Lock in the Shape of an Ibex

This ibex-shaped figurine functioned as a lock. The animal has a distinctive rounded horn, articulated with a striated pattern to represent a spiral. It wears a harness at its shoulders. The lock was originally composed of two concave pieces joined together with pins, but the second, matching plaque is now lost. A locking mechanism was positioned in the interior. The separately cast bolt, also lost, slid horizontally into the lock; one prong entered the tail of the animal, the other entered a small groove between the horn and the head. To close the lock, the bolt was inserted through one end of the animal’s body and secured at the other. It is unclear whether the lock was released by a slide key inserted into the tail or chest of the animal or a turnkey inserted into the center of the lost plaque (1). Locks of this design and style continued to be made in modern times (2). While the Harvard piece may be of medieval origin, it is equally possible that it was produced more recently. NOTES: 1. For diagrams of possible locking mechanisms used in this device, see P. Tanavoli and J. T. Wertime, Locks from Iran: Pre-Islamic to Twentieth Century (Washington, DC, 1976) 33, figs. 6A-B; and G. Vikan and J. Nesbitt, Security in Byzantium: Locking, Sealing and Weighing (Washington, DC, 1980) 6, fig. 10. 2. See Tanavoli and Wertime 1976 (supra 1) 84-85, no. 119, pl. 5, for a seventeenth- to eighteenth-century example of comparable form and dimensions. Alicia Walker