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Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College
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Identification and Creation

Object Number
1992.256.129
Title
Arrowhead
Other Titles
Former Title: Arrowhead, Olive-leaf
Classification
Weapons and Ammunition
Work Type
arrowhead
Date
8th-5th century BCE
Places
Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World, Asia
Period
Iron Age
Culture
Near Eastern
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/304596

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Bronze
Technique
Cast, lost-wax process
Dimensions
3.6 x 1.2 cm (1 7/16 x 1/2 in.)
Technical Details

Chemical Composition: XRF data from Artax 1
Alloy: Bronze
Alloying Elements: copper, tin
Other Elements: lead, iron, arsenic
K. Eremin, January 2014

Technical Observations: The patina is a dark gray-black with some fine, grayish-tan burial accretions in the recesses. The point and the tang might also have been longer; it is difficult to say, given that the surface of the metal was pitted by corrosion.

The arrowhead was cast in one piece. The shape is relatively simple and could have been created either by the lost-wax process or by a piece-mold process. The stepped notch at the bottom of the arrow could have been enhanced in the metal.


Francesca G. Bewer (submitted 2012)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Louise M. and George E. Bates, Camden, ME (by 1971-1992), gift; to the Harvard University Art Museums, 1992.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of Louise M. and George E. Bates
Accession Year
1992
Object Number
1992.256.129
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
This arrowhead is basically an isosceles triangle with a central raised ridge on both sides that extends into a tang, square in section, and tapers toward the end. This provision for inserting the tang into the shaft of the arrow is different from the hollow sockets that most bronze arrowheads from the sixth to the fourth centuries BCE in the Greek world possess. Exact parallels have not been found. Three arrowheads from Boğazköy have similar extended tangs and raised midridge, although the barbs are shorter (1).

NOTES:

1. R. Boehmer, Die Kleinfunde aus der Unterstadt von Boğazköy: Grabungskampagnen, 1970-1978, Boğazköy-Hattusa 10 (Berlin, 1979) 23, nos. 3148A and 3152-53 (the last of which is dated by the excavation context to the periods of Lower City I and II). For further parallels, see ibid. 23, no. 3158, pl. 15; and id., Die Kleinfunde von Boğazköy, Boğazköy-Hattusa 7 (Berlin, 1972) 107, no. 820, pl. 26.


David G. Mitten

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