Images

This gilded silver buckle with an eagle's head is typical of the northern Black Sea area which was settled by the Crimean Goths. From Kerch, Crimea, Ukraine. Circa 400-650 CE. (The British Museum, London)

This gilded Visigothic buckle has chip-carved decoration which characterizes much of the art at this time of extensive migration. Possibly from Spain or southern France. Circa 400s-650s CE. (The British Museum, London)

Ostrogothic buckle with inlaid green glass and garnet, possibly from Italy, c. 400s-650s. The British Museum, London.

Drinking horns were popular with many Germanic cultures during this period, but this Lombard example from a high status grave in Sutri, Italy, is made from blue glass rather than the typical horn. It shows how the Lombards in Italy adapted...

The Molossi inhabited ancient Epirus (modern northern Greece and Albania). This dog once wore a collar. Its gaping jaws show powerful teeth, but the relaxed pose and upward gaze give it an obedient air. Five other versions of this sculpture...

The personifications Hypnos (sleep) and Thanatos (death) were either considered the sons or nurslings of Nyx (Night). This head is one of many versions of the same original. Hypnos appears with Thanatos on Classical vases, especially, lekythoi...

This is a Roman marble version of a lost Hellenistic original. Another version of this head was found, together with the body, at Sprelonga, south of Rome. There, it belonged to a figure portraying a wineskin-carrier, in a group showing the...

This marble tombstone depicts a nude youth taking a oil flask from a boy attendant. From Delos. Circa, 375 BCE. The British Museum, London.

Gold shoulder-clasps from Sutton Hoo, Ship-burial Mound 1, England, UK. Late 500s to early 600s. The British Museum, London. The shoulder-clasps would have displayed the power and authority of their wearer. They are similar...

This pentelic marble caryatid came from the Erechtheion, Athens, Greece. She was 1 of 6 caryatids that held up the roof of the Erechtheion. Circa 415 BCE. (The British Museum, London).