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Details
LOT 1120
Urartu Bronze Mace or Sceptre Head
9TH-8TH CENTURY B.C.
2 3/8 in. (490 grams, 60 mm).
With cylindrical head and narrow flanged base, the head divided in four petals. [No Reserve]
Provenance
Acquired on the UK art market.
Property of a Ruislip, UK, gentleman, by inheritance.
Literature
See Gorelik, M., Weapons of Ancient East, IV millennium BC-IV century BC, Saint Petersburg (2003), pl.XXXI, no.94, for a similar mace.
Footnotes
Assyrian and Urartian officers are identified by their weapons in the reliefs. It is not so easy to definitely identify cavalry officers on the palace reliefs of the Assyrian kings, but their identification is based mainly on the context they appear in, and on some insignia (mace, sceptre) they carry with them. Hence, the mace was not only a practical weapon, but also a command insignia.
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