Pendant: addorsed lotus blossoms/ thunderbolt?

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Amber-working was a highly developed art in ancient Italy. The special qualities of the material must have been responsible for its popularity from the late eighth century B.C. into Roman times. Technical analysis has shown that amber originated in a limited area near the Baltic Sea and was traded down along the major rivers of Europe and over the Alps. The mystique of amber must have derived partly from the remoteness of its source as well as from the organic inclusions trapped within the resin and the fact that it is always warm to the touch. Its color and the fragrance produced when it is burned distinguish it further. These features are particularly appropriate to a thunderbolt, so potent and so thermodynamic.

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