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Gold seal ring. Side view of bottom surface with carved bull. (Courtesy of the Vedat Nedim Tör Museum, Istanbul) -
Gold seal ring. Detail of bottom surface with carved bull. (Courtesy of the Vedat Nedim Tör Museum, Istanbul)
Gold seal ring
The Lydians and their World
(2010)
Cat. 125
- Date
- Late Lydian (Persian)
- Museum
- Istanbul, Archaeological Museum, 4520
- Museum Inventory No.
- 4520
- Sardis or Museum Inv. No.
- IAM 4520
- Material
- Gold
- Object Type
- Jewelry and Ornaments, Seal
- Site
- Sardis
- Sector
- Nec
- Trench
- Butler Tomb 220
- Locus
- Butler Tomb 220
- Description
- Gold seal ring, with carnelian scarab mounted on a swivel. Thin wire runs through a hole drilled through the scarab, then passes through perforations in the ends of the hoop wire and wraps six times around the hoop wire on each side. The scarab is explicitly modelled, including the head of the beetle and several ridges on the sides to represent its legs. The flat oval underside surface is carved in intaglio, with a long-legged bull walking right on a ground line, its tail held in a high loop. Diameter 2.1 cm, length of scarab 1.6 cm, width 1.25 cm, height 1 cm.
- Comments
- From Sardis, Tomb 220. In the same tomb were found chain no. 28 and seal no. 112 (Curtis).
- See Also
- Dusinberre, “Seals”.
- Bibliography
- Curtis 1925, no. 96.
- Author
- ED