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## The Gold Bracelet Itself
The bracelet found with the adult in the House of the Golden Bracelet is, independent of any interpretation of its wearer’s identity, a significant archaeological object. It weighs more than a pound, a substantial mass of worked gold. Its form — a coiled serpent with two heads holding a medallion of the goddess Selene — places it within a tradition of Roman protective jewelry that was associated with domestic religion, with the divine protection of the household and its members, and with the cult of the moon goddess.
Gold snake bracelets were worn in Roman antiquity across a range of social contexts. They appear in portraiture, in funerary contexts, and in the archaeological record of domestic settings. The serpent was associated in Roman religious culture with the *Lares* — the protective spirits of the household — and snake imagery appears in the wall paintings of Pompeii’s houses in contexts associated with domestic cult. A bracelet in this form is an object with symbolic valence beyond simple ornamentation.
Whether the person wearing it was a member of the household who owned it, or a member of the household in some other capacity who happened to be wearing it or carrying it at the moment of the eruption, cannot be determined from the physical evidence. The bracelet’s presence with this individual gave the house its name and gave the interpretation of the individual its most prominent visual clue. The gold speaks of wealth and connection to the cult of domestic protection. It does not speak of biological sex or family role.