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Identification and Creation

Object Number
1968.54
Title
Hand Cymbal with Bull Finial
Classification
Musical Instruments
Work Type
musical instrument
Date
mid to late 3rd millennium BCE
Places
Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World, Asia, Anatolia
Period
Bronze Age, Early
Culture
Anatolian
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/311073

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Bronze
Technique
Cast, lost-wax process
Dimensions
h. 4.6 x diam. 4.6 cm (1 13/16 x 1 13/16 in.)
Technical Details

Chemical Composition: ICP-MS/AAA data from sample, Bronze:
Cu, 75.56; Sn, 22.24; Pb, 0.38; Zn, 0.04; Fe, 0.19; Ni, 0.04; Ag, 0.03; Sb, 0.46; As, 1.06; Bi, less than 0.025; Co, less than 0.01; Au, less than 0.01; Cd, less than 0.001
J. Riederer

Chemical Composition: XRF data from Tracer
Alloy: Bronze
Alloying Elements: copper, tin
Other Elements: lead, iron, arsenic
K. Eremin, January 2014

Technical Observations: The object is a solid, lost-wax cast. A 3.5-cm portion of the flat section was broken off prior to burial and is lost. There are numerous scratch and scrape marks related to modern cleaning. The hole at the top of the column appears to have been made in the wax model, possibly for a string or other attachment. It is possible that the model was cast, making the technique indirect lost wax. The 1.3-cm hollow at the flat end is unfinished and shows what appears to be a wax drip mark. The animal form could have been formed or cast separately in wax and the two portions joined to complete the wax model, but there is no evidence to suggest such a join. The regularity of the cone and disc shape may relate to a turning process used in making an earlier original model. No evidence of turning is present on this casting. The patina is green with areas of blue and red.


Tony Sigel and Henry Lie (submitted 1999, updated 2005)

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, David M. Robinson Fund
Accession Year
1968
Object Number
1968.54
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
The diminutive bull and the shape of the cymbal are a fine example of the advanced metallurgical skills of the people who lived in central Anatolia during the third millennium BCE. Despite its small size, the bull preserves distinctive Anatolian features such as the forward thrust of the two curving horns, the slight dip in the back that rises to the rear haunches and shoulder, the short tail, and the blunted end of the muzzle. Comparable elements are found on a group of well-known bronze bull and stag standards found in lavish burials of the mid to late third millennium BCE at Alaca Höyük and Horoztepe in central Turkey (1). Both bulls and stags play a prominent role in the little understood cultic rites of early Anatolia, and bull bucrania were included in the burials at Alaca Höyük. Alongside the elaborate standards, many of which include moving bronze pieces to create a rattle effect, were bronze cymbals of the same shape as the Harvard example (2). At Alaca Höyük they were found in pairs, as one would expect if they were used like castanets. A hole runs through the center of the rounded top of the Harvard cymbal, perhaps to tie it to a now-lost mate. One side of the flat circular base is missing.

NOTES:

1. See, for example, R. O. Arik, Les fouilles d’Alaca Höyük: Rapport preliminaire sur les travaux en 1935, Türk Tarih Kurumu Yayinlarindan 5.1 (Ankara, 1937) pls. 202-205 and 271; H. Z. Kosay, Ausgrabungen von Alaca Höyük: Ein Vorbericht über die im Auftrage der Türkischen Geschichtskommission im Sommer 1936 durchgeführten Forschungen und Entdeckungen, Türk Tarih Kurumu Yayinlarindan 5.2a (Ankara, 1944) pls. 96-97; id., Les fouilles d’Alaca Höyük: Rapport preliminaire sur les travaux en 1937-1939, Türk Tarih Kurumu Yayinlarindan 5.5 (Ankara, 1951) pls. 150-51, 162, 173, and 192; and T. Özguc and M. Akok, Horoztepe: An Early Bronze Age Settlement and Cemetery, Türk Tarih Kurumu Yayinlarindan 5.18 (Ankara, 1958) pl. 11.

2. None of the excavated examples have figures on the knob; see Arik 1937 (supra 1) no. 1816, pl. 277; Kosay 1944 (supra 1) pl. 81; id. 1951 (supra 1) pls. 124 and 126; and Özguc and Akok 1958 (supra 1) fig. 20, pl. 7.3. An unprovenienced pair is part of the collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art; see O. W. Muscarella, Bronze and Iron: Ancient Near Eastern Artifacts in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, 1988) 402, no. 529.


Marian Feldman

Publication History

  • Katherine Eremin and Josef Riederer, "Analytical Approaches to 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), 64-91, p. 76, fig. 3.5.
  • 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), pp. 25, 76, fig. 3.5

Exhibition History

  • Man in the Bronze Age, Chapel Arts Center, Manchester, 01/01/1970 - 01/30/1970; Brandeis University, Waltham, 02/09/1970 - 02/27/1970

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