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MOB 7. Mobile artifacts. (Bronze ladles).
Present location: Naval Museum, Capo Colonna.
283
Description: One of the two ladles has a round, deep bowl, while the bowl of the other is
missing, and only its upper diameter survives. The long, straight handles taper upward and
then curve into swan’s necks and heads that helped to hang the ladles in the ship’s galley.
The shape of ladles (known also as cyathus/i in Greek and simpulum/a in Latin) is
common both to the Hellenistic and Roman worlds, and there are many parallels found
throughout the empire, both in bronze and silver. 375 Two similar exemplars of unknown
provenience and date can be seen at the Louvre Museum, 376 one at the National
Archaeological Museum in Naples, 377 and one among the artifacts found in a tomb of
350-300 B.C. from Bolsena, Italy. 378 A fresco from the tomb of Vestorius Priscus in
Pompeii depicts four smaller silver ladles decorated with swan’s heads among other
silverware. 379
Origin: Unknown.
Geographical Distribution: Unknown.
Date range: Ladles are extremely common in the Greek and Roman world, and their shape
apparently does not change much throughout time. The ladle from Bolsena, dated to the
middle or end of the fourth century B.C. appears to be quite similar to the preserved ladle
from Punta Scifo, which could belong to the first quarter of the third century A.D.
otes: Discovered in 1983, during the Aquarius’ excavation
Bibliography: Unpublished.
375 Jones 1956, 44-5, plate 19, n. 26.
376 Ridder 1915, plate 108, n. 3060, 3069.
377 Monaco 1884, 27, plate 149.
378 Burn 1991, 171, fig. 145.
379 Coarelli 2002, 390; Dunbabin 1993, 119, fig. 3.