Inv. no. 2289
Gold and garnets; terminals 2.3 x 8.6 x 2.4cm, 36.8g and 35.3g; strap 1.5 h x 46.8cm l, 143.2g
The collar consists of a loop in loop chain strap riveted to gold and garnet cloisonné dragon head terminals. The dragons are realised in three dimensions by multiple cloisonné trays set to represent horns ears and eyes. Cloisons on the front of the box create the eyes and snout of each beast.
Despite the scrupulous ownership history since the 1890s it is not clear where this remarkable necklace was found or made. Animal headed terminals used on torcs, necklaces and arm rings belong to a long and ancient tradition. Two related ornaments found in context were worn by people of high social status within Hunnic period communities, In the east, two silver dragon terminals were found at Kara-Agac (Karagandinskaja Oblst, Kazakhstan) and closely related is a single dragon terminal found at Tatarka (Karjazskom settlement near Stavropol) in the northern Caucasus. All three of these terminals have been dated to the first Hunnic Period (378-420CE) but recent research suggests that the first find should be dated to the post Hunnic Period, the phase after the death of Attila, when his heirs withdrew from Central Europe to the Southern Russian steppe and further East.
Whether dragon terminals with horns and fierce fangs were an ‘eastern’ form transmitted from east to west cannot be proven but the cloisonné terminals of the present collar may be evidence of eastern transmission of the techniques and patterns found on western garnet cloisonné items. A post Hunnic time frame for the Wyvern collar is supported by the close similarity to a wooden dragon head mount sheathed in silver found in an exceptionally rich burial at Samsi (Chui/Chuy Oblast, Krgyzystan). A date for this burial at Samsi is suggested by the inclusion of two garnet set rings of a type directly comparable to those in burial 2 at Morskoj Culek on the Don, which have been dated to the end of the 5th or beginning of the 6th century CE.
The strap does not permit any definitive chronological or geographical association as such straps were made in Greek influenced workshops from 300 BCE onwards and it is not impossible that the Wyvern strap was made in Bactrian Central Asia.
This type of object reflects the privileged access to goods in transit along the Silk Road, ranging from amber beads from the Baltic to late Roman glass cups exchanged across thousands of miles to be buried in rich tombs as far east as Gyeongiu, South Korea.
(Text abriviated from Marco Aimone, The Wyvern Collection: Byzantine and Migration Period Jewelry and Metalwork, (Thames & Hudson), Forthcoming.)