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A long scoop-like object

A long scoop or spoon object which is bent at a rounded 90 degree angle, with a handle that bends around and becomes much narrower before ending in a disc with two holes in it. It looks as though the handle would be held and wrap around the back of the hand while being used. The whole object seems to be made from one piece of metal which is bent back and forth and shaped accordingly.

Gallery Text

Strigils were used to scrape oil, sweat, and sand off the body after exercise. The corroded manufacturer’s stamp on the handle reads Soteira, “savior” in Greek, invoking a protective goddess.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1960.484
Title
Strigil (scraper)
Classification
Tools and Equipment
Work Type
strigil
Date
early 3rd century BCE
Places
Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World, Europe, Etruria
Period
Hellenistic period, Early
Culture
Greek
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/304007

Location

Location
Level 3, Room 3410, South Arcade
View this object's location on our interactive map

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Bronze
Technique
Cast and hammered
Dimensions
19.7 x 3.6 x 22.2 cm (7 3/4 x 1 7/16 x 8 3/4 in.)
Technical Details

Chemical Composition: XRF data from Tracer
Alloy: Bronze
Alloying Elements: copper, tin
Other Elements: lead, iron

K. Eremin, January 2014

Technical Observations: All of the strigils (1935.35.56, 1960.484, 1978.495.54, 1978.495.55, 1983.7, and 1983.8) have a green patina but with variations. The inside of 1935.35.56 was sanded clean of burial accretions to a smooth turquoise color; it has reddish and golden brown areas on outside. 1983.7 and 1960.484 have reddish and golden brown metal showing through in localized areas; 1960.484 is also black in smaller areas and has tan accretions. 1978.495.54 is dark reddish brown at the broken end, and 1978.495.55 has red and black areas. 1983.8 has black, white, and gray speckled accretions.

Each of Harvard’s strigils was made from a single piece of metal that was hammered out into a cupped, curved scraper at one end and, in most cases, a handle at the other end that bends back on itself and terminates in a finial. The concave shapes of all of the scrapers were fashioned by hammering the metal over a hard mold. The overall thickness of all of the scraper blades is relatively consistent, ranging from 0.3 to 0.7 mm. Although no hammer marks have been found from visual examination of the surface, x-radiographs revealed mottled linear patterns that are the result of both hammering and burnishing. In the x-radiographs of 1935.35.56 and 1983.8, the mottled texture and distortion of the metal due to hammering are particularly clear, indicating that these were cut from a thin sheet of metal. The thickness of the scraper blades of these two strigils is surprisingly consistent (c. 0.3 to 0.4 mm); this thickness would have been difficult to achieve by casting. The cupped scraper was shaped over a form (whether convex or concave is not clear), and the excess metal was cut off and smoothed. A thin flap extends out to each side of the edges of these scrapers near the handle, where the excess metal was only partially trimmed. 1983.7 was probably made that way as well, as it is very flat overall. In the case of 1978.495.54 and 1960.484, on the other hand, both the thickness of the handles as well as the presence of a small lip that offsets the handle from the cupped end of the scrapers suggest that the implements were cast as blanks. These simplified, flat forms would have been hammered and bent into shape, as was done with the other strigils that were cut from metal sheets. Fine, parallel abrasive marks made by the tools used to smooth or burnish are preserved on 1978.495.55 and on the back surface of 1960.484. On the latter, areas of the original metal surface are better preserved than most of the other strigils, as those areas lie under what may be the translucent darkened remains of organic material.

The handles of all of the Greek strigils were bent in a similar fashion, so that their finials would fit neatly against the back of the scraper. However, on all but one of the pieces, the finials are separate from the back of the scraper. It is not obvious how or whether they were attached. On 1983.7, the finial is riveted to the scraper with an iron pin that pierces through to the inner surface of the blade. The rust, which is embedded in the surrounding copper corrosion and burial accretions, indicates that this fastening dates prior to burial. Closer examination of the other strigils revealed traces of what may be solder on the back of the scraper in the area corresponding to the shape of the finial. The use of solder was confirmed by the denser patches in the x-radiographs of 1960.484, 1983.7, and faintly on 1983.8. Some translucent reddish-brown organic material remains on 1935.35.56, on the back of the scraper in the area corresponding to the finial, but this appears to be over the corroded metal and is, therefore, probably a more recent adhesive.


Francesca G. Bewer (submitted 2001)

Inscriptions and Marks
  • inscription: stamp, in Greek,

    ΣΩTEIPA

    [Transcription: soteira. Translation: Savior]

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
David M. Robinson, Baltimore, MD, (by 1958), 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
1960.484
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 strigil is the most ornate of Harvard’s examples of this type of tool. The end of the scraper that is closer to the handle is raised (as is that of 1978.495.54). The underside of this cupped area is defined by two stepped curves that gradually recede into the surface as inset lines and disappear before the curve in the scraper blade (1). The broad and flat upper surface of the handle is stamped in the metal with two rosettes. Between these rosettes lies an elongated rectangular mark, which also appears to have been stamped in the metal and contains raised letters that are no longer legible in the corroded surface, although x-radiography revealed a stamped maker’s mark reading “SWTEIRA.” The finial at the ends of the handles on 1983.7 and 1960.484 are decorated with two cut-out mirroring kidney-shaped holes that have been enhanced with small punched lines at the height of the indentation.

A strigil, which consists of a curved scoop with a handle, was a tool used in the baths for cleaning an individual’s body. Oil would be applied to a person’s skin and then removed, along with dirt or sweat, using the curved scoop of a strigil (2). The Apoxyomenos statue type, known from ancient literature as well as several copies including two over-life-size bronze versions, depicts an athlete cleaning the scoop of a strigil after use (3).

NOTES:

1. Compare strigils in D. M. Robinson, Olynthus 10: Metal and Minor Miscellaneous Finds (Baltimore, 1941) 172-78, nos. 517-50, pls. 32-36; M. Comstock and C. C. Vermeule, Greek, Etruscan and Roman Bronzes in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Greenwich, CT, 1971) 412, nos. 588-89; and J. Tabolli, “Gli strigili,” in Il Museo delle Antichità Etrusche e Italiche 3: I bronzi della collezione Gorga, Ed. M. G. Benedettini (Rome, 2012) 422-43, nos. 1279-390.

2. For an overview of the use of strigils, see G. M. A. Richter, Greek, Etruscan, and Roman Bronzes (New York, 1915) 293-94. For an overview of strigil types, see C. W. Blegen, H. Palmer, and R. S. Young, Corinth 13: The North Cemetery (Princeton, 1964) 91-95, fig. 9.

3. Pliny, Natural History 34.65. For the statue type and copies, see J. M. Daehner and K. Lapatin, eds., Power and Pathos: Bronze Sculpture of the Hellenistic World, exh. cat., Palazzo Strozzi, Florence; the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; and the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC (Los Angeles, 2015) 122-23 and 270-81, nos. 40-44. A red-figure plate at Harvard, 1960.351, also depicts an athlete holding a strigil.

Francesca G. Bewer and Lisa M. Anderson

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. 240.
  • Whitney Dangerfield, "What is it?", National Geographic (August 2004), Vol. 206, No. 2, 2.
  • Henry Lie and Francesca Bewer, "Ex Aere Factum: Technical Notes on Ancient Bronzes", Ancient Bronzes through a Modern Lens: Introductory Essays on the Study of Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Bronzes, ed. Susanne Ebbinghaus, Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 2014), 38-63, p. 58, fig. 2.16.a-c.
  • Susanne Ebbinghaus, ed., Ancient Bronzes through a Modern Lens: Introductory Essays on the Study of Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Bronzes, Harvard Art Museum/Yale University Press (Cambridge, MA, 2014), p. 58, 60, fig. 2.16a-c

Exhibition History

  • The David Moore Robinson Bequest of Classical Art and Antiquities: A Special Exhibition, Fogg Art Museum, 05/01/1961 - 09/20/1961
  • 32Q: 3410 South Arcade, Harvard Art Museums, 11/16/2014 - 01/01/2050

Subjects and Contexts

  • Ancient Bronzes
  • Google Art Project
  • Collection Highlights

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