BSH18: Silver ram's head terminal, from the Black Sea hoard
Commentary
BSH18
Silver ram’s head terminal, perhaps from a fan, originally gilded (traces of gilding survive). Made in two halves from a silver sheet, hammered over a bronze former. Ribbed sleeve with tiny holes pierced on either side; collar with bead-and-reel design; ram’s head with chased lines and curls; horn-tips made from a separate piece of silver wire inserted from behind. The underside of the ram’s head made from a separate piece of silver, delicately soldered to the main terminal.
0.060 x 0.0028m; 14g.
Kraay and Moorey 1981, no.136 (Ashmolean 1970.1098).
Commentary
Moorey suggested that this unique object may have originally been a fitting from the handle of a fan, comparing a similar fitting from a fan-handle depicted on the Karaburun tomb-painting of a reclining dynast (the right-hand attendant before the dynast). The object would have been made by hammering a thin silver sheet over a bronze former such as that depicted in I. Özgen and J. Öztürk, Heritage Recovered: The Lydian Treasure (1996), no. 213. The depiction of the ram is closely comparable to the rams brought by the Assyrian delegation (Delegation VIII) on the Apadana reliefs: G. Walser, Die Völkerschaften auf den Reliefs von Persepolis (1966), Tafel 51-53.