Earring with head of a bull

Earring with head of a bull

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Hoops formed of wound wire with animal head terminals are the commonest type of Hellenistic earring. The bull-head earring appears throughout the Mediterranean, probably a positive image because of the physical and sexual prowess attributed to bulls. Examples like this one with a gold or stone bead incorporated into the collar behind the animal's head date mostly to the second and first centuries B.C.

Egyptian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Earring with head of a bullEarring with head of a bullEarring with head of a bullEarring with head of a bullEarring with head of a bull

The Met collection of ancient Egyptian art consists of approximately 30,000 objects of artistic, historical, and cultural importance, dating from about 300,000 BCE to the 4th century CE. A signifcant percentage of the collection is derived from the Museum's three decades of archaeological work in Egypt, initiated in 1906 in response to increasing interest in the culture of ancient Egypt.