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A triangular object with aged texture.

A triangular object which is long and points to the right. On the left side there is a slight curve so that there is top and bottom corner, though the top seems to be chipped away. These corners are rounded by erosion. From those corners the edges curve towards the point to the right which is similarly eroded and rounded, any sharp edges which might have been on the object having been worn away. Most of the surface is covered in texture which looks like rock or dirt. It is mostly dark grey with spots of green, beige, and orange.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1991.43
Title
Dagger Blade
Other Titles
Former Title: Spear Point
Classification
Weapons and Ammunition
Work Type
dagger
Date
25th-21st century BCE
Places
Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World, Europe, Crete
Period
Bronze Age, Early
Culture
Greek
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/303702

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Arsenical copper
Technique
Cast, lost-wax process
Dimensions
10.1 x 4.5 x 0.6 cm (4 x 1 3/4 x 1/4 in.)
Technical Details

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

XRF data from Artax 1
Alloy: Arsenical Copper
Alloying Elements: copper, arsenic
Other Elements: lead, nickel
K. Eremin, January 2014

Technical Observations: The patina is dark green and brown with areas of lighter green and red. The blade is mostly or completely mineralized, and chips are missing from the tip as well as from one of the two back corners. Thick layers of corrosion and burial accretions are present in most areas, and no part of the original surface is visible. One of the two pins that held the shaft in place is preserved.

The poor condition of the surface obscures clear evidence of the means of manufacture. The blade was probably cast from a wax model made directly in the wax. Hammering may have been used to further finish, shape, and harden the metal, but there is no evidence of this. The remaining copper alloy pin, which secured the shaft, measures 3 x 3 x 12 mm.


Henry Lie (submitted 2012)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
From Afrati. Ex Norbert Schimmel Collection.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of the Schimmel Foundation, Inc.
Accession Year
1991
Object Number
1991.43
Division
Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact
am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
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Descriptions

Published Catalogue Text: Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Bronzes at the Harvard Art Museums
This rudimentary blade appears to have been cast in a bivalve mold. Its upper end is concave. It was attached to a handle or shaft by two rivets, one of which is still in place. Both sides of the point are heavily corroded, and one corner of the proximal end is missing.

This triangular blade is probably for a dagger datable to the second half of the third millennium BCE. It was probably fastened to a wooden hilt, and a number of similar blades have been found in communal graves in the Messara Plain in Crete (1).

This blade was received at Harvard along with fragmentary pieces of armor datable to the seventh century BCE and said to be from Afrati, Crete (2). This blade may have been recovered with the seventh century find. Typologically, however, it is dateable to at least fifteen hundred years earlier than the Afrati armor.

NOTES:

1. K. Branigan, Copper and Bronze Working in Early Bronze Age Crete, Studies in Mediterranean Archaeology 19 (Lund, 1968) 21-27 (ch. 3: “The Triangular Daggers”), figs. 5-6; and id., Aegean Metalwork of the Early and Middle Bronze Age (Oxford, 1974) 14-15, no. 9, pls. 1-2 and 26.

2. H. Hoffmann and A. E. Raubitschek, Early Cretan Armorers (Mainz, 1972). See Harvard objects 1991.37, 1991.38, 1991.39, 1991.40, 1991.41, 1991.42, 1991.44, 1991.45, 1991.46, and 1991.47.


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