Axe with a Crouching Feline
Unknown · c. 2200-1800 BC
A small feline crouches on the collar of this copper axe, its body compact and its head turned toward the flat triangular blade. The animal is cast as part of the axe, sitting where the handle would have passed through, and it turns a plain tool into a small sculpture. The whole piece is about fourteen centimetres long and in good condition.
The axe comes from south-eastern Iran and dates to between about twenty two hundred and eighteen hundred BC. Animal-topped weapons were popular across eastern Iran and Central Asia at this time, especially in the Bactrian and Margiana cultures, where axes with felines, boars and birds served as emblems of rank rather than everyday tools. A feline, perhaps a lion or a leopard, would have signalled strength and protection. The Louvre bought the axe at public auction in nineteen eighty. Compare it with the dagger and plaque from the same region in this room, which share its taste for animals worked into functional objects.
Did You Know? The little cat sits exactly where the handle passed through, so the owner's hand rested right below it.
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