Wire Fibula with Ram's Head Terminals

The C-shaped fibula has rams’ head terminals and is intact except for the pin, which is missing. On the back, a thin wire spiral serves as the catchplate; on the other arm are the remains of a hinge and spring. The body of the fibula consists of twisted wires alternating between wider wires of a lighter color and thinner, darker wires that are already twisted. The finials are molded collars with horizontal stripes, which sit below the rams’ heads with curving horns. The ears, eyes, nose, and mouth are indicated, as is perhaps some wool on the top of the head and underside of the chin. This fibula is not an ancient type. It seems to mimic ancient bracelets with zoomorphic terminals known from the Near East, including Cyprus (1) and Achaemenid Persia, but those types of bracelets were not worn as fibulae. NOTES: 1. Compare J. L. Myres and M. Ohnefalsch-Richter, A Catalogue of the Cyprus Museum (Oxford, 1899) 130, no. 4253, pl. 7, a “hollow gold-plated bronze” bracelet with rams’ head terminals and a twisted hoop from Kourion. Similar terminals with a solid hoop can be seen on a pair of gold-plated bracelets, also from Kourion, currently in the British Museum, inv. nos. 1896,0201.141-.142. Compare also J. Stettgast, Von Troja bis Amarna: The Norbert Schimmel Collection, New York, exh. cat., Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg (Mainz, 1978) no. 95, a silver arm band with two rams’ head terminals on a coiled bracelet body. Lisa M. Anderson