- Chapter Twenty -
orientalizing origin includes sphinxes, animals devouring a human head or arm and
the human figure supported by a 'tree of life' comprising writhing bird-or 'dragon'-
headed lyre-shaped forms. Clearly symbolic and certainly not narrative in its intent
this 'master (or mistress) of the beasts' is largely confined to one group of objects,
the so-called 'Ticino' openwork belt-hooks of the early fourth century mainly
from Switzerland and northern Italy; the ultimate oriental origin is 'the ram in the
Figure 20.16 Iron scabbards with incised dragon pairs: top: type Il (the earliest) from
Taliandorogd, Veszprem, Hungary. W. 6.8 cm. [.300 Be. (Photo: E. Neuffer Archive, courtesy
Romisch-Germanische Kommission, Frankfurt); bottom: type I dragons from Marnay, Saone-
et-Loire, France. W. 5 cm. Earlier third century Be. (Photo: Musee Denon, Chalon-sur-Saone.)