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Details
LOT 1500
Large Luristan Socketted Bronze Adze
2ND-EARLY 1ST MILLENNIUM B.C.
6 1/2 in. (570 grams, 16.5 cm).
An adze-axe head with central shaft hole and curved blades, flange to socket.
Provenance
Acquired in the 1990s.
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.
Literature
Cf. Christie's, The Axel Guttmann Collection of Ancient Arms and Armour, part 2, London, 2004, item 34, p.32.
Footnotes
The adze-axe was a fundamental weapon of many Bronze Age cultures around the world. The form lends itself to dual purposes - for war and peace. As a tool, it functions in fabricating wood and as a weapon, its heavy mass and compact form make it a deadly striking and chopping weapon, even able to defeat light armour.
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