Hellenistic
Bronze stylus
This stylus has a point on one end to scratch letters and a flattened surface on the other to scrape the surface of a writing tablet. Ancient Greek writing tablets were typically made of wood, either with a recessed inner face to hold beeswax or flat with a painted white surface. length 4 7/8in. (12.4cm)
Date
399 - 1 BC
Accession No.
74.51.5495
Collection
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Provenance
- From Cyprus
References
- Myres, John L. 1914. Handbook of the Cesnola Collection of Antiquities from Cyprus. no. 4855, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.Richter, Gisela M. A. 1915. Greek, Etruscan and Roman Bronzes. no. 1730, p. 447, New York: Gilliss Press.Beck, Frederick A. G. 1975. Album of Greek Education: The Greeks at School and at Play. p. 17, fig. 34a, Sydney: Cheiron Press.Neils, Jenifer, John H. Oakley, and Katherine Hart. 2003. Coming of Age in Ancient Greece: Images of Childhood from the Classical Past no. 49, p. 250, New Haven: Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College.