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Identification and Creation

Object Number
1964.12.34.A
Title
Decorative Fitting
Other Titles
Former Title: Buckle
Classification
Jewelry
Work Type
jewelry
Date
late 6th-early 7th century CE
Places
Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World, Asia, Sardis (Lydia)
Find Spot: Middle East, Türkiye (Turkey), Western Türkiye (Turkey)
Period
Byzantine period, Early
Culture
Byzantine
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/304138

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Copper alloy
Technique
Cast, lost-wax process
Dimensions
3.5 x 3.4 x 0.2 cm (1 3/8 x 1 5/16 x 1/16 in.)
Technical Details

Technical Observations: The patina consists of various green and black corrosion products with brown burial deposits. The object is intact, although it bears casting flaws and worn surfaces.

The attachment was cast, probably in a two-part mold. The edges show excess metal, which flowed during casting along the join of the two molds.


Carol Snow (submitted 2002)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Brought from Sardis; by Frederick Marquand Godwin, New York, (by 1914), by descent; to his wife Dorothy W. Godwin, New York (1914-1964), gift; to the Fogg Museum of Art, 1964.

Note: Frederick M. Godwin was the photographer for the excavations at Sardis with Howard Crosby Butler in 1913 and 1914.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of Mrs. Frederick M. Godwin
Accession Year
1964
Object Number
1964.12.34.A
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 cast ornament consists of two loops: a circular opening that ends in a point on the inner side, and a semi-rectangular enclosure joined to the circular opening by two curved bars that extend from either side of the point. The edges of the rectangular enclosure slope inwards. The surface around the circular loop shows traces of a scalloped exterior edge. The reverse surface is flat and undecorated. The fitting has been identified as a buckle (1). It does not, however, possess the typical grooved bar around which the tongue of the buckle would twist (2). It is possible that the object served as the loop section in, for example, a horse bit, with the end of a rein attached to the straight bar (3). But the piece is rather delicate and may not have been sturdy enough for this function. Regardless of its intended use, unattached fittings like this could have been adapted to serve a variety purposes, for example as key chains (4).

NOTES:

1. J. Waldbaum, Archaeological Exploration of Sardis 8: Metalwork from Sardis (Cambridge, MA, 1983) 153, no. 1010.

2. Compare four similarly shaped belt buckles in the Menil Collection, Houston, that include a groove for the tongue: inv. nos. X490.442, X 490.443, X490.461, and X490.462 (all unpublished).

3. Byzantine fittings of generally similar format, which were excavated in areas of modern-day Greece and Turkey, specifically at Corinth, Anemurium, and Saraçhane in Istanbul, and previously identified as belt buckles, may instead be horse trappings. See G. R. Davidson, Corinth 12: Minor Objects (Princeton, 1952) 267-68 and 272, nos. 2197-201 and 2207-208; J. Russell, “Byzantine Instrumenta Domestica from Anemurium: The Significance of Context,” in City, Town, and Countryside in the Early Byzantine Era, ed. R. L. Hohlfelder (Boulder, 1982) 133-63, esp. 138 and 160, fig. 6.6; and R. M. Harrison, Excavations at Saraçhane in Istanbul 1: The Excavations, Structures, Architectural Decoration, Small Finds, Coins, Bones, and Molluscs (Princeton, 1986) 264, no. 579, pl. 408.

4. Compare a piece in the Menil Collection, Houston, inv. no. 79-24.227 DJ (unpublished).


Alicia Walker

Publication History

  • Jane Waldbaum, Metalwork from Sardis: The Finds through 1974, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA, 1983), p. 153, no. 1010, pl. 58.

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