Luristan bronzes

The three bronze objects you are looking at now are part of a group of bronze objects known as 'Luristan bronzes'. They have this name because they are thought to originate from the province of Luristan, in modern Iran. They date back to the early first millennium BCE. These bronzes are, however, a controversial group of objects. A lot of modern forgeries are known to circulate on the art market, and many museums have forgeries in their collections. The Rijksmuseum van Oudheden (RMO) in Leiden also has a collection of Luristan bronzes, some real, some fake.

Therefore we also cannot be entirely sure about the authenticity of Böhl's bronzes. We know that he acquired them in May 1933, but where exactly is unclear.

We have highlighted three of the bronzes here, but in reality, there are 27.

The biggest bronze visible here has a somewhat weird shape, but it is actually an axehead. The left part of the object is decorated and has a hole in it, to hold the handle of the axe. This one was probably not used to chop wood…

The odd figured object on the left is generally considered to be the decorated head of some sort of standard, as it has a hole in the bottom, which suggests it would have been placed on top of something. The motif depicted is that of a person holding two wild animals, a common motif in the ancient Near East.

The third object is also a handle of some sort, this time most probably of a whetstone, a stone used to sharpen tools and other weapons. It is shaped like the head of a gazelle.

These three objects are exemplary of the types of bronze objects from Luristan. Take a look, for example, at some very similar objects from the RMO collection in figures 1 and 2.