Amlash Bronze Spearhead

9TH-7TH CENTURY B.C.

14 1/2 in. (211 grams, 37 cm).

Comprising a leaf-shaped blade with midrib and a long tapering socket.

Provenance

Acquired 1980-2015.
Ex Abelita family collection.
This lot has been cleared against the Art Loss Register database, and is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D'Amato.

Literature

Cf. Khorasani, M.M., Arms and Armour from Iran. The Bronze Age to the End of the Qajar Period, Tübingen, 2006, pp.242-243, and p.632, no.284, for similar; Overlaet, B., ‘Luristan metalwork in the Iron Age’ in Stöllner, T., Slotta, R. & Vatandoust, A. (eds.), Persiens Antike Pracht. Bergbau - Handwerk – Archäologie, Bochum, 2004, pp. 328-338, fig.7, p.335.

Footnotes

The massive spear, belonging to the type 3 of the Khorasani classification, was used by chariot fighters to strike each other, or the enemy infantry from above. Similar specimens with longer sockets were excavated by Negahban in Amlash area. According to Moorey, sockets as long, if not longer than the blade, are a characteristic of Iranian spearheads in the late 2nd and early 1st millennium B.C. A similar spearhead from the Tappeh Sialk has been dated to 9th-7th century B.C.

CONDITION

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LOT 1273