Maker: Unknown
Very large straight steel double edged waisted blade with a very prominent medial rib on the lower half, changing to a medial ridge in a point of diamond section on the upper half. The tang is visible at the end of a fragment of the original bamboo haft. The end of the haft is reinforced with a ferrule of copper alloy, chiselled to attach it to the haft at the top, decorated with a scalloped edge and two sets of incised lines at the bottom. On the ferrule is a loose ring of copper alloy
History note: Probably from the Tanjore armoury, broken up in 1860 (see documentation Elgood 2004)
Given by Robert Taylor, MA
Blade Length: 40.1 cm
Blade Width Max: 10.9 cm
Overall Length: 61.5 cm
Weight: 1190 g
Method of acquisition: Given (1879) by Taylor, Robert, MA
15th Century, Late
Circa
1460
CE
-
1500
CE
The reinforced zirah bhonk point suggests the early date. Elgood (2004: 192, fig. 19.9) compares these to a group from the Government Museum Chennai, and suggests they pre-date the decorative spears of Vijayanagar, such as O.39-1879 here. Taylor gives no provenance, and suggests that this and 37 were fitted to 14ft bamboos and used to attack riders on elephants.
Blade composed of steel
Accession number: O.38-1879
Primary reference Number: 158346
Stable URI
Owner or interested party:
The Fitzwilliam Museum
Associated department:
Applied Arts
This record can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:
The Fitzwilliam Museum (2024) "Spearhead" Web page available at: https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/158346 Accessed: 2024-04-26 08:39:18
To cite this record on Wikipedia you can use this code snippet:
{{cite web|url=https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/158346
|title=Spearhead
|author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2024-04-26 08:39:18|publisher=The
University of Cambridge}}
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https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/api/v1/objects/object-158346
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