This object is identified as a knife, comprising an iron blade inserted into an ivory or bone handle carved with an image of Dionysos, or a youthful member of his retinue. The figure stands, nude except for a short chlamys about his shoulders, holding a bunch of grapes in his left hand and resting his right arm on what appears to be a tree trunk. Above the figure’s head is carved (in low relief) a cat-like animal, perhaps a lion, along the curve of the handle’s half arch; a bronze panther is affixed above its back. The figure has been associated with Dionysos through the presence of the panther and the grapes, though the lack of other typical attributes, such as a vine-wreath crown or thyrsus, suggest he may be a follower of the god.

Stylistically, the figure resembles the Dionysos depicted on an ivory medicine box also in the Dumbarton Oaks collection (BZ.1947.8), which dates to the second half of the fourth-fifth century. The figure on the knife handle lacks the smoothness of the Dionysos carving, displaying more abrupt transitions between the planes of the torso and the thighs, which suggests an earlier date, in the fourth century. The medicine box is considered to be Egyptian, as are a number of other knives of this type, which date to approximately the same period; this object is most likely Egyptian.

The knife is in a fragile condition because of the combination of materials used and the fact that it was at some point buried. The iron blade was originally slotted into the handle and held in place by a dowel, the hole for which is visible between the figure’s feet. Over time the iron corroded so extensively that its original shape is deformed, and the corrosion has encroached to the handle’s exterior, visible especially along its right side and around the dowel hole. Further damage has been caused by the copper alloy panther, also corroded, which has stained the material below it green.

The handle was initially identified as ivory, though subsequent examination by a conservator has raised the possibility that it could be bone. Both bone and ivory may be compromised at points of attachment with metal, and both are subject to environmental degradation; expanding and contracting in changing humidity and temperature conditions, the handle’s outer layers have been damaged, and are in many areas cracked and flaking. This type of damage makes an identification of the material difficult. However, both the front and back of the handle are pitted by a series of tiny indentations resembling foramina, the nutrient channels that characterize the vascular structure of bone.

The condition of the knife obscures a precise understanding of its original state, though it falls within a set of other, similarly shaped objects. Two, one in the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore and the other in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, also have a half-arch shaped ivory or bone handle fitted with an iron blade. Each is carved with an image of Herakles, and each has a panther-like creature carved along the outer rim of the arch. Given the value of the materials used, the particularity of form and elaborate nature of the carving, these were likely ceremonial implements, not intended for everyday use. Although generally identified as knives, their distinctive shape suggests a particular function, the exact nature of which remains uncertain.

The Dumbarton Oaks Collection, Harvard University, (Washington, D.C., 1955), 103, no. 221, pl. p. 110.

R. J. Gettens, "The Corrosion Products of Metal Antiquities," in Smithsonian Institution Publication 4588, Smithsonian Report for 1963 (Washington, D.C., 1964), 547-68, pl. 8

Handbook of the Byzantine Collection, (Washington, D.C., 1967), 76, no. 266, pl. 266.

R. Ettinghausen, From Byzantium to Sasanian Iran and the Islamic World; Three Modes of Artistic Influence, The L. A. Mayer Memorial Studies in Islamic Art and Archaeology 3 (Leiden, 1972), 3, fig. 2.

K. Weitzmann, Catalogue of the Byzantine and Early Mediaeval Antiquities in the Dumbarton Oaks Collection, vol. 3, Ivories and Steatites, (Washington, D.C., 1972), 16-17, no. 7, pl. 6.

A. Cutler, The Craft of Ivory: Sources, Techniques, and Uses in the Mediterranean World, A.D. 200-1400, Dumbarton Oaks Byzantine Collection Publications 8 (Washington, D.C., 1985), 13, fig. 15.

Dumbarton Oaks, "The Craft of Ivory," Oct. 24, 1985 - Jan. 26, 1986.

Nicolas Landau (1887–1979), Paris.

Collection of Mildred and Robert Woods Bliss, Washington, DC, by 1947.

On loan to Dumbarton Oaks, 1947–1969 (formerly accessioned as BZ.1955.2).

Gifted of Mildred Barnes Bliss, May 1969.

Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Byzantine Collection, Washington, DC.