A GRAECO-ROMAN GOLD SNAKE RING CIRCA 1ST CENTURY B.C.-1ST CENTURY A.D.

拍品描述

A GRAECO-ROMAN GOLD SNAKE RING, CIRCA 1ST CENTURY B.C.-1ST CENTURY A.D. Formed from a single tapering rod of gold coiled into an open hoop, the two terminals rising and crossing to form opposing serpent heads. Each head is flattened into a rounded lozenge and chased on its upper surface with a pair of concentric ring-and-dot motifs indicating the eyes, flanked by short transverse strokes and a forked tongue at the snout. The necks continue the decoration with rows of paired dashes and punched dots representing scales, the ornament fading as the body narrows toward the reverse of the hoop. The gold retains a warm, unpolished surface with light abrasions and minor deformation to the shank consistent with ancient wear. The serpent, coiled upon itself so that head meets head, is one of the most persistent forms in Hellenistic and Roman personal ornament. The doubled or crossing-terminal type seen here abstracts the animal to its essential attributes: the lozenge head, the ringed eye, the darting tongue, and the patterned dorsal scales. The engraved concentric circles are not decorative alone but serve as the recognised shorthand for the reptilian eye across Mediterranean gold-work of the late Republican and early Imperial periods. In Graeco-Roman belief the snake carried an unusually broad set of associations. It was the attribute of Asklepios and Hygieia and thus a guardian of health; it was the emblem of the household genius and the Agathos Daimon, protector of the domestic threshold; and, sloughing its skin, it stood for regeneration and continuity. Snake rings and bracelets were worn by women and men alike as apotropaic ornament, and the form circulated widely from Alexandria and the Greek East to Italy and the western provinces during the last century B.C. and the first century A.D. Gold, incorruptible and untarnishing, was the natural medium for an amulet whose meaning lay in perpetual renewal, and the metal's own resistance to decay reinforced the serpent's symbolism. This ring exemplifies the pared-down, graphic idiom of Graeco-Roman serpent jewellery, in which the animal is rendered not naturalistically but through a fixed vocabulary of eyes, tongue, and chased scale-pattern. It belongs to a broad and well-attested class of protective gold ornaments worn across the Mediterranean world at the turn of the era. Dimensions: Internal diameter 2 cm

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