Spiral ornament with griffins

Bronze spiral ornament covered with gold leaf, with one terminal in the form of two griffin heads and the other modelled as a "tail". Below the heads are rosettes in exceptionally fine filigree technique. This is a characteristic type of Cypriot ornament, which was used either as an earring or, more likely, as a hair-coil. Similar objects are found usually in pairs and often have lion-head instead of griffin-head finials. On some examples the decoration is embellished by enamelling or granulation. Pieces of jewellery such as the one here occur frequently as grave goods and bear witness to the skill of the Cypriot goldsmiths as well as to the strong influences they received from the art of the Near East. The griffin, a mythological creature of Assyrian provenance, passed to Cyprus as a decorative motif mainly under the influence of Achaemenid art, during the period of Persian political dominance on the island in the late 6th c. BC.