Earring

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This earring, along with its pair (acc. no. 22.50.6), are said to be from the ancient city of Olbia on the northern coast of the Black Sea. Long a colonial trading post of the ancient Greeks, the city was inhabited by a mix of Greeks and Scythians and, from the third century B.C., Sarmatians as well. These earrings were made in the mid-first century A.D., a time when local inhabitants received gold and silver from the Romans in exchange for local goods such as salt and grain. The earrings display an array of accomplished goldsmithing techniques: three teardrop-shaped sardonyx stones in serrated, or dogtooth, settings are placed above a crossbar adorned with twisted filigree and granulation. The five chains of twisted gold wire hanging from the crossbar would have originally terminated in small glass beads. The Sarmatians, like the Scythians, buried their dead with jewelry and other possessions, and these earrings were likely part of a wealthy woman's burial attire. A grave recently excavated from the area suggests that a full complement of burial jewelry would have also included several necklaces, a pair of bracelets, gold brooches, and a string of beads for the head.

Medieval Art and The Cloisters

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Museum's collection of medieval and Byzantine art is among the most comprehensive in the world. Displayed in both The Met Fifth Avenue and in the Museum's branch in northern Manhattan, The Met Cloisters, the collection encompasses the art of the Mediterranean and Europe from the fall of Rome in the fourth century to the beginning of the Renaissance in the early sixteenth century. It also includes pre-medieval European works of art created during the Bronze Age and early Iron Age.

Metropolitan Museum of Art