A GREEK GOLD AND GARNET BRACELET

HELLENISTIC PERIOD, CIRCA 2ND CENTURY B.C.

Details

A GREEK GOLD AND GARNET BRACELET
HELLENISTIC PERIOD, CIRCA 2ND CENTURY B.C.
With a solid-cast stout oval hoop, round in section, expanding to an oval bezel, a hinged inward-curving section opposite, the locking pin missing, the bezel set with a flat oval garnet engraved with a profile bust of a Hellenistic ruler or commander, with short curly hair, a large eye, a prominent nose, fleshy lips and a rounded chin, wearing a corselet, one shoulder strap visible, secured by a bow at the breast, and a chlamys falling in broad U-shaped folds over the other shoulder, an Aramaic inscription in the field, R GorWorY T, presumably a name
3 1/16 in. (7.7 cm.) wide

Provenance

Private Collection, acquired 1968/1969.

Lot Essay

The form of the Aramaic script on this gem is closest to the inscriptions found in Laghman in eastern Afghanistan. These bilingual inscriptions, in Greek and Aramaic, date from the reign of Ashoka (circa 265-238 B.C.) of the Maurya Dynasty, which had seized this territory from the Seleucids at the end of the 4th century B.C. Aramaic had been the official language of the Achaemenid Persians and continued to be used long after the conquest of Alexander the Great.

The identity of the ruler or commander depicted on this gem has yet to be determined, but it seems likely to be either one of the Seleucids who ruled the East after the death of Alexander or a Graeco-Bactrian dynast who carved out an independent kingdom in what is now modern Afghanistan about 250 B.C.

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