British / Lunette Spearhead / 1200?800 B.C.

British
Lunette Spearhead
1200?800 B.C.
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Creator Nationality: European; British
Creator Name-CRT: British
Title: Lunette Spearhead
View: Principal view
Creation Start Date: 0
Creation End Date: 0
Creation Date: 1200?800 B.C.
Object Type: Decorative Arts and Utilitarian Objects
Materials and Techniques: Copper alloy
Dimensions: 15 9/16 x 2 3/8 in. (39.5 x 6.1 cm)
Description:

This spearhead represents the highest tradition of the British Bronze Age. The piece is undeniably beautiful: its shape is elegant and spare to the point of evoking modern art. The socket of the spearhead is hollow and includes two peg holes. These would allow the shaft of the spear to be replaced often without undue difficulty; a possession such as this would be much too valuable not to use again and again. When given to the Museum, there was in fact a small section of wood still remaining inside.

The spearhead almost certainly comes from the Selbourne/Blackmoor hoard of Bronze Age objects, found in the nineteenth century in Hampshire. The hoard was acquired by two great nineteenth-century collectors: first by the antiquarian George Roots, and then by General A. H. Pitt-Rivers, an omnivorous collector especially interested in British objects and also a renowned archaeologist.

AMICA Contributor: The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Owner Location: New York, New York
ID Number: 1998.540.1
Credit Line: Gift of Peter Sharrer, 1998
Copyright: Copyright ? 2002 The Metropolitan Museum of Art. All rights reserved.
Rights: http://www.metmuseum.org/education/er_photo_lib.asp
Style or Period: Bronze Age
AMICA ID: MMA_.1998.540.1
AMICA Library Year: 2002
Media Metadata Rights: Copyright (c) 2002 The Metropolitan Museum of Art. All Rights Reserved

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