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LOT 1521
Large Greek Socketted Iron Spearhead
SARISSA, CIRCA 3RD-2ND CENTURY B.C.
15 1/8 in. (826 grams, 38.5 cm).
Comprising a leaf-shaped lentoid-section blade and long tubular socket.
ProvenanceEx Hermann Historica, 7 October 2009, no.207 (Part).
Private collection, Germany.
Kept in the UK from 2016.
Cf. Sekunda, N., Macedonian Armies after Alexander 323-168 BC, Oxford, 2012, p.14, for similar spearhead.
CONDITIONTimeLine Auctions follows a vetting process to ensure the authenticity and legality of all items, reinforcing our commitment to integrity and responsible trading. Each antiquity, antique, and coin lot undergoes thorough examination by a vetting committee of at least ten external specialists, professional trade association members, scientists, and archaeologists: Our Vetting Process
AUCTIONS:
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Luristan Bronze Socketted Spearhead
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Saxon Sacrificed Iron Spatha with Bronze Chape
5th-6th century A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £1,300
Double-edged long sword (spatha) of type Osterburken-Kemathen; the blade with squared shoulders, broken into two parts for sacrificial reasons, tapering towards the point; sturdy tang partially preserved; wooden traces of the scabbard and hilt still visible; accompanied by a bronze outer rim of a scabbard; restored. 630 grams total, 78 cm long
From the private collection of a London gentleman, from his grandfather's collection formed before the early 1970s.
The deliberate fragmentation of a sword, often into three pieces, was a symbolic act of ‘killing’ the weapon, which was then placed as a grave good or offered in a ceremonial context. This was a Germanic custom already visible in the Vandal Przeworsk culture around the 3rd or 4th century A.D., which continued in Northern European areas until the 5th and the 6th centuries A.D.
