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LOT 1507
Western Asiatic Bronze Blade
14TH-10TH CENTURY B.C.
13 3/8 in. (348 grams, 34 cm).
The leaf-shaped ovate blade with rounded, gently curved shoulders and raised midrib, flat rectangular-sectioned tang tapering to a bent end with the remains of a fastening button.
ProvenanceAcquired 1980-2015.
Ex Abelita family collection.
This lot is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D’Amato.
This lot is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D'Amato.
See Khorasani, M.M., Arms and Armour from Iran. The Bronze Age to the End of the Qajar Period, Tübingen, 2006, s.cat.270, for type.
FootnotesSimilar spearheads were excavated in the Marlik Royal cemetery by Dr Negahban, see for example in tomb 47, Trench XXIIE. They were the evolution of a typology which began much earlier in Mesopotamia and the fertile crescent, the type 4 of the Stronach classification, with straight square-section tang, usually thickened at the base with a button tang. The foliate blade was wide and exaggerated in some specimens excavated at Marlik.
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AUCTIONS:
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Oriental European Iron Armour Sections
10th-14th century A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £33
Consisting of a square dorsal plate and a spherical shoulder protection, the dorsal plate with one of the fixing holes present. 790 grams total, 12.7-20 cm
UK private collection, acquired in 1996. This lot is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D'Amato.
Although this is a type of armour that currently has no parallels for its dorsal plate, the spherical shoulder protection finds some comparable items with fragments of armour from the Balkans and could correspond to the melon of Eastern Roman sources of the period. -
Hellenistic Bronze Cuirass Section
3rd-1st century B.C.Sold for (Inc. bp): £52
Possible flank right element of a composite cuirass for a kataphraktos (armoured horseman), part of the edge still preserved on three sides, fastening holes and part of the clasps for attaching the piece to the other parts of armour still visible. 301 grams, 21 cm
UK private collection, acquired in 1996. This lot is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D'Amato.
A near complete armour for cataphract was found in a French excavation in Al-Khanoum, a Hellenistic city in Afghanistan. The cavalry of Seleucid, Ptolemaic and other Hellenistic Kingdoms formed regiments of heavy armoured horsemen, who in the west, employed a combination of lamellar and segmented armour together with muscled armour of Greek type. Cataphract armour in the west had more Greek elements, for example more plate armour and less scale and lamellar. -
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Ibero-Celtic Style Iron Falcata with Inlaid Decoration
19th century A.D. or earlierEstimate: £800 - 1,000 (+bp*)
Opening Bid: £400
A single-edged machaira sword of falcata typology, the hilt formed as a gracefully curving horse's head and neck, the blade with deep grooves, inlaid with geometric ornaments on the hilt and blade. 771 grams, 57.7 cm
Ex White Collection, England, 1970s. The Bonnhauser Collection, Zurich, 2003. This lot is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D'Amato.
Since the 5th-4th century BC, the Iberian warriors armed themselves with round shields and single-edged swords (falcatas), gradually adopting the appearance of hoplite armies and the Etruscan version of the machaira. The latter type of sword was duly transformed into a completely new type, with a different size, shape and function, the falcata, which was already in use in the Iberian area by c. 490 BC. This falcata, a type of curved, one-edged sword of supposedly Greek origin, is generally accepted by the scholars as the 'national' weapon of the Iberians, usually suspended on the left side of the warrior, inside a sheath to which sometimes was attached a short knife. It was a terrible cut-and-thrust sword, with an average blade length of 45 cm.
