arrowhead B Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College
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arrowhead B Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College
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Identification and Creation

Object Number
1964.12.33.B
Title
Arrowhead
Classification
Weapons and Ammunition
Work Type
arrowhead
Date
5th century BCE
Places
Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World, Asia, Sardis (Lydia)
Find Spot: Middle East, Türkiye (Turkey), Western Türkiye (Turkey)
Period
Archaic period to Classical
Culture
Greek
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/304064

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Leaded copper
Technique
Cast, lost-wax process
Dimensions
3.5 x 1.1 cm (1 3/8 x 7/16 in.)
Technical Details

Chemical Composition: XRF data from Artax 1
Alloy: Leaded Copper
Alloying Elements: copper, lead
Other Elements: iron, chlorine, calcium
K. Eremin, January 2014

Technical Observations: The patina is dark green with spots of light green and underlying red. Brown burial accretions are also present. The rough corrosion layers obscure surface detail. The wax model of the cast was probably made in a three-part mold. No finishing marks are visible due to the poor condition of the surface.


Henry Lie (submitted 2012)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Brought from Sardis; by Frederick Marquand Godwin, New York, (by 1914), by descent; to his wife Dorothy W. Godwin, New York (1914-1964), gift; to the Fogg Museum of Art, 1964.

Note: Frederick M. Godwin was the photographer for the excavations at Sardis with Howard Crosby Butler in 1913 and 1914.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of Mrs. Frederick M. Godwin
Accession Year
1964
Object Number
1964.12.33.B
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 three-finned, socketed arrowhead has deep concave channels between the fins. The fins taper toward the socket from point of the maximum width, about two-fifths of the length between the socket and the tip. This cast trilobate arrowhead, which has a socket for the shaft, is typical of a type widely used in Greece, the Balkans, Anatolia, and the Near East during the sixth and fifth centuries BCE (1). These were mass produced in bivalve molds in a series of standard forms and weights. They could also be used as a form of currency. Arrowhead-shaped objects served as a medium of exchange in the western and northern Black Sea areas during the fifth and fourth centuries BCE. A date during the first half of the fifth century seems reasonable.

NOTES:

1. For close parallels, see H. Baitinger, Die Angriffswaffen aus Olympia, Olympische Forschungen 29 (Berlin, 2001) 124-26, nos. 308-49, pl. 10; and J. C. Waldbaum, Metalwork from Sardis: The Finds Through 1974, Archaeological Exploration of Sardis Monograph 8 (Cambridge, MA, 1983) 35, no. 41, pl. 3. Compare also M. Garsson, ed., Une histoire d’alliage: Les bronzes antiques des réserves du Musée d’Archéologie Méditerranéenne, exh. cat. (Marseille, 2004) 30, no. 10 (Greek, dated to the fifth century BCE). Also see M. Comstock and C. C. Vermeule, Greek, Etruscan and Roman Bronzes in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Greenwich, CT, 1971) 416, no. 595.


David G. Mitten

Publication History

  • Jane Waldbaum, Metalwork from Sardis: The Finds through 1974, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA, 1983), p. 152, no. 1002, pl. 58.

Subjects and Contexts

  • Ancient Bronzes

Related Objects

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