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Bracelet with lions' head finials
Near Eastern, Anatolian
Bronze Age
about 2400 B.C.
Medium/Technique
Gold
Credit Line
Centennial purchase with funds donated by Landon T. Clay
Accession Number68.122
CollectionsJewelry, Asia, Ancient Greece and Rome
ClassificationsJewelry / Adornment – Bracelets and armlets
DescriptionBracelet, of heavy solid rolled gold, with lion's head finials. The lions have flat manes, eyes deeply punched, muzzle rounded and lips slightly parted. Faint punch marks on one lion for fur texture. These ornaments appear to have formed the burial jewelry of a high-born woman, not unlike the gold treasures found by Heinrich Schliemann at Troy in 1878. Certain Egyptian motifs, such as this bracelet's lions in Egyptian Old Kingdom style, suggest commerce and sea ties between Egypt and coastal Asia Minor in the mid-third millennium BC.
Provenance1968, sold by George Zacos (dealer), Basel, Switzerland, to the MFA. (Accession Date: April 10, 1968)