doll's comb

MAC GIR-001695

Object type doll's comb

Culture/period

Materials bone

Technique carving

Mint

Production date 1 / 201

Museum Museu d'Arqueologia de Catalunya - Girona

Current location MASPG

Archaeological site Empúries

Township Escala, l' (Europa, Espanya, Catalunya, Girona, Alt Empordà)

Dimensions 35 x 13,5 x 2 mm

Description

Fragment of small bone comb, approximately 3.5 cm wide, probably part of grave goods in the Roman necropolis of Empúries (L'Escala, Alt Empordà). These necropolises were subjected to systematic plundering especially during the second half of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Its small dimensions make it clear that it was not a utilitarian object, but a toy. A near parallel is found in the tomb of Crepereia Tryphaena, discovered intact in Rome in 1889. In this tomb of a young woman between the ages of 17 and 19, an articulated ivory doll was deposited accompanying the deceased and her jewellery. The doll also carried her own jewellery and a small box containing her belongings, in which there were, among other objects, two small ivory combs. The burial has been dated to the mid-second century AD. Our comb can also be attributed to the first centuries of the Empire, 1st-2nd centuries AD, without much more precision.

Omeka ID 3162