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LOT 1180
Luristan Bronze Arrowhead Collection
2ND-1ST MILLENNIUM B.C.
5 - 5 7/8 in. (122 grams total, 12.7-15 cm).
Comprising: two large tanged arrowheads, mainly of triangular type with mid-rib; two arrowheads with barbed shoulders, midrib and a stop on the blade with a long tang. [4]
ProvenanceAcquired in the 1990s.
Ex Abelita family collection.
See Muscarella, O.W., Bronze and Iron Ancient Near Eastern Artifacts in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1988, pp.289ff, for similar arrowheads (nos.396, 400, 406-407); see also Khorasani, M.M., Arms and Armour from Iran. The Bronze Age to the End of the Qajar Period, Tübingen, 2006, fig.467, for a similar arrowhead.
FootnotesOne category of the represented arrowheads has a sharp blade, the ends of which extend to form wings or barbs, and a prominent midrib extending into a long tang that has a stop; the blade shape varies from deltoid to more triangular. The other form has no barbs, but it has a prominent midrib extending to the tang, and a rhomboid or tringular blade. Godard claimed that both types of heads, barbed and not barbed, came from Luristan.
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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Western Asiatic Single-Handled Flask
12th-14th century A.D.Estimate: £180 - 240 (+bp*)
Opening Bid: £100
With wheel-cut frieze of animals to the body, traces of pigment remaining. 33.59 grams, 72 mm
Ex Parisian gallery, France, 1980s. -
Syro-Hittite Terracotta Fertility Figure
Early 1st millennium B.C.Estimate: £400 - 600 (+bp*)
Opening Bid: £200
Modelled in the round with stub arms and elaborate headdress, pierced in several places for attachment of adornments. 55.4 grams, 13.3 cm
Ex private collection, London, UK, 1969-1999. -
Middle Assyrian Brick-Shaped Tablet with Funerary Inscription for Adad-Shumu-lesir’s Tomb
1363-912 B.C.Estimate: £5,000 - 7,000 (‡+bp*)
Opening Bid: £2,778
A rectangular brick-shaped tablet, inscribed in cuneiform script across three vertical faces, with a single column to the fourth and a continuation of text across the top surface; the inscription a funerary curse relating to the tomb of Adad-šumu-lešir, warning against interference with the burial, reading in part: 'As for a stranger, or somebody who would approach that tomb, or would bring up a corpse out of it and bury his own within, or would touch the silver inside - Adad, Šamaš, or Nergal will fill his house and field with shortage, collapse, and murder. He will repay the property of that tomb sevenfold, dedicating it to Šuriha. For the offspring of Adad-šumu-lešir he shall be undone for taking out and bringing down objects in the tomb, and for burying another body within it. Month Kalmartu, third day, eponymy of Aššur-mušezib.' 333 grams, 14.3 cm
Acquired in 1996. Private collection, Switzerland, thence by descent. Private collection, since the late 1990s. This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by a search certificate number no.12872-241667.
Funerary inscriptions of this type are extremely rare survivals, serving both as legal texts and spiritual safeguards, invoking the major deities Adad, Šamaš, and Nergal to enforce the curse.
