No photographText frame in place of a photograph
Necklace centerpiece with birds
- Material
- Gold, glass
- Dimensions
- H. 2 5/16 in. (5.8 cm); W. 1 5/16 in. (3.4 cm); D. 1/4 in. (0.6 cm); Wt. 0.4 oz. (11.3 g)
- Date as given by the source
- 11th century
- Record number
- 1970.76
- Held by
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
The source has an openly licensed image; it is not included here yet
Museum recordDocumented object
Necklace centerpiece with birds
A gold and glass centrepiece of a necklace with a pair of birds on a crescent, which the museum attributes to Syria and dates to the 11th century. A northern attribution and a date that runs up to the 1099 boundary: the object is not assigned to a period.
Date as given by the source11th centuryAs worded by the source: 11th century; the record has no period or dynasty field
What you see
What you see
A necklace centrepiece of gold and glass, 5.8 cm high, 3.4 cm wide and 0.6 cm deep, weighing 11.3 g. According to the record's description, a pair of confronting birds is set on a blue glass-filled crescent and flanks a staff bearing a smaller crescent. Many areas, including the bodies of the birds, are filled with granulated, scrolling forms, and on one of the birds' wings a small amount of the original blue cloisonné enamel survives. This page has no photograph: the museum publishes the collection image as public domain, but it has not yet been added here. Source 1.
What the record says
The record gives the date as "11th century" and the geography as "Attributed to Syria": an attribution, not a findspot. No findspot is given, and the record has no culture, period or dynasty field. The description opens by saying that "Fatimid jewelry" is often decorated with a pair of confronting birds such as these, and says of the cloisonné enamel that it was a luxury item popularly used in the Byzantine world that "may have been exported" to Syria and Egypt. The summary text of the same record adds that the piece was constructed to fit within a necklace of three strands rather than to hang from it, as shown by three pairs of holes along its sides, and calls this unique for the type "in our experience"; the description itself calls it "the pendant". Source 1.
Placement on the timeline
The object is not assigned to a period on the Levant timeline. "11th century" is a range of a hundred years; the record normalises it to 1000-1099, and the last year is exactly the boundary at which this site's early Islamic period page ends and its Middle Ages page begins. A date of this kind cannot show whether the object was made before or after 1099, and the site does not trim it. Nor does the word "Fatimid" settle the matter: in the Met's timeline "Fatimid rule" runs from 969 to 1171, on both sides of the boundary. Source 2. Beyond the date, the attribution to Syria makes the object a northern comparison rather than evidence for the southern Levant: a Fatimid style does not prove manufacture in Syria, and the attribution is not a findspot.
Where it is now
Held by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, record 1970.76, in the Department of Islamic Art; credit line: The Friends of the Department of Islamic Art Fund, 1970. On 24 October 2026 the record stated "Not on view".
The object's connections
The object's connections
Culture, period, place, type and holder: every connection comes from the record or a cited source.
Object
Necklace centerpiece with birds
Region
Compare
- Lidded box of Muhammad al-HamawiTwo objects the museum attributes to Syria, with no findspot: an attribution, not local evidence
Source
Sources and further reading
The research and references behind this page. Rights to external content remain with their owners.
- 1
Necklace Centerpiece, collection record 1970.76
The Metropolitan Museum of Art · Checked
- 2
The Eastern Mediterranean, 500-1000 A.D.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art · 2001 · Checked
