A Gold Ring with Glass Stone from Burdur Museum
Ayşegül SOSLU
Abstract
For thousands of years, men, women, and children have fondly utilized rings as decorative items. These are made of different metals such as gold, silver, lead, iron and bronze, as well as ivory, tiles, bone, glass and natural stones. Historically gold rings were only used by administrators, high-ranking officials, upper class citizens, and groups with military status. During the Hellenistic Period, it has been determined that people without status in society began to wear gold rings in the Early Roman Period. It is known that in the Late Roman Period, all segments of Roman society commonly wore rings made of precious metals. This shows that wearing rings made of precious metals was no longer a sign of status.
The subject of this study is a gold ring in Burdur Museum. The ring was obtained by the museum through purchase. It was made by lost wax casting and is completely preserved. The form of the ring is a “D” in cross section. The ring stone is an oval-shaped glass cabochon; the bezel of ring is convex and the seat of the stone is flat. A winged goddess (Nike) is engraved on it. The aim of the study is to define the identity and iconography depicted on the ring stone, to determine the status of the person wearing the ring and to determine the period to which the ring belongs.
While evaluating the Burdur Museum example, the focus was primarily on form. Then, the depiction and composition of the goddess on the ring stone were discussed by iconographical way. Finally, the differences and similarities of the rings depicting Nike with the Burdur Museum sample were investigated. Taking these approaches in to consideration, a date proposal was made for the Burdur Museum example.
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