Axe Inscribed with the Name of Atta-hushu
Unknown · Sukkalmah period, reign of Atta-hushu, early 2nd millennium BC
A fan-shaped blade spreads from a round socket on this copper axe, and a short cuneiform inscription in Akkadian gives a royal name: Atta-hushu, who ruled Susa in the early second millennium BC. The collar of the socket rises above the top edge of the blade, a feature specialists use to classify axes of the period. The whole piece is about ten centimetres long.
Atta-hushu belonged to the Sukkalmah dynasty, the line of rulers who governed Elam between about two thousand and fifteen hundred BC, and his name appears on buildings and objects at Susa. The inscription makes the axe a dedication, an offering placed in a temple in the king's name rather than a tool. The museum records the type as Luristan in origin, showing how highland metalworking traditions and the lowland court of Susa were connected. The axe was excavated at Susa by the French mission and came to the Louvre through the division of finds.
Did You Know? A few wedge-shaped signs turn an ordinary axe into a document with a king's signature.
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