Arrowhead

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This is a bronze socketed trilobate (i.e., ‘three-bladed’) javelin head. It is about twice the size of an arrowhead, but too small to be a spearhead. It was excavated at the Tall-i Takht at Pasargadae, about 55 miles northeast of Shiraz, Iran. Pasargadae was founded by Cyrus the Great (reigned ca. 550-530 B.C.) as the first capital of the Achaemenid Persian Empire. The Tall-i Takht is an elevated platform that was presumably intended as the site of Cyrus’ palace. In later years it served as a fortified citadel, and this spearhead probably dates to this period of later use.

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