ear-ring
- Museum number
- 1877,0910.57
- Description
-
Gold spiral earring with copper alloy core. The sheet gold over the copper alloy spiral is decorated with small applied lozenges and triangles of granulation, larger triangles of granulation below beaded and plain wires, and pyramids of grains on the terminals and at either end of the two lower loops. The lozenges, triangles and pyramids were each built up on a sheet-gold backing and then soldered as a unit to the spiral. This avoided potential problems in soldering numerous separate grains onto thin gold foil overlaying a copper alloy core.
- Production date
- 420BC-400BC
- Dimensions
-
Height: 2.10 centimetres
-
Weight: 229 grains
- Curator's comments
-
Pair with 1877.9-10.56.
-
Williams and Ogden 1994
This type of earring has been discussed by Hadaczek and Silantyeva, who suppose that the earrings were hung from a missing hoop. However, the coins of the Lycian dynast Teththiweibi of about the middle of the fifth century, noted by Hadaczek, clearly show this type of earring being worn through a large hole in the earlobe.
The closest parallel in form and style was found at Xanthos in Lycia, near the Lion Tomb. A simpler pair, without the granulation on the shanks, comes from Marion and has been dated from its context to the first half of the fourth century. A further pair, with simpler granulation on the shanks and without the pyramids on the crests, comes from a burial at Duvanli of about 450 BC. There were very probably several centres of production of this type, including one in the North Pontic region (Hermitage P.1854.24; Williams and Ogden 93): the Kyme pair was no doubt made somewhere in Asia Minor. These earrings are the earliest objects in the Kyme Treasure.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Hadaczek, p. 15, fig. 24; BMCJ 1585-6; Higgins GRJ2, pl. 25c. On the type see Hadaczek, pp. 13-16; P.F. Silantyeva, Trudyi Gosudarstvennogo Ordena Lenina Ermitaja 17 (1976), pp. 123-37. On the coins see G.F. Hill, Catalogue of the Greek Coins of Lycia, Pamphylia, and Pisidia (London 1897), pl. 5, 8. Xanthos earring: P. Demargne, Fouilles de Xanthos, vol. 1 (Paris 1958), pl. 4. Marion (tomb 60) earrings: Pierides, pl. 20, 9. Duvanli earrings: Deppert-Lippitz, fig. 80.
- Location
- On display (G19/dc2)
- Acquisition date
- 1877
- Department
- Greek and Roman
- Registration number
- 1877,0910.57
