BSH15: Silver pennanular bracelet, from the Black Sea hoard

BSH15 
Cast silver pennanular bracelet, oval, hoop circular in section, with calves’-head terminals.  The terminals cast in the same piece as the hoop; engraved details on the animals’ heads. 
0.082 x 0.065m; 57g. 
Kraay and Moorey 1981, no.132 (Ashmolean 1970.1100).

Commentary 
These two pennanular bracelets (BSH15 and BSH16) are of a very common Achaemenid type, typically worn in pairs (one on each arm), in gold or silver.  Darius himself is depicted wearing bracelets with calf-head terminals in his Egyptianizing statue from Susa, as are the Persian guards in glazed brick at Susa.  Bracelets of this type were typically oval or kidney-shaped (with an inward curve opposite the terminals) rather than round.  The terminals are usually zoomorphic, and feature a variety of different creatures: lions, bulls, griffins, etc.  For other examples of silver bracelets with calf-head terminals, compare e.g. two bracelets from Hacınebi in northern Syria (Stein 2014, p. 269 nos. HN2279.1 and 2293) and two bracelets from Gökçeler, near Sardis. For more lavish examples, compare e.g. two kidney-shaped gold bracelets with lion-head terminals and precious stone inlays from the Susa acropolis tomb (P.O. Harper, J. Aruz and F. Tillon, The Royal City of Susa, 1992, 246-7, nos. 172-3); a pair of kidney-shaped gold bracelets with lion-head terminals from a Lydian burial (I. Özgen and J. Öztürk, Heritage Recovered: The Lydian Treasure (1996), no. 130); and a large number of bracelets in gold and silver from the Oxus treasure (J. Curtis and N. Tallis, Forgotten Empire: The World of Ancient Persia, 2005, 132-143, nos. 152-171).