Achaemenid Silver Bangle w/ Incised Bands

Near East, Persia, Achaemenid Empire. A generously scaled penannular bangle of high-purity silver (assayed at 96.8 percent), its rounded hoop tapering toward a pair of blunt, slightly flared terminals left open for flexing onto the wrist. The upper register carries dense incised ornament: crosshatched lozenge fields near the terminals, ropework collars, and repeating rows of stippled dots and ring-punched circlets that catch light along the curve, while the underside remains plain where it rested against the arm. Personal ornament of this weight functioned as portable wealth as much as adornment across the Achaemenid world, where bullion jewelry circulated alongside coinage and carried rank. The form, hollow-worked and finished by hand with a graver and punch, belongs to a long Persian tradition of open-ended bracelets worn singly or in pairs. Open-ended bracelets and armlets are among the most recognizable status markers of Achaemenid Persia. The Apadana reliefs at Persepolis show delegation after delegation presenting exactly this class of object, penannular hoops with worked terminals, as tribute to the Great King, and Xenophon records the gift of gold bracelets as a royal honor. The Oxus Treasure preserves the courtly extreme of the type, with terminals modeled as confronted griffins or ibexes; simpler banded and punch-decorated examples such as this one represent the broader provincial and personal register of the same tradition, valued for metal content as much as for ornament. Item # 204560

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