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Identification and Creation

Object Number
1960.479
Title
Openwork Pendant in the Form of a Pomegranate
Classification
Jewelry
Work Type
pendant
Date
8th-first half 7th century BCE
Places
Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World, Europe, Northern Greece
Period
Geometric period to Orientalizing
Culture
Greek
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/219623

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Bronze
Technique
Cast, lost-wax process
Dimensions
3.3 x 1.4 cm (1 5/16 x 9/16 in.)
Technical Details

Chemical Composition: XRF data from Artax 1
Alloy: Bronze
Alloying Elements: copper, tin
Other Elements: lead, iron, nickel, silver, antimony, arsenic
K. Eremin, January 2014

Technical Observations: The patina is green with areas of black. Brown burial accretions are present at the interior. The object is deeply corroded. The loop, which shows considerable wear from use, is cracked at the top and appears to have been repaired. The surface is partially preserved in some areas.

There are many irregularities in the shape, and the bronze pendant was probably cast from a model made working directly in wax. The surface shows no evidence of decoration.


Henry Lie (submitted 2012)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
David M. Robinson, Baltimore, MD, bequest; to Fogg Art Museum, 1960.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Bequest of David M. Robinson
Accession Year
1960
Object Number
1960.479
Division
Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact
am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Descriptions

Published Catalogue Text: Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Bronzes at the Harvard Art Museums
This small, openwork cage pendant consists of seven ribs forming a circular cage that ends in a rounded terminal. A cylindrical stem rising from the top of the cage ends in a circular loop for suspension.

This small pendant is typical of cage pendants that occur in many sizes and varieties and were produced widely in Macedonia, Thrace, and the southern Balkans during the eighth to early seventh centuries BCE (1). Similar objects are also abundant in Iron Age bronze assemblages from western and northwestern Iran (2). Such cage pendants served as elements for necklaces, earrings, pectorals, and belts in Iron Age Macedonia, and they may have been decorations for horse harnesses as well. The fact that this pendant was part of the David N. Robinson bequest, however, may be evidence that this piece comes from Greece.

There is a strong possibility that these cage pendants represented fruit, especially the pomegranate, a symbol of the Underworld. The Homeric Hymn to Demeter states that Persephone had to return to the Underworld for six months each year because she had eaten a few pomegranate seeds (3). Late Geometric ceramic model pomegranates are known from Attica (4). However, the small size and rounded nature of the tip of this pendant make its identification as a pomegranate uncertain.

NOTES:

1. See J. Bouzek, Graeco-Macedonian Bronzes (Prague, 1974) 60-71, figs. 18-21; and I. Kilian-Dirlmeier, Anhänger in Griechenland von der mykenischen bis zur spätgeometrischen Zeit, Prähistorische Bronzefunde 11.2 (Munich, 1979) 79-85, 94-96, and 100-101; nos. 506-26, 552-56, 564-66, 568-69, and 571-72; pls. 26-29. Also see H. Philipp, Bronzeschmuck aus Olympia, Olympische Forschungen 13 (Berlin, 1981) 357, no. 1274, pl. 24; and D. M. Robinson, Metal and Minor Miscellaneous Finds: An Original Contribution to Greek Life, Excavations at Olynthus 10 (Baltimore, 1941) 118-19, nos. 405-406, pl. 24 (Type II, “Birdcage Pendants”).

2. P. R. S. Moorey, Catalogue of the Ancient Persian Bronzes in the Ashmolean Museum (Oxford, 1971) 235, nos. 433-34, pl. 66; see ibid., 137-37, nos. 153-58, pls. 28-29, for larger openwork bronze bells.

3. Homeric Hymn to Demeter, ll. 371-74, 404-15, and 441-47.

4. S. Langdon, ed., From Pasture to Polis: Art in the Age of Homer, exh. cat., Museum of Art and Archaeology, University of Missouri-Columbia; University Art Museum, University of California, Berkeley; Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Harvard University Art Museums (Columbia, MO, 1993) 93-95, no. 22, with parallels.


David G. Mitten

Publication History

  • Fogg Art Museum, The David Moore Robinson Bequest of Classical Art and Antiquities, A Special Exhibition, exh. cat., Harvard University (Cambridge, MA, 1961), p. 30, no. 238.

Exhibition History

  • The David Moore Robinson Bequest of Classical Art and Antiquities: A Special Exhibition, Fogg Art Museum, 05/01/1961 - 09/20/1961

Subjects and Contexts

  • Ancient Bronzes

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu