Ring with Monkey's Head

This thin, circular finger ring is cast in one piece, with a cartoonish head of a monkey or ape projecting from one point. It has a horizontally incised mouth beneath its prominent triangular nose. Two shallow incised grooves run from the front to the back of the top of the head. Small tabs that project to either side of the prominent ears may represent the ends of hair tufts. These occur above an incised horizontal line that runs around the back of the head. Closely set deep circular pits represent the eyes. While such schematic representations of animals could have been created over many centuries, the hollow pits for eyes recalls similar hollow eyes on Peloponnesian Geometric bronze figures of animals and humans created during the second half of the eighth century BCE (1). However, H.-G. Buchholz thought that this ring was Roman in date (2). Until further parallels come to light, however, such an attribution for this object must remain provisional. NOTES: 1. Compare S. Langdon, ed., From Pasture to Polis: Art in the Age of Homer, exh. cat., Museum of Art and Archaeology, University of Missouri-Columbia; University Art Museum, University of California, Berkeley; Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Harvard University Art Museums (Columbia, MO, 1993) 142-44, no. 47. 2. Pers. comm., Nov. 8, 1979. David G. Mitten