Gold necklace

This necklace dates to the time of the expansion of the Hittite Empire from central Anatolia westwards towards the Aegean coast and southwards into Syria. In the west, were two powerful neighbours (and occasionally enemies) of the Hittites: Arzawa and Ahhiyawa. During the fourteenth century BC the Hittites and Arzawans took part in the international correspondence with the Egyptian pharaohs known as the Amarna Letters.

There are sources of gold in western and south-western Turkey that may have provided the metal for this necklace. Each of the gold hawk pendants, which are strung on gold wire, originally had three disc pendants attached, but some are missing now.