A Western Asiatic Gold Pendant, ca. early 1st millennium BCE Sculpture - Varia thereafter private New England collection

thereafter private New England collection

Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

the rings of high-ranking ecclesiastics often have amethysts as their center stones

and some of the earliest tangible documentation of Dynastic Egypt was provided by ceremonial mace-heads

A Western Asiatic Gold Pendant, ca. early 1st millennium BCE Sculpture - Varia thereafter private New England collectionOf high karat gold, the sheet disk embossed with three reclining mouflon, centered by a hemispherical knob, the knob outlined in pinched dots, the disk surmounted by a suspension loop. This gold pendant attests to the exceptional skill of Achaemenid goldsmiths. Greek writers often speak of the tremendous wealth of the Persians, and Herodotus writes that King Xerxes' troops "were adorned with the greatest magnificence they glittered all over with gold,