? 

 

[Junko Enoshima 4,535]

Yeah I’d defo not wear something THAT old. I’d be anxious asf and overthinking the whole time about them breaking or getting lost or whatever. 

[lasagna 3,367]

i dont think she wore them intentionally to upset anybody but if its true the criticisms are entirely valid. its in bad taste to wear allegedly stolen iranian artefacts as earrings to a movie premiere when your country is actively bombing said country. even if america wasnt bombing iran it would be in poor taste.

[River 127,176]

Once again the "backlash" is against the wrong person.

They should waste their energy on Glenn Spiro who actually holds this artifact in his personal collection instead of giving it back to the rightful owners.

If they really cared much about this topic, they would learn how many artifacts, art pieces, and so on has been stolen and now owned by rich people, traded by rich people and even the black market.

But they don't care, they only care to join the backlash party, add some leftish political statement about Iran because "they care" and "America is bad", checked the box, and moved on with their privileged entitled day... see them next week at the cinema for Spider-man Bran New Day.. and later for Dune 3.

[BeyonkaAte 921]

23 minutes ago, River said:

Once again the "backlash" is against the wrong person.

They should waste their energy on Glenn Spiro who actually holds this artifact in his personal collection instead of giving it back to the rightful owners.

If they really cared much about this topic, they would learn how many artifacts, art pieces, and so on has been stolen and now owned by rich people, traded by rich people and even the black market.

But they don't care, they only care to join the backlash party, add some leftish political statement about Iran because "they care" and "America is bad", checked the box, and moved on with their privileged entitled day... see them next week at the cinema for Spider-man Bran New Day.. and later for Dune 3.

period

[Kayioshka 3,271]

1 hour ago, Bronco said:

There's a few things worth talking about it here. 

Firstly, the Ziwiye hoard allegedly contains treasures from multiple iron age occupants of modern age Iran including the Parthians from what is now North-Eastern Iran. This is important for understanding their design, because the Parthians were in the 6th century BC were assimilated into the Achaemenid empire which stretched into Northern Greece and by the 4th Century BC were part of the Hellinistic-Seleculid empire following conquests by Alexander the Great. 
Their design looks greek because they culturally were connected to the ancient Greeks through geopolitics. 

Now, I said allegedly. The Ziwiye hoard isn't proven to be real. There are no records of the archaelogical dig attributed to them. The Ziwiye hoard by all the evidence we can prove, came into existence after these pieces had floated through the antiquities market for a number of years and their provenance as ancient artefacts is dubious as a result. There is a belief in archaelogical circles that the Ziwiye hoard is effectively a myth created by numerous dealers to sell pieces - with many of the pieces being questioned as potential forgeries. 

Now. I didn't say it meant nothing. But I was pointing out, that in the current climate creating uproar and funelling activist resource into it is counter-productive. 
Because even if the Ziwiye hoard is real, fighting to protect these treasures (which aren't at risk of destruction) is the equivalent of fighting to protect the various pieces of art, metal work etc confiscated by the Nazis as part of the holocaust. It is absolutely a bad thing, but what is the priority to save here with the resources available to us as activists? Human life from the cultures who produced these pieces at one point, or the cultural artifacts themselves? 

 

The first part is very informative ty 

I agree that sometimes internet is too much absorbed by small activism rather than big activism.

Diversion is a great tool for the powerful ones.

Even if we address these problematics of conservations, we are powerless. That’s why celebs keep buying public domain objects, degrade it and receive no sentences for it...

The most important thing is indeed to protect humans. But it’s still useful to remind ppl what Iran was before the modern wars. Interestingly enough, knowing that this object is half-Greek and half-Iranic, remind us that these are liminal cultures.

[Controversiaga 15,969]

Ugly nipple earrings , who would want to wear those????

[Kayioshka 3,271]

44 minutes ago, River said:

Once again the "backlash" is against the wrong person.

They should waste their energy on Glenn Spiro who actually holds this artifact in his personal collection instead of giving it back to the rightful owners.

If they really cared much about this topic, they would learn how many artifacts, art pieces, and so on has been stolen and now owned by rich people, traded by rich people and even the black market.

But they don't care, they only care to join the backlash party, add some leftish political statement about Iran because "they care" and "America is bad", checked the box, and moved on with their privileged entitled day... see them next week at the cinema for Spider-man Bran New Day.. and later for Dune 3.

I agree but it’s because there clients that there are dealers.

We can criticize both the client and the dealer, but the market is here to stay. Doing sensibilization and reminding ppl from where this artefact comes is the only effective thing, I think.

The oversimplification of "America is bad" is also absurd. It’s the elites that are to blame, because everything of that happens bc of them. American citizens themselves have to endure them and their absurd social systems.

[phantasmas 12,307]

omg... Law really is the greatest stylist of all time