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A half-circle object with rings at the top.

A half circle object. There are two rings attached to holes at the top in the middle and in the top right corner. The top left corner is broken, a piece sitting separate from the whole, and where a third ring may have been is gone. It is a mottled brown with a green patina. The edge has a border of a few carved lines. Along the top edge, under the border, there are carved linear symbols barely visible.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1991.38
Title
Mitra with Inscription
Classification
Armor
Work Type
armor
Date
second half 7th century BCE
Places
Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World, Europe, Crete
Period
Orientalizing period
Culture
Greek
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/311834

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Bronze
Technique
Hammered
Dimensions
mitra: 16.5 x 23.4 x 4.8 x 0.1 cm (6 1/2 x 9 3/16 x 1 7/8)
ring: 2 cm (13/16 in.)
Technical Details

Chemical Composition: XRF data from Tracer
Alloy: Bronze
Alloying Elements: copper, tin
Other Elements: lead, iron, nickel, silver, arsenic
K. Eremin, January 2014

Chemical Composition: SEM-WDS data from sample, Bronze:
Cu, 87.2; Sn, 12.1; Pb, nd; Zn, nd; Fe, 0.15; Ni, 0.09; Ag, nd; Sb, nd; As, 0.09; Co, 0.23
Comments: Considerable intergranular corrosion.

R. Newman, June 2015

Technical Observations: The patina is mottled light green, reddish brown, black, and whitish. The surface is smooth in some areas, but much of the detail is disturbed or covered by the many raised welts and accretions resulting from corrosion.

The mitra was made from a piece of bronze sheet that was given its raised form by hammering. The edges are thinner than the bowed area in the center of the mitra. Most traces of hammering appear to have been lost as a result of a combination of the original finishing process, subsequent corrosion, and more recent cleaning of the metal. The only remaining evidence of hammering may be visible in the x-radiographs, which show a faint pattern of mottled broad lines across the piece that are less dense.

The curled edges of the mitra were formed by rolling them around thin wires (1). One of these wires appears to be visible through the break in the upper edge of the mitra, but the x-radiographs show no trace of the wires except for the hollow area inside the rounded edge. It is possible that it corroded or that it was removed.

The ribs appear to have been formed by drawing or pressing a sharp tool along the back of the sheet metal. It is not clear from looking at the front or back whether some kind of mold or guide was used to help create the ribs. The inscribed lines are discontinuous and overlap at the end of certain strokes. The inscription was recovered by an earlier restoration from a very corroded surface, which obscured the nature of the original tool marks. In some areas, the use of two elongated punch tools, one 2 mm and the other 5 mm long, is now clear.

NOTES:

1. For additional mitrai that are thought to be related to Harvard’s group, see H. D. Hoffmann and A. E. Raubitschek, Early Cretan Armorers (Mainz, 1972) esp. 10, 20, and 54-56.


Francesca G. Bewer (submitted 2000)

Inscriptions and Marks
  • inscription: in Greek, Fισοκράτης τόνδε
    [The mitra has the same inscription as helmet 1991.44.]

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
From Afrati. Ex Norbert Schimmel Collection.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of the Schimmel Foundation, Inc.
Accession Year
1991
Object Number
1991.38
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
This semicircular mitra is intact except for the upper left corner and part of the outer border. It has a raised, rolled border around a molded section, which consists of plain sections framed by raised lines of varying thickness. An inscription in Archaic Cretan letters reads, “Fισοκράτης τόνδε,” (Fisokrates [took] this) (1). Two wire rings pierce the midpoint and extant corner of the upper border.



Harvard’s Cretan armor is part of a larger cache, portions of which are now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg; and the Heraklion Archaeological Museum. Many of the other pieces in the group are highly decorated with incised and repousse images. The objects do not appear to have been part of a dedication to a deity, given the inscriptions found on the pieces. Fourteen pieces of armor from the cache bear dedicatory inscriptions, naming several different warriors, and these seem to indicate that the group of armor was captured in battle and dedicated together as a group (2). It has also been suggested, however, that they perhaps were used for a war dance rather than for combat (3).



The term “mitra” is known from Homeric literature as a piece of armor worn near the waist; the same word was later used to refer to a type of headwear. No contemporary depictions of warriors show how these semicircular objects were worn (4). Semicircular pieces of bronze, like this piece, are often found in caches of armor, indicating that they were part of a warrior’s panoply, but they may not in fact be ancient mitrai.



NOTES:



1. The same inscription occurs helmet 1991.44. The verb “ἧλε” (to take or capture) appears in inscriptions on other elements of armor from this cache (see 1991.37 and 1991.47) and can therefore be understood here. For a discussion of the inscriptions on Archaic armor and the Afrati cache in particular, see H. Hoffmann and A. E. Raubitschek, Early Cretan Armorers (Mainz, 1972) 15-16; and G. Neumann, “Zu den kretischen Kriegernamen auf den Waffen von Afrati,” Zeitschrift für verleichende Sprachforschung 88.1 (1974): 32-40.



2. See Hoffmann and Raubitschek 1972 (supra 1) 15-16.



3. For a discussion of this armor cache being used for a war dance, see E. Simon, “Die Waffen von Arkades: Ausrüstung für die Pyrrhiche,” Anodos: Studies of the Ancient World 4-5 (2004-2005): 231-42, esp. 239-41; and M. Lesky, “4.b. Dance, G: Waffentänze in der griechischen und etruskischen Antike,” Thesaurus Cultus Et Rituum Antiquorum 2: 314-17.



4. For a possible reconstruction of how these semicircular bronze objects could have been worn as part of a warrior’s panoply, see Kriegswesen 1: Schutzwaffen und Wehrbauten, eds. H. G. Buchholz and J. Wiesner, Archaeologia Homerica: Die Denkmäler und das frühgriechische Epos 1.E.1 (Göttingen, 1977) E135-54, esp. E139, fig. 23.




Lisa M. Anderson

Publication History

  • Suzannah F. Doeringer, David Gordon Mitten, and Arthur Steinberg, ed., Art and Technology: A Symposium on Classical Bronzes, M.I.T. Press (Cambridge, MA, 1970), p. 131-32, Fig. 3.
  • Friedrich Matz and Lisa Lotte Möller, Dädalische Kunst auf Kreta im 7. Jh. v. Chr., Verlag Philipp von Zabern (Mainz, 1970), p. 37, 39, no. A 14.
  • Herbert D. Hoffmann and A.E. Raubitschek, Early Cretan Armorers, Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1972), M7, p. 12, pl. 38.2.
  • Gunter Neumann, "Zu den kretischen Kriegernamen auf den Waffen von Afrati", Zeitschrift für vergleichende Sprachforschung (1974), Vol. 88, Bd. 1, 32-40, as M7.

Subjects and Contexts

  • 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