This is the companion volume to one devoted to recent research on Byzantine jewellery published in 2010 and forms part of a series organised under the auspices of the British Museum Byzantine Seminar Series. Many of the papers are concerned with new research on objects in the British Museum's collections. The conference brought together leading scholars from Europe, USA and the Middle East to discuss the most recent research in the field of Late Antique gems and cameos. This will be the first time that some many diverse papers, inter-disciplinary in nature, have been assembled in a single volume. The scientific papers address issues such as the typology and sourcing of gemstones which go beyond a narrow focus on the ancient world. Many new cameos and gems from important private collections are published here for the first time.