Published Catalogue Text: Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Bronzes at the Harvard Art Museums
This parabolic votive matrix bears a different incised scene on each side. On one side are two banqueters, one seated with one leg crossed over the other (1), facing to the right. The other figure, seated with both legs crossed, faces to the left. Both figures wear strips of cloth wrapped around their heads, the ends dangling behind them (2). Above each head is a crescent with an interior dot, perhaps marking them as deities or royalty (3). The figures seem to wear long sleeved shirts and baggy trousers. The figure on the left holds out a large cup in his right hand, while placing his left hand on his leg. The figure on the right holds a cup to his chest with his right hand, while his left hand is also placed on his leg. Two animals, possibly dogs, are at the bottom of the object, facing outward. The two banqueters are seated on a long rectangular shape with a checkerboard pattern interior. A decorative element hangs between the heads of the two figures, and the entire scene is surrounded by a beaded border.
On the other side, a man is shown riding an ibex to the left (4). The man perhaps wears a cuirass and baggy trousers, and like the figures on the front he also has a head wrap and crescent with a dot above his head. A floral object is in the field between the head of the man and the ibex. There is a quiver with arrows on his left hip, and he holds an upright spear in his left hand, while his right hand grasps the reins of the ibex. The ibex is equipped like a horse, with bridle, reins, and other decorations on its haunches. Its left forehoof is raised, while the other three hooves are on the groundline, which is filled with a lattice pattern. A beaded border surrounds this scene as well. The sides of the object are smooth and undecorated.
The round, relief-decorated discs in this group (2001.179.1 through 2001.192, along with 2002.281) may not all have had the same use, and it is difficult to know what the exact function of each object was (5). Medallions of this type could have been used as matrixes to create thin, metal, particularly gold and silver, repoussé appliques as elements of decoration and jewelry, or they could have been used as decorative elements themselves (6). Some could have been decorative elements of furniture fittings (7). Others could have decorated horse harnesses or provided the matrix to create decoration for horse harnesses (8). Other potential uses are as decorative elements or models for decorative elements worn by individuals as part of jewelry or belt decorations, as seen in sculptural depictions (9). Some might have been devotional or votive objects in their own right (10).
NOTES:
1. The reverses of some Parthian coins show the king, seated on a low throne, and archers seated on low rocks, with one leg crossed over the other in similar fashion; see American Numismatic Society, New York, inv. nos. 1944.100.83321 (AR tetradrachm, Seleuceia ad Tigrim, 146-147 CE); and 1944.100.82114 (AR drachm, Ecbatana, 127-124 BCE).
2. Compare Parthian coins where the profile heads are sometimes shown with a fillet tied behind their heads, ends trailing down the back; American Numismatic Society, New York, inv. no. 1944.100.83069 (AR drachm of Ecbatana, 10-38 CE); 1944.100.82997 (AR tetradrachm, Seleuceia ad Tigrim, 10-11 CE); 1944.100.83014 (AR tetradrachm, Seleuceia ad Tigrim, 26-27 CE); 1944.100.83224 (AR tetradrachm, Seleuceia ad Tigrim, 77-78 CE); and 1944.100.82109 (AR tetradrachm, Seleuceia ad Tigrim, 127-124 BCE).
3. Crescents with stars in them also appear on Parthian coinage, either above an individual’s head or as the reverse type by itself; see American Numismatic Society, New York, inv. nos. 1944.100.82925-26 (AE coin, Ecbatana, 38-2 BCE); and 1973.56.1634 (AR drachm, Ecbatana, 38-2 BCE).
4. Ibexes also occur on Parthian coinage; see American Numismatic Society, New York, inv. nos. 1944.100.83559-64 (AE coin, Ecbatana, 216-224 CE); 1944.100.82105 (AE coin, Ecbatana, 138-127 BCE).
5. Similar medallions are known in other museum collections, including a medallion with a bust of Aphrodite in the Princeton University Art Museum, inv. no. y605, said to be from Syria; a medallion with a bust of Artemis in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, inv. no. 74.51.5537, from Cyprus; a medallion with the bust of a woman flanked by a child in the British Museum, London, inv. no. 1975,0316.23. For bust medallions of various sizes (from 1.5 to 13 cm) and levels of relief, see E. Babelon and J.-A. Blanchet, Catalogue des bronzes antiques de la Bibliothéque Nationale (Paris, 1895) 12-13, 55, 65-66, 110, 132, 178, 193, 214, 264, 316-17, 359-60, 369, and 445; nos. 25, 28, 120, 143-44, 253, 301, 400, 434, 491, 622, 712, 715, 827, 844, and 1022.
6. See M. Y. Treister, Hammering Techniques in Greek and Roman Jewellery and Toreutics, Colloquia Pontica 8 (Leiden, 2001) esp. “The Galjûb Hoard,” 253-73, and “Bronze Matrices in the Museums of Athens and Karlsruhe,” 362-71.
7. There are many surviving examples of this type, often with an animal, often a leopard, placing one or both forepaws on top of the medallion. Compare various examples in the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, inv. nos. 31630 and Fr. 1552 g 6-8; Babelon and Blanchet 1895 (supra 5) 474, no. 1133; and in the British Museum, London, inv. nos. 1856,1226.867 and 1872,1214.1.
8. See G. Greco, Bronzi dorati da Cartoceto: Un restauro, exh. cat., Museo Archaeologico, Florence (Florence, 1987) pls. 1-3 and 10-13. The horse heads had small round medallions decorated with busts in relief on the mouth, temples, and forehead of the harnesses. See also the gilt bronze horse head in the Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore, inv. no. 54.759, which bears two medallions with busts, similar to this group in C. C. Mattusch, ed., The Fire of Hephaistos: Large Classical Bronzes from North American Collections, exh. cat., Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Harvard University; Toledo Museum of Art; Tampa Museum of Art (Cambridge, 1996) 216-19, no. 20.
9. See the representation of an Archigallus (high priest) of Cybele, wearing a wreath decorated by circular medallions with busts in Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae Kybele no. 130. Marcus Caelius, a member of one of the three legions destroyed in the battle of the Teutoburger Forest in 9 CE, is represented in a cenotaph wearing various military awards, including phalerae in the form of medallions with heads, including one representing a gorgoneion, on his cuirass; see G. Webster, The Roman Imperial Army of the First and Second Centuries A.D., 3rd edn. (Norman, 1998) 132, pl. 6. For examples of relief bust medallions decorating belts, see F. Safar and M. A. Mustafa, Hatra: The City of the Sun God (Baghdad, 1974) 62, 64, and 210-11, nos. 3, 5, and 198 [in Arabic].
10. For example, 2001.189 and 2002.281; compare 1993.233.
Lisa M. Anderson
