#ancient spoons

I love spoons like this, that are basically just tiny bowls with handles, but this one is also fun because it allowed me to share with you the Treasure of Boscoreale, which is something a lot of the objects in the Louvre’s online catalogue are flagged with right now. (Round about page 915.) 

TheTreasure of Boscoreale is a cache of silver and gold objects, dated across 500 years from the 4th century BCE to the first century CE. It was found in an ancient ruin at Villa della Pisanella (in Boscoreale, Italy, hence the name), which was buried in the eruption of Pompeii in 79 CE. I’m particularly fond of it because roughly half of the treasure is absolutely gorgeous and the other half is insanely hideous. There’s very little inbetween. 

If you’re local to the Louvre or the British Museum the treasure items are well worth a trip to visit, and if you aren’t, well, Boscoreale is a fun rabbit-hole to chase down. Either way, enjoy this silver spoon!

[ID: A silver spoon consisting of a half-circle for the bowl of the spoon, with a burn mark on one side; the handle is an extremely narrow and thin spindle, like a chopstick, that ends in a point at the other end from the bowl of the spoon. It is simple, elegant, and looks nothing like most spoons you see in modern life.]