A ROMAN GREEN CHALCEDONY RING DEPICTING A VOTIVE SCENE

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A ROMAN GOLD AND GREEN CHALCEDONY INTAGLIO RING DEPICTING A VOTIVE SCENE, CIRCA 2ND-3RD CENTURY A.D. The oval bezel set with a green chalcedony intaglio, held within a plain gold collet flanked at the shoulders by applied granules and scrolled volutes, the hoop of D-section tapering from the bezel to a narrower band at the reverse. The stone is engraved in intaglio with a standing draped female figure shown in three-quarter view, her weight on the left leg, the right leg relaxed, a tall attribute rising above her head. She extends her right arm toward a small column or altar at the left of the field, from which a flame appears to rise, while her left hand is lowered toward a small subsidiary figure at the lower right. Her drapery falls in deep vertical folds gathered at the waist, the lower hem breaking over the feet. The composition follows a well-established type in Roman glyptic in which a female deity or personification pours a libation over a flaming altar, often accompanied by a small attendant or a sacrificial animal at her feet. The libation before an altar is the defining act of Roman private religion, and its appearance on a signet stone marks the wearer's piety and the sealed document as one made under divine witness. The tall element above the figure's head, together with the columnar altar and the small figure at her side, is consistent with representations of Fortuna, Ceres, or a personified Pietas, though the specific identification cannot be secured from the engraving alone. Green chalcedony, sometimes described in the older literature as plasma, was among the harder stones favoured for Roman signet use. Its density took a crisp intaglio line, and its saturated colour was prized for the contrast it produced against a pale wax impression. Stones of this colour were imported into the Roman world from sources in Anatolia, the Levant, and further east, and their setting in gold rather than iron or bronze indicates a commission of some standing. The ring's construction, with granulated shoulders and a broad bezel raised clear of the hoop, belongs to the vocabulary of Roman gold jewellery of the second and third centuries, when the bezel had become the dominant visual element and the hoop was subordinated to it. This ring exemplifies the fusion of function and devotion characteristic of Roman signet use in the High and Later Imperial period, in which the personal seal carried both a legal and a religious charge. The pairing of a hard green stone, a votive subject, and a substantial gold setting places it within the class of private devotional signets worn by members of the propertied classes, for whom the act of sealing was itself a small ritual under the gaze of the deity engraved on the stone. Dimensions: Length of cameo: 2.1cm; Internal Diameter: 2cm

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