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Identification and Creation

Object Number
1992.256.119
Title
Duck-headed Straight Pin
Classification
Jewelry
Work Type
pin
Date
mid 13th-8th century BCE
Places
Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World, Asia, Luristan (Iran)
Period
Iron Age
Culture
Iranian
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/304527

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Bronze
Technique
Cast, lost-wax process
Dimensions
15.9 x 1.6 x 0.5 cm (6 1/4 x 5/8 x 3/16 in.)
Technical Details

Chemical Composition: ICP-MS/AAA data from sample, Bronze:
Cu, 87.34; Sn, 11.74; Pb, 0.48; Zn, 0.004; Fe, 0.05; Ni, 0.07; Ag, 0.1; Sb, 0.03; As, 0.19; Bi, less than 0.025; Co, less than 0.005; Au, less than 0.01; Cd, less than 0.001
J. Riederer

Chemical Composition: EMP analysis from sample, Bronze:
Cu, 85.90; Sn, 11.82; Pb, 0.25; Zn, 0.08; Fe, 0.02; Ni, 0.05; Ag, 0.09; Sb, 0.02; As, 0.08


T. Richardson, June 1999

Technical Observations: There is red and dark green patina throughout. Minor casting flaws are visible on the duck, and there are cracks along and across the shaft.

The duck-headed pins are lost-wax casts; casting flaws are visible in some areas. On 167.1972, a raised seam surrounds the duck’s body. The seam is uneven and not always straight, suggesting that it is not the result of casting the bronze in a two-part mold, but that the wax model was mold-made. The linear decoration on the shafts was incised in the wax model.


Tracy Richardson (submitted 1999)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Louise M. and George E. Bates, Camden, ME (by 1971-1992), gift; to the Harvard University Art Museums, 1992.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of Louise M. and George E. Bates
Accession Year
1992
Object Number
1992.256.119
Division
Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact
am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
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Descriptions

Published Catalogue Text: Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Bronzes at the Harvard Art Museums
The wings of the duck finial on this pin are marked by cavities; the eyes are not indicated. The molding consists of four biconical beads interspersed with pairs of rings. Incised decoration may have been present but is now obliterated by corrosion. The tip of the pin is lost.

Pins from Luristan generally have round shafts that taper to a point. The pin head is often zoomorphic, and a common type of finial represents a swimming duck. A series of convex and concave moldings forms the transition from the duck-shaped finial to the shaft, which may be incised with geometric patterns below the moldings. As is well illustrated by the examples at Harvard, the known pins of this kind are quite similar but vary in minor details and proportions. This would suggest that the majority of these objects were cast in a direct lost-wax process, but raised seams visible on the duck of 167.1972 indicate that either the bronze itself or, more likely, the wax model was cast in a two-piece mold (1).

Pins with heads in the form of swimming ducks have been excavated in a tomb at Kutal-i Gulgul dated to the Iron Age I period (1300/1250-1150 BCE) and the Surkh Dum-i Luri sanctuary, dated to the Iron Age III period (800/750-650 BCE). From these contexts, it may be concluded that pins of this type remained in use for several centuries, from the late second to the early first millennia BCE. Alternatively, the single pin found at Surkh Dum could be an heirloom (2).

NOTES:

1. P. R. S. Moorey has observed similar marks on two duck-headed pins in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford; see id., Catalogue of the Ancient Persian Bronzes in the Ashmolean Museum (Oxford, 1971) 193-94, nos. 314-15. See also B. Overlaet, The Early Iron Age in the Pusht-i Kuh, Luristan, Acta Iranica 40, Luristan Excavation Documents 4 (Leuven, 2003) 205.

2. See L. Vanden Berghe, “La Luristan à l’âge du fer: La necropole de Kutal-i-Gulgul,” Archéologia 65 (1973): 16-29, esp. 18-19 and 21; O. W. Muscarella, Bronze and Iron: Ancient Near Eastern Artifacts in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, 1988) 130-31, no. 203; E. F. Schmidt, M. N. van Loon, and H. H. Curvers, The Holmes Expedition to Luristan (Chicago, 1989) 270 and 310 (27D.16.9), pl. 182.a; and Overlaet 2003 (supra 1) 205-206, figs. 171-73, pls. 63-64 (Tomb A4).


Susanne Ebbinghaus

Publication History

  • Tracy Richardson, "A Technical Study of Luristan Bronzes From Ancient Iran" (thesis (certificate in conservation), Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies, June 1999), Unpublished

Subjects and Contexts

  • Ancient Bronzes

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