'Greco-Persian' gem: Persian with bird
Commentary
'Greco-Persian' gem: Persian with bird
Accession number:
AN1892.1482
Collection:
Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology, University of Oxford
'Greco-Persian' gem: Persian with bird
Chalcedony scaraboid gem, depicting a bearded male figure in Persian dress, holding bow and two arrows in left hand, dead bird in right hand. Said to come from the Peloponnese.
26mm.
J. Boardman and M. Vollenweider Catalogue of the Engraved Gems and Finger Rings. I. Greek and Etruscan (1978) no. 176 (Ashmolean 1892.1482).
J. Boardman, Greek Gems and Finger Rings. Early Bronze Age to Late Classical (1970). Pl. no. 853 and pp. 309-312.
Commentary
The iconography of the Persian figure retrieving a dead bird after the hunt is not itself Persian, reflecting a Greek handling of the Persian theme (J. Boardman, Greek Gems and Finger Rings. Early Bronze Age to Late Classical (1970) 309-312).