Greco-Persian gems: The Bern Group
The subjects here are as those in the earlier series but the personnel are now characterized as Macedonian, with their flat caps (kausia) and so these must date to just after the fall of the Persian empire, late fourth century or later. The style is more mannered and many details are rendered in a linear technique.
Two horsemen attack stags. The horses have horn-like forelocks.
Bern, Merz Collection. Blue chalcedony scaraboid. 40mm. GGFR pl. 965.
A two-horse chariot, the principal figure, a Macedonian, is protected by a parasol, an eastern indication of regality.
Harvard, Mitten Collection. Chalcedony scaraboid. 23mm. Revue Archéologique 1976, 52, fig. 13.
A seated Persian woman with a flower.
Cambridge. Pale red all-stone ring. 22mm. GGFR pl. 966.
A horseman attacks a rearing lion.
New York, Rosen Collection. Grey-brown chalcedony scaraboid. 28mm. GGFR pl. 1070.
A horseman attacks a soldier with another dead beneath. The most summary of this style, verging on the a globolo.
Oxford 1892.1596, from Ephesus. Veined jasper scaraboid. 27mm. GGFR pl. 974.