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An uneven half circle shape with rings.

A shape which seems to be a half circle, though damage to the bottom and right obscures the original shape, and the edges are now uneven. There is a border of concentric lines around the top and left edges and the innermost line is partially visible along the uneven edges as well, indicating that the damage is mostly contained to the border edge. There is no other surface decoration that can be seen. There are two rings at the top in the middle and right corner. The surface is mottled brown, red, and green.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1991.45
Title
Mitra
Classification
Armor
Work Type
armor
Date
second half 7th century BCE
Places
Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World, Europe, Crete
Period
Orientalizing period
Culture
Greek
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/299887

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Bronze
Technique
Hammered
Dimensions
mitra: 15.6 x 23.3 x 4.7 x 0.1 cm (6 1/8 x 9 3/16 x 1 7/8)
rings: 1.9 cm (3/4 in.)
Technical Details

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

Technical Observations: The patina is mottled olive and light green, with reddish brown in the polished areas and light green matte corrosion crusts in some sections. There are a few bright orange red spots, especially on the back, that appear to be rust.

The mitra was formed from a sheet of bronze. It is not clear from the available evidence how this sheet was produced. The rounded top edge of the mitra was formed by bending it outward, probably over a wire, and the edges of the rounded section were rolled inward over a finer wire, much like the other mitrai in Harvard’s collection (1). The decorative ribs were created by repeatedly drawing a smooth pointed tool over the reverse surface, along with some hammering or punching from the reverse. The ribs were enhanced with finer, more carefully incised lines that were drawn on the front surface. X-radiography shows that the metal sheet is overall of relatively even thickness except for the ribs, which are much thinner. They are also discontinuous and uneven. A hollow ring is set in each of the three holes along the top edge of the mitra. The holes were cut into the sheet metal after the ribs were formed.

Most of the highly polished front (c. 70%) is original surface. Restoration may have resulted in some additional smoothing of the surface. The back surface is less polished and is covered by more corrosion and burial accretions. One side of the bottom is more pitted than the other, as can be seen by the “porous” appearance in the x-radiograph.

Disparate groups of parallel engraved lines formed by a broad, fine-toothed tool are visible and may have resulted from the original working of the sheet of metal or from subsequent cleaning.

NOTES:


1. For additional mitrai that are thought to be related to Harvard’s group, see H. D. Hoffmann and A. E. Raubitschek, Early Cretan Armorers (Mainz, 1972) esp. 10, 20, and 54-56.

Francesca G. Bewer (submitted 2000)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
From Afrati. Ex Norbert Schimmel Collection.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of the Schimmel Foundation, Inc.
Accession Year
1991
Object Number
1991.45
Division
Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact
am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
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Descriptions

Published Catalogue Text: Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Bronzes at the Harvard Art Museums
This semicircular, fragmentary mitra is missing much of its outer border. It has a raised, rolled border around a molded section, which consists of plain sections framed by raised lines of varying thickness. This example is not inscribed. Two wire rings pierce the midpoint and extant corner of the upper border; an additional circular hole pierces the upper border near the midpoint.

Harvard’s Cretan armor is part of a larger cache, portions of which are now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg; and the Heraklion Archaeological Museum. Many of the other pieces in the group are highly decorated with incised and repousse images. The objects do not appear to have been part of a dedication to a deity, given the inscriptions found on the pieces. Fourteen pieces of armor from the cache bear dedicatory inscriptions, naming several different warriors, and these seem to indicate that the group of armor was captured in battle and dedicated together as a group (1). It has also been suggested, however, that they perhaps were used for a war dance rather than for combat (2).

The term “mitra” is known from Homeric literature as a piece of armor worn near the waist; the same word was later used to refer to a type of headwear. No contemporary depictions of warriors show how these semicircular objects were worn (3). Semicircular pieces of bronze, like this piece, are often found in caches of armor, indicating that they were part of a warrior’s panoply, but they may not in fact be ancient mitrai.

NOTES:

1. See H. Hoffmann and A. E. Raubitschek, Early Cretan Armorers (Mainz, 1972) 15-16.

2. For a discussion of this armor cache being used for a war dance, see E. Simon, “Die Waffen von Arkades: Ausrüstung für die Pyrrhiche,” Anodos: Studies of the Ancient World 4-5 (2004-2005): 231-42, esp. 239-41; and M. Lesky, “4.b. Dance, G: Waffentänze in der griechischen und etruskischen Antike,” Thesaurus Cultus Et Rituum Antiquorum 2: 314-17.

3. For a possible reconstruction of how these semicircular bronze objects could have been worn as part of a warrior’s panoply, see Kriegswesen 1: Schutzwaffen und Wehrbauten, eds. H. G. Buchholz and J. Wiesner, Archaeologia Homerica: Die Denkmäler und das frühgriechische Epos 1.E.1 (Göttingen, 1977) E135-54, esp. E139, fig. 23.


Lisa M. Anderson

Publication History

  • Herbert D. Hoffmann and A.E. Raubitschek, Early Cretan Armorers, Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1972), p. 13, no. M 13, pl. 40.2.

Subjects and Contexts

  • Ancient Bronzes

Related Works

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