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Identification and Creation

Object Number
1985.133
Title
Knee Fibula
Classification
Jewelry
Work Type
pin, fibula
Date
second half 2nd-early 3rd century CE
Places
Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World
Period
Roman Imperial period
Culture
Roman
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/304087

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Copper alloy
Technique
Cast and hammered
Dimensions
2.7 x 1.6 cm (1 1/16 x 5/8 in.)
Technical Details

Technical Observations: The patina is brownish green. The tip of the pin is missing, and there is fragmentary sheet metal present at the top of the fibula. The body of the fibula was cast, probably by the lost-wax process, with the surface designs created in the wax model, while the pin was made separately by hammering. What appears to be a hammered sheet covering the coils was somehow either inserted or hammered out from the top of the cast bow section. It is fragmentary, and the join of the metal parts is obscured by corrosion.


Carol Snow (submitted 2002)

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Jerry Nagler
Accession Year
1985
Object Number
1985.133
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 knee fibula is almost intact: the pin that extends from the coiled spring is broken near the tip. The curving bow is thickest near the head, tapering toward the foot, which is upturned at the edge. The bow is rectangular in section. The rectangular catchplate is parallel to the bow and folded at the bottom to hold the pin.

Named after their distinctive bent bows, knee fibulae were popular in Britain and the Danubian provinces of the Roman Empire from the second to third centuries CE (1).

NOTES:

1. See R. Hattatt, Brooches of Antiquity: A Third Section of Brooches from the Author’s Collection (Oxford, 1987) 261-72, figs. 81-84; S. Ortisi, Die früh- und mittelkaiserzeitlichen Fibeln, Römische Kleinfunde aus Burghofe 2 (Rahden, 2002) 34-36, nos. 293-94, pl. 18; and D. Mackreth, Brooches in late Iron Age and Roman Britain (Oxford, 2011) 190 and 192, no. 7679, pl. 132.

Lisa M. Anderson

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