bracelet (?); armlet (?) | British Museum

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bracelet(?); armlet(?)

Object Type: bracelet (?); armlet (?)
Museum number: 1896,0201.142
Description: One of a pair of open-ended gold-plated bracelets or armlets with animal head terminals; hoop formed of a bronze or copper core with a burnished gold overlay; the ram's heads were made in two halves, probably die formed; some details has been chased and a ring-punch was used to delineate the fleece; the recessed eyes may originally have been enamelled; head is attached to the hoop of the bracelet with copper alloy rivets, possibly originally disguised under gold caps; the junction between the head and the collar is decorated with plain and beaded wires, with a frieze of simple sheet-gold tongues on the collar itself; faint soldering seams are visible in various places to demonstrate the assemblage of different parts.
Cultures/periods
Production date: 475BC-400BC; 450BC-400BC
Production place: Made in: Cyprus
Excavator/field collector
Findspot: Excavated/Findspot: Kourion, 'Site B', tomb 73
Materials: gold; bronze
Technique: gold-plated; soldered; chased; enamelled (?); riveted
Dimensions: Diameter: 8.40 centimetres; Height: 7.20 centimetres; Weight: 108.10 grammes; Weight: 1669 grains
Curator's comments: Pair with 1896.2-1.141.; Williams and Ogden 1994 A number of bracelets with ram-head terminals are known from Cyprus: another pair from Kourion and now in Nicosia, a pair with gilded silver hoops from Marion, now in London, and an example in Berlin without a precise find-spot. They also occur in northern Greece (New York MMA 1989.281.73 and 37.11.11-12) and in the North Pontic region, in both silver and gold.
Bibliographic references: Jewellery / Catalogue of the Jewellery, Greek, Etruscan, and Roman, in the Departments of Antiquities, British Museum. (1986); Murray, Smith and Walters 1900 / Excavations in Cyprus (p. 82, Tomb 73 no. 1; p. 65; pl. XIII, 11 & 12); Williams & Ogden 1994 / Greek Gold. Jewellery of the Classical World (no. 161, pp. 228-229); Tatton-Brown 1989 / Cyprus and the East Mediterranean in the Iron Age (p. 89); Higgins 1980 / Greek and Roman jewellery (p. 131 & pl. 30A); Deppert-Lippitz 1985 / Griechischer Goldschmuck (p. 158 & fig. 110); Kiely 2011a / Kourion (73.5)
Location: On display (G72/dc9)
Subjects
Acquisition name
Funder name
Acquisition date: 1896
Department: Greek and Roman
Registration number: 1896,0201.142
Conservation

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