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LOT 1513
Hellenistic Bronze Cuirass Section
3RD-1ST CENTURY B.C.
9 in. (220 grams, 23 cm).
Possibly the upper right back element of a composite cuirass for a cataphract (armoured horseman), part of the edge around the neck and shoulders preserved, iron rivets and holes for attaching the shoulder straps still visible. [No Reserve]
ProvenanceUK private collection, acquired in 1996.
This lot is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D'Amato.
Cf. Connolly, P., Greece and Rome at War, London, 2006, fig.p.56, top right, for the typology of armour.
FootnotesA near complete armour for cataphract was found in the French excavations in Al-Khanoum, a Hellenistic city in Afghanistan. The cavalry of Seleucid, Ptolemaic and other Hellenistic Kingdoms formed regiments of heavy armoured horsemen, who in the west, employed a combination of lamellar and segmented armour together with muscled armour of Greek type. Cataphract armour in the West had more Greek element, for example more plate armour and less scale and lamellar.
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Oriental European Iron Armour Sections
10th-14th century A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £33
Consisting of a square dorsal plate and a spherical shoulder protection, the dorsal plate with one of the fixing holes present. 790 grams total, 12.7-20 cm
UK private collection, acquired in 1996. This lot is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D'Amato.
Although this is a type of armour that currently has no parallels for its dorsal plate, the spherical shoulder protection finds some comparable items with fragments of armour from the Balkans and could correspond to the melon of Eastern Roman sources of the period. -
Western Asiatic Integral Hilted Bronze Short Sword
Late 3rd-2nd millennium B.C.Estimate: £200 - 300 (+bp*)
Opening Bid: £110
With a broad, lentoid-section flat blade, rounded tip, sloping sides, well marked shoulders with wide but short tang. 713 grams, 43.5 cm
Acquired 1980-2015. Ex Abelita family collection. This lot is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D’Amato. This lot is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D'Amato.
The sword finds similarity with a one from the Royal Cemetery of Ur. This is the most primitive form of dagger, consisting of a simple, pointed blade having slightly convex outline shoulders sloping to a short tang which has no rivets, and was probably hafted to wood with bitumen. -
Canaanite 'Window' Bronze Axehead
2100-1800 B.C.Sold for (Inc. bp): £737
Curving blade with two large 'eye-shaped' openings, cylindrical socket. 142 grams, 11 cm
Acquired in the mid 1980s. Private collection, Switzerland, thence by descent. Private collection, since the late 1990s This lot is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D'Amato.
The ‘window’ axes have several morphological characteristics. The blade, semi-circular or elongated in shape, always ended in a rounded edge. In this type the blade was flat in section. It included two openings at its base—windows—of varying width, circular or oval. The haft consisted of a collar as wide as the blade. The weapon was threaded into an elongated wooden handle, often curved at its base, of oval section, with a differential width promoting the strength of the haft. It was thus wedged, and a rivet passed through the handle, just above the axe, serving as a stop.
