Fülöp Gyula (szerk.): Festschrift für Jenő Fitz - Szent István Király Múzeum közleményei. B. sorozat 47. (Székesfehérvár, 1996)

E. Alföldi-Rosenbaum: Womens Mantles with Decorated Borders

JENŐ FITZ SEPTUAGENARIO

E. Alföldi Rosenbaum

WOMEN’S MANTLES WITH DECORATED BORDERS

I.

The Greek and Roman Department of the British Museum houses a small ivory (or bone) carving (Figs. l-2j{i) which attracted my attention some 20 years ago when preparing the second volume of Roman and Byzantine Portrait Sculpture in Asia Minor*2'. Because of the Pannonian connections it seemed appropriate to dedicate this study to Jenő Fitz as a token of gratitude for a friendship of many years which I inherited, as it were, from my husband András Alföldi.

The object is at present in a store room of the Department and labelled “wand”. It consists of a handle in the shape of an oval ring terminating in a fleur-de-lys like leaf, above which is a low, hollow section which contains a movable tiny ball. This section serves as the base of a spirally fluted column with a capital decorated with a ring of stylized acanthus leaves, which supports the bust of a woman dressed in a tunic and a mantle bordered by a band decorated with an incised scroll with S-shaped tendrils. The lady’s head is turned somewhat to her left. Her coiffure is a variant of one worn by the ladies at the courts of Heliogabalus and Alexander Severus, e.g., Julia Mamaea and her relatives. However, this hair style shows only in the front view. The rear is now covered with a series of drill holes and short incisions which give the impression of stylized acanthus leaves.131 The subject wears a net over the front part of her hair, which is formed like a Stephane. Behind it is a thin fillet from ear to ear, twisted in opposite directions on either side of a central break. This fillet might imitate one of metal. The lady has an oval, full face with a short nose and a small thick-lipped mouth. The pupils of her wide-open eyes are indicated by drill holes.

The rear of the bust and the capital is flat, but also worn, and there is evidence of wear by frequent handling on the part above the ring. The central hollowing of the back of the bust appears, according to S. Walker, secondary.

Although my main interest is in the bust of the woman and in particular her embroidered garment, a few words must be said on the object as such and its possible use.

(1) Inv. GR 1949. 10.12. 1. Photos British Museum 3067 and 3068. H. 17 cm. My thanks are due to Dr. Susan Walker on whose technical description and other information (letter of March 1991) my own description is based.

(2) Published in German: J. Inan-E. Alföldi-Rosp.nbaum, Römische und frühbyzaniinische Porträtplastik aus der Türkei. Neue Funde. Mainz 1979, see esp. pp. 325 ff., No. 325, Pis. 228, 1. 3; 234 and notes 5,6.

(3) Susan Walker describes as follows: “At the back, the hair was originally indicated with short cuts; the drilled holes appear secondary.” From the photograph the “cuts” seem to me also secondary.

In the same box in which our carving is kept are fragments of two similar objects: a “ring” like the handle of our piece (Inv. 1974.10-9.134); and a hollow piece like the column base of the complete piece (Inv. 1868. 6-20. 263) found by John Wood in Ephesus (precise findspot not indicated). These two fragments, small as they are, show that the piece studied here is not of an isolated form. Whereas the handle fragment of unknown provenance is not so specific, the hollow “base” with the little ball from Ephesus is: Susan Walker’s suggestion that we might be dealing with some kind of rattle is well worth considering.

The ring-shaped handle occurs on other bone carvings that share further characteristics with our piece. I have not made any systematic search for parallels,<4> but I did come across, almost by accident, three more or less well preserved bone carvings with similar features, one from Noricum, the other two from Pannonia, all three from women’s graves.

1) Tordós, grave 2, found in a chest with bronze revetments.

H. 19 cm. Ring shaped handle, long, smooth shaft supporting statuette of Venus pudica. 2ts. Bánki, Alba Regia VIII/IX, 1967, 234, fig. 13, 3, PI. LIX, 1. Purpose unknown.

2) Lauriacum (Enns), Espelmayrfeld, grave 84. H. 16, 1 cm. Handle very similar to B.M. handle. Smooth shaft supporting statuette of Venus as on 1, but head broken off. A. Kloiber, Lauriacum, Gräberfelder. Das Espelmayrfeld (Forschungen in Lauriacum 8, 1962), 77, Pl. XXIX, 2. 2a. In text called “Beinstäbchen”, in list of plates “Fläschchenhalter”. Reference in Bánki, above under 1.

3) Brigetio. Lower part of smooth stafT with ring-shaped handle, similar to B.M. handle. T.M. Biro, “Bone carvings from Brigetio”, ActArchHung 39,1987,166 No. 34, fig. 7, 34 (“carved bone handle with ring end”). The suggestion for a possible use “imaginable that it was the handle of a small bronze cultic statue” seems impossible in light of 1 and 2.

Some small bone statuettes, amongst which a Venus pudica type, in Trier, Rheinisches Landesmuseum15' might belong in a

There should have been a flat bun or perhaps a short "Scheitelzopf’, with the hair rendered by incised lines.

(4) Such a search ought to be made, and I hope that this article might lead to further information from colleagues which could be helpful for the interpretation of the British Museum object, and indeed the others.

(5) R. Schindler, Landesmuseum Trier. Führer durch die vorgeschichtliche und römische AbteilungTrier 1972, 60, fig. 18. - F. Hettner, Illustrierter Führer durch das Provinzialmuseum in Trier (1903), p. 113. Germania Romana V, Pl. XVII, 1 (5).

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