North-Western Persian Type Bronze Blade

Piriform body decorated with concentric circles inside a horizontal band, raised ornamental neck, with domed filler-hole, intended to be filled with explosive liquid and wick, used as a hand grenade. 430 grams, 12 cm



From a military inspired collection formed from the 1990s.

The Arabs made good use of these weapons. Their efficiency was described in the account of the siege of Akka in 1189, given by the contemporary historian Ibn al-Athir. He tells how the Christians exercised their engineering skills and built mighty siege towers. The situation was hopeless for the defending Arabs until a man from Damascus showed up, because he knew how to produce Greek Fire: ‘To trick the Christians he first threw some vessels with naphtha and other things, which were not set on fire, upon one of the siege towers, and it was without power. The Christians...climbed the top of the siege tower...the man from Damascus waited until the contents of the vessels were spread all over. When the moment came, he threw a new pot, which was set on fire. In a few moments the fire was spread all over, and the siege tower was eaten up by the flames. The fire was spread in such a hurry that the Christians could not manage to climb down from the siege tower. Men, weapons, everything was eaten up by the flames.’

Piriform-conical body with S-shaped ornaments to the shoulder, interstitial panels of impressed alternate foliage and S-shaped horizontal ornaments, domed filler-hole, intended to be filled with explosive liquid and wick, used as a hand grenade. 650 grams, 12.5 cm



From a military inspired collection formed from the 1990s. Accompanied by an academic paper by military specialist Dr Raffaele D'Amato, dated 15 July 2019 and titled 'Eastern Roman Empire - Greek Fire Bomb or Hand Grenade (μεσαίον kακάβιον) 9th-11th century AD'.

This piece was a type of a ceramic fire grenade, similar to the ones used by the Eastern Romans but of Turco-Mongol type. Apart from the use of manual flame-throwers, special corps of soldiers employed terracotta grenades, in the form of small jars, abundantly evidenced in archaeological excavations, even in Far East, like in Burma.

With D-section arms, attachment loop, prick spur with two bands of applied studs. 150 grams, 18 cm



Ex B Posey collection, 1990s. Ex Den of Antiquity, Cambridgeshire, UK. Accompanied by a dealer's catalogue information card.