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Identification and Creation

Object Number
2012.1.108
Title
"No Trespassing" Plaque
Classification
Plaques
Work Type
plaque
Date
first half 4th century CE
Places
Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World, Europe, Rome (Latium)
Period
Roman Imperial period, Late
Culture
Roman
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/57699

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Bronze
Technique
Cast, lost-wax process
Dimensions
greatest dimen.: 19.6 x 28.3 x 0.45 cm (7 11/16 x 11 1/8 x 3/16 in.)
1700 g
Technical Details

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

Technical Observations: The surface is bright metal with thin, irregular brown and black oxidation. There are no significant corrosion products present. The surface has a rough, pitted texture, which may be the result of a chemical treatment that could have stripped all corrosion products. It is also possible that the heat of a fire could have caused this appearance. The sheet is considerably warped. Viewed using a microscope, the edges show a degree of wear that gives the impression of age. A brown, granular residue in some of the inscribed lines is soft and fragile and does not give the impression of being related to manufacture or burial.

The hammer marks (1.0 to 1.5 cm in diameter) across the sheet indicate it was formed or at least finished by hammering. Smaller, elongated hammer marks are an effort to obliterate the first word of the inscription. A 1.5-mm oval-tipped chisel was used with hammer blows to cut the inscription, a process with would have removed a strip of metal during the cutting. Four V-shaped cuts (3 to 4 mm each) into the top of the proper left edge have no apparent function but could have somehow assisted in mounting the plaque. Residue of lead and lead corrosion products are present on all four edges. The lead was probably related to the original mounting. Small amounts of lead are also in and adjacent to the faint incised line, 1.5 cm from all four edges, that creates a border for the inscribed field.


Henry Lie (submitted 2011)

Inscriptions and Marks
  • inscription: in Latin, in four lines:
    NAVICVLA FL . VAL /
    EVTROPIAE NOB FE /
    M . ET . FILIORVM EIVS /
    LEGE . ET RECEDE
    [Transliteration: Navicula Fl(aviae) Val(eriae) Eutropiae nob(elissimae) fem(inae) et filiorum eius. Lege et recede. ]

    [Translation: (This) boat (is the property) of her ladyship Flavia Valeria Eutropia and her sons. Read (this notice) and keep off.]

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
[Hesperia Art, Philadelphia, PA], (1961), sold; to the Alice Corinne McDaniel Collection, Department of the Classics, Harvard University, (1961-2012), transfer; to the Harvard Art Museums, 2012.

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
2012.1.108
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 bronze plaque was posted, probably in a wooden frame, warning people not to trespass on the personal yacht of Flavia Valeria Eutropia and her children. The plaque is rectangular, with a canvas delineated by a line that may be related to a now-lost wooden frame rather than a purposeful incision. The incised inscription is in four lines. There are four small V-shaped notches in the upper left corner. The strokes of letters are not as deep in the upper left as on the rest of the canvas, although the serifs are as deep.

The Flavia Valeria Eutropia mentioned is likely the half-sister of the Emperor Constantine I. She and her son Nepotianus were put to death in 350 CE by the usurper Magnentius (r. 350-353 CE) after Nepotianus led a short-lived revolt against him (1). While not common, other inscriptions using the same “no trespassing” formula (lege et recede, “read (this notice) and keep off”) are known from around the ancient world (2).

NOTES:

1. See M. Hammond, “Three Latin Inscriptions in the McDaniel Collection,” Harvard Studies in Classial Philology 68 (1964): 79-97, esp. 79-87.

2. Compare, for example, Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum (CIL) VIII 2765, from Lambaesis, Numidia (Algeria); CIL IX 5900, from Ancona, Italy; CIL X 7149, from Syracuse, Sicily; and E. Marin et al., Inscriptions de Salone Chrétienne IVe-VIIe siècles (Rome, 2010) 551-52, no. 250, from Salona (Thessaloniki), Greece.

Lisa M. Anderson

Publication History

  • Hesperia Art Bulletin, auct. cat., No. 114 (on cover)
  • Mason Hammond, "Three Latin Inscriptions in the McDaniel Collection", Harvard Studies in Classical Philology (1964), Vol. 68/pp. 79-97, p. 79-87, plate I
  • 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), M143, p. 195-96 [J. S. Crawford]

Exhibition History

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