A PAIR OF EASTERN ROMAN GOLD AND GARNET EARRINGS CIRCA 2ND CENTURY A.D.

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A PAIR OF EASTERN ROMAN GOLD, GARNET AND PEARL EARRINGS, CIRCA 2ND CENTURY A.D. Each earring of disc form surmounted by a suspension loop, the sheet-gold body pierced and cut around its circumference to produce a radiating openwork border of small loops and pointed rays framing the central setting. At the centre of each disc, a domed garnet cabochon is held within a plain collet bezel of gold strip, the stone deep red and translucent. Below the disc, a horizontal rectangular bar of sheet gold, pierced with square and rectangular openings, is attached to the lower edge and carries three suspension rings, from each of which hangs a baroque freshwater pearl held by a wire loop threaded through the drilled bead. The reverse of each disc is plain, and the hook of each earring is formed from a simple bent gold wire passing through the upper loop. The composition, a stone-set disc above a spreader bar with three pearl drops, belongs to a widely diffused type of Roman earring current in the eastern provinces from the later first through the third century A.D. The radiating openwork frame imitates in flat sheet the effect of applied filigree and granulation seen on more elaborate examples, and the combination of a single central cabochon with pendent pearls follows the standard hierarchy of the type, with the coloured stone as the focal element and the pearls providing movement and light at the ear. Garnet, imported into the Roman world from India and Sri Lanka by the sea routes that also brought pearls, spices and cotton, was among the most prized coloured stones of the imperial period. Its deep red was associated with Mars and with the vitality of blood, and its use in personal ornament signalled both wealth and access to the long-distance trade networks that connected the Mediterranean with the Indian Ocean. Pearls, gathered from the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea, carried a comparable prestige, and Pliny records their extraordinary value in the jewellery of Roman matrons. The pairing of the two materials on a single ornament thus concentrated in a small object the produce of trade routes extending from the Levantine coast to South Asia. Earrings of this pattern are found across Syria, the Levant and Egypt, and were worn as everyday finery by women of the propertied classes as well as being deposited in burials. The type is well represented in hoards and funerary contexts from the eastern provinces, and reflects the taste for coloured, mobile ornament that distinguishes provincial Roman jewellery from the more austere gold-only fashions of the earlier imperial period. This pair exemplifies the standard eastern Roman disc-and-pearl earring in its clearest form, with the openwork rayed frame, the single garnet cabochon and the triple pearl pendant preserved as a matched set. Its interest lies in the survival of both original stones and pearls with the goldwork intact, a completeness rarely encountered in earrings of this date. Dimensions: Height 3.5 cm. Total weight 6 g.

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