1968.95: Belt Buckle

Published Catalogue Text: Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Bronzes at the Harvard Art Museums
This long, thin belt buckle has an oval loop. A hole at one side of the loop receives the tongue, which is intact. The middle section is decorated with an “X” framed by two lines and, on one side, a row of three circles. A thin arm connects the middle section to a rounded finial, which is pierced by two holes. Two loops on the reverse would have been sewn to a belt. This style of buckle is less common than the Syracusan type (1968.93), but examples have been excavated at Byzantine sites in Syria and Turkey, including Hama, Sardis, Anemurium, and Saraçhane in Istanbul (1). A strikingly close comparandum excavated at Corinth and dated to the seventh century CE has been associated with barbarian models possibly introduced during the Avar invasion of Corinth (2).

Each of the three copper alloy Byzantine belt buckles in the Harvard collection consists of two separately cast pieces: a plaque with a loop and a tongue. The tongue was passed through a hole in the plaque and twisted closed. In 1968.93 and this example, indentations in the bars keep the tongues in place. Loops on the reverse of each buckle were sewn to one end of a belt, which was most likely made of leather.

Belts could be used with a variety of garments, including trousers or tunics, and were typically worn by men (3). Some belts were embellished with elaborate decoration and wrought in valuable materials, including enamel, luxury metals, or precious stones. Although the Harvard buckles are of modest material and workmanship, each of these utilitarian objects was enhanced by ornamental designs.

NOTES:

1. Compare J. Russell, “Byzantine Instrumenta Domestica from Anemurium: The Significance of Context,” in City, Town, and Countryside in the Early Byzantine Era, ed. R. L. Hohlfelder (Boulder, 1982) 133-63, esp. 139 and 161, figs. 7.21-22; J. Waldbaum, Archaeological Exploration of Sardis 8: Metalwork from Sardis (Cambridge, MA, 1983) 119, no. 697, pl. 44; A. P. Christensen, R. Thomsen, and G. Ploug, “The Necropolis,” in Hama 3.3: The Graeco-Roman Objects of Clay, the Coins and the Necropolis (Copenhagen, 1986) 98 and 103, fig. 34.a (mislabeled in text as fig. 34.d); R. M. Harrison, Excavations at Saraçhane in Istanbul 1: The Excavations, Structures, Architectural Decoration, Small Finds, Coins, Bones, and Molluscs (Princeton, 1986) 265, no. 565, fig. 404; and C. Eger, “Gürtelschnallen des 6. bis 8. Jahrhunderts aus der Sammlung des Studium Biblicum Franciscanum,” Liber Annuus 51 (2001): 337-50, esp. 340-42, fig. 1.5.

2. See G. R. Davidson, Corinth 12: Minor Objects (Princeton, 1952) 268 and 272, nos. 2209-10, pl. 114; G. R. Davidson, “The Avar Invasion of Corinth,” Hesperia 6 (1937): 235-36, fig. 6F; and D. Csallány, “Les monuments de l’industrie byzantine des métaux II,” Acta Antiqua Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 4 (1956): 261-91, esp. 275, pl. 7.1 [in Russian with French summary].

3. A fourth-century CE wall painting from Silistra, Bulgaria, depicts a household servant carrying his master’s trousers from which hangs a belt with its buckle; see A. Frova, Pittura romana in Bulgaria (Rome, 1943) fig. 9.


Alicia Walker