#ancient combs

[letsgostealthelouvre]

Yesterday I featured one of my favorite things I’ve learned from this tour of the Louvre, the “antelope on comb” motif that is more than 4,500 years old. Today we have a mystery of a different sort: a comb showing a man conquering a lion, flanked by other lions, birds, and yes -- an ungulate down there in the lower left corner. 

I don’t think this is in continuity with the antelope-combs, but on its own it’s a fascination, since this is a “liturgical” comb, and we don’t know what the point of it was. From the record: 

The role of liturgical combs is not well known: it is possible that they were used in cathedrals during ceremonies for a bishop. [....] Bordered by a pattern of large palmettes, Samson, recognizable by his long hair, wrestles with a lion whose jaws he spreads. This iconography symbolized Christ's fight against evil; we cannot exclude that it is another episode, David killing the lion when he was a shepherd. This symbolism is taken up by the presence of the lion's head and the ram, the latter recalling the sacrifice of Abraham.

Unlike the previous comb, which was rooted in Egypt where the others also came from, this one originates in France; made around the same time, it’s much more well-preserved and detailed. What does it all mean? Who knows, but someday I’m definitely going to put all of this in a book.

[ID: A well-preserved ivory comb, with narrow tines on one side and wide-tooth tines on the other. In the center, in an archway, is an image of a man grasping and pulling open the jaws of a lion; he is surrounded by dense decorative foliage featuring birds with berries in their beaks. In the lower right is a second lion, which appears to be cowering in fear, and in the lower left is a ram with small curling horns and a delicate build.]

[letsgostealthelouvre]

I can’t believe we’re still doing antelopes on combs in the year 868 CE. 

This comb is, as far as I can tell, from Thebes, and dated to 868/905 common era. The addition of the bird is new, and the antelope has become very stylized, but the earliest example of this theme, of the ungulate on the comb, dates back to possibly as far as 3800 BCE; Egyptian combs appear to have featured artwork of antelopes for, as of this comb, over 4,500 years. I think it’s some kind of pun but I can’t begin to know how to research that. 

In this earlier post, I showed two combs separated by two thousand years, the same distance of time that separates us from Julius Caesar. This comb is over two thousand years later than the newer of those two combs, and human history is so relatively recent that it’s hard to offer a scale. We don’t really have a way to indicate a span of four thousand years, but to put it in context, the oldest written religious text we know of is only about 3200 years old. 

[ID: An image of a double-sided wooden comb, with a fine-tooth side and a wide-tooth side; in the middle, where a person would hold the comb, is an engraving of a bird with a vulture-like beak, which seems to be attacking an extremely stylized antelope, with long spindly legs, enormous horns, and an almost rabbit-like head.] 

[letsgostealthelouvre]

It could be I’m projecting, and certainly I’m not an expert at interpreting ancient bas-relief, but this appears to be yet another example of a kneeling ungulate on a comb. (The reverse shows a very classic scene of a large predatory cat, likely a lion, killing some kind of animal, which looks like a slumped-over antelope but could also be a pig or domestic bull.) 

If so, this one dates from somewhere between 1200 BCE and 100 (I think...I’m pretty sure they mean 1000) BCE, and either way is the latest iteration of a motif that may reach back as far as 3800 BCE. 

[Description: A comb with fine teeth on one side and thicker teeth on the other; the handle, in the middle, is a rectangle with a decorative border. Inside the border is a worn and discolored bas-relief that appears to indicate a person at right holding a jug, next to a large creature with head turned and possibly with horns, and a smaller creature crouched below it, possibly a mother antelope nursing a child or a dog herding livestock.]

[jomohair]

ARCHEOLOGISTS UNEARTH ANCIENT NIT COMB

Nit combs are 'nothing new'

Proof that even ancient folk needed the nit comb

It's official ... even ancient folk needed a nit comb.

A fine tooth comb is among treasures uncovered at an excavation site near Enniskillen, County Fermanagh.

Arrow heads, pottery and ancient human remains have been found at the crannog - a kind of artificial island - that could date back more than 1,000 years.

The site is being cleared to allow for a new road, but archaeologists have been given some time to glean all they can before the bulldozers move in.

"The Cherrymount link crannog was thought initially to date back to the 14th century but now evidence suggests it went back to early medieval times," said archaeologist Declan Hurl.

"We've found human remains. This was a burial elsewhere that had been removed and for some reason brought to this site and re-buried on the crannog.

"Why the body was buried there is one of the many mysteries that remain unsolved including why the crannog was built here in the first place.

"It may have been some sort of seasonal site where people would have gone to catch fish or hunt wild fowl."

The crannog was originally thought to be 700 years old, but fragments of pottery found at the site date from as far back as the ninth century.

Other finds include the bone comb once used by an image conscious lough dweller and a metal blade which is still sharp after hundreds of years.

A leather shoe was found that had been preserved in the earth.

Arrowheads dating from the Bronze Age were also discovered.

The crannog is an eye-opener said archaeologist Declan Hurl

"It is always exciting to see a beautifully made artefact," said Mr Hurl.

"Crannogs are quite numerous in Fermanagh but the excavations are like hens' teeth so it is great to be given an opportunity to look at this particular one - It is always an eye opener."

Some archaeologists are concerned about the imminent destruction of the crannog and the lack of opportunity for extensive excavation.

The Institute for Archaeologists has raised a series of questions about the site with the Northern Ireland Environment Agency.

Some archaeologists are asking environment minister Alex Attwood to allow more time than the six weeks plus one week's extension already given for the recording of the site before the road building goes ahead.