On the 5th of July 2026, at the London photocall for Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, actor Zendaya wore 3,000-year-old Iranian gold discs as earrings. A darling of contemporary pop culture, Zendaya is arguably just as recognisable for her popularisation of red-carpet method dressing as she is for her acting; however, this summer’s run of thematic ensembles drew criticism from outside of the usual commentators. Set amid the wider dialogue precipitated by The Odyssey, in which the spheres of academia and media repeatedly butted heads, the choice of Zendaya’s stylists on the 5th of July did not escape scrutiny. 16 days later, The Guardian published an article, ‘Zendaya faces backlash for wearing ancient Iranian jewellery at Odyssey event’, summarising the academic uproar. Iranian born art historian Professor Sussan Babaie of the Courtauld Institute expressed shock in this article “to see that no one thought maybe this is not a good idea”. Alongside Babaie, archaeologist Dr. Annalise Baer contributed to The Guardian piece in saying that Zendaya’s earrings introduced a complex ethical issue to “the public eye in a way that we haven’t really seen before”.
The issue in question is multifaceted. In wearing Iranian gold from 700 BC, Zendaya did not simply make a nifty connection between 21st century red carpet culture and the time of Odysseus’ journey. She invoked the scrutiny western institutions, governments, and heritage sites have been facing over cultural repatriation and restitution for decades. With this article, I want to interrogate whether this scrutiny is entirely fair, by raising questions about private collections, archival violence, and ‘the correct’ way to display an ancient object. Did Zendaya trivialise Iranian culture, or celebrate it? Is it right to fossilise artefacts in a museum display case, or should we interact with them more dynamically, at a photocall for a film, for example? Is it elitist to assume that those who follow the press runs of movie stars could not engage critically with ethical questions? I intend to suggest, using the work of historians, archival scholars, and philosophers from Diana Taylor to Jacques Derrida, that history should not stagnate under thinly veiled academic elitism. By engaging with the world of popular culture, we can develop creative ways to plug the gap between problem and solution, by keeping the conversation relevant in the eyes of the general public rather than shying away from it.
Firstly, it is important to acknowledge how the earrings initially present as an insensitive choice. Professor Babaie suggests that the earrings were reduced to “an expression of [The Odyssey’s] high mindedness”. The significance of the artefacts was overshadowed by the context in which they were worn. The Odyssey is a core work of ancient Greek culture; Zendaya’s earrings are Iranian in origin. These ancient polities had a complex relationship of cross-cultural exchange, and intense military rivalries. Unsurprisingly, this nuance was skipped over by fashion reporters. Catherine Callon, writing for the website Red Carpet Fashion Awards, asserted that Zendaya “evoked the draped garments of classical Greek sculpture”, and “introduced a modern sensuality that kept the look firmly on the red carpet instead of in the pages of history”. Callon went on to say that the “extraordinary earrings” were “more than statement accessories, they established a direct connection to the world of The Odyssey”. Evidently, the Iran of approximately 700 BC was ‘close enough’ to the Greece of 1550-1200 BC, regardless of geographical, cultural, and chronological differences. Zendaya and her stylist team have a reputation for thoughtful symbolic associations in red-carpet dressing, granting her a legitimacy to make such a generalisation. It is this Babaie and her fellow commentators took issue with. For an American-British production like The Odyssey to glamourise ancient Iranian culture for its own promotional needs, at a time when America is actively bombing Iran, is undoubtedly problematic.
On the 12th of May 2026, Professor Babaie chaired a panel discussion at the Courtauld Institute in collaboration with the Iran Heritage Foundation, titled ‘Iran: International Law and the Protection of Cultural Heritage in Times of War’. This discussion sought to emphasise how the tragedy of the war on Iran extends beyond humanitarian loss, as “equally consequential are the destruction of [some 100+] monuments of profound cultural significance to Iran and Iranians”. Taking this into consideration, Barron London, the private dealership who loaned the earrings to Zendaya’s team, issued an official statement: “The intention behind the loan was never commercial. It was to celebrate the remarkable artistry of Persian goldsmiths and to encourage wider appreciation … [since] Iran is so often represented through the lens of contemporary politics”. Admittedly, Barron were incentivised to release this statement following backlash and attuned their sentiments accordingly. However, we must recognise the role of private collections in this issue. Regardless of intention or reception, ancient Iranian gold typically housed in a private collection, hidden away from view, has now been displayed on a very public stage.
This brings to the fore questions about ‘right’ methods of display. The earrings were found in 1947 as part of the Ziwiye Hoard, which was then looted, and has been dispersed across institutions and private collections ever since; a plate of Ziwiye gold is on display in the Louvre, for instance. Scholars of the hoard find it difficult to fully understand the items, since the dispersal of the pieces across public and private spheres makes analysis difficult. According to a 2015 research paper, ‘A Chronological Overview of Some Ziwiye Belts’, from the Tarbiat Modares University Archaeology Department in Iran, it is impossible to answer questions about whether the artefacts “were belonging to males or females, or whether they are made for ceremonial [purposes] or as armours for warriors”. The Ziwiye Hoard, as a particular example of Iranian artistry and culture, has never been available to the public or academia in its entirety. If it weren’t for Zendaya wearing the discs, those pieces would have remained obscured from both public and academic view. The history of the Ziwiye Hoard is convoluted and fragmentary; the pieces themselves do not belong to a monoculture, as the art on display ranges from “Assyrian, Urartian, Scythian and native cultures”. Whilst it is certain the discs Zendaya wore were not originally earrings, and to clumsily suggest Greek origin is very much a faux pas in this political climate, no one truthfully knows the origins or uses of the Ziwiye artefacts beyond speculation. Is it so wrong to have reintroduced these objects to the world in an unconventional way? In doing so, did the artefacts gain some agency or, at the very least, public recognition in the discourse?
French philosopher Jacques Derrida wrote Archive Fever: A Freudian Impression in 1995, and in it he asserted that “there is no political power without control of the archive”. He believed that democratisation is only effective when citizens can have universal access to archives, contribute to what material is preserved there, and participate in interpreting that material. This concept, that social power is legitimised by who controls written and material history, is central to contemporary debates about artefacts, museums, and monuments. Derrida’s thinking was furthered in 2002 by Terry Cook and Joan Schwartz, whose work ‘Archives, Records, and Power’ explains that “archives validate our experiences, our perceptions, our narratives”, and that archival institutions, both private and public, influence power relationships by what they choose to display, and how they choose to display it. A key example of this was the post-Black Lives Matter practise of monument toppling in the UK and America. In 2021, Jillian McManemin founded The Toppled Monuments Archive (TMA), a radical archival collective that challenges traditional preservation techniques by utilising performance documentation. The TMA uses contemporary art and technology to move the conversation away from oppressive institutions and into the public sphere. To liberate artefacts from ‘master narratives’ controlled by once-colonial powers, radical techniques of display are necessitated; Zendaya’s artefact accessorising can be viewed within this framework of radical display, challenging the hegemonic discourses imposed by traditional archival or museum practises.
A seminal thinker in this field is Diana Taylor, who differentiates between the archive and the repertoire as sources of historical knowledge. Taylor sees the archive as working “across distance, over time and space; investigators can go back to reexamine an ancient manuscript”. Conversely, the repertoire “requires presence: people participate in the production and reproduction of knowledge” by being a part of the transmission, whether that be through the performance of a ritual, or through using an object in an intentional way. Written and material culture preserved in the archive are “easier to control”, or easier to manipulate, to suit a narrative. Writing and object display allowed imperial centres to control colonial populations in the past, and similarly allows modern institutions to impose their interpretations onto artefacts and those who interact with them. The museum label that accompanies the Ziwiye belt in the Louvre temporally transposes modern assumptions onto the ancient object. By wearing the Ziwiye gold, by engaging with the repertoire through an act of performance, Zendaya introduced an alternative perspective on the artefacts. Admittedly, this perspective was brought to our attention in an unconventional and inaccurate way, but it was brought to our attention nonetheless.
To state that the ethical dilemma represented by the gold discs was diluted or trivialised because of the popular audience that engages with Zendaya’s press runs is reductive. Diana Taylor states that, historically, “those who dedicated their lives to mastering cultural practices…were not considered ‘experts,’ a designation reserved for book-learned scholars”. In a similar way, there is an element of elitism exhibited by those who would rather the Ziwiye gold be stashed away behind closed doors where only experts can appreciate it and understand it. This echoes how institutions selectively use their archives and methods of display to control narratives and the public’s understanding of history. Displaying the gold discs in a nontraditional, pop cultural format transferred that control from the ‘experts’ to ‘the people’, who are now free to learn as much or as little about the Ziwiye hoard as they like. It is difficult to argue that Zendaya’s stylist team thought about these implications of using ancient Iranian gold as a statement accessory, but it is also difficult to argue that the conversations it began are worthless.
Zendaya inadvertently put a complicated, enduring, and uncomfortable conversation into the arena of popular culture. Intentional or not, it cannot be denied that this is significant. To address such an institutionalised and embedded problem as this requires modern and dynamic solutions; academia may not unanimously agree, but displaying the Ziwiye gold through an act of performance resisted colonial narratives. It allowed for the public to engage with, and make up their own minds about, the correct way to celebrate ancient Iranian culture.
Bibliography
Babaie, Sussan, “Iran: International Law and the Protection of Cultural Heritage in Times of War” (Panel discussion, Courtauld Trans-Asias in Collaboration with the Iran Heritage Foundation, Vernon Square Campus, Lecture Theatre 2, May 12th, 2026)
Bramley, Ellie Violet. “Zendaya Faces Backlash for Wearing Ancient Iranian Jewellery at Odyssey Event”, The Guardian (21 July 2026)
Callon, Catherine. “Zendaya Wore Jacquemus To ‘The Odyssey’ London Photocall”, Red Carpet Fashion Awards (July 5th 2026) <https://www.redcarpet-fashionawards.com/2026/07/05/zendaya-wore-jacquemus-to-the-odyssey-london-photocall/>
Cook, Terry, and Schwartz, Joan M. “Archives, Records, and Power: The Making of Modern Memory”, Archival Science, Vol. 2 (2002), p. 1
Derrida, Jacques. Archive Fever: A Freudian Impression, trans. by Eric Penowitz. Chicago: Chicago University Press (1996), p. 11
Gosset, Che, and McManemin, Jillian. “Monumental Collapse: Toppled Statues and Reimagining Archives”, Art Papers (2026) <https://www.artpapers.org/monumental-collapse/>
McManemin, Jillian. “Archiving Toward Liberation: The Toppled Monuments Archive Collective”, Monument Lab (2021) <https://monumentlab.com/bulletin/archiving-toward-liberation-the-toppled-monuments-archive-collective>
Nobari, Alireza Hejebri, et al. “A Chronological Overview of Some Ziwiye Belts”, Sociology and Anthropology, Vol. 3, No. 3 (2015): 186-192, p. 191
Taylor, Diana. The Archive and The Repertoire. Durham: Duke University Press (2003)
Image Attributions:
By Mehr News Agency, CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=103678327
By PhilipRomano - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=195791512
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