Southeast Asia, Vietnam, Dong Son Culture, ca. late 1st millennium BCE. A fine trio of cast-bronze axe heads with nice patinas. The larger two are similarly shaped with rounded curved edges and a short tubular neck that leads into the hollow body. The largest has additional ornamentation adorning the blade, two raised ridges on the neck, and the verso boasts a U-shaped raised line across the lower section of the blade. The smallest axe has a long tubular neck that flares to a slightly curved blade. Size (largest): 4.125" L x 3" W (10.5 cm x 7.6 cm); (smallest): 3" L x 1.375" W (7.6 cm x 3.5 cm)

The casting technique for Dong Son bronzes was demanding artistically and technically, and given archaeological investigation, scholars posit that they were made by local workshops staffed by specialists. These specialists shared knowledge throughout their geographic region, and weapons like these are constructed similarly to those from the Warring States period in China. We know of them mainly from burials, and current understanding is that bronze items - both the making of and ownership of - were controlled by a limited elite who used them to acquire and maintain power over their own people. As elsewhere in the Old World, there is a clear relationship between sophisticated bronze metallurgical technology and the development of highly stratified, militaristic societies.

Provenance: private southern California, USA collection, acquired before 2000

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#160769

Minor nicks and chips to peripheries of all three. Heavy patina, mineral deposits, and earthen encrustations on all three.