Exhibits at Ballots

Abstract

The finger-ring (fig. i) has a plain, concavo-convex-sectioned hoop expanding to an almost circular flat bezel, which is decorated in relief with Zeus to front, unclothed, holding a thunderbolt in his upraised right hand and another in his lowered left hand; he is flanked by a flaming altar and a pig. On each side of Zeus is a small impressed circle (one crossed by a groove) that may reflect the inset plugs of metal, usually gold plugs in silver or bronze examples, occasionally found in flat-faced rings of this type (often those with oval bezels and often in rings of an earlier date than ours); however there may be another explanation for these two marks: see below. This shape of ring ranges in date from the fifth century BC into Hellenistic times, and our ring is of Boardman's Type IX of the end of the fourth century and later.