Hellenistic
A Greek gold ornament, Hellenistic, circa 3rd - 2nd century BC
Gold, jet
Length: 21.8 cm
Likely to be a necklace or diadem, the ornament is very finely crafted, consisting of twenty-two 'shield' elements in the form of a central rhomboid with an embossed frontal head,...
Likely to be a necklace or diadem, the ornament is very finely crafted, consisting of twenty-two 'shield' elements in the form of a central rhomboid with an embossed frontal head, joined above and below with triangular panels decorated with granulation, all bordered with filigree beaded wire. The reverse of each 'shield' has two soldered loops for stringing together. The tongue-shaped terminals are ornamented with a filigree seven petalled palmette with a rosette, traces of the original enamel remains in the petals. On the back of the terminals can be found four thin sheet gold tubes through which the stringing threads would have passed. The middle third of the ornament has been restrung with rhomboid ancient jet black beads.
Provenance
Private collection, Latvia, thence by descentPrivate collection, UK, acquired in the 1980s
Literature
Other gold jewellery with such rhomboid-triangular elements have been found in the Northern Black Sea region. For a very similar example from the Taman peninsula, see Y. Kalashnik, Greek Gold: From the Treasure Rooms of the Hermitage, Zwolle, 2004, pp. 108-9, no. 67.Generally comparable pieces have been described as necklaces but a similar piece found at Phanagoria served as a diadem; the shorter length of these pieces, as well as the structure of this example indicates that a diadem may also have been the original purpose of this ornament. For further reading see M. Pfrommer, Untersuchungen zur Chronologie Früh- und Hochhellenistischen Goldschmucks, Tübingen, 1990, p. 264; J. Ogden, D. Williams, Greek Gold, London, 1994; B. Deppert-Lippitz, Griechischer Goldschmuck, 1985.