Incense shovel with cross
Dublin Core
Title
Incense shovel with cross
Subject
Incense shovel with cross, Sardis, 5th-7th century, bronze/copper alloy, 0.085 x 0.140 m, Manisa, Archaeological and Ethnographic Museum
Description
DESCRIPTION
Rectangular bronze scoop, with socket on back for a handle. On the sides are two dolphins with arching tails attached to the scoop by rods round in section. Rising from the tails of the dolphins is an arch framing a cross, forming the back of the scoop. Scoop, arch, and cross are decorated with small dotted circles.
COMMENTS
Dolphins were a favorite theme of artists throughout antiquity, and may have been seen as a kind of fish with a symbolic connection with Christianity; the dotted circles were thought to have protective properties in later Roman times.
The incense shovel was discovered in a room with two bronze incense burners, and could have been used in the home or elsewhere for special liturgical purposes. Found in the first year of renewed excavations at Sardis in 1958, this and other bronze objects found in this late-Roman house gave a name to this excavation sector, the “House of Bronzes” or “HoB.” Deeper excavation in this sector recovered many of the Lydian objects in this exhibition.
Rectangular bronze scoop, with socket on back for a handle. On the sides are two dolphins with arching tails attached to the scoop by rods round in section. Rising from the tails of the dolphins is an arch framing a cross, forming the back of the scoop. Scoop, arch, and cross are decorated with small dotted circles.
COMMENTS
Dolphins were a favorite theme of artists throughout antiquity, and may have been seen as a kind of fish with a symbolic connection with Christianity; the dotted circles were thought to have protective properties in later Roman times.
The incense shovel was discovered in a room with two bronze incense burners, and could have been used in the home or elsewhere for special liturgical purposes. Found in the first year of renewed excavations at Sardis in 1958, this and other bronze objects found in this late-Roman house gave a name to this excavation sector, the “House of Bronzes” or “HoB.” Deeper excavation in this sector recovered many of the Lydian objects in this exhibition.
Files
Collection
Citation
“Incense shovel with cross,” HAA Image Hosting, accessed May 19, 2026, https://haaimagehosting.omeka.fas.harvard.edu/items/show/1250.
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