Claudia Earrings – Disc, Grooves, and a Pearl at the Long End
The Claudia Earrings are a handcrafted brass replica of a Roman disc-head earring from the 2nd century AD. The earring combines a circular gold disc with concentric grooves and a central freshwater pearl with a long gold rod ending in a second freshwater pearl. Comparable originals of the disc-head type with pearl pendant are documented, among other places, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and belong to the most common earring forms of the Roman Imperial period.
The Disc-Head Earring, Summed Up
The Claudia Earrings are a modern brass replica based on the Roman disc-head earring type of the 2nd century AD. The earring consists of a circular, matte gold disc with concentric grooves and an inserted freshwater pearl at the center, a delicate knot connector as the central element, and a long, straight gold rod ending in a second, larger freshwater pearl. Material: gold-shimmering brass and freshwater pearls. Total length: 5 cm.
Circular Discs at the Ear – What Lies Behind This Popular Earring of the Imperial Period?
Somewhere in the provinces, perhaps in Augusta Rauricorum on the Rhine, perhaps in Antioch on the Orontes: a goldsmith presses a metal blank into a mold, turns, hammers, and draws concentric rings into the sheet. A small pearl is placed in the center. A rod is soldered on, a second pearl is threaded onto it. The result is an earring worn from Britain to Syria, in gold, in bronze, with stone, with glass, with pearl.
The disc-head earring is also among the most widespread jewelry forms of the Roman Imperial period. This form of Roman earring is based on a gold wire hook with a circular shield or boss, decorated either with filigree or granulation. The concentric grooves of the disc are created by repoussé and pressing techniques, a method Roman goldsmiths adopted from Hellenistic models and standardized throughout the empire. The result: an earring that was both technically sophisticated and suitable for serial production.
The long pendilium, a single rod with a terminal pearl, follows the ancient type of the elenchos. Pear-shaped pearls, called elenchi, were considered especially suitable for finishing pendants and were sometimes worn in groups of two or three. Worn singly, as here, the pearl at the end of the long rod acted like an exclamation mark. Simple, yet striking.
A comparable original is held in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York: gold wire hook, disc head, spherical pendant, 2nd century AD, found in Cyprus. The type is also attested by the excavation catalogues of Augusta Rauricorum (the Roman town of Augst, Switzerland), where Emilie Riha documented disc-head earrings with pearl pendants for the 2nd–3rd century AD.
Now to the most persistent misconception in this context: long pendant earrings with a single pearl are commonly regarded as Byzantine or Late Antique, as a product of the empire’s final phase. That is not correct. Already in the 2nd century AD, the disc-head type with pendant was one of the most widespread earring types throughout the Roman Empire. The long, elegant forms that we often associate with Byzantium today have their roots deep in the middle Imperial period. Byzantium did not invent them; it inherited them.
What One Touches Before One Understands It
Anyone who takes the Claudia Earrings out of their packaging first holds something surprisingly light in their hand. At the top: a coin-sized, matte-gold disc whose surface consists of several concentric grooves spiraling from the edge toward the center, like the growth rings of a tree, only in gold. At the center sits a small cream-white freshwater pearl, slightly raised, with the soft sheen that only real pearls possess. Beneath it hangs a three-part knot connector made of fine wire, two curved loops with a crossbar linking the disc to the long pendilium. This rod is straight, tapered, gold-colored, and ends in a noticeably larger rose-white freshwater pearl. The pearl swings freely. When worn, it moves with every step, without clinking, without getting in the way. The earring stands out without fighting for attention.
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Total length: 5 cm
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Material: gold-shimmering brass and freshwater pearls (river pearls)
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Type: disc-head earring with rod pendilium, Roman Imperial period
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Date of the model: 2nd century AD
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Comparable object: Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Can an Earring Work as Teaching Material?
Anyone who teaches history knows the problem: abstract dates and trade routes stay on the slide, but what can be held in the hand stays in the mind. After many years and countless museum visits, one thing can be said: no textbook illustration replaces the feeling of holding a faithful piece of jewelry in your hand and asking who might once have worn it.
The Claudia Earrings work as a teaching object on three levels that reinforce one another:
First, as an introduction to trade history. The pearl at the end of the rod is not accidental. In the 2nd century AD, pearls reached Rome from the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea, via trade routes that crossed half the known empire. The earring makes globalization tangible two thousand years before the word was invented. Those who wish can have students research how far a pearl traveled before ending up in an earring in Augusta Rauricorum.
Second, as access to the history of technology. The concentric grooves of the disc are created through repoussé and pressing techniques. No casting, no grinding: a goldsmith pressed metal into shape, groove by groove. This can be explained, demonstrated, reconstructed, and prompts the question of what tools were needed for it.
Third, as a bridge to everyday history. Whose earring was this? Not an empress, not a goddess. Finds from Augusta Rauricorum show that disc-head earrings of this type were found in houses, on streets, and in bathhouses. They were lost the way a key is lost today in a stairwell. A concrete, honest introduction to the lives of ordinary people in the 2nd century AD.
A practical piece of advice for classroom use: the earrings are sturdy enough to be passed around, but the freshwater pearls react sensitively to perspiration from the hands. A quick wipe with a dry cloth after class is entirely sufficient.
Who Is a Two-Thousand-Year-Old Earring Type the Right Choice For?
There is plenty of Roman jewelry. Archaeologically well-founded, suitable for everyday wear, and at the same time easy to explain: that is the narrower selection.
Anyone wishing to equip a civilian female portrayal of the middle Imperial period credibly for reenactment events will find in the disc-head type an earring that is truly distinctive. The comparable object in the Metropolitan Museum is publicly accessible, and the type is attested by excavation catalogues from across the empire. In front of an informed audience, this earring holds up.
The long gold rod with its freely swinging terminal pearl is a decisive advantage: 5 cm total length means a clear, calm vertical line on the ear. No clutter, no clinking. Anyone seeking jewelry that is historically accurate and still wears discreetly, without seeming like a costume accessory in everyday life, is making the right choice here.
For teachers who want to make history tangible in the classroom, the disc-head earring is especially suitable as a teaching object, because it opens up three thematic fields at once—trade routes, craft techniques, and everyday history—without a single word needing to be explained before it is placed in the hand. Sometimes one single object is enough to transform a lesson. In the best possible way.
What Rome Had to Say About Women, Jewelry, and Stretched Ears
Juvenal was not a man of quiet tones. The Roman satirist of the late 1st and early 2nd century AD wrote about the women of his time with a sharpness that still lands today. In his sixth satire, the famous frontal attack on the women of his age, he also turns to jewelry. And in doing so, he mentions precisely the pearl type that finishes the long pendilium of the Claudia Earrings: the elenchos, the hanging drop pearl:
“Nil non permittit mulier sibi, turpe putat nil, cum virides gemmas collo circumdedit et cum auribus extensis magnos commisit elenchos.”
“Nothing is forbidden to a woman, nothing does she consider shameful, once she has draped green gems around her neck and hung great drop pearls from her stretched ears.”
Juvenal, Saturae, VI, 457–459 (ca. 100–130 AD)
Juvenal meant this as an accusation. What he unintentionally preserved, however, was this: the term elenchi for hanging drop pearls was so familiar in 2nd-century Rome that it could flow into a satire without explanation. Everyone knew what was meant. The long pearl pendant that finishes the Claudia Earrings at the bottom therefore belongs exactly to the type of jewelry over which a Roman satirist publicly worked himself into outrage. There is hardly better proof of historical correctness.
Disc, Rod, Pearl – Questions That Truly Arise
What do the concentric grooves on the disc mean? Are they merely decorative?
The concentric grooves are the result of an ancient repoussé and pressing technique in which metal is pressed over a form and shaped into concentric rings through repeated working. They are not purely decorative, but visible craftsmanship: every groove shows that the goldsmith worked the sheet metal multiple times. This type is attested throughout the Roman Empire in the 2nd century AD and is one of the characteristic features of the disc-head earring type.
What is an Elenchos, and why is it relevant for this earring?
The Romans used the term Elenchos for a hanging drop-shaped or spherical pearl at the end of a pendant. The term already appears in Juvenal’s Saturae (ca. 100–130 AD) and was so familiar in everyday life that it was used without explanation. The large freshwater pearl that finishes the long gold rod of the Claudia Earrings corresponds exactly to this ancient pearl type and is therefore not merely a visual element, but a directly attested historical jewelry feature.
For which historical period and which social class is this type of earring attested?
The disc-head earring with pearl pendant is attested for the 2nd–3rd century AD throughout the Roman Empire, from Britain to Syria. Excavation finds from Augusta Rauricorum (Augst, Switzerland), documented by Emilie Riha, show the type in houses, on streets, and in public buildings. It was not a privilege of the upper class, but a widespread item of jewelry among the prosperous urban population.
How do the Claudia Earrings differ from the Lucilla Earrings from the same range?
Both models date from the Roman Imperial period and use gold-shimmering brass with freshwater pearls. The key difference lies in the type: the Lucilla Earrings follow the Crotalia type with lunula head, volute bar, and three pearl pendilia; the original model is held in the British Museum (Inv. G_1917-0601-2672). The Claudia Earrings, by contrast, belong to the disc-head type with a single long rod pendilium, calmer in effect, stronger in the vertical line.
Are the Claudia Earrings also suitable as a gift for people without a reenactment background?
Yes, for one simple reason: the disc-head earring with its long, straight vertical line and single pearl does not look costume-like outside the reenactment context. The simple geometry of the disc and the movement of the freely suspended freshwater pearl also work with modern clothing. Anyone who presents the piece together with a short story about its type is also giving a conversation starter.
The Longest Earring Scandal of Antiquity
Seneca the Younger, philosopher, Stoic, and at times the most powerful man in Rome behind Nero, wrote in the 1st century AD against the luxury of his age. In one of his letters he was outraged by precisely the kind of long pearl pendant that gives the Claudia Earrings their decisive visual weight: wealthy women, he wrote, now wore two or three pearls one above another on a single pendant, simply so that their husbands would feel poor. The Latin term for this was exnarrare, the demonstrative display of wealth through hanging pearls at the ear. What Seneca overlooked was that he himself was among the richest men in Rome, owned hundreds of ivory tables, and was lavishly paid for his philosophical life. His campaign against the pearl earring is therefore perhaps the best-known case of ancient double standards preserved in a piece of jewelry. The women kept wearing the earrings. Seneca kept writing against them. Both did what they did best.
Bibliography
Title: Greek and Roman Jewellery
Author: Reynold A. Higgins
Publication: Methuen & Co. Ltd., London Date: 1980 (2nd edition)
Title: Roman Jewellery from Augst and Kaiseraugst
Author: Emilie Riha
Publication: Roman Museum Augst Date: 1990
Title: Saturae (Satires), Book VI
Author: Decimus Iunius Iuvenalis (Juvenal)
Publication: Ancient primary source, ca. 100–130 AD. Modern reference edition: Braund, S. M. (ed.), Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press Date: 2004 (Loeb edition)
Title: Handbook of the Cesnola Collection of Antiquities from Cyprus
Author: John L. Myres
Publication: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Date: 1914
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Updated on: 07/04/2026
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