Published Catalogue Text: Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Bronzes at the Harvard Art Museums
This object has a molded grip and a long, smooth oblong probe at each end of the fairly straight and smooth shaft. The grip molding consists of three decorative beads with a single ring collar on either end of the grouping. This is an example of a double probe, which is also known as a dipyrene (1).
Greek and Roman medical instruments, many of which were described by ancient authors, have been found, sometimes in sets, throughout the ancient world (2). The instruments could have been used for more than one function, making precise classification difficult in some instances. Probes had various uses and came in many types, some with scoops on the end (ligulae) or with a flatted end (spatulae), others with olivary probes on both ends. The probe ends could be used for searching wounds or applying medicines (3). The probes might also have been used for grinding and mixing cosmetics (4).
NOTES:
1. Compare the dipyrene in the set of Roman medical instruments in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, inv. no. 2005.333. See also J. Kirkup, The Evolution of Surgical Instruments: An Illustrated History from Ancient Times to the Twentieth Century (Novato, 2006) 165; and J. S. Milne, Surgical Instruments in Greek and Roman Times (New York, 1907) 57-58, pl. 11.1.
2. Milne 1907 (supra 1) 1-9; and D. Michaelides, “A Roman Surgeon’s Tomb from Nea Paphos,” Report of the Department of Antiquities, Cyprus, 1984: 315-32, esp. 321-23.
3. Michaelides 1984 (supra 2) 315-32, esp. 324-25.
4. L. J. Bliquez, Roman Surgical Instruments and Other Minor Objects in the National Archaeological Museum of Naples (Mainz, 1994) 52.
David Smart
