Ring | Harvard Art Museums

Identification and Creation

Object Number: 1964.12.37.B
Title: Ring
Classification: Jewelry
Work Type: jewelry
Date: n.d.
Places: Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World, Asia, Sardis (Lydia)
Find Spot: Middle East, Türkiye (Turkey), Western Türkiye (Turkey)
Culture: Unidentified culture
Persistent Link: https://hvrd.art/o/304095

Physical Descriptions

Medium: Copper alloy
Technique: Hammered
Dimensions: 2.1 x 0.2 cm (13/16 x 1/16 in.)
Technical Details: Technical Observations: The patina is green, and the ring is slightly distorted. The ring is formed from a round-sectioned wire that was bent to make the terminals overlap. Black copper sulfide crystals and tan burial accretions cover much of the surface and make it difficult to say much else about its method of manufacture.

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: 1964.12.37.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 wire is bent into a circle that is approximately the size of a finger ring. The terminals are not connected, and the wire is otherwise undecorated.

There is no indication that this wire was worn as a finger ring. With such a simple form, it is difficult to know how the object would have been used. It could have been a pendant decoration from a fibula or one piece of a multi-part object.

This object is one of a number of surface finds collected by the Sardis excavation photographer in 1913-1914. Because the objects are unstratified, it is difficult to assign dates and parallels.

Lisa M. Anderson

Publication History

Jane Waldbaum, Metalwork from Sardis: The Finds through 1974, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA, 1983), p. 153, no. 1014, 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

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1964.12.37.B: Ring