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Identification and Creation

Object Number
1986.516
Title
Spectacle Fibula
Classification
Jewelry
Work Type
pin, fibula
Date
8th century BCE
Places
Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World, Europe, Northern Greece
Period
Geometric period
Culture
Greek
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/303652

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Bronze
Technique
Hammered
Dimensions
8.2 x 20.7 x 1 cm (3 1/4 x 8 1/8 x 3/8 in.)
Technical Details

Chemical Composition: ICP-MS/AAA data from sample, Bronze:

Cu, 90.8; Sn, 8.74; Pb, 0.13; Zn, 0.004; Fe, 0.08; Ni, 0.02; Ag, 0.08; Sb, 0.14; As, less than 0.10; Bi, less than 0.025; Co, less than 0.10; Au, less than 0.01; Cd, less than 0.001

J. Riederer

Comments: This object was not supposed to be sampled. This sample may have been taken from another object.

Technical Observations: The patina is predominantly a smooth green and brown with green corrosion products on the upper surface. The reverse of the fibula shows a few fibrous pseudomorphs in the green corrosion. The fibula is intact with only minor losses to the original surface

The fibula was made from a square-sectioned rod that was shaped into spirals and twists through hot working with annealing as needed to keep the metal malleable, beginning at both ends and working toward the twisted figure-eight in the center. The spirals were apparently hammered slightly flat toward the outside, as the rod appears wider and less square-shaped in section there. The end of the pin was rounded off before being hammered down into place. The length of rod for this fibula would have measured nearly 2.5 m long when straight.


Carol Snow (submitted 2002)

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of Robert A. Kagan
Accession Year
1986
Object Number
1986.516
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 large, intact spectacle fibula retains its original springiness, as with many spectacle fibulae. The tip of the pin projects 2.52 cm beyond the catchplate. The wire is square in section and varies in thickness from 0.53 cm in the middle of the fibula to 0.28 cm at the tip of the pin and the catchplate. The spiral from which the pin begins has eight turns, while the opposite spiral, from which the catchplate emerges, has nine. The wire emerges from both spirals in the center to form two identical circular loops diagonally oriented in the middle of the fibula. Since using pairs of such large spectacle fibulae on costumes might present problems for human wearers, it seems possible that such fibulae were dedicated as votive gifts in northern Greek Iron Age sanctuaries, perhaps attached to costumes presented to the deity or even placed over a deity’s images.

These fibulae (1952.15, 1952.112, and 1986.516) represent the miniature and monumental ends of the scale of this type of symmetrical fibula, which was commonly termed a “spectacle fibula.” Each was fashioned from a single thin bronze wire, square in section, which was annealed and turned in order to create the symmetrical spiral patterns and the springy elasticity needed to close them. One sharpened end of this wire, forming the pin proper, fits into the other end, which turns up to form a catchplate. Spectacle fibulae were widely distributed throughout the Balkans and northern Greece during the eighth century BCE (1). Excavations of rich burials in the Iron Age tumuli of Vergina and elsewhere have shown that these fibulae occur in pairs, placed over the shoulders of skeletons (2). They also served as dedications in sanctuaries throughout northern and central Greece and the Peloponnesus (3). Thus, they seem to have served to connect the front and back halves of garments at the shoulders of the wearers. It would be interesting to discover whether the presence of pairs of spectacle fibulae in graves is an indicator of female burials, or if both sexes wore two. They also served as dedications.

NOTES:

1. J. Alexander, “The Spectacle Fibulae of Southern Europe,” American Journal of Archaeology 69 (1965): 7-23; K. Kilian, Fibeln in Thessalien von der mykenischen bis zur archaischen Zeit, Prähistorische Bronzefunde 14.2 (Munich, 1975) 132-48 and 234 (examples found at the sanctuary at Pherae in southern Thessaly), nos. 1567-710 (see esp. nos. 1567, 1574, 1576, 1627-28, and 1710), pls. 56-58; I. Kilian-Dirlmeier, “Bemerkungen zu den Fingerringen mit Spiralenden,” Jahrbuch des Römisch-Germanischen Zentralmuseums, Mainz 27 (1980): 249-69; and ead., Kleinfunde aus dem Athena Itonia-Heiligtum bei Philia (Thessalien) (Mainz, 2002) 42 n.176, nos. 580-86, pl. 40.

2. M. Andronikos, Βεργίνα 1: Το νεκροταφείον των τύμβων = Vergina 1: To nekrotapheion tōn tymvōn, Vivliothēkē tēs en Athēnais Archaiologikēs Hetaireias 62 (Athens, 1969) 227-30, figs. 67-68 [in Greek].

3. For examples at Olympia, see H. Philipp, Bronzeschmuck aus Olympia, Olympische Forschungen 13 (Berlin, 1981) 295-301, esp. 299 nn.503-504, no. 1070, pl. 65.


David G. Mitten

Publication History

  • Dr. Herbert A. Cahn, Early Art in Greece: The Cycladic, Minoan, Mycenaean, and Geometric Periods, exh. cat., André Emmerich Gallery (New York, NY, 1965), p. 34, no. 94.

Subjects and Contexts

  • Ancient Bronzes

Related Works

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