Pendant Cross

The pendant cross has a vertical suspension loop on the top. The horizontal arms are slightly shorter than the vertical arms. The front of the cross is decorated with patterns in relief. At the end of each arm is a raised half dome. Below each dome, on the sides of the arms, are smaller circular dots. Another raised circular dot is in the center of the cross. A raised line radiates out in each direction from the central dot; each of these lines is surrounded by a raised line forming a round-edged cross. The back is flat and featureless. This pendant would most likely have been a component in a necklace (1). NOTES: 1. Compare six similar copper alloy cross pendants with molded interior designs from a ninth-to-twelfth-century grave in S. Westphalen, “Kleinfunde aus der Basilikagrabung am Kalekapi in Marmara Ereglisi (Herakleia Perinthos),” in Byzantine Small Finds in Archaeological Contexts, eds. B. Böhlendorf-Arslan and A. Ricci, BYZAS 15 (Istanbul, 2012) 127-35, esp. figs. 5-6; all six were found near the neck of the deceased and so were possibly all strung on the same necklace. Lisa M. Anderson