CIRCA 6TH-7TH CENTURY A.D.

The cross is formed from two sheets of gold fastened together by a narrow strip of gold. The limbs are decorated with a three-ply plait in gold wire, which is a well-documented style of ornamentation during the early Byzantine period. For similar plaiting on a cross in the Dumbarton Oaks Collection, cf. M.C. Ross, Catalogue of the Early Byzantine and Early Medieval Antiquities in the Dumbarton Oaks Collection, vol. 2, Washington, 1965, no. 10 and for a discussion on ancient wire manufacture, see J. M. Ogden, Classical Gold Wire: Some Aspects of its Manufacture and Use, 1991.