Axe Head
Unknown · Early Dynastic period, c. 2900-2340 BC
Cast in copper, this axe head has a socket for the handle set at an angle, so that the double cutting edge would meet its target with a forward slant. The form is spare and practical, without decoration, and the metal has survived in good condition. It measures fifteen and a half centimetres across and nearly nine centimetres high.
The Louvre attributes the axe, with some caution, to Luristan in western Iran and dates it to the Early Dynastic period, between about twenty nine hundred and twenty three hundred and forty BC, the age of the first Sumerian city-states. Copper axes of this kind were among the earliest cast weapons of the region, before tin bronze became widespread, and their socketed design was a technical advance over blades simply lashed to a shaft. The piece was bought by the museum in nineteen seventy. Its unadorned shape makes a useful starting point for the later, highly decorated axes of Iran displayed nearby.
Did You Know? The angled socket is an early piece of ergonomic design, tilting the blade so a swing lands more efficiently.
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