CASE K. Gold Ring from Knossos

Accession Number AN1938.1127
Year 1600 - 1450 BCE
Dimensions 2.5 x 1.6 cm
Medium gold
Location Ashmolean Museum
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This gold ring was purchased by Evans in Heraklion in 1894, and was said to come from Knossos. It shows a female figure with a smaller male figure seemingly floating above her, next to a building which Evans regarded as a shrine. This is a so-called ‘epiphany scene’ because many scholars interpret the smaller figure as a deity.

Bibliography

Evans, Arthur. 1921. The Palace of Minos at Knossos, I, pp. 159-160, fig. 115

Myres, John (ed.). 1936. British Archaeological Discoveries in Greece and Crete 1886-1936, p. 32

Hughes-Brock, Helen and Boardman, John. 2009. Corpus of Minoan and Mycenaean Seals VI: Oxford, the Ashmolean Museum, no. 281