6th-7th century AD. A matched pair of bifacial gold crescent earrings, each a plaque with beaded border and five radiating lobes, openwork design with dove and palm trees within rings with tendrils between, hinged suspension wire. Cf. Lippolis, I.B. Sicily and Southern Italy: Use and Production in the Byzantine Koiné in Entwistle, C. & Adams, N. Intelligible Beauty, Recent Research into Byzantine Jewellery, London, 2010, fig.9 for type. 14 grams total, 35mm (1 1/2"). Property of a UK gentleman; acquired from a London gallery in the late 1980s; formerly from a private European collection, formed in the 1960s and 1970s. [2] Extremely fine condition.