HELLENISTIC PERIOD, CIRCA LATE 4TH CENTURY B.C.

The strap necklace with beech-nut pendants along its length was one of the most popular necklace types beginning in the late 4th century B.C. Related examples have been found throughout the Greek world, including at Corinth (G.R. Davidson, Corinth: Results of Excavations conducted by The American School of Classical Studies at Athens, vol. XII, The Minor Objects, pl. 109) in Macedonia, at Kyme (Asia Minor) and on the northern coast of the Black Sea (D. Williams and J. Ogden, Greek Gold Jewellery of the Classical World, nos. 30, 53, & 106). Similar necklaces are painted on the bodies of black-glazed pottery (see for example the Attic calyx-krater, no. 118 in B. Deppert-Lippitz, Griechischer Goldschmuck). The present example has a strap of interlinked loop-in-loop chains supporting 54 beech-nut pendants, each suspended from a rosette joined to the lower edge of the strap. Each end of the hook-and-loop closure is adorned with a palmette.