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LURISTAN BRONZE AGE CEREMONIAL DECORATIVE WAR AXE OF ELABORATE ARTISTIC DESIGN AND WITH HEAVY, INTENSE GREEN PATINA Near East BRONZE AGE: 4000 - 3500 years ago This is a beautiful, ceremonial ancient bronze war axe from the Luristan bronze culture of ancient Iran. This style of axe was intended for ceremonial or votive purposes to memorialize or venerate a warrior. This is an exceptional example with its raised and decorated shaft body and broad curved fore and aft striking blades. This superb specimen shows the finest possible rich green and gold patina in layers and with mineral encrustation. A wonderful and authentic ceremonial battle axe from the ancient Near East Bronze Age! In keeping with proper museum ancient bronze curation techniques, this specimen has been professionally cleaned and conserved in our lab to stabilize the patina and prevent deterioration or bronze disease. The colors you see are 100% NATURAL WITH NO ENHANCEMENT. Metal artifacts that are not treated and properly conserved may corrode over time and even disintegrate into pieces. The patina shows beautiful traits only found in authentic ancient weapons. It is a patina like this that the finest ancient bronzes are prized for and it is a patina like this that brings a premium in price and value of the specimen. Unlike the flood of pastiche ancient bronze pieces on the market, this piece is 100% original and intact with no compositing of any additional parts to make a complete weapon. There is one small repair to the aft tip of the striking end but the axe is otherwise in impeccable condition with a still sealed top shaft hole. A well-preserved and impressive infantry striking weapon from this famous ancient Bronze Age culture. WARNING: There is an increasing number of fake Near Eastern (Luristan) bronze weapons on the market. As fine quality intact, original specimens become more scarce and techniques have become more sophisticated to fake these weapons. We have personally handled numerous extremely well-done fakes with extremely convincing patinas. The degree to which the fakers have been able to replicate patina to disguise their work requires an expert examination by highly experienced individuals. It is common to find very reasonably priced weapons that are made up of part original and part modern components or wholly modern pieces displaying elaborate artificial patinas. All purchases should include from the dealer a written guarantee of authenticity with unconditional and lifetime return policies regarding such guarantee. The term LURISTAN references artifacts made by a society of semi-nomadic people that once lived in the mountainous region of Northwest Iran. Little is known of this ancient culture but the most impressive traces are that of the bronze artifacts they left behind that can be found in parts of present-day Turkey, Iran and Afghanistan. These include highly decorative equipment for their horses, ceremonial containers and numerous weapons ranging from simple utilitarian pieces on up to elaborate masterpieces of warfare. It is theorized that the Luristan bronzes were crafted by the earliest existence of the Median empire but this has never been proven as written records of the Medes have not survived. The Medes were Indo-Iranian people originally from central Asia who settled in Northwest Iran in the 9th century BC and later defeated the Assyrian empire in 614 BC. Their success is short-lived and their empire which once stretched from central Iran to the Persian Gulf and Anatolia was overrun in 550 BC by the Persians. BEAUTIFUL STYLIZED CEREMONIAL WAR AXE WITH HEAVY, RICH GREEN AND GOLD ENCRUSTED PATINA IN THE FINEST COLORS 3.75" in length $395 LUR048 INCLUDES DISPLAY BOX Actual Item - One Only |
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