Pins.—Some of the pins may have been used equally well to fasten the clothing or to adorn the hair; but others were evidently designed to serve only one of these purposes. Those in carved ivory are plainly hair-pins (No. 390; fig. 161). The roughly worked busts of Roman ladies of the Empire indicate the period to which the series belongs. The little statuette is intended to represent Aphrodite wringing the water out of her hair, after rising from the sea. A fine gold pin similarly modelled is exhibited in the Gold Ornament Room (Case K; No. 3034). The ivory hand, which holds a cone and is encircled by a serpent, has some magical significance, like the bronze votive-hands in Case 106 (p. [57]).
Fig. 161.—Roman Ivory Hair-Pins (No. 390). 1:2.
Fig. 162.—Bronze and Silver Pins, of Mycenaean and Greek Periods (Nos. 391-6). 1:2.
The metal pins are less elaborate. The simplest shape was straight and headless, a direct copy of the natural thorn which first suggested the idea. A very primitive head is seen on the small bronze pin which is bent round at the top (No. 391; fig. 162a). It was found in the island of Kalymnos, and belongs to the pre-Mycenaean age, say 2000 B.C. A silver pin is similarly bent, but as it has a head as well, is not so early (No. 392; fig. 162b). Another prehistoric type is represented by several bronze pins which were excavated from tombs of the late Mycenaean age at Enkomi in Cyprus (No. 393; fig. 162c). These are pierced with eyes in which chains were fastened to secure the pins to the dress or to each other. Three pins crowned by large ivory knobs come from the same site and belong to the same period (No. 394; fig. 162d). The bronze pin with a head made of several discs is Greek of the sixth century B.C., as it appears in the paintings of the François Vase at Florence, which is an Attic work of that date (No. 395; figs. 162e, 163). Another classical type is the silver pin with a moulded head (No. 396; fig. 162f). Others of less remarkable designs cannot be definitely dated.
Fig. 163.—A Woman in the Dorian Chiton, showing the Pin on Shoulder.
Toilet.—In the most personal aspects of life and manners there is least room for change, for in the course of ages it is not man that has altered, but his surroundings; and the study of such intimate details reveals a close similarity between the ancient and the modern worlds.
