Its quality and iconography mark this lid as an exceptional object. The extremely fine details of the repoussé are further enhanced by the subtle use of gilding. The lid is decorated in high relief with sacrificial animals and religious objects, packed tightly onto a framed rectangular panel, while the remaining background is stippled. Featured prominently are the heads of a ram, a bull, and a goat, animals commonly used as offerings at major public ceremonies. Below the three heads appear cultic objects, including a flaring torch, a libation bowl, a bundle of wood, a sheathed knife, and a pomegranate. Some objects are partially hidden by two other animals, a small bound deer and a rooster, which also represent offerings.

Such elaborate and symbolic decoration strongly suggests that the box to which the lid belonged had some religious function. A remarkably similar silver lid preserved in the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (attached to an ancient but alien silver box) was acquired in Rome in 1841. Our lid has been associated for about three generations with the Roman bone pyxis and the rock crystal and silver spoon illustrated on the next page.