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Details
LOT 0296
North Western Bronze Short Sword
2ND-1ST MILLENNIUM B.C.
22 7/8 in. (1.05 kg, 58 cm).
Of fine quality, showing an open cast crescentic pommel with raised midrib and two parallel shallow lines across the top; pommel open on both sides to reveal the tip of the blade, tang rising from the grip; the solid cylindrical grip decorated with fourteen circumferential ribs, angular guard and triangular blade with strong midrib.
Provenance
Ex P.A., Hertfordshire, UK, specialist collection of Greek art, 1980-1990s.
Literature
Cf. Khorasani, M.M., Arms and Armour from Iran. The Bronze Age to the End of the Qajar Period, Tübingen, 2006, s. cat 37, for type.
Footnotes
The dirk has its hilt cast onto the blade. Moorey published a very similar piece with fourteen encircling ribs on the grip and attributed similar pieces to the North-West, also based upon examples of similar dirks from the Iranian and Russian Talesh region. He dated these pieces to the late 2nd millennium B.C. Similar examples were excavated at Marlik. Stutzinger attributed these types with a wider dating (13th-9th century A.D.)
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