Stone, 10.99 grams, 42.74 mm. 5th-2nd century BC. A pierced elongated ceramic bar of lentoid section. On one face is the figure of an elk, head lowered and antlers thrust aggressively forward. On the reverse is a mountain lion advancing with its tail erect. The attack of lion and elk was a common motif in Scythian art, underscoring predation and thus of natural hierarchies. Reference: Vickers, M. Scythian and Thracian Antiquities, Oxford, 2002, plates 13 and 16. Very fine condition. Provenance: from an old English collection.