Jewish artifacts are displayed in a new ROM galleryThe ring is quite interesting. Could it be another inspiration for the fake metal codices (follow those links)?
By SHELDON KIRSHNER, Staff Reporter (Canadian Jewish News)
Thursday, 14 July 2011
TORONTO —The Royal Ontario Museum has unveiled an ensemble of four new galleries on the ancient empires of Rome, Byzantium and Nubia, all supplemented by videos shot on location in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
Ring with a menorah
Janet Carding, the director and chief executive officer of the museum, said this was “a key moment” for the Toronto museum.
These civilizations span 2,500 years of history and had a lasting influence on art, esthetics, architecture and religion, said Carding.
The galleries – which add approximately 7,000 square feet of exhibit space to the museum – were opened on July 1.
The new galleries consist of the Eaton Gallery of Rome, the Joey and Toby Tanenbaum Gallery of Byzantium, the Joey and Toby Tanenbaum Gallery of Rome and the Near East, and the Galleries of Africa: Nubia.
Several Jewish objects from ancient Palestine are exhibited in the Joey and Toby Tanenbaum Gallery of Byzantium – a jar with a menorah, a ring with a menorah, etrog and lulav and a bread stamp with a menorah and cross.
They date back to the period from 300 to 614 CE.
The jar and the ring were most likely made for Jews visiting holy sites in Jerusalem.
The bread stamp engraved with a menorah and a cross is extremely rare because the portrayal of images was considered idolatrous, said Paul Denis, the assistant curator of the Greek and Roman collections.
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Below: genuine early-Byzantine metal ring with seven-branched menorah. Note the etrog on the lower left and the lulav (palm branch) on the lower right.
Below: fake metal codex. Note the seven-branched menorah on the lower left. And could that wreath under it be partly inspired by the etrog and lulav on the image above?
Just a thought.