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Details
LOT 1360
Viking Age Iron Broad Axehead
CIRCA 9TH-11TH CENTURY A.D.
7 3/4 in. (627 grams, 19.5 cm).
With elongated butt and flanged cylindrical socket, slender neck with broad, flaring cheeks, raised fore-edge to blade. [No Reserve]
Provenance
Private collection, UK, formed 1980s-1990s.
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Large Luristan Bronze Adze-Axehead
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The adze-axe was a fundamental axe of many Bronze Age cultures of the world. Its form was one that lends itself to dual purposes - for war and peace. As a tool, it was used to shape wood in fabricating a variety of objects or even wooden beams for construction. As a weapon, its heavy mass and compact form make it a very deadly striking and chopping weapon, even able to defeat light armour. -
Western Asiatic Spiked Bronze Macehead Group
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Opening Bid: £1,350
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A variety of similar bronze mace heads have been recovered in Hasanlu and Marlik, mainly of spiked variety. Excavations at 8th-7th century B.C. War Kabud and Chamzhi-Mumah in Luristan have produced related types, with smaller spikes or knobs and with an elongated socket, like one of our examples. These spiked maces are a specifically Iranian type. In general, they were used from the 9th century B.C. although some scholars support the thesis of their use in the late 2nd-early 1st millennium based on finds from Marlik.
