2012.1.69: Circular Impressed Disk

Identification and Creation

Object Number

2012.1.69

Title

Circular Impressed Disk

Classification

Artists' Tools

Work Type

mold

Date

4th century BCE

Places

Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World, Europe, Tarentum-Taras (Calabria)

Period

Classical period, Late, to Early Hellenistic

Culture

Greek

Persistent Link

https://hvrd.art/o/5013

Physical Descriptions

Medium

Terracotta

Technique

Molded

Dimensions

11.5 x 1.5 cm (4 1/2 x 9/16 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History

Taranto, Italy, (before 1924) purchase; by Walton Brooks McDaniel, New Jersey (?-1943/46) gift; to the Department of the Classics, Harvard University, (1943/46-2012) transfer; to the Harvard Art Museums, 2012.

Note: Walton Brooks McDaniel gave a portion of his collection to the Department of the Classics in 1943 and the rest in 1946. The Collection is named for his late wife, Alice Corinne McDaniel.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line

Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Transfer from the Alice Corinne McDaniel Collection, Department of the Classics, Harvard University

Accession Year

2012

Object Number

2012.1.69

Division

Asian and Mediterranean Art

Contact

am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu

Permissions

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Descriptions

Description

This intact terracotta circular disk, with a rectangular pierced tang at the bottom, bears the impression of more than two dozen symbols. From top to bottom, starting with the upper register, the objects can be identified as a grape bunch over a crescent moon, tongs, two amphorae or kantharoi flanking three distaffs (for spinning) above an owl, and a four-spoked wheel; in the second register, there is a distaff with wool wound around it, a club, trident, distaff, caduceus, patera or offering bread, lighting bolt, scabbard, torch with flame arching to the right, and a ladder-shape, possibly an Apulian sistrum (a type of musical instrument). In the third register, there are three round offering cakes, a wavy symbol that could be a bow or serpent or cuttlefish above a square tablet, a lyre above an open hand, a bird (an eagle or a dove) facing right above an infinity symbol (either an open box mirror or cymbals) above a strigil or Egyptian sistrum, next to two difficult to read objects, of which one might be an oil flask.

Commentary

The use of these types of disks, sometimes called "dischi sacri" ("sacred disks"), is not entirely understood. Several are known, found in Italy, particularly in the south and around ancient Taras/Tarentum (Taranto). Some are in relief, but most have the symbols impressed into the disk.

The disks often bear many of the same motifs, some arranged in similar configurations from object to object. The objects may represent divinities--some common associations like Zeus with the thunderbolt, Hephaistos with the tongs, Poseidon with the trident, Hermes with the caduceus, Apollo with the lyre, and Athena with the owl are very clear--but many are in fact everyday items that are not necessrily associated with any particular god or goddess. They may, therefore, represent a mixture of sacred and profane objects, a selection of offerings, or as Prof. McDaniel suggested in his 1924 article about these disks, items loosely associated with the city of Tarentum. Favoring the latter explanation, McDaniel suggested that the symbols formed a "compound seal" used in commerce, associated with Tarentum. They would have been impressed in wax or on clay to form seal impressions that would be particularly difficult to duplicate due to their complexity.

Publication History

• Walton Brooks McDaniel, The Holiness of the Dischi Sacri, American Journal of Archaeology (1924), 28.1, pp. 24-46
• Nancy Hirschland and Mason Hammond, "Stamped Potters' Marks and Other Stamped Pottery in the McDaniel Collection", Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA, 1968), Vol. 72, pp. 369-82, p. 381-82, pl. 2
• John Crawford, Sidney Goldstein, George M. A. Hanfmann, John Kroll, Judith Lerner, Miranda Marvin, Charlotte Moore, and Duane Roller, Objects of Ancient Daily Life. A Catalogue of the Alice Corinne McDaniel Collection Belonging to the Department of the Classics, Harvard University, ed. Jane Waldbaum, Department of the Classics (unpublished manuscript, 1970), T26, p. 43 [D. W. Roller]

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