NE040 - ELLIPTICAL ANCIENT NEAR EASTERN LURISTAN BRONZE AGE STONE MACE HEAD WITH LINEAR DECORATIONS

Product Description

ID

Mace

FOUND

Near East (Luristan)

AGE

BRONZE AGE:  3600 - 1200 B.C.

SIZE

2.75" diameter

CONDITION

INTACT WITH NO REPAIR OR
RESTORATION.  ORIGINAL MINERALS
STILL INTACT ON SURFACES.

NOTE

VERY RARE, COMPLETE WITH INCISED
DECORATIONS.  

Actual Item - One Only

Comes with a certificate of authenticity / information sheet

The mace is a very primary weapon requiring no skill or special training and its effectiveness is obvious.  Stone mace heads were first used in Pre-Dynastic Egypt in the 4th millennium B.C..  Earliest examples resemble discoidal-shaped stones ground and drilled to be mounted on a wooden handle.  Maces were used in combat both on foot and in chariots and horseback in Neolithic and Ancient cultures from the Near East.  This weapon was most effective on unarmored or lightly armored foes.  Upon the advent of bronze, bronze armor and helmets became commonly worn during combat and as a result, the stone mace became much less effective as the stone heads shattered upon impact with the metal armor.  

Attributed to the ancient near eastern Iranian tribes of the Bronze and Iron Ages, this is a  RARE fine and intact elliptical hardstone mace.  This example has intact linear engraved decorative lines radiation out from the central hole with some being carved into a zig-zag pattern.  Drilled shaft hole is well made and with original calcite mineral encrustations.  Mineral and soil deposits are a testament to the authenticity and age of this piece.  Mineral and original soil traces deep in crevices and patina over grinding marks are traits ONLY found on AUTHENTIC specimens like this.  NO RESTORATION, NO REPAIR  and NO MODERN DAMAGE.  BEWARE of the NUMEROUS stone maces and axes that continue to persist on the open market from all different supposed cultures.  Microscopic examination is required as well as extensive experience and knowledge to avoid being stung by so many forgeries of these ancient weapons.

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.

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.