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LOT 1432
Scythian Bronze Arrowhead Collection
CIRCA 7TH-3RD CENTURY B.C.
1 5/8 - 2 1/8 in. (158 grams total, 41-53 mm).
Each with a slender, lozenge-shaped blade and a socket extending near the tip, base of the socket with a side lug. [22, No Reserve]
ProvenanceUK private collection before 2000.
Acquired on the UK art market.
Property of a London gentleman.
Cf. Furtwängler, A., Olympia. Die Ergebnisse der von dem Deutschen Reich veranstalteten Ausgrabung, Band 4. 2 Bände (Textband, Tafelband), Berlin, 1890, pl.LXIV, nos.1077, 1078, 1080, 1085, 1087, 1088.
FootnotesThe Scythians were famous for their archery abilities, and were often employed as mercenaries. The Athenian tyrant Pisistratus hired them and they participated in battles beside the Athenian phalanx as well as serving as a police corps keeping order within the city of Athens. This explains the great range of Scythian arrowheads found on the Greek sites.
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AUCTIONS:
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Mesopotamian Bronze Javelin Head
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With foliate blade, rhomboidal in section, raised mid-rib, medium length stem widening at its base and forming a small stop, quadrangular section tang with bent terminal. 262 grams, 45 cm
Acquired 1980-2015. Ex Abelita family collection.
The specimen belongs to the category of tripartite spears with long pointed biconvex blade and single bevelled tang. They seem to be a Mesopotamian and Susian (Elamite) variant, and this type also includes decorated blades, like the spear from Tello with the inscription 'King of Kish'. -
Luristan Wide-Bladed Bronze Sword with Blood Channels
1st millennium B.C.Sold for (Inc. bp): £390
Two-edged leaf-shaped blade with short rectangular tang, corrugated midrib extending almost to the tip and flared at the shoulders. 671 grams, 48.5 cm
Acquired 1980-2015. Ex Abelita family collection.
Luristan was hardly an ethnic or political entity, but the people of Luri had relations through warfare and trade with Sumerians, Lullubi, Assyrians, Babylonians and Elamites in a large time period, spanning from the 3rd to the 2nd millennium BC. The ruling elites of warrior horsemen were buried in the graves with their weapons and horses. -
Western Asiatic Bronze Short Sword with Mushroom Pommel
Late 2nd-early 1st millennium B.CSold for (Inc. bp): £780
The hilt with mushroom-shaped pommel, round grip, crescentic guard, long sloping blade with rectangular sectioned mid-ridge. 1.04 kg, 56.5 cm
Ex London, UK, collection, 1990s.
This category of swords has been classified by Khorasani as 'swords with a mushroom pommel' and are usually characterised by a solid-cast hilt with a penannular guard, a ribbed or variously decorated grip and the conical hollow-cast mushroom pommel. Usually the blade is multi-fullered and tapers to a sharp tip. Moorey considers them to be from the end of the 2nd millennium B.C.
