Axe with Four Lioness Heads
Unknown · Iron Age III, 1st millennium BC
Four lioness heads line the socket of this small bronze axe, and a fifth feline head at the front once spat out the blade, which is now missing. What remains is only seven centimetres wide, but the heads are modelled with care, ears flattened and muzzles rounded. Without its blade the piece reads almost as a pure ornament.
The axe dates to the Iron III phase of Luristan, in the first millennium BC, and belongs to the same family as the horse-headed axe nearby: weapons in which the practical parts are swallowed by animal decoration. Lionesses rather than lions may have been chosen for their reputation as fierce protectors of their young. The Louvre purchased the piece in nineteen fifty eight from the market, without excavation record. Missing blades are common on Luristan axes, since the thin cutting edge was the most fragile part and the most likely to have been reused or lost.
Did You Know? Five feline heads on one axe, and the only part that could cut is the part that is gone.
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