This pair of ear ornaments appears to be a continuation of a much earlier jewellery tradition that originates in the Sa Huynh culture (500 BCE – 100 CE). Thought to be the ancestral culture of the Chams, Sa Huynh burials have revealed stone and glass ornaments with similar forms. Scholars have suggested that this early culture migrated southwards by sea into Southeast Asia, as similar pieces have been excavated in many places, from southern Taiwan to the Philippines, Borneo and south-central Vietnam. The later gold forms such as these examples, with spiral projections and applied granules can also be found in the Philippines dating from the 6th to 14th centuries.
