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Bronze Ladles, Candelabrum, Lead Decoration with Heracles and the Hind
The last group of artifacts found in 1983 during the Aquarius excavation and now
on display in Capo Colonna includes two bronze ladles (MOB 7), one tall bronze
candelabrum (MOB 8), and a decorative lead statuette representing Heracles holding the
Ceryneian hind by the horns (MOB 9). These items have numerous parallels throughout
the Roman world, with some for the ladles dating back as far as the fifth century B.C. 213 It
is difficult to propose a date without having had the opportunity to study and measure the
items closely.
Each of the two ladles has a long handle, rectangular in section, that curves
upward, tapers, and ends in a curved swan’s head. The purpose was not only decorative,
but to provide a suspension loop for hanging: the curved beaks provide hooks for the
handles. This type of animal decoration is extremely common in Roman times, and
appears both in a wall-painting from Pompeii representing Roman silverware and as a
hook to hang up oil lamps. 214 Two similar bronze handles ending in a swan’s head were
found on the nearby Punta Scifo B shipwreck. 215
The bronze candelabrum is noteworthy not only because its base is decorated with
lions’ paws but because it represents an expensive article typically owned by wealthy
individuals in ancient Rome. Bronze oil lamps were meant to be exhibited in the best
rooms of the house and represented, “due to the elegance of their decoration, real status
213 See catalog entry MOB 7. The fifth-century B.C. ship sunk at Alonnesos (Greece) had onboard a bronze
ladle. (Hadjidaki 1996, 587).
214 For the fresco in Pompeii, see: Coarelli 2002, 390; Dunbabin 1993, 119, fig. 3. For the oil-lamp,
currently at the Museo azionale Romano, see: De’ Spagnolis and De Carolis 1983, 63, 22.1.
215 Freschi 1987, 5.
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