CIRCA 4TH CENTURY B.C. AND 3RD CENTURY A.D.

Deeply engraved on one slightly-convex side is an eagle devouring a hare. The subject is well-known on Greek coins, beginning in the later 5th century B.C. (see for example the coins from Elis, circa 430 B.C. and from Acragas, nos. 327 and 793 in C. Kraay, Archaic and Classical Greek Coins). The original shape of the gem must have been a high-backed scaraboid, although no trace of the expected perforation is visible.

The gem was repurposed in the 3rd century A.D., when the back was trimmed, leaving a domed field. This was engraved with a frontal image of the Phoenician goddess Astarte. She wears a kalathos on her head and a short chiton over her shoulder, revealing one breast. In her lowered hand, she lifts the hem of her chiton above her knee, while in her raised hand she holds a cruciform standard. Her foot rests on the upturned prow of a ship. To one side is the winged goddess Nike upon a spirally-fluted column, proffering a wreath and branch. The scene is flanked on one side by a satyr, probably Marsyas, holding a wineskin over his shouldesr, and on the other by Eros holding up a mirror; both figures stand upon cylindrical plinths. The subject is found on Roman coins minted in Berytus and Sidon in the early 3rd century A.D. (see G.F. Hill, Catalogue of Greek Coins of Phoenicia, pl. 10, 6; and 25, 3), and this side of the gem, like the coins, must also be the product of an Eastern Mediterranean workshop.