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Throughout the ages, civilization have risen and
fallen based upon the sophistication of their
weaponry. As metalworking became increasingly
advanced, weapons became denser and harder.
The first great advance in weaponry making
occurred during the Bronze Age, when the most
advanced metalworking techniques consisted of
smelting copper and tin from naturally occurring
outcroppings of ore, and then alloying those
metals in order to cast bronze. Swords,
spearheads, and arrowheads were cast from
molten metal and, once cooled, hammered to
increase the density. The invention of bronze
may or may not have occurred independently in
multiple places. The earliest known tin bronzes
come from what is now Iran and Iraq and date to
the late 4th millennium B.C., although there are
claims of an earlier appearance of tin bronze in
Thailand in the 5th millennium B.C. Arsenical
bronzes were made in Anatolia, where there
were rich deposits of copper and tin, and on both
sides of the Caucasus by the early 3rd
millennium B.C.
These weapons were forged at a time when
bronze was the most valuable metal, worth far
more than gold. Thus the intrinsic value of these
objects in its own time leads one to question
their function. Were they simply used for hunting
and self-defense, or did they serve a higher
ritual purpose?
From a very early period bronze was used for
ceremonial and utilitarian purposes. Spearheads
would have fallen into both categories, since they
were used in war and as important elements in
ceremonies. Representing symbols of prestige
and rank, they would then have been interred in
tombs as objects highly desirable in the afterlife.
These particular spearheads are very beautifully
crafted, elegantly proportioned and in an
excellent state of preservation. For such bronze
work, highly skilled artisans would have been
required, utilizing their talents for the elite group
of people who could afford an object so
powerful, and yet so elegant as these three
spearheads.
- (SF.244)
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