Vertius Earrings

Vertius Earrings take their name and silhouette from the ziggurat — the great stepped tower of ancient Mesopotamia, one of the most distinctive architectural forms in the history of sacred building.

A ziggurat is a massive terraced structure, each successive terrace smaller than the one below, rising through a sequence of platforms to a small temple at the summit. The word comes from the Akkadian ziqqurratu, meaning to build on a raised area, and the form itself expresses a theology of ascent: the understanding that the divine is above, that approach to the divine requires climbing, and that the journey from earth to heaven must be made step by deliberate step.

As a result, the ziggurat was not merely a temple but a mountain made by human hands — the artificial sacred peak in the flat alluvial plain of Mesopotamia, where no natural mountain existed to serve as the meeting point of earth and sky.

The great ziggurat of Ur, dedicated to the moon god Nanna, had three massive terraces and rose to a height of approximately thirty meters. The Etemenanki at Babylon — the House of the Foundation of Heaven and Earth — was perhaps seven terraced stories tall, and may have inspired the story of the Tower of Babel in the Hebrew Bible.

Furthermore, at the ziggurat’s summit, accessible only to priests, was the small chamber where the god was believed to descend and spend the night: the point where heaven met earth, where the divine became locally present.

The Vertius Earrings carry the silhouette of that ascending form: the stepped profile of the ziggurat as a drop, with a gemstone at its summit where the god descended.

The Design of the Vertius Earrings

The Vertius Earrings translate the ziggurat’s stepped silhouette into 18k gold. Each piece is a drop whose profile describes the ascending terraces of the sacred tower: the broadest at the base, narrowing with each step toward the pointed summit where a gemstone is set — a diamond, ruby, or sapphire reading as the temple at the ziggurat’s peak, the point of divine meeting.

As a result, the Vertius Earrings read as both jewellery and architectural diagram: the stepped tower as a wearable form, the sacred summit at the ear.

The Sacred Ascent

The stepped silhouette with its summit gemstone is the soul of this design. Specifically, the sequence of terraces creates a visual rhythm of ascent — the eye follows the steps upward from the broad base to the gem-crowned summit, the way a Mesopotamian priest’s eye would follow the actual ziggurat’s steps from the ground to the chamber of the god.

Worn as drops, the Vertius Earrings present the ascending profile to the viewer. Furthermore, the gemstone at the summit catches the light at the highest point of the drop, reading as the concentrated divine presence at the peak of the sacred architecture.

In this way, the Vertius Earrings carry the essential quality of the ziggurat: the form that makes approach to the divine visible as a sequence of deliberate steps.

Vertius Earrings in 18k Gold and Colored Gemstones

In rose gold the stepped silhouette glows with warmth, set with a ruby at the summit like the sacred fire at the peak of the ziggurat. In white gold the Vertius Earrings turn cool and architectural, a sapphire reading at the top with the deep blue of the sky the tower was built to reach.

In yellow gold they radiate with full golden intensity, a brilliant diamond at the summit — the divine light made present at the highest point. Whichever stone you choose, the steps hold their ascent.

Craftsmanship and 3D Precision

Each Vertius earring was developed in 3D modeling software and brought to life through precision 3D printing and meticulous hand-finishing. The stepped ziggurat silhouette demands digital modeling: each terrace must be proportioned in correct relationship to the others so the silhouette reads as the actual ziggurat profile, the summit gemstone setting must hold the stone at exactly the peak, and the two earrings of a pair must mirror each other exactly.

Hand-finishing polishes every surface to a high shine. This is the precision that only the Friszman MD process can deliver reliably.

A Made-to-Order Piece

Like every Friszman MD creation, the Vertius Earrings is made to order and hand-finished in 18k gold. Explore the full earrings collection to see how each design draws its form from the world’s great traditions. You can also explore the ancient ziggurat and the sacred architecture of Mesopotamia in the collections of the Library of Congress.