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An Island gem in Derby

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 October 2013

J. A. Peat
J. A. Peat
Affiliation:
59 Rockingham Close, Allestree, Derby
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Extract

The following note aims to bring the attention of scholars to a very fine seal (plate XIIa) in the collection of the Derbyshire Museum Service at Kedleston Road, Derby. My thanks are due to Mr D. Sorrell, County Museums Officer, for permission to publish this piece.

Following Boardman, the seal may be identified as an Island gem, probably from Melos, of the early sixth century BC. The seal was acquired in 1954 from a dealer, following its purchase at auction in London (of which no details are available), and now bears the catalogue number 833:6. It consists of a small piece of green serpentine, flecked with white, shaped to a lentoid form. 5·5 mm thick at the centre, tapering to 1·75 mm at the top and bottom, it is not perfectly round, the width being 17 mm and the height 17·5 mm. A hole is drilled across its width.

Type
Notes
Information
The Journal of Hellenic Studies , Volume 103 , November 1983 , pp. 151
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1983

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References

1 I would also like to express my thanks to Prof. W. G. Lambert for his identification of the seal, and his subsequent help in my investigation of Island gems, to Prof. Boardman who brought the Budapest seal to my attention, and made several comments on this short notice, and to Mr G. Norrie of the Department of Ancient History, Birmingham University, for the excellent photograph.

2 Boardman, J., Island Gems: A Study of Greek Seals in the Geometric and Early Archaic Periods, Soc. Prom. Hell. Stud. Suppl. Paper x (1963)Google Scholar (‘IGems’).

3 Furtwängler, A., Die antiken Gemmen (Leipzig 1900)Google Scholar.

4 See also JHS lxxxviii (1968) 5 no. 291Google Scholar.

5 For later Greek and Persian winged horse-fish, see Boardman, , Greek Gems and Finger Rings (London 1970) figs 788–9, 979 (p. 437 f., nos 362–4)Google Scholar.