Minature axe head

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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.

Ancient Near Eastern Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Met's Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art cares for approximately 7,000 works ranging in date from the eighth millennium B.C. through the centuries just beyond the emergence of Islam in the seventh century A.D. Objects in the collection were created by people in the area that today comprises Iraq, Iran, Turkey, Syria, the Eastern Mediterranean coast, Yemen, and Central Asia. From the art of some of the world's first cities to that of great empires, the department's holdings illustrate the beauty and craftsmanship as well as the profound interconnections, cultural and religious diversity, and lasting legacies that characterize the ancient art of this vast region.

Metropolitan Museum of Art