Institute for the Study of the Ancient World

12/16/2022

One of the most extraordinary objects in our current exhibition, this miniature bronze wagon from the site of Bujoru, in modern-day Romania, is packed with significance and symbolism. It is believed that these models imitated life-sized wagons where the deceased members of the community were cremated, especially since many are found as votive offerings in tombs. But not all elements of this particular miniature were replicated from real life. During the Iron Age, water bird imagery became a popular motif in the material culture of the region, perhaps because ducks and swans move between water, earth, and sky, and thus replicate the travel of the dead to the other world. In this case, the wagon itself takes the shape of a multi-headed bird, probably enhancing its power to transport the deceased into the next life.

Don't forget to check out our in-person docent-led Object History Tours in the galleries every Wednesday at noon, no rsvp required!

-ISAW PhD student Mariana Castro

Wagon model
Bronze and iron
Maximum length: 26 cm, Maximum width: 15.5 cm, Maximum height: 16.5 cm
Bujoru, Romania
800-700 BCE
135281: National History Museum of Romania, Bucharest, Romania
Photo © Field Museum, photographer Ádám Vágó

Ritual and Memory: The Ancient Balkans and Beyond is organized in partnership with the Field Museum's First Kings of Europe project and has been made possible in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Democracy demands wisdom.

This exhibition at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World is made possible by generous support from Nellie and Robert Gipson and the Leon Levy Foundation. Additional funding provided by The Gilbert and Ildiko Butler Foundation and James H. Ottaway Jr.

12/07/2022

In the top right of this stone stela, which dates to approximately 500-100 BCE, a female figure tenderly touches the funeral bier carried by several other individuals. Two figures in the top left lift their arms upward, perhaps pulling at their hair or in some other emphatic gesture, which was meant to herald this funeral procession onwards to the final burial place. This evocative monument would have likely been set up for members of a community to engage with, perhaps honoring a specific person's passing, i.e., the figure depicted laying horizontal on this stela, or perhaps highlighting the entrenched traditions surrounding funerary practice and community activity. The scene depicted on this stela can help us imagine the human, communal aspect of death and mourning for the societies of this region.

Don't forget to check out our in-person docent-led Object History Tours in the galleries every Wednesday at noon, no rsvp required!

-ISAW PhD student Kate Justement

Stela representing funeral procession
Stone
Height: 93 cm, Length: 125 cm, Thickness: 22 cm
Kamenica, Kosovo
500-100 BCE
KA/2010; National Museum of Kosovo, Prishtina, Kosovo
Photo © Field Museum, photographer Ádám Vágó

Ritual and Memory: The Ancient Balkans and Beyond is organized in partnership with the Field Museum's First Kings of Europe project and has been made possible in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Democracy demands wisdom.

This exhibition at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World is made possible by generous support from Nellie and Robert Gipson and the Leon Levy Foundation. Additional funding provided by The Gilbert and Ildiko Butler Foundation and James H. Ottaway Jr.

12/06/2022

Attention all educators! Don’t forget to register for ISAW’s Expanding the Ancient World professional development program. This series is designed to offer K–12 educators opportunities to develop their knowledge of the ancient world and to provide classroom-ready strategies for teaching the past with reliable sources. Our first event is titled "Diverse Perspectives on the Silk Road: The Sogdians" and will be held on December 7th at 5 pm (online). You can register via the events tab at the link in our bio.

Please email [email protected] with any questions!

11/30/2022

The ceramic form of this askos, or pouring vessel, skillfully resembles the shape of a bird while integrating human features on the face. Bird imagery like this is especially common in Bronze Age artifacts from the Balkan region. As creatures who can traverse sky, land, and even water, birds were thought to be revered for their ability to transcend to realms that humans could not. Vessels like this one, which have shown to contain traces of liquids such as blood or psychotropic potions, may have been important implements in shamanistic-style rituals. In these rituals, practitioners would aim to enter an altered state where they too could transcend to different realms just as birds do.

Don't forget to check out our in-person docent-led Object History Tours in the galleries every Wednesday at noon, no rsvp required!
-IFA PhD student Peter Moore Johnson

Askos
Ceramic
Height: 14 cm, Length: 16.8 cm, Width: 13 cm
Tiszafüred-Majoroshalom, Hungary
1900–1700 BCE
72.4.124, Hungarian National Museum, Budapest, Hungary
Photo © Field Museum, photographer Ádám Vágó

Ritual and Memory: The Ancient Balkans and Beyond is organized in partnership with the Field Museum's First Kings of Europe project and has been made possible in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Democracy demands wisdom.

This exhibition at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World is made possible by generous support from Nellie and Robert Gipson and the Leon Levy Foundation. Additional funding provided by The Gilbert and Ildiko Butler Foundation and James H. Ottaway Jr.

11/23/2022

‘Tis the season to dig out your long-buried fine tableware, and we have some recently unearthed vessels in our very own galleries to get you in the spirit. This assemblage, unearthed in 2005 in Bulgaria from the grave of a Thracian man from a powerful family, represents the sophisticated production of vessels in this period and elite Thracian burial practices. Why would people be buried with plates and bowls? Here, the number of vessels included in the burial speaks to the importance of feasting and wine-drinking, in symposium-like rituals, in Thracian culture. It is also likely a display of the family’s wealth and status. It seems that much like us, the ancient Thracians clearly enjoyed an opportunity to show off their fancy bowls - so much so that they took it to the grave with them.

-ISAW PhD Student Lylaah Bhalerao

Burial assemblage with signet-ring, wreath with rosette appliqués, greave, horse-head appliqués, string of beads, jug, skifoi vessels, rhyton, pan, situla, phialae, kylix, kantharos, and jugs
Gold, silver gilt, silver, bronze, ceramic
Zlatinitsa-Malomirovo, Bulgaria
375–325 BCE
52189, 51344–51346, 51350–51355, 51359¬–51360, 50453–50455, 50457, 50456, 50869–50872, 51361, 51362, 51369, 51366, 52190, 61763
National History Museum, Sofia, Bulgaria
Photo © Field Museum, photographer Ádám Vágó

Ritual and Memory: The Ancient Balkans and Beyond is organized in partnership with the Field Museum's First Kings of Europe project and has been made possible in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Democracy demands wisdom.

This exhibition at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World is made possible by generous support from Nellie and Robert Gipson and the Leon Levy Foundation. Additional funding provided by The Gilbert and Ildiko Butler Foundation and James H. Ottaway Jr.

11/16/2022

New faculty: Irene Soto Marín

ISAW Alum Irene Soto Marín featured in the Harvard gazette!

New classics professor Irene Soto Marín mines answers to question about ancient Egyptian life, economy from everyday artifacts.

11/16/2022

Ancient spinning tops? Look again! This type of ornamental disk, later known by the Latin term “phalara,” was fashioned among several groups in Iron Age continental Europe, especially as part of ceremonial attire worn by women. Archaeologists have been able to isolate various aesthetic traditions in the style of phalarae in the wider northern Adriatic region, signaling the presence of distinct preferences in pattern, size, and material. Although normally made in bronze or gold, equivalent objects in iron were also valued among mobile steppe communities and are usually found as attachments to horse harness gear. In Roman times, phalarae were paraded as medals of honor and seen as a distinction for valorous deeds in battle.

Don't forget to check out our in-person docent-led Object History Tours in the galleries every Wednesday at noon, no rsvp required!

-ISAW PhD student Mariana Castro

Six phalerae, Bronze
Large phalera Diameter: 24 x 24.8 cm, Height: 10.3 cm; Small phalerae (5) Diameter: 8.4–9 cm, Height: 3.3–4.1 cm
Krehin Gradac, Bosnia and Herzegovina
850–700 BCE
P-1935, P-1937–P1940, P-1945
Archaeological Museum in Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Photo © Field Museum, photographer Ádám Vágó

Ritual and Memory: The Ancient Balkans and Beyond is organized in partnership with the Field Museum's First Kings of Europe project and has been made possible in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Democracy demands wisdom.

This exhibition at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World is made possible by generous support from Nellie and Robert Gipson and the Leon Levy Foundation. Additional funding provided by The Gilbert and Ildiko Butler Foundation and James H. Ottaway Jr.

11/09/2022

For today's object history post we are looking at these axes and sword that were found at Hajdúsámson in eastern Hungary and are just one of the multiple hoards from the area during this period (around 1700 BCE). Scientific analysis has shown that the copper came from the Alps almost 500 miles away and that some of the axes may have been made at the same time from the same batch of metal. We don’t know, however, whether these objects belonged to the same person or if multiple people contributed to the hoard.

Come to our galleries to learn more and see one of the most famous hoards of the European Bronze Age! Don't forget to check out our docent-led Object History Tours in the galleries every Wednesday at noon, no rsvp required!

-ISAW PhD student Braden Cordivari

Hoard with sword and axes, Bronze
Sword Length: 53 cm, Maximum width: 7 cm; Disc-butted axes (3) Length: 19.2–19.8 cm, Maximum width: 6.7–7.6 cm; Shaft-tube axe Length: 20.3 cm, Maximum width: 7.3 cm; Shaft-hole axes (8) Length: 14.6–16.7 cm, Maximum width: 5.4–7.3 cm
Hajdúsámson-Hegedűs-hegy, Hungary
1700-1600 BCE
Sz. 1907.1204–1907.1214, Sz. 1907.1216, IV.89.5.1
Déri Museum, Debrecen, Hungary
Photo © Field Museum, photographer Ádám Vágó

Ritual and Memory: The Ancient Balkans and Beyond is organized in partnership with the Field Museum's First Kings of Europe project and has been made possible in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Democracy demands wisdom.

This exhibition at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World is made possible by generous support from Nellie and Robert Gipson and the Leon Levy Foundation. Additional funding provided by The Gilbert and Ildiko Butler Foundation and James H. Ottaway Jr.

11/02/2022

This sumptuously gilded helmet - excavated in modern day Romania in 1970 - was just one of many silver objects to comprise a burial assemblage of a 4th century BCE high elite official in Thrace. The soft malleable quality of the silver, the form of the helmet, and its decoration all denote its ritual significance rather than practical use in warfare. Notably, this helmet speaks to the Thracian practice of integrating and adapting motifs from neighboring cultures for their own purposes. The form of a golden laurel wreath is borrowed from Greek culture and represented in relief along the forehead. One side of the helmet depicts a bird of prey attacking a fish and hare while the other side displays a stag-like creature. While these stylistic relationships can be traced to contemporary Scythian and earlier Iranian art, the unique integration of these symbols in one object is notably Thracian.

Come to our galleries to check out this spectacular helmet and so much more!! Don't forget to check out our docent-led Object History Tours in the galleries every Wednesday at noon, no rsvp required!

-IFA PhD student Peter Moore Johnson

Helmet, Silver gilt
Height: 26.5 cm, Rim diameter: 20 ×17 c
Peretu, Romania
Inv. No. 73865
National History Museum of Romania, Bucharest, Romania
Photo © Field Museum, photographer Ádám Vágó

Ritual and Memory: The Ancient Balkans and Beyond is organized in partnership with the Field Museum's First Kings of Europe project and has been made possible in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Democracy demands wisdom.

This exhibition at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World is made possible by generous support from Nellie and Robert Gipson and the Leon Levy Foundation. Additional funding provided by The Gilbert and Ildiko Butler Foundation and James H. Ottaway Jr.

10/26/2022

These figurines from Albania, described as “violin idols”, might remind you of something other than a musical instrument. Although they are shaped like violins, the figures have anatomical features that identify them as anthropomorphic, much like figures found elsewhere in the Bronze Age world. Fans of ancient art might think they look like marble figurines from the Cycladic islands – and they would be right! The ceramic figures we have here were almost certainly influenced by Early Cycladic art in the Aegean, providing us with evidence for intercultural interaction between the Aegean and the Balkans in this period. These interactions, as the figures demonstrate, extended beyond a desire to source and trade raw materials to exchange of artistic motifs.

Come to our galleries to check out these figurines and so much more!! Don't forget to check out our docent-led Object History Tours in the galleries every Wednesday at noon, no rsvp required!

-ISAW PhD student Lylaah Bhalerao

Figurines, Ceramic
Height: 6.4–17.7 cm, Width at shoulder: 3.3–8 cm, Width at base: 3.6–9.7 cm
Shtoji, Tumulus 6, Albania
2800–2500 BCE
14083–14086
Archaeological Museum in Tirana, Tirana, Albania
Photo © Field Museum, photographer Ádám Vágó

Ritual and Memory: The Ancient Balkans and Beyond is organized in partnership with the Field Museum's First Kings of Europe project and has been made possible in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Democracy demands wisdom.

This exhibition at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World is made possible by generous support from Nellie and Robert Gipson and the Leon Levy Foundation. Additional funding provided by The Gilbert and Ildiko Butler Foundation and James H. Ottaway Jr.