Add to Collection

Add this item to an existing or new collection.
Harvard Art Museums
Incorrect Username, Email, or Password
This object does not yet have a description.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1966.166
Title
Spearhead
Other Titles
Alternate Title: Tanged Dagger
Classification
Weapons and Ammunition
Work Type
spearhead
Date
25th-21st century BCE
Places
Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World, Asia, Cyprus
Period
Bronze Age, Early
Culture
Cypriot
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/304114

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Arsenical copper
Technique
Cast, lost-wax process
Dimensions
39 cm (15 3/8 in.)
Technical Details

Chemical Composition: ICP-MS/AAA data from sample, Arsenical Copper:
Cu, 97.99; Sn, less than 0.25; Pb, 0.18; Zn, less than 0.001; Fe, 0.11; Ni, less than 0.01; Ag, 0.01; Sb, less than 0.05; As, 1.71; Bi, less than 0.025; Co, less than 0.01; Au, less than 0.01; Cd, less than 0.001
J. Riederer
Comments: This was not supposed to be sampled; the sample may have been taken from another object and mislabeled.

Technical Observations: The patina is brown with black, green, and red corrosion on the end with the tang. The spearhead is largely intact, although there has been some surface loss and losses along the outer edges. The spearhead was cast and then hot worked. Rough finishing marks on the object could be ancient, but some appear to be from a previous cleaning.


Carol Snow (submitted 2002)

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of Stuart Cary Welch
Accession Year
1966
Object Number
1966.166
Division
Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact
am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
Permissions

The Harvard Art Museums encourage the use of images found on this website for personal, noncommercial use, including educational and scholarly purposes. To request a higher resolution file of this image, please submit an online request.

Descriptions

Published Catalogue Text: Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Bronzes at the Harvard Art Museums
The intact, double-edged leaf-shaped blade tapers to a sharp point. It is curved at the shoulder where the blade and tang meet. There is a pronounced midrib on both sides, which does not noticeably taper in width or height, although the thickness of the blade itself thins from the shoulder to the point. The circular-sectioned tang is thickest near the shoulder but does not otherwise taper. The tip of the tang ends in a sharp bend (1).

The tang would have inserted into a wooden handle. Spearheads are often found in Cypriot Bronze Age tombs and may have served as status symbols (2).

NOTES:

1. Compare L. P. di Cesnola, A Descriptive Atlas of the Cesnola Collection of Cypriote Antiquities in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 3 (Boston, 1903) pl. 72.2 and 5; V. Karageorghis, Ancient Art from Cyprus: The Cesnola Collection in The Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, 2000) 55-56, nos. 80-82. Compare also M. Garsson, ed., Une histoire d’alliage: Les bronzes antiques des réserves du Musée d’archéologie méditerranéenne, exh. cat. (Marseille, 2004) 29, no. 4.

2. Karageorghis 2000 (supra 1) 55.


Lisa M. Anderson

Exhibition History

  • Man in the Bronze Age, Chapel Arts Center, Manchester, 01/01/1970 - 01/30/1970; Brandeis University, Waltham, 02/09/1970 - 02/27/1970

Subjects and Contexts

  • Ancient Bronzes

Related Works

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