Page:History of Art in Phœnicia and Its Dependencies Vol 2.djvu/415

 JEWELRY. 377 the wrong way, and that, consequently, the griffins' heads, on which so much trouble has been lavished, could not be properly seen. The case would be very different if the jewel were fixed in the hair, above the forehead or at the temple, so that its proper front could be seen. Our explanation is made all the more probable by the back view of the richest of these jewels (Fig. 296). Some smaller rings, on which the ornament is so arranged as to be easily visible from whichever side we look, may well be earrings (Figs. 297-299). In the shapes of such things as these there is a quite astonishing variety. Some of the more elaborate are formed of several pieces united by chains. One of the best examples is a pair from Cyprus (Fig. 300, D) ; another, from Tharros (Fig. 301), is scarcely less complicated ; but it is hardly so graceful, and seems in fact to suggest that taste was less pure in Sardinia and Carthage than in Tyre and Kition. The three pieces are held together, not by slender chains but by strong rings. The great length and con- siderable weight of this jewel suggests that it was made, not for use by a mortal, but either for deposition in a grave or for the statue of some goddess, perhaps for a figure of Astarte. In our Figs. 302 and 303 we reproduce two earrings in which motives much the same as those of the larger object are again employed. Baskets or bushels with grain in them, seem to have afforded a favourite type for the makers of these earrings (Figs. 304, 305) ; we find them both in Cyprus and Sardinia, the only difference lying in the greater massiveness of the ring in the example from Curium. There is no need to explain this resemblance by supposing that these objects were carried by trade from one island to the other. We need hardly say that the wealthy cities of Cyprus did not import their earrings from Sardinia, while it is no less certain that the latter did not go to the Levant for such things. In Carthage she had a much more convenient source of supply. But all that Carthage knew she learnt from Tyre and Sidon ; her artisans lived on the traditions of their eastern forbears, and thus the same models were in vogue at once in both the great basins of the Mediterranean. Certain forms, however, and those not the most happy, seem to have been peculiar to Sardinia, or perhaps we should say to her teacher, Carthage. Among these are the pendants with three VOL. n. 3 c