2000.38: Shaft-Hole Axe with Boar's Head
Weapons and AmmunitionIdentification and Creation
- Object Number
- 2000.38
- Title
- Shaft-Hole Axe with Boar's Head
- Classification
- Weapons and Ammunition
- Work Type
- axe
- Date
- 2nd Millennium BCE
- Places
- Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World, Asia, Anatolia
- Period
- Bronze Age
- Culture
- Anatolian
- Persistent Link
- https://hvrd.art/o/168875
Physical Descriptions
- Medium
- Copper-lead-arsenic alloy
- Technique
- Cast, lost-wax process
- Dimensions
- 9.2 cm (3 5/8 in.)
- Technical Details
-
Chemical Composition: ICP-MS/AAA data from sample, Copper-Lead-Arsenic Alloy:
Cu, 84.24; Sn, less than 0.25; Pb, 7.68; Zn, 0.01; Fe, 0.01; Ni, 0.02; Ag, 0.06; Sb, 0.09; As, 7.89; Bi, less than 0.025; Co, less than 0.005; Au, less than 0.01; Cd, less than 0.001
J. RiedererChemical Composition: XRF data from Tracer
Alloy: Arsenical Copper
Alloying Elements: copper, arsenic
Other Elements: lead, iron, silver, antimony
K. Eremin, January 2014Technical Observations: The surface is scratched bare metal with brown patina and a few isolated patches of green malachite and red cuprite. More corrosion is present inside the hole of the shaft. The axe is very well preserved except for modern scratches and tool marks from a previous cleaning campaign. The axe head is a solid lost-wax cast and was worked in the metal to finish and sharpen blade.
Carol Snow (submitted 2002)
Provenance
- Recorded Ownership History
-
Purchased from Ancient Art International (Richard C. Brockway), Middleboro, MA, 1999.
Acquisition and Rights
- Credit Line
- Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Marian H. Phinney Fund
- Accession Year
- 2000
- Object Number
- 2000.38
- Division
- Asian and Mediterranean Art
- Contact
- am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
- Permissions
-
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Descriptions
Published Catalogue Text: Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Bronzes at the Harvard Art Museums
The butt of this shaft-hole axe is in the shape of a boar’s head. The ears are pointed and have a small raised ridge between them; the tip of the left ear is possibly broken. The eyes are raised bumps. The tusks are semicircular and curl sharply up onto the snout, and the mouth is depicted slightly open. The neck of the boar expands as it nears the circular shaft hole, forming an angled ridge on either side of the hole before tapering again toward the blade edge. The edge of the blade flares slightly on either side.
An axe head now in the Metropolitan Museum, New York, has a horse protome of a similar style (1), although the museum has now separated the protome from the axe (2).
NOTES:
1. See H. Pittman, Art of the Bronze Age: Southeastern Iran, Western Central Asia, and the Indus Valley (New York, 1984) 65-66, no. 32.
2. Inv. no. 1989.281.39 is the horsehead; inv. no. 1989.281.45 is the axe. The museum also attributes the axe to Bactria-Margiana, dating it from the late third to early second millennia BCE.
Lisa M. Anderson
Subjects and Contexts
- Ancient Bronzes
Verification Level
This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu