Greece, ca. 8th to 6th century BCE. This is a small bracelet made of silver with abstractly-designed terminals, resembling snakes or serpents. The bracelet size suggests that it was a child's. Tragically, a silver bracelet like this is probably a grave good; being silver, it is almost certainly from the child of a high ranking family. The elite dead in this society were dressed with personal ornaments before being placed in the grave, providing a display of wealth for the family; children's graves often had more jewelery than adults'. Beyond the rather cold interpretation of a show of status, ornaments like this probably also spoke to the attachment that parents had to their child, the intense grief they felt at their deaths, and a desire to protect them in their journey to the afterlife. Size: 1.7" W (4.3 cm)

Provenance: Ex- Private New Jersey collection acquired before 1990

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