DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1021#0237
DRESS AND PERSONAL ADORNMENT
187
the same purpose, are also found in Northern Europe in
the graves of men and women of the bronze age.1 The
Mycenaeans also used ear-picks precisely like the modern
article; we have one of silver from Vaphio, another of gold
recently found at Mycenae.
More important than all these are the mirrors. Like
ancient mirrors in general, these are of bronze and consist
of a disk, about six to eight inches in diameter,
■with a handle of wood, bone or ivory fastened on
by two rivets. The disk, whose polished surface served the
purpose of our looking-glass, was quite plain, but the handle
was often carved with rich and beautiful designs. The
finest example is an ivory handle to which is still riveted
part of the bronze mirror (Fig. 82). It was found in 1892
in a pit, — probably the grave of a woman, — within the
dromos of the tomb of Clytemnestra. This handle (though
broken in two, we can make out that it was some 6 inches
in length) is carved in imitation
of a palm-tree with its drooping
branches, — a rendering which
comes out still more clearly in
another example (Fig. 84). The
trunk, instead of being naturally
rendered throughout, is conven-
tionally decorated with winding
bands, which are marked alter-
nately with rosettes and chevrons. Upon the branches
perch two female figures symmetrically opposed, with their
heads bent forward as if in sleep. This attitude may be
due to the artist's economy of space, or (it may be) to struc-
tural considerations. About the shoulders and below the
elbows appear masses of flowers, whose long stems seem to
1 Bahnsoii, Memoires des Antiquaires du Nord, 1887, p. 268.
Ivory Plaque
187
the same purpose, are also found in Northern Europe in
the graves of men and women of the bronze age.1 The
Mycenaeans also used ear-picks precisely like the modern
article; we have one of silver from Vaphio, another of gold
recently found at Mycenae.
More important than all these are the mirrors. Like
ancient mirrors in general, these are of bronze and consist
of a disk, about six to eight inches in diameter,
■with a handle of wood, bone or ivory fastened on
by two rivets. The disk, whose polished surface served the
purpose of our looking-glass, was quite plain, but the handle
was often carved with rich and beautiful designs. The
finest example is an ivory handle to which is still riveted
part of the bronze mirror (Fig. 82). It was found in 1892
in a pit, — probably the grave of a woman, — within the
dromos of the tomb of Clytemnestra. This handle (though
broken in two, we can make out that it was some 6 inches
in length) is carved in imitation
of a palm-tree with its drooping
branches, — a rendering which
comes out still more clearly in
another example (Fig. 84). The
trunk, instead of being naturally
rendered throughout, is conven-
tionally decorated with winding
bands, which are marked alter-
nately with rosettes and chevrons. Upon the branches
perch two female figures symmetrically opposed, with their
heads bent forward as if in sleep. This attitude may be
due to the artist's economy of space, or (it may be) to struc-
tural considerations. About the shoulders and below the
elbows appear masses of flowers, whose long stems seem to
1 Bahnsoii, Memoires des Antiquaires du Nord, 1887, p. 268.
Ivory Plaque