Francesca Tronchin has been expressing some doubts about that ‘Roman Swiss Army Knife’ story from the Daily Mail that’s been making the rounds (The Roman Swiss Army Knife 2010 January 30) and has suggested that it’s either a fake or dated too early. On the way into work this a.m. it suddenly struck me that the learned dottoressa must be correct for a very simple reason: the fork wasn’t invented/used as an eating implement (as far as I’m aware) prior to the 8th century or so! Almost all examples of these ‘army knife’ things have a fork of some sort which clearly cannot be second or third century by any stretch of the imagination (and indeed, these things seem to be the only ‘evidence’ of forks being used as eating utensils prior to early medieval times). There is apparently a dinner fork from Constantinople, ca. 400 A.D. at Dumbarton Oaks, but I haven’t been able to track that particular one down. At the DO site there is an online publication describing various collections which includes, on p. 45:
There is also a great rarity,
namely a silver fork of about the sixth century, with
a spirally fluted handle terminating in an animal’s
head; though probably of Sasanian workmanship, it
surely reflects Roman practices of the time. So
uncommon are forks of this period that a distinguished
German scholar some fifty years ago could
argue that since they are shown in representations
of the Last Supper in Cappadocia, the paintings in
question (executed, in fact, in the eleventh century)
could hardly be earlier than the fifteenth or
sixteenth!
Sixth century is getting a bit closer to the claimed date for these things, but we have to admit we’re dealing with something which is likely a luxury item; would such practices trickle down from the top of the social heirarchy or percolate up from the lower echelons? Whatever the case, I’m pretty much convinced the given date for our Roman Swiss Army knife is a few centuries (at least) too early. If I’m wrong in my perception about the development of the fork, please point me in the right direction in the comments!
rogueclassicism 