Published Catalogue Text: Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Bronzes at the Harvard Art Museums
The band is made of a long wire that has been bent double and coiled into two and a half spirals, making the band four to six wires thick. The ends of the wire are not currently bound together, but on one end, there is a thicker blob of metal, possibly showing that they were joined by adding molten metal that has since cracked, with the wires separating.
Although a specific use for the bands is not known, in the cases where they have been excavated, they have been found in pairs in female graves (1).
NOTES:
1. See F. Jurgeit, Die etruskischen und italischen Bronzen sowie Gegenstände aus Eisen, Blei, und Leder im Badischen Landesmuseum Karlsruhe, Terra Italia 5 (Pisa, 1999) 595, no. 1013, pl. 276; and K. Kilian, Früheisenzeitliche Funde aus der Südostnekropole von Sala Consilina (1970) 188-89, type R4a, pls. 43, 61, 78, and 89. Similar bands, such as Kilian’s type R4b, also have small rings attached, like 1987.135.30; see ibid., pl. 23, Gr A55. Compare also A. M. Bietti Sestieri and E. Macnamara, Prehistoric Metal Artefacts from Italy (3500-720 BC) in the British Museum (London, 2007) 19 and 195, “bracelet” type 4, nos. 638-44; a ring is attached to no. 638.
Lisa M. Anderson
