ARCHAIC PERIOD, CIRCA LATE 6TH CENTURY B.C.

Armlets and bracelets with calf head terminals were popular throughout the ancient Near East, at least as early as the 9th century B.C. See for example on a relief from Nimrud the apkallu or protective spirit who wears one on each arm, no. 8 in Curtis and Reade, Art and Empire, Treasures from Assyria in the British Museum. Calf head terminals are found on Urartian bracelets, chiefly of bronze, and on Lydian and Achaemenid bracelets and utensils, often in silver. See for example two ladle handles, nos. 60 and 61, in von Bothmer, A Greek and Roman Treasury. The motif was borrowed by the Greeks during the 6th century B.C., as can be see on a pair from Cyprus, no. 1603 in Marshall, Jewellery, Greek, Etruscan and Roman in the Department of Antiquities, British Museum. The fine detail of the present pair strongly suggests Greek, perhaps East Greek, workmanship.