Spearhead

B17528B

Location: On Display in the Middle East Galleries

From: Iraq | Ur

Curatorial Section: Near Eastern

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Object Number B17528B
Current Location Middle East Galleries - On Display
Provenience Iraq | Ur
Archaeology Area PG 580
Section Near Eastern
Materials Copper Alloy
Description

CBS Register: copper, pair of harpoon head, arrow or spear head. length 134 mm

sample found in Sam Nash's Metallurgy cabinets. Sample Number Ur 52, also Ur 531

Woolley termed these weapons “harpoon-shaped arrowheads” and noted that the marks of the (sinew?) binding that secured them to their shafts were visible at the base of the hollow sockets. Both were found to the right of the entrance to PG 580’s death pit, along with other sets of weapons, including unbarbed and barbed arrowheads and spearheads, that Woolley surmised had been carried in quivers. The rounded and flattened tops of these weapons and the prominent side hook suggest that these were not arrowheads or harpoons but more likely pole weapons sued, probably in phalanx fighting, for hooking and pulling.

Length 13.9 cm
Width 2.3 cm
Thickness 1.5 cm
Credit Line British Museum/University Museum Expedition to Ur, Iraq, 1927
Other Number U.9336 - Field No SF

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