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A jagged surface with faint carvings.

A jagged shape which is uneven on all sides, as if all edges have been worn or broken away. There is also a hole in the center towards the right through which a silver material can be seen. There seem to be two rounded carved shapes at the bottom center and right, though they are barely visible. At the center there are very faint symbols carved in, made of straight lines. It seems like there may have been more which are now worn away. The surface is mottled brown and patina green.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1991.39
Title
Breastplate 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/312200

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Bronze
Technique
Hammered
Dimensions
24.3 x 26.8 x 0.1 cm (9 9/16 x 10 9/16 x 1/16 in.)
Technical Details

Chemical Composition: 1991.39
Main
XRF data from Tracer
Alloy: Bronze
Alloying Elements: copper, tin
Other Elements: lead, iron, arsenic

1991.39.1 and 1991.39.3
Fragments
XRF data from Tracer
Alloy: Bronze
Alloying Elements: copper, tin
Other Elements: lead, iron, nickel, silver, animony, arsenic
Comments: These pieces came from an old repair that was removed from the object.

1991.39.2 and 1991.39.4
Fragments
XRF data from Tracer
Alloy: Bronze
Alloying Elements: copper, tin
Other Elements: lead, iron, nickel, arsenic
Comments: These pieces came from an old repair that was removed from the object.

K. Eremin, January 2014

Chemical Composition: SEM-WDS data from sample, Bronze:
Cu, 89.7; Sn, 10.0; Pb, nd; Zn, 0.08; Fe, 0.19; Ni, nd; Ag, nd; Sb, nd; As, nd; Co, nd
Comments: Iron oxide (?) inclusions.

R. Newman, June 2015

Technical Observations: The patina is green with areas of rust color. The object was probably formed by cold working the bronze into a thin sheet. X-radiography appears to show hammer marks. Lines neatly formed on the front correspond to rougher striations on the back that were made to reinforce the repoussé effect on the front. The letters of the inscription were made using a 9-mm punch tool.


Henry Lie (submitted 2000)

Inscriptions and Marks
  • inscription: in Greek, [Νέ]ων τόνδ' ἧλε

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
1991.39
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 irregularly shaped breastplate fragment was for the front of the torso. A portion of the collar remains. It bears stylized volutes and palmettes, incised with double lines, as well as an inscription in Archaic Cretan characters: “[Νέ]ων τόνδ’ ἧλε” (Neon took this) (1). The decorative elements seem to be continued on 1991.40.

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 repoussé 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).

H. Hoffman noted that all the breastplates in the Afrati hoard seemed to be a Cretan variant of the bell cuirass that was standard in the Archaic period, which had front and back plates bearing stylized anatomical details (4).

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. See Hoffmann and Raubitschek 1972 (supra 1) 6-7.


Lisa M. Anderson

Publication History

  • David Gordon Mitten and Suzannah F. Doeringer, Master Bronzes from the Classical World, exh. cat., Verlag Philipp von Zabern (Mainz am Rhein, Germany, 1967), p. 48 (ill.).
  • 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. 136, no. C3, fig. 8.
  • Herbert D. Hoffmann and A.E. Raubitschek, Early Cretan Armorers, Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1972), p. 8, no. C3, pl. 27.2.
  • Gunter Neumann, "Zu den kretischen Kriegernamen auf den Waffen von Afrati", Zeitschrift für vergleichende Sprachforschung (1974), Vol. 88, Bd. 1, 32-40, as C3.

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