Bronze spear heads? How old? From where? Any ideas?? -- myArmoury.com

M. Fuller

Hi all,

These framed spearheads are being sold in an estate sale in a few weeks by a friend. The owners passed away and the adult child, after taking away the things they wanted, have left these along with lots of other stuff. Their parents traveled extensively around the world, so where they were picked these up is anyone's guess. The items in the estate sale are not being professionally cataloged or appraised. I am helping my friend out with trying to price items that may have some worth. If anyone has an idea, opinion, suggestion, etc... I would greatly appreciate the feedback.

I'm not sure whether these spear heads were attached to the framed board when purchased or were attached after by the owner. It's a pretty inexpensive frame. The pieces are attached by fishing line or a very fine wire. I'm guessing the most recent owner attached the pieces himself. I only took pics quickly as an after thought to help my friend out so I don't have exact info or exact measurements. A guesstament of the length of the longest piece on the right is about 14+ inches and about 2 inches at the widest spot. That should give one a range of size to go on. The green patina is lending itself to being bronze I'm thinking? There is no rust so that's leading me to again think they are bronze and not steal? These have also been living on an island with salty air where things rust quicker than elsewhere even if they live in AC.

Any ideas? Thanks mucho in advance for any thoughts sent this way.

-M. Fuller

Dan Howard · Posted: Mon 10 Sep, 2012 4:50 pm Post subject:

Most look Middle Eastern. On most of them the tangs seem pretty flimsy. Can't know for sure without handling them.

Edit: The smallest one might be an arrowhead but the photo needs a scale.

Timo Nieminen · Posted: Mon 10 Sep, 2012 4:53 pm Post subject:

At first glance, they look to be from a variety of times/places, but generally Middle East.

I've seen heads similar to #3 from the left described as Persian, Bactrian, or Luristan. The largest on on the right looks Canaanite to me, but I see similar described, again, as Persian, Bactrian, Luristan.

#6 is a dagger? Maybe #1 and #7 too? #1 has a transverse ridge at the base of the blade, which I've never seen on a spearhead, but is common enough of sword and dagger blades. I've not seen notches at the base of the blade on #7 on an ancient spearhead (common on much more recent American spearheads).

R. Kolick · Posted: Mon 10 Sep, 2012 5:47 pm Post subject:

they look more like short swords or daggers than spears in my opinion but i have little to no expiriance with bronze weapons

Matthew Amt · Posted: Mon 10 Sep, 2012 5:49 pm Post subject:

Yeah, looks like a slightly mixed bag to me, too. Definitely bronze, typical in appearance to most any real or fake antiquities. The big one I'd say is a Middle Eastern Early Bronze Age spearhead, because of that curved tang. Same with the little one. I'm not familiar with all those shapes, but I haven't really studied eastern stuff. There are certainly enough (mostly looted) Middle Eastern antiquities on the market that there isn't much need to assume these are fakes, though one or two could be something other than weapons. Might even be a fence spike or flagpole finial among them, honest mistakes rather than malicious fakes.

If the price isn't outrageous, I'd say, Grab them! You may be able to sell them separately for much more than you paid. When I first saw the post I was wondering if this might have been part of the late John Piscopo's collection, but he always labelled his stuff.

WIsh I could find stuff like this in yard sales in MY neighborhood!

Matthew