Gold crescent-shaped earring

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Cresent earrings are developed from the symmetrical hoop-type by expanding the body into a flat cresent-shaped plate. This is usually plain but sometimes decorated with borders of plain or twisted wire, minute balls like the early granular work, with filigree designs, cloisons for enamel or paste gems, or with a fringe of beads attached by wire hoops. Cresent earrings are developed from the symmetrical hoop-type by expanding the body into a flat cresent-shaped plate. These earrings are most likely Roman.

Greek and Roman Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Museum's collection of Greek and Roman art comprises more than thirty thousand works ranging in date from the Neolithic period (ca. 4500 B.C.) to the time of the Roman emperor Constantine's conversion to Christianity in A.D. 312. It includes the art of many cultures and is among the most comprehensive in North America. The geographic regions represented are Greece and Italy, but not as delimited by modern political frontiers: Greek colonies were established around the Mediterranean basin and on the shores of the Black Sea, and Cyprus became increasingly Hellenized. For Roman art, the geographical limits coincide with the expansion of the Roman Empire. The department also exhibits the art of prehistoric Greece (Helladic, Cycladic, and Minoan) and pre-Roman art of Italic peoples, notably the Etruscans.

Metropolitan Museum of Art