Ear Ornament

Tubular earring constructed of sheet gold: made from a single sheet with a seam along the inner curve, a hollow tube with one end flared into a sort of pointed cuff. The other end of the tube was simply pressed inside its opening when worn. when worn; in fact, it has been pressed so forecefully into the end that the beaded wire decorating it has separated from the sheet gold. A small band of sheet gold covers the narrow end of the tube, and another hides the juncture of cuff and tube and is decorated with horizontal ridges. Repoussé surface decoration on the hoop: two rows of facing petals and both rope-pattern and beaded moulding, thin ridge of beaded moulding around edge of cuff, the cuff itself covered in a pattern of alternating pendant triangles rendered in granulation. The beaded ornamentation is achieved by a filed beading technique: a length of metal is filed to imitate the contours of a string of beads. Crushed from burial, the earring may be missing the last segment for fitting it on the ear.