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A hollow cylindar of green discolored metal with a cat figure on top and a fractured semicircle of a different and badly rusted metal.

This object is made of a tube with a feline figure on top, made of a dark metal with green discoloration, and a broken semicircular shape below, made of a rust colored, flaking metal. The tube has a rounded ridge that runs vertically and nearly bisects it. The feline figure on top is seated and is looking straight ahead. on the bottom of the metal tube is a rectangular protrusion of the same material as the tube. This rectangle is decorated with face of a feline. The rectangular shape connects to the broken semicircular shape made of the flaking and rusted metal. The rusted metal has jagged and flaking edges throughout.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1943.1318
Title
Axe Head and Shaft Hole with Feline Decoration
Other Titles
Alternate Title: Axe: Recumbent Lion above Feline Mask
Classification
Weapons and Ammunition
Work Type
axe
Date
9th-first half 8th century BCE
Places
Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World, Asia, Luristan (Iran)
Period
Iron Age
Culture
Iranian
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/304066

Location

Location
Level 3, Room 3440, Ancient Mediterranean and Middle Eastern Art, Ancient Middle Eastern Art in the Service of Kings
View this object's location on our interactive map

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Bronze handle holding iron blade
Technique
Cast, lost-wax process
Dimensions
10.5 x 15.5 x 2.6 cm (4 1/8 x 6 1/8 x 1 in.)
Of bronze: 8.7 x 5 cm (3 7/16 x 1 15/16 in.)
Technical Details

Chemical Composition: ICP-MS/AAA data from sample, Bronze:
Cu, 88.58; Sn, 10.92; Pb, 0.15; Zn, less than 0.002; Fe, 0.08; Ni, 0.08; Ag, 0.03; Sb, less than 0.05; As, 0.14; Bi, less than 0.025; Co, 0.019; Au, less than 0.01; Cd, less than 0.001

J. Riederer

Chemical Composition: XRF data from Tracer
Alloy: Bronze
Alloying Elements: copper, tin
Other Elements: lead, iron, arsenic

K. Eremin, January 2014

Technical Observations: The patina of the bronze component is green with areas of red and dark brown. Light brown accretions are also present. The iron blade is largely mineralized, and much of it is lost. The bronze surface is well preserved and has been carefully cleaned of corrosion products in most areas to reveal surface details. On one side, the mask and the band below the mask have not been cleaned and show the condition of the surface prior to treatment.

The bronze component is a solid cast, excluding the open hole for the shaft. The somewhat irregular shapes of the elements point to direct work in the wax model, but there is no proof that an indirect technique using molds was not used. All of the finer details were cold worked into the metal using circular and elongated punches and a tracer tool to form longer linear incisions. The bands below the masks on both sides were probably press-fitted around the iron blade to hold it in place.


Henry Lie (submitted 2012)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
M. K. Meskin, Paris, (by 1931). Mrs. Christian R. Holmes (before 1943). Grenville L. Winthrop, New York, NY, (by 1943), bequest; to Fogg Art Museum, 1943.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop
Accession Year
1943
Object Number
1943.1318
Division
Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact
am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
Permissions

THIS WORK MAY NOT BE LENT BY THE TERMS OF ITS ACQUISITION TO THE HARVARD ART MUSEUMS.

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Descriptions

Published Catalogue Text: Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Bronzes at the Harvard Art Museums
This axe-head consists of an ornate cast bronze shaft-hole and a corroded crescent-shaped iron blade. A relatively naturalistic lioness modeled in the round adorns the back of the shaft. Portrayed couchant, her head is held erect, and her tail rests upon her spine. Linear patterns embellish her haunches. An oval gap separates her incised belly from the cylindrical shaft-hole, the top, bottom, and middle of which are decorated with chevron-patterned cords in relief.

A frontal feline face in relief, typically referred to as a lion mask, connects the shaft component to the blade. Large eyes dominate the feline’s stylized features, which are enhanced with incised lines and are similar in formal composition to those of the round lioness. A spray of feathers, perhaps the remains of a bird, extends from the mouth and overlays the iron blade.

Represented in a number of collections and sometimes referred to as halberds, various axes of this type are attributed to Luristan, but the authenticity of many has been questioned (1). Tepe Sialk B has produced an excavated example (2).

NOTES:

1. See Antiquities from the Bomford Collection, exh. cat., The Ashmolean Museum, Oxford University (Oxford, 1966) no. 6.; P. Calmeyer, Datierbare Bronzen aus Luristan und Kirmanshah, Untersuchungen zur Assyriologie und Vorderasiatischen Archäologie 5 (Berlin, 1969) 70-73; E. de Waele, Bronzes du Luristan et d’Amlash, Publications d’historie de l’art et d’archeologie de l’Université Catholique de Louvain 34 (Louvain-La-Neuve, 1982) 30-33 and 38, figs. 17-20 and 28; A. Godard, Les Bronzes du Luristan, Ars Asiatica 17 (Paris, 1931) 57, nos. 62, 65, and 67-68, pls. 21-23; P. R. S. Moorey, Catalogue of the Ancient Persian Bronzes in the Ashmolean Museum (Oxford, 1971) 55 and 58-59, no. 27, pl. 3, fig. 7; P. R. S. Moorey et al., Ancient Bronzes, Ceramics, and Seals: The Nasli M. Heeramaneck Collection of Ancient Near Eastern, Central Asiatic, and European Art (Los Angeles, 1981) 27, nos. 47-53; W. Nagel, Altorientalisches Kunsthandwerk (Berlin, 1963) 18, nos. 40.a-b, pl. 23; C. Schaeffer, Stratigraphie comparée et chronologie de l'Asie occidentale, IIIe et IIe millénaires (London, 1948) nos. 7 and 10, pl. 265; J. A. H. Potratz, Luristanbronzen: Die einstmalige Sammlung Professor Sarre Berlin (Istanbul, 1968) 9, nos. 34-38, pls. 7-8; J. Rickenbach, Magier mit Feuer und Erz: Bronzekunst der frühen Bergvölker in Luristan, Iran (Zurich, 1992) 46-47; and Bronzes du Luristan: Énigmes d l’Iran ancien, III-Ier millénaire av. J.-C., exh. cat. Musée Cernuschi (Paris, 2008) 91, no. 34.

2. See R. Ghirshman, Fouilles de Sialk près de Kashan 1933, 1934, 1937 (Paris, 1939) 2: no. 12, pl. 26.


Amy Gansell

Publication History

  • Catalogue of the International Exhibition of Persian Art, Royal Academy of Arts, London, Royal Academy of Arts (London, 1931), p. 16, no. SS.
  • Arthur Upham Pope and Phyllis Ackerman, A Survey of Persian Art From Prehistoric Times to the Present, Oxford University Press (NY) and Oxford University Press (UK) (London, England and New York, NY, 1967), Vol. I, p. 267; Vol. VII, pl. 50a.
  • Dorothy W. Gillerman, ed., Grenville L. Winthrop: Retrospective for a Collector, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, 1969), p. 256 (checklist).
  • Jane Waldbaum and Cyril Stanley Smith, "A Bronze and Iron Iranian Axe in the Fogg Art Museum", Studies Presented to George M. A. Hanfmann, ed. David Gordon Mitten, John Griffiths Pedley, and Jane Ayer Scott, Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1971), 195-209, pl. 56.a-c.
  • Susanne Ebbinghaus, "Men of Bronze--Cups of Bronze: Bronze in the Iron Age", Ancient Bronzes through a Modern Lens: Introductory Essays on the Study of Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Bronzes, ed. Susanne Ebbinghaus, Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 2014), 146-69, pp. 147-48, fig. 7.1.
  • Susanne Ebbinghaus, ed., Ancient Bronzes through a Modern Lens: Introductory Essays on the Study of Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Bronzes, Harvard Art Museum and Yale University Press (Cambridge, MA, 2014), pp. 147-148, fig. 7.1

Exhibition History

  • 32Q: 3440 Middle East, Harvard Art Museums, 11/16/2014 - 01/01/2050

Subjects and Contexts

  • Ancient Bronzes
  • Google Art Project

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