The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 15, 2026

A gold and amethyst pendant features a translucent purple stone carved into a lion's head with wide eyes and a ridged mane. A gold band secures the stone to a circular base adorned with squatting monkeys. These monkeys face outward with their hands resting on their knees. The vertical ornament juxtaposes the smooth, rounded amethyst with the repetitive, intricate forms of the gold figures.

Pendant

c. 700 BCE

Sudan, Napatan; lion's head component: probably Egypt, Third Intermediate , Dynasty 25

(1069–715 BCE)
amethyst and gold
Overall: 3.5 x 2.9 x 2.7 cm (1 3/8 x 1 1/8 x 1 1/16 in.)
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1987.1
Location: 107 Egyptian

Description

This pendant consists of two parts: a superbly carved lion’s head in amethyst that has been set into a D-shaped gold base consisting of a platform surrounded by eight seated baboons. The lion’s head is an heirloom from the New Kingdom, most likely a gaming piece that had been adapted in the Napatan period to serve as an pendant amulet. This procedure was fairly common in antiquity as a means of recycling precious stones. The importance of leonine deities in Nubian religion was obviously the motivating force behind the creation of this spectacular ornament.
  • Purchased from Galerie Nefer, Zurich; Nefer 5 [1987], no. 50, color
  • Markowitz, Yvonne and Peter Lacovara. "An Amethyst Gaming Piece Transformed." Cleveland Studies in the History of Art 1(1996): 6-11. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 6-7, fig. 1a-d www.jstor.org
    Berman, Lawrence M., and Kenneth J. Bohač. Catalogue of Egyptian Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1999 Reproduced and Mentioned: p. 444
    Lacovara, Peter, Yvonne J. Markowitz and Sue D'Auria. Nubian Gold: Ancient Jewelry from Sudan and Egypt. Cairo; New York: The American University in Cairo Press, 2019. Mentioned: p. 148; Reproduced; p. 149, fig. 125a-b
  • The Year in Review for 1987. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 24-April 17, 1988).
    CMA, 24 February-17 April 1988, The Year in Review for 1987, cat.: CMA Bulletin 75, no. 2 (February 1988), no. 6
  • {{cite web|title=Pendant|url=false|author=|year=c. 700 BCE|access-date=15 April 2026|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1987.1