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This mosaic depicts Byzantine Empress Theodora and her retinue. Theodora carries the eucharistic chalice. In the companion mosaic of her husband, the Emperor Justinian, he carries the vessel for the eucharistic bread. To her left are two male…

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…

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…

Museum wall text: “Steelyards were used to weigh commodities in the ancient marketplace. The beam, with units of measurement inscribed on three faces, is calibrated for three different scales: one weighed objects up to 13 pounds, another up to 34,…