Minature axe head
Not on view
This is a miniature bronze axe head. The blade is undecorated, but the butt features a flange, and both the socket and flange have thick outlines. It was excavated at Surkh Dum, an Iron Age settlement site in Luristan in the Zagros Mountains of western Iran. It was found in a structure interpreted as a sanctuary and was thus probably an offering to a god. A handful of other miniature axe heads have been excavated in Iran, but from contexts dating to the late third millennium B.C. Yet Surkh Dum was only occupied during the early first millennium B.C. It is thus uncertain whether this axe head was an heirloom at the time of its deposition, or if it represents a revival of a much older tradition.
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