Amlash Bronze Spearhead

9TH-7TH CENTURY B.C.

12 1/4 in. (128 grams, 31 cm).

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

Provenance

Ex Abelita family collection, 1980s-2000s.

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 spear, belonging to 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 the 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 the 9th-7th century B.C.

CONDITION

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LOT 1419