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Branch with birds
© Institute and Museum of the History of Science

Branch with birds

Bronze, 1st cent. A.D.
Pompeii, House of M. Fabius Rufus, VII, 16, 22
Soprintendenza Archeologica di Pompei, inv. 14142

This singular artifact, perhaps part of a larger object, may be a replica without mechanism of the singing birds, operating on water and air, precisely described in Heron of Alexandria's Pneumatics.