REIGN OF SIMBAR-SIHU, CIRCA 1024-1007 B.C.

Details

A MESOPOTAMIAN BRONZE ARROW HEAD
REIGN OF SIMBAR-SIHU, CIRCA 1024-1007 B.C.
The elongated leaf-shaped blade with a sharp pointed tip, convex on both sides, the flat broad midrib continuing to a short stem, square in section with a rectangular tang, with an Akkadian cuneiform inscription on both faces, reading: "(Property) of Simbar-Sihu, son of Eriba-Sin"
2 9/16 in. (6.5 cm.) high

Provenance

Adam Collection; Sotheby's, London, 10 November 1975, lot 43.
The Property of the British Rail Pension Fund; Sotheby's, London, 8 July 1991, lot 132.

Literature

P.R.S. Moorey, Ancient Persian Bronzes in the Adam Collection, London, 1974, p. 51, no. 20.

If you wish to view the condition report of this lot, please sign in to your account.

View condition report

Lot Essay

This arrowhead was inscribed for Simbar-Sihu, the founding king of Dynasty V of Babylonia, the Second Dynasty of the Sea-Land. According to Sollberger, in Moorey, p. 52, op. cit., "Only two contemporary written documents from Simbar-Sihu's reign were hitherto known, but one is only a late copy of a royal inscription and the other a legal deed drawn up in the king's twelfth year. The arrowhead published here is therefore of special interest not only because it is, strictly speaking, the only truly contemporary inscription, but because it gives us the name of the king's father which had so far appeared only in two late chronicles. The new arrowhead, while not adding to our knowledge, at least confirms the authenticity of the chroniclers' sources." When published by Moorey in 1974, it was considered the earliest inscribed arrowhead known from western Iran.

More from Antiquities

View All