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Gold seal ring with stone bezel. View of bottom surface with carved Achaemenid royal sphinx. (Courtesy of the Vedat Nedim Tör Museum, Istanbul)
Gold seal ring with stone bezel
The Lydians and their World
(2010)
Cat. 195
- Date
- Probably early fifth century BC, Late Lydian (Persian)
- Museum
- Manisa, Archaeological and Ethnographic Museum, 5288
- Museum Inventory No.
- 5288
- Material
- Gold, Stone
- Object Type
- Jewelry and Ornaments, Seal
- Site
- Gökçeler?
- Description
- Gold and carnelian (?). The hoop of the ring is round in section and uniform in diameter, and terminates in two lions’ heads with collars. Each collar is formed of a pair of thick gold wires framing a row of large granulation granules. The lions’ heads grip, with their mouths, the gold setting of the bezel. The side of the setting is decorated with wire and granulation. Two plain bands of thicker wire frame a guilloche of thinner wire; above, where the setting is dentellated with triangles, is granulation in a single row of granules and, on each triangle, pyramids of three granule registers. The surface of the oval stone bezel is carved in intaglio with an Achaemenid royal sphinx, seated right, with left forepaw raised. The head is bearded and crowned. Diameter 2.5 cm.
- Comments
- Similar seal devices occur on rings from the tumulus at Ikiztepe near ancient Bagis and modern Güre in eastern Lydia (Özgen and Öztürk 1996, 142-143 nos. 97, 98; Meriçboyu 2001, 128-129).
- See Also
- Baughan, “Lydian Burial Customs”.
- Bibliography
- Özkan 1991, 134; forthcoming study by C.H. Roosevelt.
- Author
- CHG