A pair of earrings has put Zendaya at the centre of controversy

Zendaya has been undoubtedly blowing us all away with her stunning red carpet looks during The Odyssey’s press tour. 

Playing the goddess Athena, the 29-year-old star has been pulling inspiration from Greek mythology and history to include in her outfits – at least, that’s what we thought.

When the actress rocked up to the London photocall for the film on July 5, her ears were adorned with large gold discs depicting the rays of the sun. 

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.

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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.

“Fellow creators, let’s not hype this type of commodity fetishism. You are aware it drives the antiquities black market, which hurts cultural groups and local people.”

Taking artefacts that are historically significant from a culture, treating them without care or preservation and diminishing them to mere accessories creates a show of power over another culture, Zirrar Ali, a UK-based author and expert on Islamic history, art, and architecture, told The New Arab.

“The practice of taking jewellery and other artefacts, especially those associated with the royal courts of great empires of the past, the Mughals, the Safavids, and others, and then allowing actors and celebrities to adorn them sends a clear message: not only will we not return what we took from you, because we consider ourselves more worthy custodians, but we also continue to occupy the symbolic position of monarchs and rulers over the lands from which these artefacts were removed,” Ali said.

Though Zendaya likely didn’t have much input in the decision, she remains one of the most popular American actors of her time and represents the West, whether she likes it or not. 

She’s not the only one whose fashion moves have raised eyebrows.

Earlier this year, Aussie darling Margot Robbie wore a necklace known as Elizabeth Taylor’s Taj Mahal necklace, having once belonged to the famed actress. 

In fact, the jewel’s history spans centuries and across oceans, going through the trials of colonisation, robbery, and a $US 7 million (approximately $11 million) legal battle before it only recently became a part of Hollywood history and was worn around the Aussie star’s neck. 

The necklace – or rather, the heart-shaped pendant dangling from it – dates back to the times of Nur Jahan, the wife of the Mughal emperor Jahangir, 400 years ago, a mere dent on Zendaya’s 3000-year-old earrings.

The jewel was passed down to their son Shah Jahan, who gave it to his wife Mumtaz. Shah Jahan famously built the Taj Mahal in memory of his wife. 

After this, the whereabouts of the piece are murky, having likely been looted and sold across Europe and Russia through private sales until it made its way to Cartier in the 1970s.

From there, it was sold to the highest bidder, who happened to be actor Richard Burton, who bought it for his wife Elizabeth Taylor, who used it to hide her tracheotomy scar. 

Years on, the four-century-old historical artefact was used to promote a story about all-consuming love – and while the darkness of the pendant’s history made it all the more haunting, imagine a world in which it could have been celebrated in the embrace of those it originally belonged to.