Asaroton 1976 - Boston, MA
Posted by: 
Metro2
N 42° 21.716 W 071° 03.398
19T E 330639 N 4692011
This unique sculpture is embedded in the pavement crosswalks at Blackstone and Hanover Streets in downtown Boston.
Waymark Code: WMHJR6
Location: Massachusetts, United States
Date Posted: 07/16/2013
Views: 11
This 1976 sculpture, entitled Asaroton by Mags Harries depicts assorted items that have been discarded onto the street and crushed by traffic. The work was commissioned for the 1976 Bicentennial celebration.
The Smithsonian Inventory (
visit link) describes it thusly:
"The sculpture depicts what remains on the floor of the food market at the end of a busy day. Bronze reliefs embedded in a concrete floor include a fish, flowers, the front page of the Boston Globe newspaper, gloves, crushed strawberries, scattered asparagus, cabbage leaves, broken crates, a crushed lobster cup, an egg box, and garbage."
See addditional photos at (
visit link) which adds:
"It's a mess with a millennia-long tradition.
An asaroton, from the Greek for "unswept," is a mosaic depicting the leavings of a feast that have fallen to the floor. The inspiration for the first of these mosaics may have been to honor the wealth of a household, to camouflage the dining habits of its guests, to add a jocular touch to the interior decoration, perhaps all three. One surviving Roman asaroton can be found in the original Italian North End.
Asaroton 1976, which was commissioned for the U.S. Bicentennial, is embedded in a crosswalk in Boston's Haymarket. Nowadays the street sees much less commercial activity, and the market waste depicted in bronze is uncommon in any medium. The artwork was rededicated in 2006; reportedly, pineapples and (not shown here) portobellos are updates to the original debris."