1992.256.68: Mirror
MirrorsIdentification and Creation
- Object Number
- 1992.256.68
- Title
- Mirror
- Classification
- Mirrors
- Work Type
- mirror
- Date
- 10th-9th century BCE
- Places
- Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World
- Period
- Iron Age
- Culture
- Near Eastern
- Persistent Link
- https://hvrd.art/o/310296
Physical Descriptions
- Medium
- Bronze
- Technique
- Cast, lost-wax process
- Dimensions
- 13.9 x 11.1 x 0.3 cm (5 1/2 x 4 3/8 x 1/8 in.)
- Technical Details
-
Chemical Composition: XRF data from Artax 1
Alloy: Bronze
Alloying Elements: copper, tin
Other Elements: lead, iron, arsenic
K. Eremin, January 2014
XRF data from Tracer
Alloy: Bronze
Alloying Elements: copper, tin
Other Elements: lead, iron, antimony, arsenic
K. Eremin, January 2014Technical Observations: The patina is green and survives on over one-fifth of surface. Underlying red and black are exposed on the remainder of the surface, but there are also brown burial accretions. The original surface is fairly well preserved in many of the exposed red areas.
The shape is not a perfect circle. The tang has the same thickness and surface as the mirror disc. It is likely the mirror was cast from a model formed directly in the wax. No incised lines or other surface decorations are visible.
Henry Lie (submitted 2012)
Provenance
- Recorded Ownership History
- Louise M. and George E. Bates, Camden, ME (by 1971-1992), gift; to the Harvard University Art Museums, 1992.
Acquisition and Rights
- Credit Line
- Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of Louise M. and George E. Bates
- Accession Year
- 1992
- Object Number
- 1992.256.68
- Division
- Asian and Mediterranean Art
- Contact
- am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
- Permissions
-
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Descriptions
Published Catalogue Text: Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Bronzes at the Harvard Art Museums
This imperfectly round, flat mirror has a short, rectangular tang. The tang would have been inserted into a handle of wood or bone that is no longer preserved. A number of similar mirrors were excavated at Cemetery B of Tepe Sialk in northwest Iran, a context that is dated from the tenth to ninth centuries BCE (1). These mirrors were discovered near the hands of the skeletons, sometimes in a position that could have caught the reflection of the face.
In northwest Iran, examples of similar mirrors, but with pierced tangs, have been excavated from tombs dated from the late second to early first millennia BCE at Marlik and at the necropolis of Khūrvīn (2). It appears that tanged-disc mirrors were popular for several centuries, as remarkably consistent examples were found at Deve Hüyük II, a cemetery site in south-central Turkey, dated to approximately the fifth century BCE. These burials are believed to contain the remains of Achaemenid soldiers and what may be local women.
NOTES:
1. See R. Ghirshman, Fouilles de Sialk près de Kashan, 1933, 1934, 1937 (Paris, 1939) 2: 59, 220, 230, 239-40, and 243, pls. 29, 52, 67, 69, 72-73, and 89.
2. See E. O. Negahban, Marlik: The Complete Excavation Report, University Museum Monograph 87 (Philadelphia, 1996) 311, no. 971, pl. 139; and L. Vanden Berghe, La nécropole de Khūrvīn (Istanbul, 1964) 36-38 and 70, no. 350, pl. 47.
3. See P. R. S. Moorey, Cemeteries of the First Millennium B.C. at Deve Hüyük, BAR Int. Ser. 87 (Oxford, 1980) 94, nos. 385-88, fig. 15.
Amy Gansell
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