File:Roman ear-ring (FindID 386771).jpg

English: Roman gold lunular <a href="http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/search_the_collection_database/search_object_details.aspx?objectid=3384807&partid=1&searchText=2011%2C8026.1&fromADBC=ad&toADBC=ad&numpages=10&orig=%2Fresearch%2Fsearch_the_collection_database.aspx&currentPage=1">ear-ring</a>. The decorative part comprises a flat crescent-shaped piece of sheet gold, decorated with applied filigree wire. Forming a border around the outer edge runs a section of rilled wire (c. 1.1mm thick), with each crescent terminal decorated with a single gold bead. The inner field is decorated with thinner rilled wire (c. 0.5mm) curled into spirals, comprising two back-to-back crescents, with ends rolled back, and two larger more complex loose spirals filling the rest of the field. Originally, the returns on the ends of the spirals were set with spherical green glass beads; only one survives intact and a small fragment of another.

The attachment consists of a strip of cambered gold, split at one end and soldered to the back of the plate and curving forward above the plate to form a loop. This holds a ring of gold wire with overlapped terminals which coil around the shank twice on each type (Allason-Jones type 3). For a parallel see Allason-Jones 1989, no. 47, an ear-ring found in London, now at the British Museum (1856,0701.810). Although it may appear that there was no way of attaching the ear-ring to the ear lobe, inhumation graves have provided confirmation of their function (see discussion in Jones, p. 5-6). Date: late 1^st to early 2^nd century AD Wt.: 2.47g D.: 24.1mm H.: 31.5mm (from attachment loop to crescent terminals).