Elbow Brooches

Posted on June 9, 2022 Updated on June 10, 2022 No comments yet

a brooch consisting of a bronze piece like a bent arm and hand. A steel spring is inserted into the 'shoulder' end of the bronze and pokes towards the hand end which catches it — A Stronach type iii.7 fibula by Mark Shier of http://medievalwares.com/index.php? 4 cm long, price as of 2022 is USD 23.95

Folks preparing for Plataea 2022 know that there are no commercially available fibulae (safety pins) suitable for the Aegean in 479 BCE. Mark Shier of medievalwares.com in Canada now offers a copy of a type which was very common from Egypt to Western Iran during, before, and after the Achaemenid period. These elbow fibulae are often found in graves from Babylonia through Syria to Judea. If you want to learn more, check out these websites and articles:

Harvard Art Museum 1968.89 https://harvardartmuseums.org/collections/object/287668
Ur Online (UPenn) http://ur.iaas.upenn.edu/search/?keyword=fibula (offline as of 8 June)
Stronach 1959 (JSTOR)
Muscarella 1988 pp. 45-47, 209, 358-359, 382-383, 425-427 (free on https://www.metmuseum.org/)

Mark Shier calls these hand brooches.

Many of the Ionians have started wearing fibulae too! In fact, some shameless philhellenes think they invented them. If you can provide a design for an Archaic Greek brooch and a good selection of photos of the type you are interested in, he would probably be willing to cast you some for a similar price.

(scheduled 8 June 2022)

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