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Identification and Creation

Object Number
1964.12.36.B
Title
Finger Ring
Classification
Jewelry
Work Type
ring
Date
8th-2nd century BCE
Places
Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World, Asia, Sardis (Lydia)
Find Spot: Middle East, Türkiye (Turkey), Western Türkiye (Turkey)
Culture
Greek
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/304141

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Copper alloy
Technique
Hammered
Dimensions
diam. 1.9 x d. 0.7 x th. 0.1 cm (3/4 x 1/4 x 1/16 in.)
Technical Details

Technical Observations: The surface has a gray and tan outer layer, which is worn down to the metal in a few spots on the edges. The ring was bent along the center of the bezel and eventually reopened, leaving a corroded crack on the bezel. It is not clear whether the ring originally had a closed or open hoop. The hoop now has two jagged ends where the interior metal is exposed.

The ring was made in one piece. The thinness suggests that it was hammered and that the decorative pattern was also formed with punches in the metal, but the accretions on the surface make the method of manufacture difficult to verify.


Francesca G. Bewer (submitted 2012)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Brought from Sardis; by Frederick Marquand Godwin, New York, (by 1914), by descent; to his wife Dorothy W. Godwin, New York (1914-1964), gift; to the Fogg Museum of Art, 1964.

Note: Frederick M. Godwin was the photographer for the excavations at Sardis with Howard Crosby Butler in 1913 and 1914.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of Mrs. Frederick M. Godwin
Accession Year
1964
Object Number
1964.12.36.B
Division
Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact
am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
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Descriptions

Published Catalogue Text: Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Bronzes at the Harvard Art Museums
This ring fragment has an undecorated elliptical bezel (1). The hoop is flat, and on either side of the bezel, there are molded lines. Approximately half of the hoop is missing.

NOTES:

1. Compare H. Philipp, Bronzeschmuck aus Olympia, Olympische Forschungen 13 (Berlin, 1981) nos. 671, 673-77, and 680, pls. 11 and 43-44.


Lisa M. Anderson

Publication History

  • Jane Waldbaum, Metalwork from Sardis: The Finds through 1974, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA, 1983), p. 153, no. 1012, pl. 58.

Subjects and Contexts

  • Ancient Bronzes

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu