Shell

This object represents half of a bivalve mollusk of asymmetrical form with fifteen pronounced radial ridges. Only the exterior of the shell is articulated. The shell is solid with a flat bottom. While this shell could be a votive object (1), an appliqué, or even the foot of a vessel, its solid form is best explained as a weight. Figural weights are attested in Greek and Roman times, the knucklebone being perhaps the best-documented type (2). NOTES: 1. On the multivalent significance of the related scallop shell in Graeco-Roman antiquity, see M. Wheeler, “A Symbol in Ancient Times,” in The Scallop: Studies of a Shell and its Influences on Humankind, ed. I. Cox (London, 1957) 34-48. 2. Two monographs have been devoted to archaeological excavated weights of the Greek period: M. Lang and M. Crosby, The Athenian Agora 10: Weights, Measures and Tokens (Princeton, 1964) and K. Hintzl, Die Gewichte Griechischer Zeit aus Olympia, Olympische Forschungen 25 (Berlin, 1996). E. Pernice’s Griechische Gewichte (Berlin, 1894), although an early study, remains a fundamental reference with its catalogue of over 900 examples of Greek weights. For a general discussion of Graeco-Roman weights, see also B. Kisch, Scales and Weights: A Historical Outline (New Haven and London, 1965) 97, 113-21, and 147-54. Seán Hemingway