Published Catalogue Text: Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Bronzes at the Harvard Art Museums
This cyathiscomele has a long, thin, fluted shaft surmounted by a knob finial. The other end has a long, narrow bowl and ribbed molding directly adjacent to the bowl on the shaft (1). While the molding could have been purely decorative, it may also have been used to block powder or other substances from running along the shaft.
Greek and Roman medical instruments, many of which were described by ancient authors, have been found, sometimes in sets, throughout the ancient world (2). The instruments could have been used for more than one function, making precise classification difficult in some instances. A cyathiscomele is a type of scoop probe, with a spoon terminal at one end and a probe at the other, used for stirring and applying medicines, among other uses, including cosmetic (3).
NOTES:
1. Compare a cyathiscomele with an olivary probe and a similar long, narrow bowl in G. Gaboriau, Outil de la santé et de médecine d’autrefois (Le Mans, 2003) 13, dated to the second to third centuries CE.
2. J. S. Milne, Surgical Instruments in Greek and Roman Times (Oxford, 1907) 1-9; and D. Michaelides, “A Roman Surgeon’s Tomb from Nea Paphos,” Report of the Department of Antiquities, Cyprus, 1984: 315-32, esp. 321-23.
3. Milne 1907 (supra 2) 61-63; Michaelides 1984 (supra 2) 326; and R. Jackson and S. La Niece, “A Set of Roman Medical Instruments from Italy,” Britannia 17 (1986): 119-67, esp. 158.
David Smart
