Published Catalogue Text: Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Bronzes at the Harvard Art Museums
This unusual piece was found in the collection and accessioned in 1964, but nothing is known about how it came to be at Harvard (1). Three groups of objects are covered by this accession number: the main piece as assembled, a box of “ancient” fragments, and a box of “modern” fragments. The fragments were removed from the structure in 1998 (2). The main difference between the groups of fragments is a thick, white coating on the pieces labeled as modern. The group of modern fragments consists of twenty large fragments, all of which are slightly curved. The group of fragments designated as ancient consists of four large fragments. One is held together with tape, another is riveted together from several parts, and the other two have holes. One ancient rivet is kept in a vial, and there are dozens of smaller fragments.
The main structure of the object consists of sheet metal riveted to a substructure with cast teeth added. The back of the piece seems to form a hemispherical dome, perhaps replicating the top of a head, although it is currently open. Portions of what may be large, elliptical eyes in relief are visible on the edges of the opening, which situates the eyes more on top of the head than on the sides, although it is possible that the dome had been malformed after manufacture. The hemispherical dome is connected to structures forming the long snout of a carnivore. The cast teeth, with large upper and lower canines, do not correspond to any known mammal.
Although this object has been described previously as a helmet, perhaps used as part of a ritual, the interpretation of the object as a helmet depends greatly on the modern reconstruction (3). The closest comparanda for the upper part of the head are boar-head protomes on Etruscan chariots, which consist of the top section of boar heads, including the snout, eyes, ears, and sometimes crests, but not the lower jaws (4). These protomes covered the draft poles of chariots at the juncture of the pole and the main body of the chariot. It is possible that the eyes, top of the snout, and parts of the upper dome are ancient pieces from an Etruscan chariot, while other sections, such as the teeth, tongue, and nose piece, were added later to create a more cohesive piece.
NOTES:
1. The earliest record of the object at Harvard is a photograph from the late 1940s of the object next to Rutherford Gettens, a conservator at the Fogg Art Museum; see F. Bewer, A Laboratory for Art: Harvard’s Fogg Museum and the Emergence of Conservation in America, 1900-1950 (Cambridge, MA, 2010) 163, fig. 4.11.
2. See the “Technical Observations” field.
3. See J. Elliott, “The Etruscan Wolfman in Myth and Ritual,” Etruscan Studies 2 (1995): 17-33.
4. Compare the chariot from Monteleone di Spoleto in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; see A. Emiliozzi, “The Etruscan Chariot from Monteleone di Spoleto,” Metropolitan Museum Journal 46.1 (2011): 9-132, esp. 72-75, no. 2a-d, figs. 1.7-8, 1.26, 1.30-31, 3.2, 3.5, and 5.11-22. Compare similar protomes on the Dutuit chariot and chariot 1 from Castel San Mariano di Corciano, Perugia in A. Emiliozzi, ed., Carri da guerra e principi etruschi, exh. cat., Viterbo, Palazzo dei Papi (Rome, 1997) 220, figs. 1, 4-5, and 10.
Lisa M. Anderson
