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A damaged semicircular object with faint engravings.

An object which seems like it was in the shape of a half-circle, but the left half is gone and there is a jagged and uneven edge unlike the smooth shape of the right side. There is a border of several concentric lines on the surviving edge. In the center there are also faintly carved symbols in a line, made of straight lines and circles. At the top right corner there is a ring attached by a small hole. The surface is mottled brown and patina green.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1991.37
Title
Mitra Fragment 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/311859

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Bronze
Technique
Cast and hammered
Dimensions
mitra: 17.7 x 20.5 x 3.4 x 0.1 cm (6 15/16 x 8 1/16 x 1 5/16)
ring: 2 (13/16)
Technical Details

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

Technical Observations: The patina is a mottled light and dark green with brown. The surface of the mitra is highly polished and is largely original, but the smoothness may have been enhanced during restoration. Some pitting has resulted from corrosion.

This mitra was formed from a sheet of bronze. It was probably cast and then hammered to give it its shape. X-radiography shows that it has an even thickness overall except for thinning in the rib lines. These were formed with pressure from the reverse of the sheet of metal, perhaps by drawing a smooth-pointed tool across the surface. The corroded condition of the surface makes it difficult to confirm this. There is no evidence of chisel marks on the back, such as those observed in other mitrai by Hoffmann (1).

The rounded top edge of the mitra was formed by bending it outward, probably over a wire, and the edges of the rounded section were rolled inward over a finer wire, much like the other mitrai in Harvard’s collection (2). The wires on the inside of the rolled edges are clearly visible in the x-radiograph, except for the upper right section where the edge is hollow. The original wire may not have extended all the way along the bottom edge. The rings inserted into the holes along the top of the mitra were too dense to be penetrated by the x-rays.

The inscription was formed twice. The letters were roughly sketched out in the metal with a fine-tipped tool and then deeper grooves were made to form the final versions of the letters. These were chiseled or punched using a tool with an elongated tip (c. 1 mm long). Multiple hammer blows with this tool created impressions less that 1 mm long and result in relatively continuous lines. The inscription is very crude, unlike the careful craftsmanship that went into forming the fine raised ribs and incised lines decorating the edges of the piece.

NOTES:

1. H. D. Hoffmann and A. E. Raubitschek, Early Cretan Armorers (Mainz, 1972) 17-20.

2. For additional mitrai that are thought to be related to Harvard’s group, see Hoffmann and Raubitschek 1972 (supra 1) esp. 10, 20, and 54-56.


Francesca G. Bewer and Henry Lie (submitted 2000)

Inscriptions and Marks
  • inscription: in Greek, Εὐωνυμος ἧλε τόδε ὁ Ἐ[ρ]ασιμένιος

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
1991.37
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 fragmentary, semicircular mitra is missing perhaps one-third of its left side. 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, “Εὐωνυμος ἧλε τόδε ὁ Ἐ[ρ]ασιμένιος” (Euonymos son of Erasimenes took this) (1). A single wire ring pierces the upper border of the extant corner.

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. 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. 2.
  • 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 13.
  • Herbert D. Hoffmann and A.E. Raubitschek, Early Cretan Armorers, Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1972), M6, p. 12, pl. 37.1.
  • Gunter Neumann, "Zu den kretischen Kriegernamen auf den Waffen von Afrati", Zeitschrift für vergleichende Sprachforschung (1974), Vol. 88, Bd. 1, 32-40, as M6.

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