Gold ring, the convex plain hoop supporting the round bezel engraved with the mythical creature couchant facing towards the left within a dotted border. Possibly later Byzantine.
This image was believed to endow the wearer with boldness and swiftness. Depicting a mythical creature is evidence of the respect shown to antiquity in the medieval period.
The hoop broadening at the shoulders supporting the round bezel with beaded border, loosely incised with a cross shaped masted boat with oars or alternatively intended as a cross above a fish. 5th / 6th century CE. (C3)
Rings worn by those who followed the Apostle and rejected pagan mythology can be identified by Christian symbolism engraved on the bezels – the cross; the dove of the Holy Spirit; the ship; emblematic of a safe voyage to eternity (or representative of the Church itself); a fish alluding to the name of Christ in Greek letters, and pious invocations, some in monogram form.
