mace

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Object Type
Museum number: 22456
Description: Solid copper alloy macehead;cast; flattened spherical shape with a flange at the top and a hole through the centre for hafting; inscribed on the side with a reference to palace of Hammurabi.
Authority
Cultures/periods
Production date: 18thC BC
Excavator/field collector
Findspot: Excavated/Findspot: Tel Mohammed
Materials
Technique
Dimensions: Diameter: 2.75 - 3 centimetres (haft); Diameter: 6.23 centimetres (max); Height: 4.35 centimetres; Weight: 553.50 grammes
$Inscriptions
Curator's comments: Found with N.616 (BM.91315). XRF analysis indicates the composition to be a leaded arsenical copper.
Bibliographic references: Budge 1922a / A guide to the Babylonian and Assyrian antiquities. (p.87); Rawlinson H C & Norris E 1861a / The cuneiform inscriptions of Western Asia, I: a selection from the Historical Inscriptions of Chaldaea, Assyria, and Babylonia (4, no.XV.3.); King, LIH I / The letters and inscriptions of Hammurabi, king of Babylon, vol. I (no 65, p.125) (C); Menant J 1863a / Inscriptions de Hammourabi, roi de Babylone (XVI siecle avant J.-C.) (p.67); Schrader E 1892a / Historische texte des neubabylonischen Reichs (p.108.b); van Buren E D 1945a / Symbols of the gods in Mesopotamian art (p.171); King, LIH III / The letters and inscriptions of Hammurabi, king of Babylon, vol. III (p 194 no. IX) (T Tr); Frayne, RIME 4 / Old Babylonian Period (2003-1595 BC) (RIM.E.4.3.6.18.2); Curtis 2004a / Maceheads from Tell Mohammed in the British Museum (cat.2, pp.60-61, pl.2, fig.1[b])
Location: On display (G56/dc24)
Associated names
Acquisition date: 1851
Department: Middle East
BM/Big number: 22456
Registration number: N.615

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