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Identification and Creation

Object Number
2000.38
Title
Shaft-Hole Axe with Boar's Head
Classification
Weapons and Ammunition
Work Type
axe
Date
2nd Millennium BCE
Places
Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World, Asia, Anatolia
Period
Bronze Age
Culture
Anatolian
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/168875

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Copper-lead-arsenic alloy
Technique
Cast, lost-wax process
Dimensions
9.2 cm (3 5/8 in.)
Technical Details

Chemical Composition: ICP-MS/AAA data from sample, Copper-Lead-Arsenic Alloy:
Cu, 84.24; Sn, less than 0.25; Pb, 7.68; Zn, 0.01; Fe, 0.01; Ni, 0.02; Ag, 0.06; Sb, 0.09; As, 7.89; Bi, less than 0.025; Co, less than 0.005; Au, less than 0.01; Cd, less than 0.001
J. Riederer

Chemical Composition: XRF data from Tracer
Alloy: Arsenical Copper
Alloying Elements: copper, arsenic
Other Elements: lead, iron, silver, antimony
K. Eremin, January 2014

Technical Observations: The surface is scratched bare metal with brown patina and a few isolated patches of green malachite and red cuprite. More corrosion is present inside the hole of the shaft. The axe is very well preserved except for modern scratches and tool marks from a previous cleaning campaign. The axe head is a solid lost-wax cast and was worked in the metal to finish and sharpen blade.


Carol Snow (submitted 2002)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Purchased from Ancient Art International (Richard C. Brockway), Middleboro, MA, 1999.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Marian H. Phinney Fund
Accession Year
2000
Object Number
2000.38
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 butt of this shaft-hole axe is in the shape of a boar’s head. The ears are pointed and have a small raised ridge between them; the tip of the left ear is possibly broken. The eyes are raised bumps. The tusks are semicircular and curl sharply up onto the snout, and the mouth is depicted slightly open. The neck of the boar expands as it nears the circular shaft hole, forming an angled ridge on either side of the hole before tapering again toward the blade edge. The edge of the blade flares slightly on either side.

An axe head now in the Metropolitan Museum, New York, has a horse protome of a similar style (1), although the museum has now separated the protome from the axe (2).

NOTES:

1. See H. Pittman, Art of the Bronze Age: Southeastern Iran, Western Central Asia, and the Indus Valley (New York, 1984) 65-66, no. 32.

2. Inv. no. 1989.281.39 is the horsehead; inv. no. 1989.281.45 is the axe. The museum also attributes the axe to Bactria-Margiana, dating it from the late third to early second millennia BCE.


Lisa M. Anderson

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