Ancient Near East and Asia Minor, Anatolia, Hittite culture, ca. second half of the 2nd millennium BCE. A beautiful and early example of a cast-bronze axe head of a heavy, flat, and biconcave form. The utilitarian profile is accentuated by a pair of petite lugs protruding from the midsection, and the blade head bears an acute edge for cutting and chopping. The trapezoidal heel is sturdy with a flat edge, perhaps for smoothing or shaping harder materials. Lustrous layers of green and dark brown patina envelop the entire composition. Size: 6.125" L x 2.4" W (15.6 cm x 6.1 cm); 3.4" H (8.6 cm) on included custom stand.

Although these forms are colloquially called axes, they may also have been used as chisels or adzes when attached to a perishable handle. How exactly they were hafted remains a matter of debate - the most common hypothesis is that they were inserted into a slit in a piece of wood. Molds for these axes have been found by archaeologists at the important Hittite site of Kultepe in central Turkey.

Published in Russel, D. "Antique Woodworking Tools, Their Craftsmanship from the Earliest Times to the Twentieth Century." Cambridge, 2010, p. 34, no. 83 (illus.)

Cf. an earlier version of the Hittite lugged axe in Muscarella, O.W. "Bronze and Iron: Ancient Near Eastern Artifacts in the Metropolitan Museum of Art." The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1988, p. 412, no. 566; also Cf. Deshayes, J. "Les Outils de Bronze, de l'Indus au Danube." Paris, 1960, plate 14, no. 1101.

Provenance: ex-Royal Athena Galleries; ex-Paris art market, 2011; ex-David R. Russell collection

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#171571

Abrasions and minor nicks to surfaces and peripheries, with small chips to blade edge and heel, otherwise intact and excellent. Great patina throughout. Old inventory number handwritten on one peripheral edge of heel. Surfaces likely professionally cleaned.