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Bronzes from Iran in the Collections of the Institute of Archaeology, University of London

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2014

K. R. Maxwell-Hyslop
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Extract

The bronzes illustrated on Plates XXXVII, XXXVIII, 1, 2, and XXXIX, 4 are all unstratified and the provenance of only one of the daggers is known. This is illustrated on Plate XXXVII, 1 and comes from a site above Lahijan in the Elburz mountains east of Resht. It was presented to the Institute of Archaeology by Mrs. Iris Ainley. The dagger is 35 cms. long and the lunate pommel measures 5·9 cms. in width. Plate XXXVIII, 4 is in the United States National Museum, Smithsonian Institution, Washington (No. 422.991), and is published here by courtesy of the Associate Curator, Mr. G. W. Van Beek. It measures 38·4 cms. in length and the pommel is 4·1 cms. in width. Both the daggers (Plates XXXVII, 1 and XXXVIII, 4) show the distinctive features which relate them to daggers from the region of the Talish, where tombs excavated in both the Russian and Persian areas by De Morgan in 1890 and 1901 have yielded many comparable examples. Plate XXXVIII, 4 can be compared to my type 43 (Iraq VIII, 1946, Pt. 1, Pl. V, 43). This type cannot be included among the common types of Talish bronze dagger, but a dagger from Hiveri, published by De Morgan, has a solid hilt with three circular ribs and the type example from Veri, with one rib round the solid hilt are both comparable. A dagger from Luristan with hilt similar to the Veri example is also published by Godard, and again the skeuomorphic moulding representing the thong which bound hilt and blade together on earlier blades is visible. But, as Schaeffer has pointed out, the cemetery at Veri must have lasted for a considerable period. Most of the tombs can be assigned to his “Talish récent II” c. 1450–1350 B.C. (dated by analogy with comparable material in tombs at Hassan Zamini and Agha Evlar which contained seals of Kirkuk style) but there is an earlier group contemporary with Khodja Daoud Köpru (Talish récent I c. 1550–1450 B.C.) in which the swords are all narrow rapiers with tangs.

Type
Research Article
Information
IRAQ , Volume 24 , Issue 2 , Autumn 1962 , pp. 126 - 133
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 1962

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References

1 Morgan, J. De, Mission scientifique en Perse, IVGoogle Scholar, fig. 56, 9, from Hiveri; fig. 63, 6, from Veri. See also Schaeffer, , Stratigraphie comparée de l'Asie Orientale, fig. 227, 6 and pp. 442 ffGoogle Scholar.

A dagger recently acquired by the Louvre (Dons Foroughi) 1957–59, is also comparable but the round solid hilt is much heavier than that of the Smithsonian weapon (Pl. 11, 4) and the pommel shows remains of the wood inlay. The absence of the penannular guard and the heavy horizontal band at the juncture of hilt and blade shows a similar technique to that of Pl. XXXVII, 1.

2 Godard, , Bronzes du Luristan, pl. VII, 14Google Scholar. An interesting Babylonian example of this type is shown worn by a seated king and his attendant dating from the eighth to seventh centuries B.C. (B.M. 89590) is published by Wiseman, D. J., Cylinder Seals of Western Asia, p. 81Google Scholar.

3 I am grateful to Miss Nancy Sandars for advice on this question and for referring me to the dagger from Mycenae, Shaft-grave IV, Karo, Schächtgraber von Mykenae, pl. LXXXVII, no. 294, in which the penannular guard ends in eagle heads and the hilt is made of cloisons of lapis lazuli; also to the sword from the Shaft-grave ‘Delta’ with gold lion's heads, Mylonas, Ancient Mycenae pl. 51. These two examples suggest contact with Asia and should be compared to the Talish weapons.

4 Contenau, Tepe Giyan, pl. 82, Tomb 1 and pl. XXIV, 2 and 3. I am indebted to M. André Parrot for technical information concerning this sword (Musée du Louvre, AO.18097). The sword was found in a tomb with pottery which shows certain affinities 3 with Giyan Level 3 and provides additional evidence to confirm Schaeffer's suggestion, op. cit., p. 467, that d the sword should be dated before 1400 B.C. For Agha Evlar see Schaeffer, op. cit., fig. 217, 3.

5 Van den Berghe, Archaéologie de l'Iran Ancien, pl.1.

6 Starr, R. F., Nuzi IIGoogle Scholar, pl. 126, T1, pls. 127, B1. 125, N and KK 2. Agha Evlar, Schaeffer, op. cit. fig. 217, 14, fig. 30, 2, 3 and p. 407.

7 B.M.Q., XI, 2Google Scholar, pl. XXI, 6.

8 Maxwell-Hyslop, K. R., “Urartian bronzes in Etruscan Tombs”, Iraq XVIIIGoogle Scholar, Pt. 2, 1956, pl. XXXIV, 1, 2.

9 Chagula Derré. Morgan, De, M.D.P., VIIIGoogle Scholar, figs. 469 and 483, and La Préhistoire Orientale III, fig. 251. Schaeffer, op. cit., fig. 232. For steel blades see Maryon, “Early Near Eastern Steel Swords”, A.J.A., 65, 2, pp. 173ffGoogle Scholar.

10 Djönu, . Morgan, De, Mission Scientifique en Perse, IVGoogle Scholar, fig. 62, 8. Schaeffer, op. cit., pp. 431ff. Trialeti, , Kuftin, , Archaeological Excavations in Trialeti, I, fig. 59Google Scholar.

11 De Morgan, Préhistoire Orientale, fig. 197. Hutchinson, , “Two Mesopotamian daggers and their relatives”, Iraq IGoogle Scholar, Pt. 2, pl. XXII. Examples from Veri.

12 See also Antiquitas Hungarica, III, 1949, 19Google Scholar, Fig. 5.

13 Maxwell-Hyslop, K. R., “Notes on some distinctive types of bronzes from Populonia” in P.P.S., XXII, pl. XI, p. 136Google Scholar.

For Koban, see Schaeffer, op. cit., fig. 301.

14 See also Childe, Notes on the chronology of the Hungarian Bronze age, in Acta Archaeologica Academiae Scientiarum Htmgaricae, VII, 1956Google Scholar.

15 Hencken, Hugh, Carp's tongue swords in Spain, France and Italy, Zepbyrus, VII—2, 1956, fig. 21 and p. 163Google Scholar.

16 R.A., XXII, 112Google Scholar, fig. 5.

17 Ghirshmann, in Iraq, XXII, Pt. 2, p. 210Google Scholar.

18 I.L.N., 08 8th, 1953, p. 227Google Scholar, fig. 9.

19 Since completing this article I have heard from Mr. G. Van Beek that an X-ray examination of the Smithsonian Institution dagger (Plate XXVIII, 4) has revealed that it is made in two pieces with the hilt ‘cast on” to the blade.