Copper alloy weight of King Theoderic of the Ostrogoths
493-526 (early Byzantine), made in Rome, copper alloy and silver, 25.7x25.4 mm, Harvard Art Museums
Copper alloy weight of Theoderic, square with convex profile; inscribed on the face and sides; inlaid with silver, some missing; on the base a herring-bone wreath enclosing denominational mark; four-lobed motif in each corner. Inscriptions Inscription type: denominational mark Inscription position: base Inscription language: Greek Inscription script: Greek Inscription note: 1 oz Inscription type: inscription Inscription position: face Inscription language: Latin Inscription content: DN Theoderici Inscription transliteration: Dominus Noster Theoderici Inscription type: inscription Inscription position: side Inscription language: Latin Inscription content: CATV| LINVS | VC.ET | INL.PFV Inscription transliteration: Catulinus vir clarrisimus et inlustris praefectus urbi
Empress Bust Weight, Steelyard, and Collar with Chains (4)
Empress Bust Weight, Steelyard, and Collar with Chains (3)
Empress Bust Weight, Steelyard, and Collar with Chains (2)
Empress Bust Weight, Steelyard, and Collar with Chains (1)
5th-7th century (early Byzantine); mixed copper alloy w/ lead and iron fill in bust, cast and hammered Dimensions A. weight: 13.6 x 6 x 4.7 cm (5 3/8 x 2 3/8 x 1 7/8 in.) 1441 g B. chains and hooks: 44 x 5.7 cm (17 5/16 x 2 1/4 in.) C. crossbeam with hooks: 39.2 x 1 cm (15 7/16 x 3/8 in.) Harvard Art Museums
Published Catalogue Text: Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Bronzes at the Harvard Art Museums This fifth- to seventh-century steelyard weight in the shape of an empress represents the most common type of weight used with early Byzantine steelyard scales (1). Earlier scholarship proposed that each weight represented a specific Byzantine empress, but that theory has been overturned in favor of an interpretation of the crowned women as a generic imperial type, perhaps linked to the symbolism of official personifications. The crude outline of the bulky crown is similar to headgear worn by early Byzantine empresses depicted on consular diptychs and marble statuary. She wears a tunic covered by a heavy cloak with deeply grooved folds. Her right hand rests on the edge of the cloak, while her left hand clutches an object variously identified as a scroll or a mappa. As is typical of weights from this time, the bronze is crudely modeled with no modeling on the reverse. This figure was hollow cast with its surface roughly modeled in wax, and then its interior was filled with lead. An iron pin is visible in the base. The steelyard still has two copper alloy chains terminating in large hooks. These hooks extend from a loop with a swiveling mechanism that slides over the steelyard’s crossbeam. The crossbeam has three incised scales and three suspension points (two of which still have hooks). The three sides would have corresponded to three distinct ranges of measurement. The scale corresponding to the innermost suspension point is subdivided into 12 sections, each between 1.8 and 2 cm long and inscribed with three dots. The middle scale is more or less regularly subdivided into 25 sections, each between 0.7 cm and 1 cm long. Most of these sections (or sometimes a larger, double section) are inscribed with three dots. The border between the eleventh and twelfth section is marked by the letter K; the border between the twenty-first and twenty-second by V or Λ (Greek upsilon or lambda). The letters represented Greek numerals. The scale corresponding to the outermost suspension point consists of irregular incisions at the border (c. 0.3 cm distance from each other), with the following Greek letters inscribed with punched dots: Λ E M E N E Χ E O E P̣ E (the epsilons are inscribed in reverse; the reading of the penultimate letter is uncertain). The punched dot style of inscription is used on weight crossbeams even in the Roman period (2). It is unusual to have a weight preserved with its crossbeam, if in fact this group belonged together in antiquity; the crossbeam’s markings are exceptionally well preserved. Steelyards were commonly used throughout the ancient Mediterranean. These crossbeams would have a weight, usually in the form of a person or deity, that slid along the bar of the scale to measure bulk goods (3). Not surprisingly, many of the Late Roman and Byzantine examples with known findspots have been found along a coast or in shipwrecks, reflecting their commercial utility. The standard term in English, “steelyard,” is a bit misleading, deriving from the use of similar scales in the area on the north bank of the Thames, London, where steel merchants clustered until 1597. In the Roman period, a wide range of figures was represented on the weights, reflecting the diversity of forms of Roman small bronzes in general. By the fourth to fifth century CE, this multiplicity had narrowed and almost all steelyards used weights represented a generic empress type (like this example) or the goddess Athena (Minerva) (4). Although many late examples have been dated generally to the Late Roman period, the most firmly dated example is from the seventh-century shipwreck of Yassi Ada, off the coast of modern Turkey (5). The holdings of the Harvard Art Museums represent the lively eclecticism of this category of bronze, including busts of an empress type, a Minerva, an emperor and an ambiguous nude. The basic shape of the bust weights was probably created from the lost-wax process, with later refinements added as the materials cooled. The hollow core was filled with lead to achieve the required weight, and a thin bronze sheet on the bottom capped the lead filling. Variations appear in the manufacture of different categories of the weights. The upper loop, with which the figure would be attached to the upper scale, was aligned in two different directions: the loop on the empress bust weights ran front-to-back, while the Minerva bust weights, in contrast, had a top loop that presents its circular face to the viewer. Furthermore, the Minerva weights possess rectangular socles, and the empress weights have oval socles. -- Technical Observations: The patina of all three components is green to gray-green, with varying amounts of smaller dark green areas and small spots of brown burial accretions. The green is very compact and preserves surface detail. The empress weight is slightly grayer in tone, and this slight difference could be important in relating the three components. On the other hand, variations in the choice of alloy for the figural cast weight could easily have caused this difference. The dissimilarity between the color of the mixed copper alloy weight and the very dark brass hook connected to the single chain link at the crown stands out, and the hook could have been added at a later date or come from another object. Most of the weight-bearing surfaces show a similar (and significant) degree of ancient wear. The retaining pin and ring for the third hook, now missing from the crossbeam, are made of iron rather than copper alloy, as in the other two, intact hooks. Perhaps this was a replacement (using a tougher, longer-lasting metal, although one more prone to corrosion) after the original copper alloy pin and ring failed. As suggested above, the flat profile hook attached to the weight, with its different patina, could also be a replacement, although possibly an ancient one. Its flat profile and sharp bearing edge are appropriate for precise measurement, and it would have seen the most aggressive and abrasive use of all the components, explaining the need to replace it during the original period of use. The lead and corroded iron inside the empress weight are intact and appear to be antique. The weight exhibits the dents and wear that would be expected from use. The weight was cast, but areas of surface relief appear to have been enhanced with a file after casting. The chains were cold worked from a bronze rod, and the hooks and the crossbeam were probably cast as general shapes and then cold worked to receive their final shape and surface detail. Punches were used to make the scale markings on the crossbeam.
Byzantine Three-Ounce Weight with Imperial Busts of Justin II, Sophia and Justinian(?) (3)
Byzantine Three-Ounce Weight with Imperial Busts of Justin II, Sophia and Justinian(?) (2)
Byzantine Three-Ounce Weight with Imperial Busts of Justin II, Sophia and Justinian(?) (1)
16 March 575 CE (early Byzantine), Mixed copper alloy, Cast, lost-wax process h. 4 x w. 4 x d. 0.4 cm (1 9/16 x 1 9/16 x 3/16 in.) 78.46 g Harvard Art Museum
Technical Observations: The patina is dark green with spots of red. White accretions are also present in the inscribed lines. All edges are smooth from handling. The incised lines have been roughly cleaned, making it difficult to see the nature of the surfaces and ascertain how the lines were made. Gouges at the back may be from finishing the back surface or from use. The object was probably cast from a directly formed wax model. The inscribed lines and decoration were probably made in the wax model, but the object is not in good enough condition to be sure. Henry Lie (submitted 2005) inscription: in Greek, in five lines: ΓΟ / Γ [three ounces] ΕΠΙ ΤΟV ΠΑΝΕV/ΦΗΜΟV ΚΑΙ ΕVΦ/VΟϹΤΑΤΟV ϹΤΡΑΤ/ΗΛΑΤΟV ΙΟVΛΙΑΝOV ΦΑΜΕΝW ΘΚ. ΙΝΔ Η. [Translation: in the time of the wholly blessed and best disposed (of men) Iulianos, stratelates, on the twentieth of Phamenoth, eighth indiction.] [Note that the omicron and upsilon at the end of the fourth line are in ligature.]
Silver ingot with stamps of Emperor Honorius (AD 395-423)
4thC(late)-5thC(early), found at Tower of London, silver, 353.4 g, British Museum
Silver ingots like this were used to pay soldiers and civil servants in the Late Roman Empire. The stamped inscription reads EX OFFE HONORINI, which translates 'from the workshop of Honorinus'. It was found in 1777 with two gold coins of the emperor Arcadius (AD 395-408) and one of Honorius (AD 395-423), and dates to the end of the Roman period in Britain. The site, later to be occupied by the Norman Tower of London, lay inside the south-east corner of the Roman city wall, and it is possible that it had been a late Roman military stronghold.
Gold ingot, late 4th century, found in Romania, Braşov (county), and Braşov (city)
4th c (late), Sirmium, gold, 476.2 g, British Museum
Gold currency-bar stamped four times with a rectangular stamp recording the name of the procurator, Flavianus and once with the name of the assayer, Lucianus. This is one of a hoard of fifteen such bars found in a Carpathian mountain pass in the 19th century. To ensure the continued purity of the gold coinage, in about AD 367 the emperors ordered all gold coins paid in tax to be melted down into bars before being turned back into coin (Codex Theodosianus 12.6.2), although the presence of gold bars in the late third century Aboukir (Egypt) Hoard suggests that the practice had been in place since at least Tetrarchic times. It was easier to test a smaller number of large bars than millions of individual coins for forgeries to ensure that they were of pure refined gold (obryzium; abbreviated to OB on the coinage at this time and OBR on this bar). Such gold bars represent the intermediate form the gold took after melting and before it was turned back into coins. They are marked with stamps of the assayers Flavianus and Lucianus, to demonstrate the quality of the metal, in this case - as other examples from the hoard attest - from a testing centre at Sirmium (Sremska Mitrovica) near the Danube. Inscription: FL FLAVIANVS PRO●SIG AD DIGMA (branch) LVCIANVS OBR●I●SIG (Christogram)