LUR064 - ANCIENT NEAR EASTERN SMALL BRONZE COSMETIC RAZOR KNIFE WITH INTACT HANGING BAIL AND DECORATIVE HANDLE

Product Description

ID

Knife

FOUND

Ancient Near East

AGE

BRONZE AGE:  4000 - 3500 years ago

SIZE

4.3" long

CONDITION

INTACT AND COMPLETE.  NO REPAIR / 
NO RESTORATION. STABILIZED AND SEALED.

NOTE

RARE PERSONAL RAZOR COSMETIC KNIFE
WITH INTACT HANDLE AND BAIL FOR WEARING
AROUND NECK.

INCLUDES DISPLAY BOX - Actual Item - One Only

Comes with a certificate of authenticity / information sheet

This is an exceptional Near Eastern ancient bronze cosmetic razor knife with decorative handle.  It has a complete intact blade with unbroken, original cast handle showing an impressed geometric design on both sides.   This example has a rare presence of an iron bail on the end of the handle for hanging or attaching a cord.  Items like this would have been used by both men and women for shaving and other cosmetic purposes.  Patina is excellent and intact with original color and encrustation in areas.  Such objects like this of complete, well-preserved condition are seldom seen available on the private market.  This is a highly recommended example of a personal care tool from the daily life of someone from the ancient Near East Bronze Age. INTACT WITH NO RESTORATION. 

This artifact has  been professionally cleaned and conserved in our lab, being treated with a special sealer developed and formulated by us specifically for ancient metal preservation.  The patina shows beautiful traits only found in authentic ancient weapons such as a layered mineralized patina with encrustations.  No active bronze disease.   Bronze disease can be a problem in bronze artifacts and untreated, it can literally eat away an artifact over a short time of a matter of years and turn the piece to powder.  

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. 

With origins dating back to pre-history, the empire of ancient Iran was one of the world's first superpower civilizations by the time it had taken form in the second millennium B.C..  The various cultures that can be included in the former ancient Iranian Empire stretched across an enormous geographical region extending beyond what is called the Iranian Plateau.  To gain insight as to just how large this area was, the Iranian Plateau alone, includes Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan and comprises approximately nearly 4 million square kilometers (almost 1.5 million square miles).  The area of ancient Iran included not only the massive Iranian plateau made up of the tribes of the Medes, Persians, Bactrians and Parthians, but also included groups as far west as the Scythians (an eastern Scythian tribe existed in parallel in Central Asia), Sarmartians, Cimmerians and Alans populating the steppes north of the Black Sea.  To the eastern boundary of the empire, the Saka tribes dominated, spreading as far as Xinjiang, China.  From a very early period, the ancient Iranian peoples have been historically documented to exist in two separate continuums - a western civilization (Persia) and an eastern civilization (Scythia).

The beginnings of ancient Iran trace back to an influx into the Iranian cultural region of bands of horse-mounted steppe nomads from Central Asia, speaking Indo-European languages.  Some settled in eastern Iran but other groups migrated deeper to the west settling in the Zagros Mountains.  These first people descended from the proto-Iranians, originating from the Central Asian Bronze age culture of what is called the Bactria-Margiana Complex (aka Oxus Civilization), dated 2200-1700 B.C..

This historical achievements  and the breadth of diverse cultures included of this once great empire are too vast to adequately credit in this brief synopsis.  The Islamic conquest of Persia in the middle of the 7th century A.D. and the collapse of the Sassanid Empire marked the end of once geographically expansive and culturally diverse ancient superpower.