Bronze Plaque Research Articles

Zeuxias’ Monetary Deposits at the Sanctuary of Olympia

This bronze plaque, found in 1879, contains two monetary deposits made by an individual named Zeuxias at the sanctuary of Olympia in the second half of the fifth century BC. It constitutes one of the few preserved documents of this type, making it a valuable testimony of banking activities at Panhellenic sanctuaries. Due to the fragmentary status of the text, a comparison with other analogous inscriptions and literary testimonies is here offered, with the aim of casting some light on the reason behind the deposit, and the formulaic language used.

New find of Roman military equipment of the period of the Roman–Bosporan war of 45–49 AD from the Eastern Crimea

The Artezian fortified settlement in the Azov Sea coast of Eastern Crimea perished in a strong fire at the beginning of the Roman–Bosporan war in 46/47 AD. In the homogeneous fire layer, along with numerous items of jewellery, silver, bronze and glass vessels, a heavily burned out round bronze plaque, 7.7–7.8 cm in diameter with a hole in the centre was found. The plaque is decorated along the edge with a figural frieze, depicting two pairs of animals opposing each other: ‘dog–bull’, ‘dog–wild boar’. Besides two animals are running after each other: a lion and a roe deer. The decoration of the plaque from Artezian finds parallels among plaques from the military camps along the limes of Lower and Upper Rhine and Danube. Objects similar in shape depicting animals in circular friezes are also known in Dacia and in the South-Western Crimea. The parallels to the images of the plaque and options of interpreting the function of the piece are discussed. The combination of pairs of opposing animals and animals running after each other finds parallels only on the belt plaques from Asciburgium and Magdalensberg. Thus, there are reasons to consider the disc from Artezian as an element of Roman military equipment of the first half of the 1st century AD.

Set Belts from the Catacomb No. 31 of the Early-Medieval Burial Ground near Verkhnii Saltiv Village

The materials of the catacomb burial no. 31 investigated in 1985 by the expedition of the Kharkiv Historical Museum under the leadership of V. H. Borodulina on the main site of the Early-Medieval burial ground in Verknii Saltiv village (VSM1) are introduced into the scientific circulation. The burial chamber, transverse to the dromos, contained the remains of two people (a man and a woman) with the traces of deliberate destruction committed in ancient times (fig. 1: 1). Inventory found with the buried people (fig. 2) allows dating this complex to the second — third quarters of the 9th century. The elements of the belt set found in the burial, represented by cast bronze plaques and a fragment of a bronze belt buckle (fig. 1: 2—6) are of interest. Two belt plaques with a fixed loop in the lower part of the shield are decorated with a lotus ornament (fig. 1: 6) typical for the 3rd chronological horizon of the Saltiv antiquities. Two square-shaped plaques with a rectangular hole that has a pointed top in the lower part of the shield (fig. 1: 3, 4) are distinctive among the Turkic antiquities of the 8th—10th centuries. Similar plaques of the Saltiv period are found in the assemblages of the Volga River middle region and the Southern Urals (Volga Bulgarians, Magyars, Mordovians, Mari), where they are part of the decorations of the Turk-Ural circle. Five more round plaques are decorated with floral ornament (fig. 1: 5), which finds analogies in the monuments of the “Magyar” circle of the 9th—10th centuries (Elizavetino-Mikhailovka, Kriukovo-Kuzhnovskii burial grounds in the Volga region, burial in the village of Nova Mykolaivka in the Dnipro Oblast). This belt set consists of three types of plaques that correspond to different traditions. Appearance of the set reflects existence of certain military fashion in the Saltiv society associated with the role played by the Magyars in the 830–890s, being in allied relations with the top of the Khazar Khaganate.

О некоторых образах архаических монет Ионии и Малой Азии на скифских зооморфных бронзовых бляхах

The article studies the influence of zoomorphic images on the archaic coinage of Ionia and Asia Minor on the Scythian animal style. The borrowing of ancient coin images and designs by Scythians has long been the subject of a separate study. However, as a rule, the attention of researchers was limited to a circle of prestigious things made of precious metals mainly in the second half of the 5 th—4 th centuries BC. As it will be shown in this article, the influence of the Ionian and Asia Minor coinage on the formation of images of the Scythian animal style can be traced at least from the turn of the 6 th—5 th centuries BC and manifests itself not only in prestigious items, but also in quite ordinary bronze plaques, mainly decorating horse bridles. It is proved that in a number of cases, within the framework of the Scythian animal style, there was a direct borrowing of coin images and motifs (the full face of a lion, the motif of a four-fingered clawed paw, composition consisting of three boar heads). In other cases, the influence of coinage on the formation of images of the Scythian animal style seems more than likely (profile images of a cat predator and a lion, the “bird on a fish” plot). It is suggested that the influence of archaic Greek coinage on the Scythian animal style could be associated with waves of Ionian and Asia Minor migrants to the Northern Black Sea region in the second half of the 6 th—early 5 th centuries BC, or with the contacts between the Scythians, Ionians and Greeks during the Scythian-Persian war and the period immediately following it.

The hoard of the Early Iron Age at the settlement of Dianovo-II (Belozersk district of the Kurgan region)

In 2016, in the area of Dianovo village of the Belozersk district of the Kurgan region (West Siberia), a hoard of the Early Iron Age artifacts was found. While examining the area for the identification of structures of the Civil War period, a round-bottomed vessel was accidentally discovered. Inside the container, there was a massive rectangular bronze plate, glass beads, and fragments of jewelry, including bronze strings, bronze plaques in the shape of fish and four-petal plaques strung on leather cords, all wrapped in organic material (felt?). In total, the Dianovo treasure contains 370 ob-jects made of bronze and glass, assembled within a single set, classified as women’s. At present, this is one of very few elements of the women’s costume of the Early Iron Age that have been best preserved in the Southern Trans-Urals. These finds were transferred to the archaeological laboratory of the Kurgan State University, and later the archaeologi-cal survey was carried out at the discovery location by I.A. Spiridonov. The purpose of this research is a typological description of the contents of the hoard, its chronological analysis, and a possible reconstruction of the bronze orna-ment. The main research materials are the container in which the treasure was found — a ceramic round-bottomed vessel, a set of bronze objects that piece together a female (breast?) adornment, a set of glass beads of three types (rounded blue, black (square and rounded) with festoon-like white and yellow pattern), and a massive bronze plate with traces of manufacturing, which probably had the purpose of an ingot. Based on the analysis of the materials, it has been established that the hoard was most likely left by the population of the Gorokhovskaya Culture. This conclusion was made on the basis of the shape and features of the ceramic vessel. This is also supported by the location of the treasure and the general dating of individual items: glass beads of the Black Sea origin have numerous similarities in the sites and are quite clearly dated by these analogues to the 4th–3rd c. BC. The dating of other items of the hoard — elements of the bronze ornament and a bronze ingot-plate is complicated due to the lack of clearly dated analogues or chronological duration of their use. Judging by the composition and carefulness of packing of the items, this hoard ap-parently was of a situational (possibly in the event of an attack) and returnable character.

Случайные находки эпохи ранних кочевников из Кунашакского и Красноармейского районов Челябинской области

People of several aboriginal archaeological cultures populated the northern part of the foreststeppe zone of the Southern Trans-Urals in the Early Iron Age. Several accidental archaeological finds of bronze items come from this region. They are featured with the traditional animal style of the early nomads of Eurasia. A plaque depicts a predator crouching to the ground with the head of a ram in its mouth grabbing the muzzle. The plaque was found on a plowed field in the Karpino tract. It renders the scene of herbivore being tormented by a predator. This sort of image is popular in the Scytho-Siberian animal style. Another two bronze plaques were found on the top of the hill, Mount Sovinaya. The plaques refer to an elk’s head and face. Both plaques depict the head of a male elk with large antlers and protruding ears. It should be noted that the elk’s head on the plaques is not proportioned. It is shorter and wider unlike real animal and more reminiscent of the head of a bull or a cow. There are two longitudinal loops on the reverse side of the plaques. The plaques from Mount Sovinaya are completely original and have no equivalents among the monuments of the Scythian-Siberian animal style. It should be noted there is no image of an elk in the art of the nomads of the Lower Volga region and the Southern Urals. The presented plaques from accidental finds characterize the original art of the Trans-Ural forest-steppe tribes. According to the author, this art developed under the direct influence of the art of the nomads of the Eurasia steppe zone. On the contrary, a figurine of a stylized bird (“bird-shaped idol”) found near Lake Saygerly is one of the most striking categories of inventory of the Itkul archaeological culture.

“In Honorable Remembrance to All Generations”: Commemoration and the Making of Mormon Battalion Memory, 1921–2021

“In Honorable Remembrance to All Generations”: Commemoration and the Making of Mormon Battalion Memory, 1921–2021

Ptolemy’s Optics, double-vision, and the technological afterimage

In contrast to earlier theorists within the Greek optical tradition, who relied almost exclusively on geometrical diagrams to articulate and explain vision, Ptolemy employed several material instruments in his investigation of sight. These included rulers, glass cylinders, mirrors, and a bronze plaque designed to measure angles of incidence and reflection. These devices allowed Ptolemy to expand the operational definition of vision far beyond that of his predecessors, as he explicated several previously unexamined visual behaviors, including binocular vision, diplopia, and refraction. This article argues that these tools did more than make new phenomena visible; they also set the parameters for what these phenomena looked like—sometimes to such a degree that features of these instruments merged with the visual behaviors that they rendered visible. In some cases, this occurred as a type of “double-exposure,” where the investigative tool became layered over top of the process of sight, such as when Ptolemy’s “ruler” for investigating binocular vision became a template for imagining the mechanism of spatial perception employed by the eyes. In other cases, this merging occurred as a type of “technological afterimage,” where the instrument provided an implicit model for phenomena it was not directly investigating. Ptolemy’s bronze plaque stands as an example of this second type, insofar as it inspired his account of ocular geometry and facilitated novel assertions about the eye’s operations, even though it did not directly inspect these features. In general, this article thus outlines how the technologies of investigation can structure patterns of thought and naturalize certain physical arguments, whether for the phenomena that they directly articulate or for those indirectly associated with their particular use cases.

Athenian Spoils ‘from the Peloponnesians’ in Dodona (IG I3 1462)


 
 
 
 One of the most important epigraphical findings from Dodona is a slightly damaged bronze plaque with an Athenian dedication of spoils from the naval victory over the Peloponnesians. Author recapitulates old arguments for relating this inscrip- tion to the double victory of Phormio near Rhium/Naupactus in 429 BCE and adds new ones. He rejects the traditional view that the choice of distant Dodona as the place of advertisement of the Athenian victory was dictated by the inaccessibility of Olympia and/or Delphi due to the Peloponnesian War. Instead, he argues that it was a deliberate act of propaganda aimed at the cities and tribes of the northwestern Greece, conceived and carried out by Phormio.
 
 
 

WESTMINSTER HALL’S LOST STUART DOOR PASSAGE REDISCOVERED

In 2018 unpublished archaeological evidence was discovered recording a doorway and passageway concealed inside the Romanesque wall of Westminster Hall, near the south-east corner. Although commemorated by a bronze plaque in situ, their existence had largely been forgotten. Further investigations revealed an access panel in the 1951 cloakroom fittings in adjoining St Stephen’s cloister: this was located, and the space accessed, seemingly for the first time since c 1952. The many features of interest found within included the doorcase and soffits of a great doorway and iron pintles for the doors; Purbeck flagstones on the floor; complex masonry and plaster from several different eras; graffiti by masons from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries; a still-functional Osram lightbulb dating from the early 1950s; and wooden joists supporting the masonry of the ceiling. Isotope dating of the timbers produced a date of 1659, and works accounts showed that the doorway and passageway were created in 1660–1, to form a ceremonial route for the coronation of Charles ii. Further archaeological and historical investigations have enabled the authors to establish a full chronology for the changing fabric and uses of the doorway and passageway from the seventeenth to the twenty-first century, and to trace the masons who walled in the space in 1851. They have also established why the brass plaque in Westminster Hall marking the space erroneously ascribes it with Tudor origins: that ‘fake history’ was created by an over-enthusiastic late-nineteenth century Clerk of the House of Commons.

Three votive plaques from Upper Moesia

The article proposes a new reading and interpretation of three inscriptions engraved on small bronze plaques in the shape of tabula ansata from the Danubian limes in Upper Moesia - two from Pincum and one from Viminacium, associating the inscribed objects with the cult of Jupiter Dolichenus. The revised inscriptions also provide new data on the Roman units stationed on the Upper Moesian Danube bank, as two of the dedicators are identified as members of the ala Flaviana.

Memorials and the Mine Disaster in Monongah, West Virginia: From Trauma to an Italian Global Memoryscape

Memorials and the Mine Disaster in Monongah, West Virginia: From Trauma to an Italian Global Memoryscape

Extraordinary Burial of Trikolsky Burial Ground in the Lower Reaches of the Belaya River

The article introduces into scientific discourse the materials of the burial 15 of the Trikolsky burial ground studied in 1978 by V.A. Ivanov. This burial featured finds unique for the entire Pyany Bor culture – a glass bowl and a cassolette. The burial also contained beads made of single-color and multi-colored glass and glass with a metal inlay, pendants made of adult moose incisors, bronze plaques, openwork overlays, temple pendants, etc. The authors concluded that the unique items came to the Pyany Bor population as a result of contacts with Sarmatian nomads in the 1st century AD. In addition, the study presents data on the manufacturing material of certain items obtained using natural scientific methods. It was determined that the cassolette was made of a sedimentary rock – argillite. Metal items, except a leaf-shaped pendant made of precious metal, are made of tin bronze. A “gum” sample discovered next to a glass bowl contains matter of vegetable origin. Its components are betulinic and tricyclic acids contained in birch bark and conifer resin (oleoresin), respectively.

Предварительные результаты аварийно-спасательных раскопок погребальных памятников эпохи поздней бронзы на площади могильников Сагайская протока 7 и Аскиз 17 в Аскизском районе Республики Хакасия

The publication contains materials from the three Late Bronze mounds. They are located in close proximity to the railway and highway, which affected the shape of the mounds and stone structures. Four graves were discovered in the excavation area of mound 2 at the Sagayskaya protoka 7 burial ground. Grave 1 with ceramic vessels and bronze items provided the greatest amount of finds: temple rings, two finger rings, small buttons that adorned the funeral costume as well as an awl and a whetstone. Next to the grave pit, a dog was buried. No human remains were found in graves 2 and 3, but there were grave goods similar to those found in grave 1. Two burial mounds were excavated at Askiz 17. In the center of the kerb of kurgan 2, a disturbed grave 1 was found. Judging by the available remains, it was a burial of an adult with offered meat food and a vessel. Clothes and headwear were decorated with a bronze plaque and buttons. Outside the kerb, there was a stone box in which an infant was buried (grave 2). The grave kit included a vessel, an astragalus of a sheep, a bronze knife and an ornament in the form of a small clasp. The barrow of mound 3 covered two kerbs. Grave 1 was located in the center of kerb 1, it was looted. At the northern wall of kerb 2, the grave was not disturbed. The deceased was accompanied by a vessel and meat food. The grave good kit contained bronze ornaments: a large plaque, 6 rings, 4 signet rings, a bracelet, and buttons. Both burial grounds are tentatively dated to the 10th -9th centuries BC, which corresponds to the III (Lugavskoe) stage of the Bronze Age in the periodization of archaeological cultures in the Minusinsk Basin.

Археологические исследования Катандинской долины

The article is devoted to a summary of the results of the study of the Katandinsky valley in 2021 (the Republic of Altai). Anthropogenic impact has destroyed and continues to destroy archaeological sites in the specified territory. Fixing what has been preserved to date is the primary task of its archaeological study. The article presents a map of the archaeological sites of the valley, compiled by coordinating archaeological sites using the GARMIN 62 stc navigator in the WGS-84 coordinate system. A brief description of the discovered objects is given: two types of burial complexes of the Afanasievo culture are distinguished, Pazyryk mounds in the Katanda 1 burialfield, Turkic fences and mounds of the early Middle Ages are marked. The results of a geophysical study of one of the mounds in the Katanda 2 burial field are presented. According to the results of the magnetic survey, it is concluded that the object most likely belongs to the Afanasievo culture. Thus, it is established that using geophysical studies, it is possible to determine the cultural affiliation of funerary monuments, in cases where it is not obvious. We are talking about the numerous completely blackened mounds of the Katandinsky valley. The article presents drawings of objects found on the plowed territory of monuments. Among them there are bronze buckles of the Scythian period, as well as objects that can be attributed to the Turkic era. Of particular note is a bronze plaque in the form of a curled panther, a pendant representing a schematic representation of a human figure and a cast-iron blade from a plow, made in China. A random set of discovered objects reflects the history of the development of the valley.

Культурный палимпсест в кургане № 5 могильника Уйтаг-3 (Республика Хакасия)

In 2021, as a part of rescue archaeological work in the Askiz district of the Republic of Khakassia a unique burial complex was studied. Kurgan No. 5 at the Uytag-3 burial ground was a cultural-chronological palimpsest. A mound of the Afanasyevo culture with two graves was located at the base of the site. Its territory was used by the Tagar people for the construction of their mound. A powerful fence with corner and paving stones, an earthen platform made of blocks of loam with sod, 4 burial vaults covered with larch logs, and passages were erected. During the Tesinsky stage, another burial vault with a dromos was built at the central part of the embankment. All the tombs functioned for a long time for the burial of new deceased. Despite the disturbance (and partial robbery) of the complexes in antiquity, many details of the funeral rituals characteristic of several chronological stages of the Tagar culture, from the Saragashenskiy (IV—III centuries BC) to the Tesinsky stage (II-I centuries BC), remained intact. Field research yielded abundant assemblage of burial goods including bronze daggers, battle hammer-axes, awls, mirrors; bronze and iron knives and belt plates with pendants; costume decorations in the form of hemispherical bronze plaques, beads, perforated clothing decorations and deer plaques. A variety of ceramics was found in each grave: from large jars to small vessels-incense burners. An interesting ceramic complex was also excavated from the Afanasyevo burials. The unique clay-plaster funerary masks portraying the deceased were cleaned up and secured at the Tesinsky vault. Almost all of the masks displayed Caucasian features. Samples of wood from burial structures were taken for analysis, and the anthropological collection was replenished. It is worth noting the Okunevo stele with a face carved on its side edge used in the fence of the Tagar mound.

Dos bocados de bronce Hispano-Fenicios en el Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York): En torno a la funcionalidad e iconografía del Bronce Carriazo

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York, exhibits two bronze plaques which reproduce the iconography of the famous Spanish item known as ‘Bronce Carriazo’. They are considered as lateral cheeks of a horse bridle bit cast by a West Phoenician workshop around the 7th century bc. They present some iconographic and, above all, technical differences with the Sevillian piece. These horse harness pieces represent the goddess qudšu ’aštart, a winged warrior divinity linked to the Phoenician royalty. The two heads of birds at the upper edges seem to configure the bow and the stern of a solar boat (the sun itself is symbolized in a central rosette). It would be the solar ship that sails through a water sky, depicting the trip to the otherworld in the extreme West. These Hispanic-Phoenician bronzes are inspired by the oriental repertoires and they reflect the assumption of a mythical and religious ideology, strongly rooted in Orient, by the western Iberian aristocracies throughout the Early Iron Age.

Gestión y producción en los metalla caesaris de la faja pirítica ibérica: epigrafía y arqueología

In this work we study the history of metals production at the mining district of the Iberian Pyrite Belt, in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula. This district contains more than 85 mines that reached industrial levels of silver and copper in roman imperial era. In one of its most important mines, the Vipasca mine (Aljustrel, Portugal), two bronze plaques were discovered. They regulate work and life in the mine in the second half of the first century and the first half of the second century AD. Throughout this work will outline the production in this district from the mines of Riotinto, Tharsis and Aljustrel, and will study the evolution of their management by the emperor’s state until it chystallized in the model shown by the bronzes of Aljustrel in Hadrian’s time.

The Guthrie Boulder: A Forgotten Monument to Anesthesia in Chicago.

The Guthrie Boulder: A Forgotten Monument to Anesthesia in Chicago.

A FORGOTTEN HOARD OF ANTONINIANII FROM PIŁA (POLAND): LARGE VOLUME, LITTLE VALUE

The article analyzes a hoard of antoninianii found in the neighborhood of Pila (Wielkopolskie province in Poland). The hoard counted more than 5000 coins, mainly of Gallienus and Claudius II, plus an inscribed bronze plaque. The hoard is one of a kind owing to its volume, chronological structure, provenance of the coins, the presence of hybrids and imitations, and the inscribed plaque in particular. The collection, weighing 15 kg, of severely debased coinage of practically just two Roman emperors was valued at no more than a few contemporary aurei. Its presence on the banks of the Notec River in Polish Pomerania suggests a fairly unusual story behind it. Hoards of antoninianii are fairly rare in the second half of the 3rd century AD, because the coin was too debased to be hoarded or deposited. Finding 5000 in one hoard is quite exceptional. There is no record of the vessel in which the coins had been hidden. The reasons for the hoard appearing in Pomerania must have been political: contacts between the Romans and the Barbarians in the 3rd century could have taken on the form of one-time tributes, annual tributes and the so-called annua munera, ransoming captives, soldiers’ pay (stipendia) or gifts.