Razor with Incised Decoration

This lunate razor is decorated with very fine incised lines. The decoration is the same on both sides: there are seven parallel curved lines on the blunt side. Above them is a series of interlocking isosceles triangles; in this band, a circular hole pierces the blade. The blade thins toward the edge. The handle is broken off; because razors of this type often had a loop for suspension, it is possible that the handle broke in antiquity and that the hole in the blade may have been drilled at that time to allow for continued suspension. The razor is an example of V. Bianco Peroni’s type “Veio,” dated to the first half of the eighth century BCE and found generally in central Italy, particularly the Villanovan region (1). It is difficult to understand the use and symbolism of the bronze objects from Iron Age Italy that are classified as razors. Possibly used for trimming hair or beards, these razors seem to have had some symbolic value. They are typically found in male burials, and their inclusion in grave goods may indicate that the deceased was a man of mature age; or, in cases where they are found in female burials, they may be indicative of the owner’s elevated social status (2). Some razors have been found with fibulae fastened through the handle, demonstrating that they could be worn (3). Many examples have repaired handles, showing that the razors were important enough to fix if broken (4). Razors are typically plain or covered with incised decoration, most frequently lines, bands of interlocking triangles, meanders, lines of dots hatched swastikas, and Maltese crosses. The two-edged examples, like 1987.135.28, more often bear incised concentric circles or have decorative perforations on the blade. Often there are decorative spurs, crescents, or volutes on the handles, depending on the type. NOTES: 1. V. Bianco Peroni, I rasoi nell’Italia continentale, Prähistorische Bronzefunde 7.2 (Munich, 1979) 136-39, nos. 821-37, esp. nos. 822-35. The type, while not in itself common, is generally found in Umbria and coastal Etruscan cities. 2. See ibid., 178-82. 3. Compare ibid., nos. 156, 244, and 1042. 4. D. A. Caccioli, The Villanovan, Etruscan, and Hellenistic collections in the Detroit Institute of Arts (Leiden, 2009) 114; compare Bianco Peroni 1979 (supra 1) nos. 417 and 849. Lisa M. Anderson