Kings and other high personages were not content with such simple adornments. It would seem that princes wore necklaces made up of separate pieces each of which had an emblematic signification of its own (Fig. 239), because we find them constantly reappearing in the reliefs, sometimes around the sovereign’s neck, sometimes distributed over the field of a stele. In the stele of Samas-Vul, the king only wears a single ornament on his breast; it is exactly similar to what we call a Maltese cross (Fig. 116).
Figs. 232, 233.—Bracelets; from Rawlinson.
Fig. 234.—Ear-drop. British Museum.
Figs. 235–237.—Necklace and ear-drops. Louvre. Drawn by Saint-Elme Gautier.
These ornaments must have been of gold and of some considerable size. The grand vizier, and the king when his tiara is absent, wear a diadem about their foreheads in which the rosette is the chief element of the decoration (Vol. I. Figs. 25 and 29). The queen’s diadem, in the “Feast of Assurbanipal,” is crenellated (Fig. 117), reminding us of that worn by the Greek Cybele. In the same monuments the wrists of kings and genii are surrounded with massive bracelets (Vol. I. Figs. 4, 8, 9, 15, 23, 24, 29, &c.). In the Louvre there is a bronze bracelet of exactly the same type (Fig. 24C).[441] We may see them figured among the objects offered in tribute in a bas-relief at Nimroud (Fig. 241). From the same reliefs we gather several examples of ear-pendents (Figs. 242–244). It is probable that the same models were carried out in gold, silver, or bronze, according to the rank and fortune of the people for whom they were made.[442] The forms were not altogether happy.
Fig. 238.—Necklace; from Layard.