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Details
LOT 1511
Western Asiatic Bronze Dagger Blade Collection
2200-600 CENTURY B.C.
6 - 9 5/8 in. (321 grams total, 15-24.5 cm).
Comprising four triangular and leaf-shaped blades, one with pierced tang with rivet hole and one pierced through the shoulders with two rivet holes; an arrowhead with strong mid-rib, short tang and narrow foliate blade. [5]
Provenance
Ex London art market, 1980-1990s.
This lot is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D'Amato.
Literature
See Muscarella, O.W., Bronze and Iron Ancient Near Eastern Artifacts in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1988, pp.289ff, for similar arrowhead; for the daggers see Maxwell-Hyslop, R., 'Daggers and swords in Western Asia: a Study from Prehistoric Times to 600BC,' in Iraq, Volume 8, 1946, pp.1-65, pl.III, types 16,27.
Footnotes
Some of the daggers represent one of the earliest form of the tangless round-heeled dagger, and the smaller examples were used as knives. Small tanged blades without a rivet, which have sometimes been identified as spearheads, are knives, while the riveted form could be used as a dagger or for domestic purposes.
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