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A half circle with damaged edges.

A half circle shape with a border of concentric lines. There is damage along the edges, particularly at the top, corners, and right side. The surface is mottled dark grey and green. There are a few lines, possible symbols, carved into the surface towards the top and slightly to the right. They are only visible because they appear to be a slightly red color, having aged differently from the rest of the surface which is mostly a mottled brown and green.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1991.47
Title
Mitra with Inscription
Classification
Armor
Work Type
armor
Date
second half 7th century BCE
Places
Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World, Europe, Crete
Period
Orientalizing period
Culture
Greek
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/303776

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Bronze
Technique
Hammered
Dimensions
16 x 22.7 x 4.5 x 0.1 cm (6 5/16 x 8 15/16 x 1 3/4 x 1/16 in.)
Technical Details

Chemical Composition: XRF data from Tracer
Alloy: Bronze
Alloying Elements: copper, tin
Other Elements: lead, iron, silver, antimony, arsenic
K. Eremin, January 2014

Technical Observations: The patina is a mottled light green, with olive brown and dark gray spots in the better-preserved areas of the surface and orange in the corrosion pits.

The mitra was formed from a sheet of bronze. It is not clear from the available evidence how this sheet was produced. The rounded top edge of the mitra was formed by bending it outward, probably over a wire, and the edges of the rounded section were rolled inward over a finer wire, much like the other mitrai in Harvard’s collection (1). The decorative ribs were created by repeatedly pressing or drawing a smooth pointed tool over the back surface. The ribs were then enhanced on the front surface with carefully incised lines, some with a very fine serrated-edged tool. X-radiography shows that the metal sheet is of relatively even thickness overall except for the ribs, which are much thinner. Of the three holes that held rings in the top edge, only the central hole is preserved; the holes were cut through the decorative lines after they were created.

Most of the metal surface on the front of the mitra was originally highly polished, although restoration may account for some additional smoothing. The back surface would also have been polished, but it is almost entirely obscured by corrosion and burial accretions. The inscription that was first scratched on to the front of the mitra was enhanced with short straight lines (c. 0. 2 mm long) that were struck in sequence over the incisions.

NOTES:

1. For additional mitrai that are thought to be related to Harvard’s group, see H. D. Hoffmann and A. E. Raubitschek, Early Cretan Armorers (Mainz, 1972) esp. 10, 20, and 54-56.


Francesca G. Bewer (submitted 2000)

Inscriptions and Marks
  • inscription: in Greek, ἧλε

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
From Afrati. Ex Norbert Schimmel Collection.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of the Schimmel Foundation, Inc.
Accession Year
1991
Object Number
1991.47
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 semicircular mitra is missing many fragments of its border. It has a raised, rolled border around a molded section, which consists of plain sections framed by raised lines of varying thickness. An inscription in Archaic Cretan letters reads, “ἧλε,” (he seized or captured). The subject and object of the verb might have been on another piece of the warrior’s panoply, such as the breastplate (1). This example, unlike the other Harvard mitrai, does not have extant wire rings, although the outline of a circular hole can be seen at the midpoint of the upper border.

Harvard’s Cretan armor is part of a larger cache, portions of which are now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg; and the Heraklion Archaeological Museum. Many of the other pieces in the group are highly decorated with incised and repousse images. The objects do not appear to have been part of a dedication to a deity, given the inscriptions found on the pieces. I Fourteen pieces of armor from the cache bear dedicatory inscriptions, naming several different warriors, and these seem to indicate that the group of armor was captured in battle and dedicated together as a group (2). It has also been suggested, however, that they perhaps were used for a war dance rather than for combat (3).

The term “mitra” is known from Homeric literature as a piece of armor worn near the waist; the same word was later used to refer to a type of headwear. No contemporary depictions of warriors show how these semicircular objects were worn (4). Semicircular pieces of bronze, like this piece, are often found in caches of armor, indicating that they were part of a warrior’s panoply, but they may not in fact be ancient mitrai.

NOTES:

1. For a discussion of the inscriptions on Archaic armor and the Afrati cache in particular, see H. Hoffmann and A. E. Raubitschek, Early Cretan Armorers (Mainz, 1972) 15-16; and G. Neumann, “Zu den kretischen Kriegernamen auf den Waffen von Afrati,” Zeitschrift für verleichende Sprachforschung 88.1 (1974): 32-40.

2. See Hoffmann and Raubitschek 1972 (supra 1) 15-16.

3. For a discussion of this armor cache being used for a war dance, see E. Simon, “Die Waffen von Arkades: Ausrüstung für die Pyrrhiche,” Anodos: Studies of the Ancient World 4-5 (2004-2005): 231-42, esp. 239-41; and M. Lesky, “4.b. Dance, G: Waffentänze in der griechischen und etruskischen Antike,” Thesaurus Cultus Et Rituum Antiquorum 2: 314-17.

4. For a possible reconstruction of how these semicircular bronze objects could have been worn as part of a warrior’s panoply, see Kriegswesen 1: Schutzwaffen und Wehrbauten, eds. H. G. Buchholz and J. Wiesner, Archaeologia Homerica: Die Denkmäler und das frühgriechische Epos 1.E.1 (Göttingen, 1977) E135-54, esp. E139, fig. 23.


Lisa M. Anderson

Publication History

  • Suzannah F. Doeringer, David Gordon Mitten, and Arthur Steinberg, ed., Art and Technology: A Symposium on Classical Bronzes, M.I.T. Press (Cambridge, MA, 1970), p. 132, no. M 8, fig. 4.
  • Friedrich Matz and Lisa Lotte Möller, Dädalische Kunst auf Kreta im 7. Jh. v. Chr., Verlag Philipp von Zabern (Mainz, 1970), p. 37, 39, no. A 15.
  • Herbert D. Hoffmann and A.E. Raubitschek, Early Cretan Armorers, Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1972), p. 13, no. M 8, pl. 38.1.
  • Gunter Neumann, "Zu den kretischen Kriegernamen auf den Waffen von Afrati", Zeitschrift für vergleichende Sprachforschung (1974), Vol. 88, Bd. 1, 32-40, as M8.

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