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Identification and Creation

Object Number
1964.12.14
Title
Cylindrical Container
Other Titles
Former Title: Tube
Classification
Tools and Equipment
Work Type
holder
Date
1st-3rd century CE
Places
Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World, Asia, Sardis (Lydia)
Find Spot: Middle East, Türkiye (Turkey), Western Türkiye (Turkey)
Period
Roman Imperial period
Culture
Roman
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/304228

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Leaded brass
Technique
Hammered
Dimensions
10.1 x 1.9 x 1.9 cm (4 x 3/4 x 3/4 in.)
Technical Details

Chemical Composition: XRF data from Tracer
Alloy: Leaded Brass
Alloying Elements: copper, lead, zinc
Other Elements: iron
Comments: There is a thin solder line with high levels of zinc and silver.
K. Eremin, January 2014

Technical Observations: The patina is a pitted brown, with some red and black; the original patina may have been stripped. Deformations and stress cracks are present. The cylinder was made from a hammered sheet with a longitudinal soldered seam. The bottom piece is a separate disc held in place by the crimped edge of the cylinder, which is slightly hammered over it. A square rod of iron (measuring over 3 cm) in the interior is set into the bottom disc. Engraved lines are present in the disc and around the cylinder as turned lines. The opening at the top was cut out after the lines were turned. The remarkable state of preservation of this object raises questions about its antiquity.


Carol Snow (submitted 2002)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Brought from Sardis; by Frederick Marquand Godwin, New York, (by 1914), by descent; to his wife Dorothy W. Godwin, New York (1914-1964), gift; to the Fogg Museum of Art, 1964.

Note: Frederick M. Godwin was the photographer for the excavations at Sardis with Howard Crosby Butler in 1913 and 1914.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of Mrs. Frederick M. Godwin
Accession Year
1964
Object Number
1964.12.14
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
The exterior of this hollow cylindrical container is decorated with thin, raised bands grouped into sets of three (1). One end of the container is crimped and closed, while the other is open and has an irregular opening at the other end.

Copper alloy cylindrical tubes with caps on one end could be used to hold medical instruments or medicines. The longer tubes, generally around 18 cm long, are considered more likely to have held the instruments and the smaller to have held the medicines (2).

NOTES:

1. Compare four copper alloy tubes from Roman-period France that are very similar to the Harvard piece in E. Künzl, Medizinische Instrumente aus Sepulkralfunden der römische Kaiserzeit (Bonn, 1983) 69 and 76, figs. 43.2 and 50.5-7. Three of these were found with a hoard of coins of Tetricus I (270-271 CE) and Tetricus II (273-274). Compare also two cylindrical tubes from Roman Italy found with a set of medical instruments; see R. Jackson and S. La Niece, “A Set of Roman Medical Instruments from Italy,” Britannia 17 (1986): 119-67, esp. 130-31 and 158-59, nos. 36-37, fig. 5.

2. J. S. Milne, Surgical Instruments in Greek and Roman Times (Oxford, 1907) 169-71; D. Michaelides, “A Roman Surgeon’s Tomb from Nea Paphos,” Report of the Department of Antiquities, Cyprus, 1984: 315-32, esp. 330-31; and L. J. Bliquez, Roman Surgical Instruments and Other Minor Objects in the National Archaeological Museum of Naples (Mainz, 1994) 66-68.


David Smart

Publication History

  • Jane Waldbaum, Metalwork from Sardis: The Finds through 1974, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA, 1983), p. 153, no. 1008, pl. 58.

Subjects and Contexts

  • Roman Domestic Art
  • 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