Pendants

  • 3rd - 2nd century B.C.
  • Gold
Catalogue Entry

3rd‐2nd century B.C.
Gold
H. 0.7-2.3 cm, W. 0.4-1.9 cm
Some of these elements would have formed the silhouettes for three-dimensional pendants. The thick J-shaped pendant is a traditional Egyptian pendant design, and the horizontally arranged crescents may symbolize the Mesopotamian moon god, Sin.
Beads
There are more beads, and of greater variety in the Bactrian treasure than there are in the Oxus treasure. Cat. Nos. 192 a-d are ball-shaped and decorated with granules. The beads at cat. No. 193 are tubular and decorated with granules. Cat. Nos. 192 f, g are disks decorated with granules. Cat. Nos. 192 h, I are grain-shaped beads, and there are also examples like Bead 192 h which are connected into sets of grain-shapes. Bead 194 is a ball decorated with grooves. Bead 195 is in the shape of an abacus bead. Some beads are shown in figural form, such as Bead 192 m which is in the shape of a lion's head, Bead 192 n which is in the shape of a waterfowl, and Beads 192 o, q which show a combined figure-water jar shape. There is a triangular hole for inlay in the forehead of the lion in Bead 192 m, and this design can also be found on the lion heads attached to both ends of the torque exhibited here as cat. No. 146.