Pair of Earrings or Hair Ringlets with Ram Head

The main spiral body of this ornament is made from a hollow tube, decorated in the center with a double palmette. Each end of the ornament is capped with a ram’s head above an elaborate collar. There are no join seams on the main tube, meaning it must have been cast as a spiral or otherwise as a tapered tube that was then bent into shape. Scholars believe that these helical pieces were used as earrings (perhaps with a separate attachment) or to hold hair in place.