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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Bob L., post: 4918895, member: 56976&quot;](Painful as it was, I felt obligated to carry on the longstanding - though sporadic - tradition of this forum’s provocative teasers. To my credit, at least I said “check out” and not “ogle”)</p><p><br /></p><p>And here they are:</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1185412[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>These are newly acquired spear butts – a.k.a. counterpoises – from Western Asia, most likely NW Iran, early first millennium BC. (I avoid the more generally used “Luristan” designation since it is not always, technically, accurate)</p><p><br /></p><p>Each of these is made of bronze, is socketed, has a square cross-section above the cylindrical socket, and slowly tapers to a point. (The tips are broken on these – and, sadly, one tip suffered further breakage during transit from Europe) One has a grooved socket, two have raised studs ornamentation, and two have triangular motifs on each side of the bases of the points. The longest is just under 9&quot;.</p><p><br /></p><p>These are quite rare, and I consider myself lucky to have acquired them. They are the first spear butts added to my slowly growing gallery of “Bronze Weaponry of Western Asia”: <a href="http://www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=7069" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=7069" rel="nofollow">http://www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=7069</a></p><p><br /></p><p>At least one major reference book (Houshang Mahboubian’s <i>Art of Ancient Iran: Copper and Bronze</i>) lists this type of weapon as a spearhead. Similarly, I’ve seen at least one dealer list this general type as a “ceremonial spearhead.”</p><p><br /></p><p>By contrast, Oscar White Muscarella (<i>Bronze and Iron, Ancient Near Eastern Artifacts in the Metropolitan Museum of Art</i>), as well as several sellers, list them as spear butts, a usage which seems more likely to me. This description, from one listing, rings true: “The counterpoise has been tapered to a point to act as another damaging force, allowing the wielder to use both ends (of the spear) as a weapon.” As Muscarella writes, “At first viewing one might be inclined to accept these objects as four-sided spears or javelins of the kind known from excavations in Ur, Assur, and Carchemish…and dated to the third millennium B.C. However, (those) examples have a solid tang, while (the type we see here) are round and hollow. This indicates that these objects are in fact spear butts.”</p><p><br /></p><p>(While I agree these types are butts, I believe that Muscarella’s rationale is faulty in that ancient Iranian mercenaries of the late third and early second millennia used both tanged and socketed spearheads…Thus, the fact that this type is socketed is hardly proof that it is a spear butt. But he may well be correct that the form of these evolved from earlier third millennium BC spearheads.)</p><p><br /></p><p>My examples have thick patinas, broken tips, and some encrustations. As butts go, they aren’t bootylicious. Pictured below are prime examples of fully intact specimens, as illustrated in Mahboubian and Muscarella, respectively:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1185414[/ATTACH]&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>I won&#039;t invite everyone to feel free to show their butts below since (1) it&#039;s doubtful that any here collect these rather esoteric things and, more importantly, (2) such an invitation sounds all sorts of <i>wrong</i>.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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