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Objects, probably from destroyed tumulus at Gökçeler (Photograph by Christopher Roosevelt)
Silver bracelet
The Lydians and their World
(2010)
Cat. 192
- Date
- Probably early fifth century BC, Late Lydian (Persian)
- Museum
- Manisa, Archaeological and Ethnographic Museum, 4612
- Museum Inventory No.
- 4612
- Material
- Silver
- Object Type
- Metalwork, Jewelry and Ornaments
- Metalwork Type
- Jewelry
- Site
- Gökçeler?
- Description
- Silver bracelet or armlet with open ends terminating in calves’ heads facing one another. Diameter 0.061 m, thickness of ring 0.004 m.
- Comments
- Worn in pairs, one on each arm, bracelets in gold or silver with animal-head terminals were prized in the Achaemenid world. The Persian King Darius himself wears bracelets with calves’-head terminals on a life-size statue from Susa, as do the Persian guards on the glazed brick decoration from the same site (Stronach 1972; Muscarella 1992, 227 nos. 155-156); and nobles and other Persians wear related jewelry on the reliefs from Persepolis (Schmidt 1953, pl. 32), the Alexander Mosaic, and in many other representations. On the tribute-bearer reliefs of the north stairs of the Apadana at Persepolis, the Lydian delegation (VI) brings bracelets of this and a similar form, suggesting that such jewelry was a product of the region (Schmidt 1953, pl. 32; other delegations bring bracelets as well). Similar bracelets are found in many hoards of Achaemenid jewelry, including a pair of gold bracelets with antelope or ibex heads from a hoard said to be from Sardis (now in Berlin: Waldbaum 1983, nos. 994-995); a variety of examples from the Oxus Treasure (Dalton 1964, 32-39, especially nos. 134, 140); a pair, with matching torque, from the Achaemenid tomb at Susa (Tallon 1992), and a pair from the hoard from Pasargadae (Stronach 1978, 168 no. 1). The motif of calves’-head terminals is common on other types of items, such as the ladle No. 191. Bracelets and pairs of bracelets are among the jewelry from the Lydian Treasure, although very closely similar bracelets with calves’ heads are curiously absent. Examples are also known from pre-Achaemenid Urartu, Iran, and Greece.
- See Also
- Baughan, “Lydian Burial Customs”.
- Bibliography
- Özkan 1991, 132, no. 4; Dedeoğlu 2003, 67, fig.; Roosevelt 2003, 556, 673; Roosevelt 2009, 241-2; forthcoming study by C.H. Roosevelt.
- Author
- NDC