Instrument with Eyelet

1 of 2

Artist
Name	Unknown
Basic Info
Alternative Title	Pin
Period	Roman Imperial period, Late, to Early Byzantine
Created in	Ancient & Byzantine World, Asia, Antioch (Syria)
Century	1st millennium CE
Culture	Roman
Dimensions	8 x 1.6 x 0.5 cm (3 1/8 x 5/8 x 3/16 in.)
Harvard Museum
Department	Department of Ancient and Byzantine Art & Numismatics
Division	Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact	am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu

Context

This instrument has a round eyelet mounted above an oblong bead that is framed by decorative round collars. The shaft is circular initially but becomes square and swells slightly, ending in a V-shaped groove. The shaft is bent near the eyelet in an S-curve.
 
The eyelet may indicate the instrument was part of a set of other tools held on a ring similar to a set of toilet instruments in the British Museum, London (1).
 
NOTES:
 
1. See H. B. Walters, Catalogue of the Bronzes in the British Museum: Greek, Roman and Etruscan (London, 1899) 317, no. 2394.
 
David Smart

TechnicalDetails

Technical Observations

The patina is black with metal showing through and small areas of green. The shaft is bent into an S-shape. The implement appears to have been fashioned by hammering from a piece of rod stock. The shaft is quadrangular in section. The decorated end was shaped into nodules and grooves, with the flat terminal section drilled to form an eyelet. One end is broken and may have been bent intentionally. The pin was probably cast in its rough form and then hammered with annealing to further shape the shaft. The break at the end of the shaft has a convex contour, which may be half of a hole that was formed in the end.
 
Carol Snow and Henry Lie (submitted 2002, updated 2010)

Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of the Committee for the Excavation of Antioch and its Vicinity