Ca. 1300-1500 AD. Byzantine. A wearable gilded silver ring with a circular band with flared shoulders decorated with small linear incisions that form a crown around the circular protruding bezel; the bezel is decorated with an incised double-headed eagle surmounted by a cross. Fully wearable condition. The double-headed eagle was a common mythological figure in ancient Mesopotamia, Syria, Asia Minor, Egypt, and among the Mycenaean civilisation. It reappears on Greek soil in the 13th century in Byzantine art, when it started to be used as an emblem of the Byzantine Empire. The two heads of the eagles symbolized the claim by the Byzantine Emperor to both eastern and western halves of the Roman empire. In Imperial iconography, it was used to distinguish the emperor (double-headed eagle) from the king (one-headed eagle). We find the double-headed eagle also used by some merchant ships of the Italian peninsula to show their tax-exempt status. Nowadays, the black double-headed eagle on a yellow background is used as a symbol of the Orthodox Church all over the world. For more information about the double-headed eagle, see Chotzakoglou, C. (2000). 'Eagle, Double-Headed: Emblem of the Byzantine Empire'. In G. Speake (ed), Encyclopedia of Greece and the Hellenic Tradition. London; New York: Routledge, 521. For more information on Byzantine rings, see Pollio, T.N. (2018). Ancient Rings - An Illustrated Collector's Guide. McFarland, Incorporated, Publishers, 85f. Size: D: 17.45mm / US: 7 1/4 / UK: O1/2; 16.6g. Provenance: From an old British collection formed in the 1990s; previously acquired in Germany.