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The Development of the Fibula in the Near East

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2014

David Stronach
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Extract

Despite the large numbers of fibulae or safety pins that have been found all over the Near East remarkably little attention has been paid to the complete historical development of the fibula throughout the area. Accordingly the present article attempts to follow the main lines of the local development from the time when the first Mycenaean forms reached the area, down to the time when Roman ones finally replaced the last indigenous types.

As can be seen from the map opposite, the fibulae found in the Near East have an extremely wide distribution which, at least by the seventh century B.C. roughly coincided with the limits of the Assyrian Empire. In addition, the discovery of a number of related forms in the Caucasus would seem to indicate that various Near Eastern examples must have passed through Urartu as well.

From a historical point of view, the appearance of the fibula in the Near East can be directly related to the expansion of Mycenaean trade in the thirteenth century, which seems to have brought the new form to Cyprus and the adjoining Asiatic coast some time before 1200 B.C. Thereafter the type seems to have remained a predominantly local form in Syro-Palestine until increasing political and commercial ties between Phoenicia and Assyria finally brought the type further east about the middle of the eighth century B.C.

Type
Research Article
Information
IRAQ , Volume 21 , Issue 2 , Autumn 1959 , pp. 181 - 206
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 1959

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References

1 See Archäologischer Anzeiger 1885, pl. 13.

2 See below under Near Eastern Type I 5.

3 Chr. Blinkenberg, Fibules Grecques et Orientales, Lindiaka V, (Det. Kgl. Danske Videnskabernes Selskab. Historisk-filologiske Meddelelser XIII, 1.), 1926, p. 230 f.

4 Gjerstad, E., The Swedish Cyprus Expedition IV, pt. 2, 1948, p. 383Google Scholar.

5 Blinkenberg's Type I.

6 See Sundwall, Die Älteren Italischen Fibeln, A, Die Violinbogenfibeln.

7 Furumark, , The Chronology of Mycenaean Pottery, p. 91 fGoogle Scholar.

8 See Blinkenberg Type II 15–23 and XIII 1.

9 Information kindly supplied by Mrs. J. Birmingham.

10 A variant form with a horizontal bow consisting of successive loops is said to have been found in the Early Bronze II levels (Goldman, op. cit., p. 286 and pl. 432, 244). But a close parallel from Phaistos, which is thought to date from the Sub-Minoan period (see Blinkenberg Type I 13 a), suggests that such fibulae are more likely to have developed out of the violin-bow type at a much later date.

11 Murray, , Smith, and Walters, , Excavations in Cyprus, 1900, p. 16Google Scholar, fig. 27, no. 1511. (Blinkenberg's Type I 10.)

12 See Blinkenberg Type II 1–9.

13 See under Near Eastern Type I.

14 Gjerstad, S.C.E. IV, p. 215 and fig. 25; also S.C.E. II, pl. CLII.

15 See Blinkenberg Type II and Desborough, Protogeometric Pottery, p. 308 f.

16 See Dunand, , Fouilles de Byblos, 1926–1932, pl. CXXXV, 2500Google Scholar; Macalister, The Excavation of Gezer III, pl. XXXI; and Loud, Megiddo II, pl. 224, 8.

17 See Gjerstad, S.C.E. II, pl. CLII, 13, 17. Also note a primitive form from Tarsus. Goldman, , A.J.A. XLI, p. 278Google Scholar, fig. 32, top right example.

18 See Blinkenberg Type III 10–12 and Type XIII 7.

19 von Luschan, , Ausgrabungen in Sendschirli IV, p. 326 and Fig. 236Google Scholar; a drawing of the fibula appears in Blinkenberg, op. cit., fig. 3.

20 Woolley, C. L. and Barnett, R. D., Carchemish II p. 245Google Scholar and pl. B 64 c.

21 Blinkenberg, op. cit., mentions two further examples in his Type XIII 3h and 3i.

22 Lamon and Shipton, op. cit., pl. 78, 20.

23 See Macalister, op. cit., p. 80.

24 See below under Type III 3.

25 Waldstein, , The Argive Heraeum II, p. 246Google Scholar, pl. 87 No. 900.

26 Blinkenberg Type II 10–12.

27 Blinkenberg, op. cit., p. 242.

28 Gjerstad has shown that all the Cypriot examples represent Mainland products (see S.C.E. IV, p. 382), and that they cannot be descended from earlier local types.

29 See O.I.P. XXX, fig. 106.

30 See below under Type III 7.

31 Frisch and Toll, Excavations at Dura-Europos IV, Part IV, p. 47.

32 Blinkenberg, op. cit., p. 231.

33 Miss Tufnell has also put forward the view that they appeared in Palestine with the northern invaders of the seventh century. See Lachish III, p. 394.

34 Albright, , AASOR XXI/XXII, p. 34Google Scholar.

35 Tufnell, op. cit., loc. cit.

36 Particularly those at Sahab and Amman: see under Type III 7.

37 Ingholt, op. cit., p. 114, note 4.

38 Taylor, J. du Plat, Iraq XXI, Part 1, p. 86 and Fig. 8Google Scholar.

39 See M. E. L. Mallowan, I.L.N. July 29th, 1950, p. 182, fig. 12 and the Nimrud catalogue below. But a later date, seventh century B.C. is possible.

40 See Özgüç, Karahöyük Hafriyati Raporu 1947Google Scholar, pl. XXXVI, 23 and Blinkenberg, Type XIII 12h.

41 Petrie, , Gerar, p. 11Google Scholar.

42 The best series of transitional examples come from the Yunus cemetery at Carchemish. See Woolley, L.A.A.A. XXVI, pl. XIXc.

43 M. E. L. Mallowan, I.L.N. July 29th 1950, p. 182 fig. 6.

44 A similar form from Judeideh is now in the Antakya Museum: No. 3997 (Y 144). In addition Y 392 also has a similar face design.

45 Length 3 cms. Published by kind permission of Dr. Barnett.

46 See above under Type 16.

47 See Blinkenberg Type XIII 12s.

48 Blinkenberg Type XIII 13a.

49 Young, R., A.J.A. LXII, 1958, p. 149Google Scholar.

50 The fibula itself is illustrated by Blinkenberg, op. cit., fig. 3, 2.

51 See above under Type I 5.

52 Delaporte, L., Malatya, 1940, plGoogle Scholar.

53 R. D. Barnett, J.H.S. LXVIII, fig. 7

54 Cf. Petrie, , Hyksos and Israelite Cities, p. 19Google Scholar.