Earring (1)

The lion-heads are formed in sheet gold halves (left and right) and are carefully detailled. There eyes were probably once enamelled in blue as is still visible on a similar example now in the Metropolitan Museum New York. The loop connecting the lion is elaboratly decorated with filigree. This concentration of filigree decoration and this type of earring terminating in an animal head are typical of the production in the Greek cities of South Italy and Sicily, Taranto in particular.
Representations of woman wearing similar earrings on terracottas and bronze mirrors suggest that most of these double-headed earrings were worn by pushing the smaller head through the perforation in the earlobe from behind, the larger head being at the front but upside-down.