Some Unconventional Early Byzantine Rings

Jeffrey Spier

Although many rings dating from the late 5th and early 6th century survive, no careful typological study of these has yet been undertaken.1 The various shapes of Early Byzantine rings are, however, adequately documented in publications of individual museum and private collections.2 These rings, like much of what is often termed the koin style of Byzantine jewellery (found throughout the Empire), tend to fall into clear categories based on shape and technique, with a far more limited variety than was seen during the Roman Empire. Most of the shapes that emerged in the 6th century are distinctive and found in relatively large numbers, but there are some unusual types as well. This paper will examine three related aspects relating to the typology of Early Byzantine rings: some rare varieties of the late 5th century, some unconventional rings of the 6th7th centuries, and the connection between rings of Byzantine origin and similar examples produced in the Germanic kingdoms in the West (Ostrogothic, Lombardic, Merovingian, Vandal, and Visigothic), a relationship that has not been particularly well documented. Already by the mid-3rd century, after the fall of the Severan dynasty, a significant change in fashion is apparent. Gemstones were rarely engraved, and rings were set instead with old gems, unengraved gems, or coins. In the Constantinian period, rings became larger, with tubular hoops or hoops decorated with floral patterns (usually an acanthus wreath). Sometimes the hoops and bezels are hollow with embossed decoration. Material from the late 4th and 5th centuries is poorly attested and difficult to classify, but evidence is provided by several late 5th century hoards of jewellery. Unfortunately, there is no trace of the greatest discovery of the period, the tomb of the empress Maria, wife of Honorius, who died around the year 400 and was buried in the now-destroyed chapel of St Petronilla in St Peters in Rome.3 When the chapel was demolished in 1544, workmen found the tomb which contained, according to contemporary accounts, two silver boxes full of rings. Nothing appears to have survived or was even recorded with the exception of the so-called bulla, a gold pendant studded with emeralds and garnets enclosing a cameo in the shape of a chi-rho monogram composed of the names of Maria and her family.4 The use of emerald and garnet is typical of the changing tastes in gemstones in Late Antiquity; these stones, along with sapphire, amethyst, and rock crystal, become the most popular stones for use in jewellery. The most important and best recorded hoard of the late 5th century material was found at Reggio Emilia in 1957.5 The hoard, evidently belonging to an eastern Germanic official of some standing, contained jewellery of the highest quality, including necklaces and earrings set with garnets, a pair of Gothic fibulae, a gold opus interrasile fibula of Constantinopolitan manufacture denoting the owners high official status,6 15 gold rings, some set with gems, and gold

Plates 1a-b Gold ring set with an earlier intaglio, Byzantine, late 5th century. Private collection

coins of the late 5th century down to the time of Emperor Zeno (47491). There is a notable variety of rings, but all display typically Late Antique characteristics, such as tubular hoops and hollow hoops with embossed floral (acanthus) decoration. Most of the rings are set with gems typical of the period (emerald, garnet, sapphire, and pearl), while other rings have bezels engraved with Gothic names or Latin monograms, a fashion introduced at the end of the 5th century. One particular variety of ring is of special interest as it suggests ties to Constantinople. The shape is characterized by its ribbed, calyx-shaped bezel set with a gem and joined to either a tubular or octagonal hoop. Two examples were present in the Reggio Emilia hoard, one with an unengraved nicolo, the other with a garnet.7 A number of similar rings are known, including one example set with a much older engraved gem probably of 1st century bc date (Pls 1ab),8 another in a hoard of Byzantine jewellery from Istria, Romania, set with a contemporary engraved garnet,9 and a third discovered in Georgia, also with an engraved garnet.10 Other examples without recorded provenance are known as well.11 An origin for the workshop in Constantinople is suggested by the eastern Mediterranean and Black Sea provenance of a number of rings, as well as the frequent use of contemporary engraved garnets cut in what I have defined as a prolific garnet workshop in late-5th century Constantinople. Around 70 examples of garnets from the workshop have now been recorded, all of distinctive shape, style, and iconography.12 Engraved garnets from this workshop are also found set in a group of finely embossed rings, most of which have been discovered in Italy. One example was present in the Reggio Emilia hoard; its hoop is embossed with a floral pattern, and the garnet is engraved with a dolphin.13 Another hoard of jewellery and silver, said to have been discovered at or in the vicinity of Desana (Vercelli), contained nine gold rings, similar to the variety found in the Reggio Emilia hoard, including one of the embossed type set with a garnet engraved with a hare.14 A third embossed ring, set with an unengraved garnet, was found in a Gothic grave at Torriano, which also contained a pair of fibulae of Gothic type and a belt buckle.15 The finest
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Plates 2a-c Gold ring set with an engraved garnet, Byzantine, late 5th century. London, British Museum (PE 72,6-4,313)

Plates 3a-c Gold ring set with an engraved garnet portrait of Theodosius II (40150). Private collection

Plates 4a-b Gold ring set with an engraved garnet, Byzantine, 5th century. Vidin (Bulgaria), Historical Museum

Plates 5a-b Gold ring with niello inlay, Byzantine, late 5th century. Formerly Christies, New York, Antiquities, 18 December 1998, lot 160

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Some Unconventional Early Byzantine Rings

Plate 6 Gold ring with niello inlay, set with a garnet, Byzantine, late 5th century. Private collection Plate 7 Gold ring with niello inlay and engraved monogram, Byzantine, late 5th century. Private collection

example of the embossed group, a ring in the British Museum, may also have been discovered in Italy (although no find site is recorded, it was purchased from the Roman dealer Alessandro Castellani) (Pl. 2).16 The engraved garnet shows an unusual image of a seated figure, his hands raised in prayer, likely depicting the emperor flanked by crosses. The hoop is finely embossed with floral motifs, tendrils, and birds. Although most of these rings have been found in Italy, the garnets are certainly from Constantinopolitan workshops, and the rings, too, were most likely produced there. The date for the group must be in the late 5th century in view of the coins in the Reggio Emilia hoard and the style of the gems. The rings, like the fine opus interrasile gold fibulae, were likely gifts bestowed as signs of official status and demonstrate direct communication between the Byzantine court and Gothic officials in Italy. Engraved garnets from the same workshop in Constantinople are found in some other rings of similar date and related style and technique. They have different forms of calyx bezel, often of high, stepped form. The finest and earliest datable example is the very large, hollow gold ring with its hoop embossed with an acanthus wreath and a stepped bezel set with a garnet engraved with a frontal portrait of the Emperor Theodosius II (40150). The ring no doubt once belonged to an important imperial official or client king (Pls 3a-c).17 A simpler but typologically related ring was found in a hoard of jewellery from Ratiaria, Bulgaria, thought to date from the mid-5th century. It has a tubular hoop and stepped bezel set with a garnet engraved with a cross (Pls 4ab).18 Also around this date (the mid- to late 5th century), ring bezels began to be engraved with personal names and monograms, a fashion that became increasingly popular. Rings bearing Latin monograms and both Roman and Gothic names were present in the Reggio Emilia and Desana hoards and have been found elsewhere in Italy as well. One ring from Reggio Emilia is inscribed with the names of a Gothic couple, Stafara and Ettila.19 A ring in the Desana hoard records the names Stefanus and Valatruda, perhaps a mixed marriage between a Roman and a Gothic woman.20 Similarly, the grave of a Gothic, perhaps Gepidic, aristocrat discovered at Apahida in Romania contained spectacular gold and garnet jewellery, buckles, and fibulae, including an opus interrasile example from Constantinople, together with three rings.21 One ring is inscribed in Latin with the Gothic name Omharus, very likely the owner of the treasure. A second ring bears an engraved monogram that has been read as also representing the name Omharus.22 The letter forms are, however, Greek, and the identical monogram is used elsewhere for the common name Marias (the genitive form of Maria).23 This ring was an import

from Constantinople, and although the commonly found, offthe-shelf monogram could have been selected to denote Omharus, perhaps it is more likely that the ring belonged to the Gothic officials wife (a Greek?), named Maria. In any event, the fashion for rings with monograms, which had reached Gothic Italy by the late 5th century, certainly originated in Constantinople. Rings with Greek monograms of block type were widely used, and the style continued well into the 6th century, eventually to be replaced by cruciform monograms around 550.24 Several other distinctive varieties of rings originated in Constantinople in the late 5th century and served as prototypes for Western copies. The Byzantine origin of one such group has become clear recently thanks to the appearance of several previously unpublished examples.25 The rings have broad hoops, usually curved slightly inward, with flattened, triangular shoulders decorated with niello inlay and sometimes monograms. The bezels are stepped, with the top either engraved or set with a stone. The finest extant example has a partridge engraved on the bezel, niello-inlaid floral motifs and spirals on the shoulders, inlaid patterns of steps and waves on the sides of the bezel and hoop, and two engraved names EYTYXHOY and MAPIAC, (of ) Eutychios (and) Maria (Pl. 5).26 A second example, seemingly by the same goldsmith, has similar niello decoration on the shoulders and around the bezel but not on the hoop, and there are no names; the bezel is set with a cabochon garnet (Pl. 6). A third specimen is much smaller and lighter, with a cruder pattern of palmettes inlaid with niello on the shoulders; engraved on the top of the bezel is the Greek monogram for Marias, (of) Maria (Pl. 7). An example in silver with gilded top, in the Schmidt collection in Munich, is engraved with two monograms on the shoulders (Pl. 8).27 All these are certainly eastern, likely from Constantinople.

Plates 8a-b Silver ring with gilding and engraved monograms, Byzantine, late 5th century. Munich, C.S. collection

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Plates 9a-b Gold ring with niello inlay, set with a ruby, Gothic, late 5th century. London, British Museum (PE AF 483)

Plate 10 Bronze ring with engraved decoration, Visigothic, late 5th century. Private collection

Plates 11a-c Gold ring with niello inlay, set with an engraved emerald, Rome(?), 6th century. Madrid, Museo Lzaro Galdiano

Plate 12 Silver ring of architectural form, Byzantine, mid-6th century. Toronto, Royal Ontario Museum

Plate 13 Gold ring of architectural form, Merovingian, 6th century, from La Garde (Loire). Private collection

There are, however, western versions closely copying the shape of the originals. A gold ring with ruby setting is of the same shape and similarly has niello inlay on the triangular shoulders (Pl. 9).28 It is said to be from Italy and was likely made there, as suggested by the unusual niello design, but bronze rings of similar shape and with the same distinctive decorative pattern on the shoulders were likely made in Visigothic Spain as well (Pl. 10). 29 A slightly later but closely related shape is seen on a particularly fine gold ring in the Museo Lzaro Galdiano in Madrid, which is set with an emerald engraved with busts of Peter and Paul (Pls 11a-c).30 Around the bezel and on the triangular shoulders are carefully engraved Latin inscriptions and monograms with niello inlay, augustini vita in xps, Augustinus, life is in Christ, and a pair of identical cruciform monograms best resolved as the name Augustinus. The cruciform monogram first appeared in Byzantium in the 520s31 and became increasingly popular; this ring may date c. 550 or slightly later. Another fine ring, once in
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the Guilhou collection and likely from Italy (purchased from Castellani again) also has triangular shoulders and even more elaborate niello inlay.32 The bezel is set with an emerald and two garnets. The Latin inscription around the bezel reads, micael mecv vivas in deo, Michael, live with me in God. The fine floral decoration on the shoulders finds a close parallel on the remarkable gold reliquary cross discovered in 1863 in the church of San Lorenzo fuori le mura in Rome and now in the Vatican Museums collection, which in addition bears block monograms and Latin inscriptions.33 Both ring and cross must come from the same mid- 6th-century workshop, probably in Rome. During the 6th century, a number of new varieties of rings were introduced by workshops in Constantinople, and some of these proved influential on tastes in the west. The most popular type of Byzantine ring had a tubular or octagonal hoop joined to a separately worked flat bezel (round, square, cruciform, or floral-shaped), which was engraved with a

Some Unconventional Early Byzantine Rings

Plate 14 Gold ring with double-diamond bezel, Byzantine, 6th century. Toronto, Royal Ontario Museum

Plate 15 Gold rings with double-diamond bezels, Lombardic, late 6th7th century, from Castel Trosino. Rome, Museo dellAlto Medioevo

monogram, religious invocation, or iconographic device (such as Christ, the Virgin, a saint, or an eagle with wings spread). Somewhat surprisingly, rings of this type had little influence in the West. Other Byzantine rings were more elaborate, notably those with tall, conical, or calyx-shaped bezels ringed with pearls and set with rock crystal, garnet, emerald, sapphire or pearl, with broad hoops, sometimes embossed or executed in openwork. All these varieties of rings have been found together in hoards, demonstrating their contemporaneity. They may well derive from the same goldsmiths ateliers that produced other types of jewellery, such as earrings, necklaces, small crosses and various forms of pendants.34 Two types of rings of relatively simple construction appear to have originated in Constantinople and achieved great popularity in the Gothic West in more elaborate versions. The Byzantine prototypes of both varieties were included in an interesting hoard of silver jewelry, including coins, belt buckles and tabs, a spoon, an amuletic silver armband, fragments of pendants, and at least eight rings, all datable to the mid-6th century, now in Toronto. The shape of one of the rings can be described as architectural. The tubular hoop is attached to a bezel composed of a square platform and four pieces of filigree wire bent into semi-circles terminating in spirals, which support a hemispherical, dome-like element; additional pellets sometimes ornament the joins and the top of the dome (Pl. 12).35 In addition to the silver example in Toronto, specimens in gold are in the Benaki Museum and in the Stathatos Collection in the National Archaeological Museum, Athens, the latter said to be from the island of Chios.36 The architectural shape reached the West, but there became far more elaborate in decoration. An example found in the church of Madonna dell Orto in Rome has a heavy openwork hoop decorated with beaded wire; the filigree columns on the bezel support a pyramidal roof ornamented with granulation.37 Merovingian examples, which survive in some quantity, tend to be even more complex, adding filigree wire and granulation to band hoops and pyramidal tops, some set with garnets or other gems (Pl. 13).38 Examples reached Spain as well.39 Heavier versions, with squat columns and bezels either engraved or set with gems, are typically found in Alamannic and Germanic sites in Germany and Eastern Europe, although at least one was discovered in Gaul.40 The second variety of ring is not well attested in Byzantine finds, but three examples in silver were present in the Toronto hoard. Another example in gold, not from the hoard but certainly of Byzantine manufacture judging from its style, is in

the same collection (Pl. 14).41 These rings have band hoops, curved inward, and are distinctive for their bezel decorated with two raised, diamond-shaped elements placed side-by-side and outlined in beaded wire filigree, with some additional filigree on the shoulders. This variety, too, reached the West, where typically they had broad bands and were decorated with elaborate filigree and granulation. They are well attested, both in gold and silver, at Lombardic sites, most notably the 6th7thcentury burials at Castel Trosino, near Rome (Pl. 15).42 A few Merovingian examples, very similar to those from Rome, have been found in Gaul.43 A final group of elaborately constructed rings with complex bezels set with precious stones is poorly documented, but these rings, too, appear to have originated in Byzantium and found favour in the Gothic west. Without further provenance information, however, it is difficult to form a clear picture of their development. One type is distinguished by its unusual double-bezel taking the form of a large central setting (oval, rectangular, or diamond-shaped) with an additional element, often a small cone outlined in filigree, attached to the side of the ring. Both elements are set with gems or pearls. Rings with double-bezels of this type may date as early as the 3rd century,44 but a number of examples are clearly of 6th or early 7th century date. A very fine gold example set with an emerald and a garnet appears to be Byzantine,45 as does another with a band hoop and calyx bezel set with a garnet and a pearl.46 A remarkable variant in the Stathatos collection in Athens has a rectangular central element set with a large garnet and decorated with a border of granulated pyramids, while a small bezel on the side has a hinged gold foil cross that served as a cover for the compartment (perhaps for a relic?).47 A very similar example is in a private collection in Munich. Simpler versions, which have appeared on the market in recent years without recorded provenance, also may be Byzantine.48 Several others of slightly more ornate form have been discovered in Gaul and are likely of Merovingian origin.49 A related type of ring adds an architectural feature of four columns supporting a rectangular bezel set with a gem. One example decorated with filigree and set with a large garnet is thought to be from Italy (Pls 16ab).50 A ring in the Hashimoto collection combines this variety of architectural ring with the double-bezel group by adding a small second bezel of conical shape to the side of the ring, along with filigree wire decoration (Pl. 17).51 Another example in a private collection is similar, but it is set with a rock crystal engraved with a cross (the engraved side set face down) and a garnet in the small, conical side bezel
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Plate 17 Gold ring with double bezel, Byzantine or Merovingian, 6th7th century. Tokyo, Hashimoto collection

Plates 16ab Gold ring, set with garnet, Lombardic (?), late 6th7th century. Private collection

Plates 18ab Gold ring with double bezel, set with engraved rock crystal and garnet, Byzantine, 6th7th century. Private collection

(Pls 18ab). The engraved rock crystal very likely is a product of a late 6th- or early 7th-century workshop perhaps located in Antioch; other rock crystals of this type were set in pendants, although no other recorded specimen is in a ring.52 Like other rings of 6th7th century date, these elaborately constructed double-bezel and architectural rings, although difficult to categorise with the little information available, appear also to have originated in Byzantium before finding their way West. Notes
1

4 5 6

7 8

For the typology of rings dating from the imperial period, see the useful surveys in: F.H. Marshall, Catalogue of the Finger Rings, Greek, Etruscan and Roman, in the Departments of Antiquities British Museum, London, 1907, xlvxlix; F. Henkel, Die rmischen Fingerringe der Rheinlande, Berlin, 1913. See, for example, M.C. Ross, Catalogue of the Byzantine and Early Mediaeval Antiquities in the Dumbarton Oaks Collection, vol. 2, Jewelry, Enamels, and Art of the Migration Period, Washington DC, 1965; G. Vikan, Early Christian and Byzantine Rings in the Zucker Family Collection, Journal of the Walters Art Gallery 45 (1987), 3243. J. Spier, Late Antique and Early Christian Gems, Wiesbaden, 2007, 12; the contemporary accounts of the discovery of the tomb are gathered by P. Mazzuchelli, La Bolla di Maria, moglie dOnorio imperatore che si conserva nel Museo Trivulzio, brevamente spiegata, Milan, 1819. Spier (n. 3), 138, no. 752; P. Pasini (ed.), 387d.c. Ambrogio e Agostino. Le sorgenti dellEuropa, Milan, 2003, 441, no. 339 (E. Gagetti). M. Degani, Il Tesoro Romano Barbarico di Reggio Emilia, Florence, 1959. For fibulae of this type, see B. Deppert-Lippitz, A Late Antique Gold Fibula in the Burton Y. Berry Collection, in A. Calinescu (ed.), Ancient Jewelry and Archaeology, Bloomington and Indianapolis, 1996, 23543; and for objects presented as imperial largess, see R. MacMullen, The emperors largesses, Latomus 21 (1962), 15966. Degani (n. 5), 61, nos 56, pl. 22, 25. Spier (n. 3), 91, n. 11, pl. 138, fig. 7.

9 Ibid., 87, no. 483. 10 Ibid., 87, no. 486. 11 Ibid., 91, n. 11; for another, set with a plasma intaglio, see H. Battke, Geschichte des Ringes, Pforzheim, 1953, 378, no. 45, pl. 8; R. Hadjadj, Bagues mrovingiennes. Gaule du Nord, Paris, 2007, 290, no. 359, records several specimens from Gaul, but, like the examples from Italy, these are likely Byzantine imports. 12 Spier (n. 3), 8792. 13 Degani (n. 5), 62, no. 8; Spier (n. 3), 88, no. 504. 14 V. Bierbrauer, Die ostgotischen Grab- und Schatzfund in Italien, Spoleto, 1974, 2701, pl. 12, 8; Spier (n. 3), 88, no. 508. 15 Bierbrauer (n. 14), 31820, pls 423; Spier (n. 3), 90, n. 8. 16 Spier (n. 3), 89 and 92, no. 522. 17 Ibid., 256, no. 76. 18 D. Giorgetti, Trsor de parures dor et dobjets dargent, Archeologiya (Sofia) 3 (1988), 32, no. 4, fig. 6; Spier (n. 3), 89, no. 512. 19 Degani (n. 5), 63, no. 15, and the commentary on the Gothic names on this and related rings, 79110 (C.A. Mastrelli); for similar rings with Gothic names, see also: O.M. Dalton, Franks Bequest. Catalogue of the Finger Rings, Early Christian, Byzantine, Teutonic, Mediaeval and Later, London, 1912, 3, no. 11 (Blithia and monogram) and 23, no. 146 (Gundehildis); Hadjadj (n. 11), 343, no. 470. 20 Bierbrauer (n. 14), 270, pl. 12, 7. 21 M.C. Bianchini (ed.), Lor des princes barbares du Caucase la Gaule Ve sicle aprs J.-C., Paris, 2000, 18490, nos 30, 3, and 30, 4. 22 J. Werner, Namensring und Siegelring aus dem gepidischen Grabfund von Apahida, Siebenbrgen, Klner Jahrbuch fr Vorund Frhgeschichte 9 (196768), 1203, who recognized that the letter forms are Greek but believed the monogram should be resolved as Omharus, which is conceivable. 23 See the Byzantine ring, Pl. 7 above, and the garnet, Spier (n. 3), 90, no. 538. 24 See, for example, O.M. Dalton, Catalogue of Early Christian Antiquities and Objects from the Christian East in the Department of British and Mediaeval Antiquities and Ethnography of the British Museum, London, 1901, 27, nos 168 and 170; G. Taylor and D. Scarisbrick, Finger Rings. From Ancient Egypt to the Present Day, Oxford, 1978, 42, no. 201; G. Schlumberger and A. Blanchet, Collections Sigillographiques, Paris, 1914, 180, no. 605, pl. 25, 9

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Some Unconventional Early Byzantine Rings

(which should be read as Konstantinou); C. Stiegemann, Byzanz. Das Licht aus dem Osten, Mainz, 2001, 3289, no. IV.63 (J. Spier), read as perhaps Eugenios. J. Spier, Un anillo bizantino-occidental en el Museo Lzaro Galdiano, Goya. Revista de Arte 216 (1990), 32830, first discusses the group, but a number of additional examples have since come to light. Christies, New York, Antiquities, 18 December 1998, lot 160; there are superb modern forgeries of this ring in both gold and silver. Spier (n. 25), 329, fig. 4; collection C.S., Munich. Dalton (n. 19), 28, no. 176a; for another gold ring of similar shape, said to be from S. Angelo dei Lombardi in Campania, see Marshall (n. 1), 138, no. 846. Private collection, unpublished; see also, Wm. Reinhart, Los anillos Hispano-Visigodos, Archivo espnol de arqueologia 20 (1947), 177, fig. 3, nos 65 and 69. Spier (n. 3), 99 and 101, no. 579. The earliest datable cruciform monograms are those of the Emperor Justin I (51827), which appear on small bronze coins struck at Antioch, for which see M. Phillips and S. Tyler-Smith, A sixth-century hoard of nummi and five-nummi pieces, Numismatic Chronicle (1998), 318 and 322. M. Deloche, Anneaux sigillaires, Paris, 1900, 3067, no. CCLVI; Spier (n. 25), 330, fig. 6. G.B. De Rossi, La croce doro rinvenuta nella basilica di San Lorenzo, Bullettino di Archeologia Cristiana 1 (1863), 338; F. Bisconti and G. Gentili (eds), La Rivoluzione dellimmagine. Arte paleocristinana tra Roma e Bisanzi, Milan, 2007, 1723, no. 37 (C. Lega). See, for example, the hoard of jewellery said to be from Syria and now in Washington, which includes six rings of different shapes: Ross (n. 2), 1359, no. 179A-S. Royal Ontario Museum, inv. no. 986.101.102. B. Segall, Katalog der Goldschmiede-arbeiten: Museum Benaki, Athen, Athens, 1938, 162, no. 356, pl. 50; . Coche de la Fert, Collection Hlne Stathatos: les objets byzantins et post-byzantins, Limoges, 1957, 1517, pl. 1, 3; another silver example, said to have been found in Lebanon with other rings, is in Munich: L. Wamser and G. Zahlhaas (eds), Rom und Byzanz. Archologische Kostbarkeiten aus Bayern, Munich, 1998, 2178, no. 318; for a gold example with a cameo set in the bezel: Spier (n. 3), no. 751; and another set with an emerald: D. Scarisbrick, Historic Rings. Four Thousand Years of Craftsmanship, Tokyo, New York and London, 2004, 434, no. 104 (Hashimoto collection, Tokyo). F. Gaultier and C. Metzger (eds), Trsors antiques. Bijoux de la collection Campana, Milan, 2005, 148, no. III.9; see also an example said to be from Milan: Dalton (n. 19), 27, no. 174. Hadjadj (n. 11), 747, nos 246, 253, 259, 325, 378, 393, 482, 483, 493, 499, 534, 561, 569, 587, 594. Pl. 13, from La Garde (Loire) and now in a private collection, is published in Deloche (n. 32), pl. 4, 11, and Hadjadj (n. 11), no. 587; S. Hindman, Towards an Art History of Medieval Rings. A Private Collection, London, 2007, 703 and 21718, no. 10. One ring probably of Merovingian origin was discovered in a 7th-century Avar grave in Hungary: F. Daim, Avars and Avar archaeology: an introduction, in H.-W. Goetz, J. Jarnut and W. Pohl (eds), Regna and Gentes. The Relationship between Late Antique and Early Medieval Peoples and Kingdoms in the Transformation of the Roman World, Leiden and Boston, 2003, 491, pl. 25, 2; I am grateful to Falko Daim for this information. See also the architectural element of a ring used as the head of a pin, probably from a Merovingian grave: O. van Hessen, Museo Nazionale del Bargello. Gioielli franchi della collezione Carrand, Florence, 1981, 11, pl. 1b. A ring very similar to Merovingian examples was found at Torredonjimeno: Reinhart (n. 29), 169, fig. 1, 4a; a more unusual ring set with a pearl, said to be from Alcudia (Elche) and allegedly found with other rings, jewellery, and 4th-century coins, appears to date much later than the 4th century: see, H. Schlunk and T. Hauschild, Hispania Antiqua, Mainz, 1978, 157, pls 48b and 49b (private collection of A. Ramos Folqus). For example: a gold ring from a womans grave at Samobor (Zagreb), Croatia: W. Menghin, T. Springer and E. Wamers (eds), Germanen, Hunnen und Awaren, Nrnberg, 1987, 191 and 196, IV, 8.a; another gold ring from a 6th-century womans grave at Donzdorf (Baden-Wrttemberg): H. Roth, Kunst und Handwerk im frhen Mittelalter, Stuttgart, 1986, pl. 44b; a gold ring engraved with a monogram: A.B. Chadour, Ringe. Die Alice und Louis Koch Sammlung, Leeds, 1994, vol. 1, 151, no. 507; a silver example of unknown provenance, once set with a stone: C.C. Oman, Victoria and Albert Museum. Catalogue of Rings, London, 1930, 65, no. 235, pl. 9; and a gold ring, finely carved and engraved with a male head in profile and an inscription, discovered at Saint-Pierre (Ardche): Deloche (n. 32), 2345, no. CCX. Royal Ontario Museum, Inv. no. 986.181.1; the silver rings are inv. nos 986.101.103.12. G. Becatti, Oreficerie antiche dalle minoiche alle barbariche, Rome, 1955, 2212, nos 57980; C. Bertelli and G.P. Brogiolo (eds), Il futuro dei longobardi. LItalia e la costruzione dellEuropa di Carlo Magno, Milan, 2000, 42, fig. 15, 48, no. 12d. Hadjadj (n. 11), nos 87 and 97, both silver, and an unpublished gold example. Chadour (n. 40), 124, no. 426, set with emeralds. A.B. Chadour and R. Joppien, Kunstgewerbemuseum der Stadt Kln. Schmuck II, Fingerringe, Cologne, 1985, 104, no. 15. Chadour (n. 40), 144, no. 484. A.K. Orlandos, Collection Hlne Stathatos: objets antiques et byzantins, Strasbourg, 1963, 289, no. 230bis, pl. 44; L. KtzscheBreitenberg, Zum Ring des Gregor von Nyssa, in E. Dassmann and K. Thraede (eds), Tesserae. Festschrift fr Josef Engemann, Mnster, 1991, 2918, pl. 38. In the late 4th century, St Macrina, the sister of Basil of Caesarea and Gregory of Nyssa, was said to have worn an iron ring which contained a piece of the True Cross (Gregory of Nyssa, Vita Macrinae), but no ring that served as a reliquary appears to survive. Hadjadj (n. 11), 3467, no. 474, Content collection, formerly Christies, New York, Ancient Jewelry, 7 December 2006, lot 309, set with an amethyst and a pearl; a very similar example set with a garnet appeared the following year: Christies, New York, Ancient Jewelry, 6 December 2007, lot 468; an example in the British Museum, Marshall (n. 1), 133, no. 815, set with a plasma and a partially drilled sapphire, does not have a recorded provenance. Hadjadj (n. 11), 83 and 3467, nos 173, 330, 403, 426 and 474, who discusses the group and notes further examples from Eastern Europe; see also the example set with a sapphire in the Victoria & Albert Museum, which is said to be Merovingian: Oman (n. 40), 65, no. 239. Hindman (n. 38), 669 and 21617, no. 9, as Lombardic, 7th century, although it may be earlier. Scarisbrick (n. 36), 43, no. 103, formerly in the Adolphe Stoclet collection; the stones are missing. Spier (n. 3), 11526, nos 6967 (crosses).

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