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Identification and Creation
Object Number
1991.42
Title
Breastplate Fragment with Inscription and Relief
Decoration
Classification
Armor
Work Type
armor
2 of 8
Date
second half 7th century BCE
Places
Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World, Europe,
Crete
Period
Orientalizing period
Culture
Greek
Physical Descriptions
Medium
Bronze
Technique
Hammered
Dimensions
9.5 x 21.3 x 0.1 cm (3 3/4 x 8 3/8 x 1/16 in.)
Technical Details
Chemical Composition: XRF data from Tracer
Alloy: Bronze
Alloying Elements: copper, tin
Other Elements: lead, iron, arsenic, antimony
K. Eremin, January 2014
Chemical Composition: SEM-WDS data from sample,
Bronze:
Cu, 90.2; Sn, 9.2; Pb, nd; Zn, 0.06; Fe, 0.29; Ni, 0.11; Ag,
3 of 8
nd; Sb, nd; As, nd; Co, 0.08
Comments: Considerable intergranular corrosion.
R. Newman, June 2015
Technical Observations: The patina is green with areas
of rust color. Although there are no clear hammer
marks in the x-radiograph, it is probable that the sheet
was formed by cold working with a hammer. The
incised letters are punched by means of numerous
blows of a single tool with an elongated point (c. 2 to 3
mm long). Although the rough, corroded surface makes
it difficult to be certain, the incised palmette design
appears to have been made by pushing a smoothpointed tool across the surface with repeated blows of
a hammer.
Henry Lie (submitted 2000)
Inscriptions and Marks
inscription: in Greek, Οπρικος ο [--]νο
Provenance
From Afrati. Ex Norbert Schimmel Collection.
Acquisition and Rights
Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift
of the Schimmel Foundation, Inc.
Accession Year
1991
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Object Number
1991.42
Division
Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact
am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
Descriptions
Published Catalogue Text: Ancient Mediterranean and
Near Eastern Bronzes at the Harvard Art Museums
This irregularly shaped sheet is a very fragmentary
piece of breastplate, but H. Hoffman suggests it was
worn on the front of the body (1). Portions of an incised
volute and a palmette are present. It bears an
untranslatable inscription in Archaic Cretan letters:
“Οπρικος ο [--]νο” (2).
Harvard’s Cretan armor is part of a larger cache,
portions of which are now in the Metropolitan Museum
of Art, New York; the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe,
Hamburg; and the Heraklion Archaeological Museum.
Many of the other pieces in the group are highly
decorated with incised and repoussé images. The
objects do not appear to have been part of a
dedication to a deity, given the inscriptions found on
the pieces. Fourteen pieces of armor from the cache
bear dedicatory inscriptions, naming several different
warriors, and these seem to indicate that the group of
armor was captured in battle and dedicated together
as a group (3). It has also been suggested, however,
that they perhaps were used for a war dance rather
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than for combat (4).
H. Hoffman noted that all the breastplates in the Afrati
hoard seemed to be a Cretan variant of the bell cuirass
that was standard in the Archaic period, which had
front and back plates bearing stylized anatomical
details (5).
NOTES:
1. See H. Hoffmann and A. E. Raubitschek, Early Cretan
Armorers (Mainz, 1972) 6-7.
2. For a discussion of the inscriptions on Archaic armor
and the Afrati cache in particular, see Hoffmann and
Raubitschek 1972 (supra 1) 15-16; and G. Neumann, “Zu
den kretischen Kriegernamen auf den Waffen von
Afrati,” Zeitschrift für verleichende Sprachforschung
88.1 (1974): 32-40.
3. See Hoffmann and Raubitschek 1972 (supra 1) 15-16.
4. For a discussion of this armor cache being used for a
war dance, see E. Simon, “Die Waffen von Arkades:
Ausrüstung für die Pyrrhiche,” Anodos: Studies of the
Ancient World 4-5 (2004-2005): 231-42, esp. 239-41;
and M. Lesky, “4.b. Dance, G: Waffentänze in der
griechischen und etruskischen Antike,” Thesaurus
Cultus Et Rituum Antiquorum 2: 314-17.
5. See Hoffmann and Raubitschek 1972 (supra 1) 6-7.
Lisa M. Anderson
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Publication History
Suzannah F. Doeringer, David Gordon Mitten, and
Arthur Steinberg, ed., Art and Technology: A
Symposium on Classical Bronzes, M.I.T. Press
(Cambridge, MA, 1970), p. 136, no. C 5.
Herbert D. Hoffmann and A.E. Raubitschek, Early
Cretan Armorers, Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA,
1972), p. 9, no. c 5.
Gunter Neumann, "Zu den kretischen Kriegernamen auf
den Waffen von Afrati", Zeitschrift für vergleichende
Sprachforschung (1974), Vol. 88, Bd. 1, 32-40, as C5
[see esp. p. 37-38].
Subjects and Contexts
Ancient Bronzes
Related Works
1991.41
Breastplate Fragment
1991.40
Armor
Breastplate Fragment
Armor
7 of 8
1991.39
Breastplate Fragment
with Inscription
Armor
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
Generated on January 13, 2017 at 08:46am
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