Gold Peacock Earrings: 7th century AD

Gold lunate crescent-shaped earrings with facing peacocks, one of the standard types of earring, found from Tunis to South Russia as well as Rome and North Africa, demonstrating the extent of Byzantine cultural and economic influence.

Peacocks were believed to have incorruptible flesh and were widespread symbols of immortality in this period.

© 1998 Oxfordshire Museum Service, Setúbal Museums and the Benaki Museum