An online magazine about current archaeology and classical research into the lives of inhabitants of the Roman Empire and Byzantium and the civilizations around them.
Terracotta figurines with articulated limbs are often described as dolls or children’s toys, and are sometimes thought to have been dressed in clothes. While one cannot simply dismiss these assumptions, it must be pointed out that this hypothesis is based on an inaccurate reading of an ancient epigram, which was originally interpreted to say that a girl named Timareta dedicated to the goddess (at a sanctuary) her dolls and their dresses. However, more recently it has been convincingly argued that she in fact dedicated her hair and her own clothing. Another point to be made against the figurines being play things is that they are too fragile to be constantly handled by children. The fact that these “dolls” are often discovered in the graves of adults indicates their possible chthonic connection or apotropaic function. In addition, the movement these figurines were capable of when swinging, as well as the clanking noise they produced, might have made them attractive charms. - The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Terracotta jointed doll thought to represent a ritual dancer Corinthian Greek 5th century BCE at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Bone figurine with articulated limbs, Greek, Late 4th or 3rd century BCE at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Ivory doll found in female burial along the Via Cassia near La Giustiniana Roman 2nd century CE photographed at the Palazzo Massimo in Rome, Italy
Ivory doll Ivory doll found in female burial Roman 2nd century CE at the Palazzo Massimo in Rome, Italy
Ivory jointed doll found in a female's sarcophagus in Tivoli, Italy Roman 2nd century CE photographed at the Palazzo Massimo in Rome, Italy
Segmented Roman bone dolls, 275-300 CE photographed at the Getty Villa in Pacific Palisades, California.
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Roman boxing, far different than the boxing developed by the Greeks, was considered more of a gladiatorial show than an athletic contest. While the crowds were smaller than at the amphitheater and circus, boxing was an important part of public entertainment. Unlike Greek boxers, who wore leather thongs around their knuckles for protection and performed for prizes at the prestigious Panhellenic games, Romans used gloves with pieces of metal placed around the knuckles (caestus) to inflict the most damage possible. Moreover, there was no time limit or weight classification. Proclaiming a winner resulted from either a knockout or the conceding of defeat by one of the boxers. - The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Image: Bronze hand of a boxer 1st to 2nd century CE at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
The hand is clad in a caestus (boxing glove), comprising a semicylindrical strip and a projecting spike, tied with cords running from the wrist. Although Roman boxers are represented on statues, mosaics, terracotta plaques and lamps, and bronze figurines, few objects show the actual boxing glove with such clarity of detail as the present piece. The hand is probably not a fragment of a larger composition; it was, perhaps, a votive, dedicated by a boxer on his retirement.
Images: Boxer Resting, a 1st century BCE copy of a 3rd century BCE Greek original. Notice the difference in the wrappings in my closeup of his hands. Photographed at the Palazzo Massimo, Rome, Italy.
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I see that the National Museum at the Palazzo Massimo has added a new dynamic lighting system to the display of the frescoes recovered from the Villa Farnesina, thought to have been one of the residences of Augustus' friend, general and admiral, Agrippa.
"A sophisticated and unique lighting system that recreates daylight hours from dusk to dawn in 100-second cycles lets visitors hone in on the details of the frescoes and vault stuccoes, which depict mythological scenes as well as more mundane activities. “It’s akin to seeing through the eyes of ancient Romans,” said Stefano Cacciapaglia, one of the architects who worked on the project." - More: New York Times
I wish I could have examined the frescoes with the new system when I visited the National Museum back in March 2009. I was particularly impressed with the detail the artist captured in the faces, still discernible after more than 2000 years.
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