ORNAMENTS AND DECORATION 415
may
believe Tabari ("Chronicles," trans, by Zotenberg, Vol. II, p. 304),
this throne was of gold, enriched with precious stones, and surmounted
by a crown of gold and pearls, so heavy that the sovereign could not
wear it, and therefore had it suspended above his head.1
One
of the crowns in the Hermitage at St. Petersburg was discovered in
1864 in a tumulus near Novo-Tcherkask, with many other valuable
objects, all of which had apparently been buried with some important
personage. This crown resembles somewhat that of Rec-cesvinthus in the
treasure of Guerrazar, although some portions of it seem to belong to
the period of the Roman empire. The conjecture has been made that the
crown may have been worn by a queen since it is decorated with a finely
executed bust of a woman in amethyst. The crown itself is of pure gold,
and was bordered with two rows of pearls, which have disappeared,
leaving only the small disks to which they were attached; besides
these, it was ornamented with a number of uncut precious stones. The
date of this object cannot be exactly determined, although the
consensus of opinion is that it belongs to about the third century
after Christ. Possibly the bust and some other portions, which appear
to be of Greco-Roman workmanship, are of this period, while the rest of
the crown was executed one or two centuries later ; it is about seven
inches in diameter and two in height.2
Toward
the end of the year 1858 a French officer who lived in Spain, while
making some excavations on a property he owned there, discovered
fourteen small gold crowns. They were taken to the Spanish mint and are
said to have been melted for bullion. New excavations on the same spot
brought to light eight other crowns of considerable weight, of the
finest workmanship, and incrusted with precious stones, pearls, etc.
There is no doubt that these crowns were buried in the early years of
the eighth century, when the Arabs, led by Tarik, invaded Spain and
forced the Gothic dynasty to take refuge in the north of Europe. The
importance of this discovery is very great, since it gives us positive
evidence of the development of the goldsmith's art in Spain at that
early period. An inscription proves that one of the crowns was
dedicated in the second half of the seventh century, and it is one of
the few authentic memorials we possess of that epoch. In February,
1859, the eight crowns were purchased by the French government and
placed in the Musée de Cluny. Two other crowns found in the same place
were added in i860, and complete the collection.
The
largest of these crowns is that of the Gothic king, Reccesvin-thus, who
was King of Spain from 649 to 672. It is composed of a
1 Dieulafoy, "L'art antique de la Perse," sington Museum Handbooks), London, 1884, Paris, 1884. Pt. V, p. 137. pp. 83, 84 ; also "La Russie Méridionale," by
2 See Maskell, "Russian Art" (South Ken- Reinach-Kondakoff-Tolstoy, pp. 489, 490.
