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LOT 0297
Luristan Bronze Horse Bit with Horses
11TH-8TH CENTURY B.C.
8 1/4 in. (654 grams, 21 cm wide).
The cheekpieces formed as stylised horses with small ears, elongated heads and long tails, a circular opening to the body for the bar to pass through, two loops to the body and two spurs to the reverse.
ProvenanceEx Paris collection.
French gallery, Paris, 1990-2000s.
This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate no.11975-210127
Cf. Legrain, L., Luristan Bronzes in the University Museum, Philadelphia, 1934, pl.XVIII no.52; Musée Cernuschi, Bronzes de Luristan, enigmes de l'Iran Ancien, IIIe-Ier millenaire av. J.C., Paris, 2008, p.111, no.71, 112, nos.72-73, for similar types.
FootnotesIn Luristan, horses were usually buried with a bronze horse-bit in their mouths, as shown by finds from Sarkishti, where the horses’ teeth were stained green.
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Roman Stone and Lead Sling Shot Group
2nd century A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £195
Comprising two lentoid-section, one a lead glans, and another in stone. 121 grams total, 47-58 mm
Ex Simmons Gallery, London E11, UK, in the 1990s. From a North London collection.
Both the missiles seem to be of ovoid type, type Ia of the Völling classification. The pair finds parallels with examples unearthed at Ham Hill, Somerset, UK. The sling (funda) with its lead missiles (plumbea pondera or glandae) and stone (lapides) was used by special funditores, illustrated on Trajan’s Column where they are simply dressed in broad tunics with no armour, but carry a shield. A fold in their cloak, or sagulum, acted as an ammunition bag. The effectiveness of the slingers was unquestionable and much appreciated, especially against elephants. Celsus, writing towards the end of the 2nd century A.D., described how a slingshot wound was more dangerous and harder to treat than one inflicted by an arrow. -
Western Asiatic Bronze Arrowhead Group
10th-9th century B.C.Sold for (Inc. bp): £117
Comprising mainly tanged arrowheads, the most of them having large elongated triangular blades and raised midrib, sharp central groove, cylindrical or squared stem for the shaft, barbed shoulders and convex sides; others with lanceolate head and rounded shoulders with long tang and foliate-section. 103 grams total, 29-68 mm
Acquired 1980-2015. Ex Abelita family collection.
The most of these arrowheads, having a lozenge-section midrib with thin blades filed sharp at the edges, are typical of the early Iron Age in Luristan. These arrowheads seem to belong to the type V, subcategory types A, C and D according to the classification of Khorasani and Negahban. In the four categories of triangular bronze arrowheads from Luristan, Marlik, and Northern Iran individuated by Negahban, subtypes C and D of type V are larger arrow or javelin heads, C with barbed shoulders and D with round shoulders. Subtype A is substantially similar to C, but smaller. Similar arrowheads are also visible in the Western Iberian and Balkan cultures in the Early Iron Age. -
Large Western Asiatic Socketted Bronze Axehead
Late 2nd millennium B.C.Sold for (Inc. bp): £234
Composed of flared cheeks, convex cutting edge and lentoid-shaped socket with raised circumferential rib and butt, with a vertical rib to the rear. 1.16 kg, 19.2 cm
Acquired 1980-2015. Ex Abelita family collection.
In the 2nd millennium B.C., in the Caucasus area, variants of axes with a curved horizontal blade and a tubular eye developed. The simplest variants of these types were borrowed through the north of Ciscaucasia by the inhabitants of the Eurasian steppes. In the steppes, war axes became, around the middle of the 2nd millennium B.C., the most powerful bronze weapons, spreading far to the east.
