LOT 1284

Western Asiatic Bronze Arrowhead Collection

2ND-1ST MILLENNIUM B.C.

1 3/8 - 6 1/8 in. (234 grams total, 3.6-15.7 cm).

Comprising: two large tanged arrowheads, mainly of triangular type with mid-rib; other two of the same typology, but with rounded shoulders; six triangular, leaf-shaped, barbed, and paddle-shaped arrowheads with a flat, comparatively wide mid-rib; one small triangular arrowhead with rounded shoulders; two arrowheads with foliate shape and short tang; a triangular type with flat mid-rib and raised corners; a long narrow triangular arrowhead with raised shoulders and long tang; one triangular blade with flat midrib and short tang; a long and narrow paddle-shaped arrowhead. [18, No Reserve]

From the London art market, 1990s.
This lot has been cleared against the Art Loss Register database, and is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D'Amato.

Cf. for similar arrow-points Gorelik, M., Weapons of Ancient East, IV millennium BC-IV century BC, Saint Petersburg, 2003, in Russian, (plate XLIII, nos.26-27, 76, 92-93, 116, 157, 181, 250); Muscarella, O.W., Bronze and Iron Ancient Near Eastern Artifacts in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1988, pp.289ff, for similar arrowheads (nos.396, 407); Khorasani, M.M., Arms and Armour from Iran. The Bronze Age to the End of the Qajar Period, Tübingen, 2006, figure 60.

A number of arrowheads of this type have been excavated in Luristan and in the South-Caspian region. Many parallels are from a burial context, but a large hoard of them was found in a non-funerary context. This type of arrowhead was in use from the late 2nd millennium B.C.