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Identification and Creation

Object Number
1939.129
Title
Pin with Eyelet
Classification
Jewelry
Work Type
pin
Date
3rd-7th century
Places
Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World, Asia, Syria, Daphne (Syria)
Find Spot: Middle East, Türkiye (Turkey)
Period
Roman Imperial period, Late, to Early Byzantine
Culture
Roman
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/310825

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Copper alloy
Technique
Cast and hammered
Dimensions
12.2 x 0.5 x 0.5 cm (4 13/16 x 3/16 x 3/16 in.)
Technical Details

Technical Observations: The patina is dark brown with metal showing through. The surface is slightly rough from corrosion. One of the four openwork columns of the finial is broken and held in place with soil accretions.

The object is intact. The pin was made by lost-wax casting, with hot working to shape the pin. The shaft appears to have been tapered by hammering and retains a slightly square section. The details of the decorative finial appear to have been shaped by cold working, and the openwork section seems to have been created by drilling and sawing through the center to create a cavity, although fine marks from the tools used have not survived.


Carol Snow and Henry Lie (submitted 2002, updated 2010)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Excavated from Daphne, sector 27-O (no. A934-U597) (Turkey, Hatay) by the Syrian Department of Antiquities (later the Hatay government) and the Committee for the Excavation of Antioch and Its Vicinity, (1935-1939), dispersed; to Fogg Art Museum, 1939.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of the Committee for the Excavation of Antioch and its Vicinity
Accession Year
1939
Object Number
1939.129
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 pin has a large, square handle that bulges slightly in the middle and is surmounted by six small ridges, two circular rings, and a small spherical ball. A long rectangular hole is cut through the handle on all four sides and is framed with rope-like striations. Four ridges and ribs of the same width are visible underneath the rectangular hole of the handle. The square shaft tapers to a sharp point.

Due to its decorative elements, it is possible that this object was a piece of jewelry rather than a tool (1).

NOTES:

1. Compare S. Boucher, G. Perdu, and M. Feugère, Bronzes antiques du Musée de la civilisation gallo-romaine à Lyon 2: Instrumentum, Aegyptiaca (Lyon, 1980) 116-17, no. 641.


David Smart

Exhibition History

  • Antioch-on-the-Orontes: Excavating an Early Byzantine City, Dumbarton Oaks Research Library & Collection, Washington, 04/07/2010 - 10/10/2010

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