Lorestan Province (Western Iran) Circa 2nd Millennium BC

Period: Circa 2nd millennium BC.
Title: A tanged bronze dagger or spearhead.
Material: Bronze, on a custom mahogany plinth.
Size: 38.5 cm (Length).
Weight: 328 grams.
Provenance: Ex-Japanese private collection, formed 1970-2010.
Private Collection UK.
This work has been certified by Dr Brian Gilmour (Research Associate, Oxford University) specialising in arms and armour.
Reference: CF. Khorasani, M. M., ‘Bronze and Iron Weapons from Luristan’ in Antiguo Oriente 7, 2009, fig.1, for a very similar blade.
Condition: This work has some losses, the condition is commensurate with age.

About: A tanged bronze dagger or spearhead of triangular shape with shallow fuller tapering to a sharp pointed tip, the tang preserving the hole to which the organic perishable hilt of bone or wood was fastened.

Edged weapons with tangs are among the simplest forms of weapon from this culture. This basic type was hardly altered in the period when bronze was the most important material in weapon production. The retention of this basic type with so few alterations makes precise dating challenging.

The majority of Bronze daggers, dirks and swords exist today only as bronze blades, having lost their perishable handles over the course of time.