Arrowhead

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

In the early first millennium B.C., the area of the Transcaucasia and northwestern Iran was inhabited by many different tribes of varying wealth and power. Many characteristics of these groups are known primarily from grave goods found in their cemeteries. Although there is great variation in artistic styles from place to place and time to time in this area, the weapons seem to be widely distributed and shared by many groups. One class of weapons excavated in northwestern Iran and Transcaucasia is the cast bronze arrowhead with a triangular head, raised midrib, and tang (shaft) that is usually square or rectangular in section. This arrowhead is of that type pictured along with five other examples (MMA 1991.314.3–.8). This type seems to have been used in small numbers even when generally replaced by socketed bronze arrowheads in this area in about the seventh century B.C.

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