Gold ring with a jet gem depicting a female head
Together with the other two rings, it had been wrapped in an offcut of a decomposed textile together with a silver ring, the corrosion of which had made them all fuse together. To judge from the microscopic fragments impregnated with oxides, it had been thin silk of very close weave. The bundle with precious rings had been fastened together with a small bow-shaped bronze fibula, which was completely corroded and which disintegrated when work began to clean it. The ring had been made using a technique customary for Bosporan jewelry in the 1st century AD – from two thin strips of gold leaf, soldered together and with a sulphurous mass between them.
The ring belonged to the Bosporan School of Stone-Cutting
A ring with a hollow hoop, thin at the bottom and oval in section, but broadening out towards the bezel, which is separated off from the hoop by a thin rib. The bezel is almost oval in plan, and in the centre of it there is a flat nlay also oval in plan: it is a gem with a depiction of a woman’s head facing left. The work is very delicate, and the facial features are shown in detail: the mouth, the large and slightly retroussé nose, the shape of the eye is drawn with a double line. The tresses of the woman’s hair are conveyed with thin wavy lines, drawn together in a roll, which frames the hair from below, before forming a bun at the nape of the neck. The hairstyle with a roll round the edge and a bun at the back became fashionable during the reign of Augustus85 and it was worn by Livia.
Height 2.21 cm, width 2.13 cm. Bezel: 1.51 × 1.71 cm, overall thickness complete with inlay 4.3 mm. Inlay: 1.49 × 1.15 cm. Hoop: measures in section at the bottom 1.2 × 2.1 mm, width at the top 6.3 mm, thickness 2.4 mm.
Quantity
1
Comment
List 840. KIKZ, Temporary storage No. 5299.
Container
Wooden casket
Material
Gold
Hoard
References:
Reference
This object
Yes
