Mesopotamian Stone Vessel

With ovate blade, central rib and curved shoulders, the lozenge-section long shaft with edge chanel decoration tapering towards the end, rectangular tang with bent tip. 267 grams, 34.5 cm



Acquired 1980-2015. Ex Abelita family collection. This lot has been cleared against the Art Loss Register database, and is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D'Amato.

The spearhead represents a slender variant of type 1 of Khorasani classification. The type 1 was characterised by the bent tang. It was the evolution of a typology which began much earlier in Mesopotamia and the fertile crescent, the type 4 of the Stronach classification, with straight tang and square section, usually thickened at the base with a button tang.

An abstract figure modelled standing, carrying a small animal in its arms, possibly a kid, with a pinched head, large circular eyes, conical headpiece, discoid ear ornaments and a neck ornament. 56 grams, 12.6 cm high



Collection of a deceased London gentleman, 1979-1999, by descent. From the private collection of John Meredith, acquired since the 1990s; thence by descent. Accompanied by an original thermoluminescence analysis report no. N122e89 from Oxford Authentication. This lot has been cleared against the Art Loss Register database, and is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D'Amato.

The Syro-Hittite states rose to prominence in northern Syria and southern Anatolia (modern Turkey) following the collapse of the Hittite Empire, during which time many such figures were produced and widely distributed for domestic use. Such figures, later pejoratively referred to as 'idols', depicted deities carrying or standing with animals.

Comprising: three large triangular arrowheads with barbed shoulders and rounded midrib. 51 grams total, 9.7-10.5 cm



Acquired in the 1990s. Ex Abelita family collection. This lot has been cleared against the Art Loss Register database, and is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D'Amato.

The arrowheads belong to the type V of the Khorasani classification: subtype C, arrowheads with elongated, triangular shape with barbed shoulders and convex sides, and a raised midrib with a sharp central line. These types of arrowheads were commonly used in Anatolia and Mesopotamia from the 2nd millennium B.C., but apparently their employment began earlier in this area, where types like these occur alongside the non-barbed, predominantly ribbed and tanged types.