Published Catalogue Text: Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Bronzes at the Harvard Art Museums
This object is made up of two rings of similar size joined by an area with three triangular spikes. Two parallel spikes are below one wide centered spike, with a deep cleft between the top and bottom prongs. The sides of the hoops are thin, with modeled decoration on top of the hoops—possibly phalluses with testicles—and particularly on top of the location where the loops join, which looks like an animal head (lion or dog) facing away from the points; the ears, shape of the head, and nose are all discernable. The underside of the join is not as deeply concave as 1920.44.215, but the joining of the two bottom prongs is visible. This piece may be an aftercast, modeled on a genuine artifact.
Ringed objects with spikes are relatively common in museum collections, and most tend to come from central Italy, although some are known to have been found in France and Greece (1). They are all very similar in form, and almost all have triangular prongs. It is difficult to determine how these ringed objects were used. They have been interpreted as bow-pullers, equipment for handling the reins of horses or wagons, a type of brass-knuckle, a tool for tooth extraction, protective amulets for horses, or possibly as snaffles on horse-harnesses (2). It is currently generally agreed that they are in some way a part of early European horse equipment.
NOTES:
1. For example, see A.-M. Adam, Bronzes étrusques et italiques (Paris, 1984) 105-106, nos. 119-28; M. Garsson, ed., Une histoire d’alliage: Les bronzes antiques des réserves du Musée d’archéologie méditerranéenne, exh. cat. (Marseille, 2004) 32, no. 18; F. Jurgeit, Die etruskischen und italischen Bronzen sowie Gegenstände aus Eisen, Blei, und Leder im Badischen Landesmuseum Karlsruhe, Terra Italia 5 (Pisa, 1999) 178-80, nos. 256-59, pl. 89; A. Naso, I bronzi etruschi e italici del Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum, Kataloge vor- und frühgeschichtlicher Altertümer 33 (Mainz, 2003) 175-76, nos. 254-59; and M. Sannibale, Le armi della collezione Gorga al Museo Nazionale Romano, Studia archaeologica 92 (Rome, 1998) 222-53, nos. 269-309.
2. For varying opinions, see W. B. McDaniel, “The So-Called Bow-Puller of Antiquity,” American Journal of Archaeology 22.1 (1918): 25-43, esp. 25; Adam 1984 (supra 1) 105; Jurgeit 1999 (supra 1) 178-79; Naso 2003 (supra 1) 175-76; and Sannibale 1998 (supra 1) 239-46.
Lisa M. Anderson
