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A horseshoe shaped metal fragment

This small metal loop has a coarse, nubby textured surface, and a dark patina with green and red flecks. Its narrow form is curved in a horseshoe shape and one end is tapered to a flat, outward pointing shape. The opposite end is asymmetrically wider, and the flattened tip is missing, with the rough broken edge showing.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1920.44.268
Title
Attachment Loop
Other Titles
Alternate Title: Loop Handle
Alternate Title: fragmentary handle
Classification
Vessels
Work Type
handle
Date
7th-2nd century BCE
Places
Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World
Period
Archaic period to Hellenistic
Culture
Etruscan
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/303970

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Bronze
Technique
Cast, lost-wax process
Dimensions
3.9 x 3.8 cm (1 9/16 x 1 1/2 in.)
Technical Details

Chemical Composition: XRF data from Tracer
Alloy: Bronze
Alloying Elements: copper, tin
Other Elements: iron, silver

K. Eremin, January 2014

Technical Observations: The patina is a lumpy green and red. One tip is broken off, while lamellar cracking is present on the remaining end. The object was cast and wrought to shape the curve as well as to shape and flatten the ends.


Carol Snow (submitted 2002)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Miss Elizabeth Gaskell Norton, Boston, MA and Miss Margaret Norton, Cambridge, MA (by 1920), gift; to the Fogg Art Museum, 1920.

Note: The Misses Norton were daughters of Charles Elliot Norton (1827-1908).

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of the Misses Norton
Accession Year
1920
Object Number
1920.44.268
Division
Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact
am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
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Descriptions

Published Catalogue Text: Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Bronzes at the Harvard Art Museums
This small rod, circular in section, is bent into a horseshoe shape. One end appears to be intact and has been flattened into a leaf shape. It is possible that this loop was used as an attachment loop linking a handle to a situla, or bucket, where the loop would have been attached to the situla, while the handle would have been attached to this loop (1).

NOTES:

1. Compare a situla at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, inv. no. MS 1509; see J. M. Turfa, Catalogue of the Etruscan Gallery of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (Philadelphia, 2005) 90, no. 14; and H. F. de Cou, “The Bronzes of the Argive Heraeum,” in The Argive Heraeum 2, ed. C. Waldstein (Boston, 1905) 191-332, esp. 288, nos. 2049-53, pl. 119, described as handles rather than attachments.


Lisa M. Anderson

Subjects and Contexts

  • 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