Ivory Lady 👼🏼

Ad societátem cívium supernórum perdúcat nos Rex Angelórum. Amen.

Golden rings of the ancient world: examples from Rome, Greece and Egypt.

The Roman ring in the form of a snake dates to the 1st century AD. Symbolising fertility, snakes were intended to ward off evil. Courtesy of the Walters Art Museum (57.2163).

The Greek example dates to the 4th century BC. Depicted here is a female follower of Dionysos (god of wine) or maenad, dancing and throwing her head back in ecstasy -a popular motif on rings of the era. In her left hand she holds a thyrsos. Courtesy of The J. Paul Getty Museum, Villa Collection (85.AM.279).

Finally, the Egyptian signet ring shown last dates to ca. 664-404 BC, and is made of over 21 karats of pure gold. Interestingly, depicted on the ring is the cartouche of King Khufu (Cheops) of Dynasty 4. However, as the inscription reveals, it was actually owned by a priest called Neferibre. Courtesy of the Brooklyn Museum (37.734E).

Roman Medallion with Alexander the Great, between circa 215 and circa 243 (Imperial Roman), made of gold.

Together with Walters 59.2 and 59.3, this piece was discovered in Egypt as part of a hoard that comprised about twenty similar medallions (now dispersed among various museums), eighteen gold ingots, and six hundred gold coins issued by Roman emperors from Severus Alexander (r. AD 222-235) to Constantius I (r. AD 293-306). One of the medallions, now in the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum in Lisbon, bears an inscription that possibly reads “Olympic games of the year 274”, a date corresponding to AD 242-243. It is possible that the medallions were intended as prizes to be given out at that event. Alternatively, they may have been issued by Emperor Caracalla (r. AD 198-217), who is potrayed on some of them.

Caracalla liked to be compared to the great king and conquerror Alexander of Macedon (ruled 336-323 BC). Like Alexander, this Roman emperor waged war in the East, and actually died in the course of his campaign against the Parthians. This particular medallion shows Alexander the Great gazing heavenward and bearing a shield decorated with signs of the zodiac. This portrait shows him with his hair pulled back. He wears a decorated cuirass with a figure of Athena on the shoulder strap and, on the chest, a scene from the Gigantomachy (War of the Giants). 

Golden sandals

From Upper Egypt, Thebes, Wadi Gabbanat el-Qurud, Wadi D, Tomb of the 3 Foreign Wives of Thutmose III.

 New Kingdom, Dynasty 18, ca. 1479–1425 B.C.

These sandals were part of the funerary equipment belonging to one of three foreign wives of Thutmose III. They are made of thin sheet gold that would not have withstood normal wear; they were intended for funerary use only. The sandals are decorated with details intended to imitate the decoration on leather sandals.

The Qarantal Monastery, a Greek Orthodox monastery atop the Mount of Temptation in the Judean Desert, built on the site traditionally believed to be where Jesus spent forty days and forty nights fasting and meditating during the temptation of Satan, near the West Bank Palestinian town of Jericho.

From the story ‘Who Was Jesus?’ that I photographed For Terra Mater Magazin