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Identification and Creation

Object Number
1939.127
Title
Instrument with Eyelet
Other Titles
Former Title: Pin
Classification
Tools and Equipment
Work Type
pin
Date
1st Millennium CE
Places
Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World, Asia, Antioch (Syria)
Find Spot: Middle East, Türkiye (Turkey)
Period
Roman Imperial period, Late, to Early Byzantine
Culture
Roman
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/310774

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Copper alloy
Technique
Cast and hammered
Dimensions
8 x 1.6 x 0.5 cm (3 1/8 x 5/8 x 3/16 in.)
Technical Details

Technical Observations: The patina is black with metal showing through and small areas of green. The shaft is bent into an S-shape. The implement appears to have been fashioned by hammering from a piece of rod stock. The shaft is quadrangular in section. The decorated end was shaped into nodules and grooves, with the flat terminal section drilled to form an eyelet. One end is broken and may have been bent intentionally. The pin was probably cast in its rough form and then hammered with annealing to further shape the shaft. The break at the end of the shaft has a convex contour, which may be half of a hole that was formed in the end.


Carol Snow and Henry Lie (submitted 2002, updated 2010)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Excavated from Antioch, sector 17-O (no. a-394-U544) (Turkey, Hatay) by the Syrian Department of Antiquities (later the Hatay government) and the Committee for the Excavation of Antioch and Its Vicinity, (1935-1939), dispersed; to Fogg Art Museum, 1939.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of the Committee for the Excavation of Antioch and its Vicinity
Accession Year
1939
Object Number
1939.127
Division
Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact
am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Descriptions

Published Catalogue Text: Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Bronzes at the Harvard Art Museums
This instrument has a round eyelet mounted above an oblong bead that is framed by decorative round collars. The shaft is circular initially but becomes square and swells slightly, ending in a V-shaped groove. The shaft is bent near the eyelet in an S-curve.

The eyelet may indicate the instrument was part of a set of other tools held on a ring similar to a set of toilet instruments in the British Museum, London (1).

NOTES:

1. See H. B. Walters, Catalogue of the Bronzes in the British Museum: Greek, Roman and Etruscan (London, 1899) 317, no. 2394.


David Smart

Exhibition History

  • Antioch-on-the-Orontes: Excavating an Early Byzantine City, Dumbarton Oaks Research Library & Collection, Washington, 04/07/2010 - 10/10/2010

Subjects and Contexts

  • Roman Domestic Art
  • Ancient Bronzes

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu