Late 3rd millennium BC. A bronze socketted pickaxe with trapezoidal-section blade. See a similar (but with hexagonal blade) pickaxe in Muscarella, O.W., Bronze and Iron Ancient Near Eastern Artifacts in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1988, pp.388-389, no.513; see classification, parallels and discussion in Gernez, G., L’armament en métal au Proche et Moyen-Orient: des origines a 1750 av. J.C., Paris, 2007, fig.2.9, plate 53, for the type. 215 grams, 12.5cm (5"). Property of a London gentleman; acquired on the UK art market; previously in a UK private collection before 2000. The type has been classified by Gernez like sub-variant of axes H2.D.c. Only of few axes of this typology is the precise origin known: the oldest comes from the tomb PG1054 of Ur; a second one was found in Tepe Giyan, without clear context, a third belonged to the funerary furniture of Tepe Djamshidi's tomb 17 (level IV) dated to the last third of the 3rd millennium BC. By comparison, the Luristan specimens date probably from the end of the Early Bronze Age, possibly the beginning of the Middle Bronze Age. Consequently, this type is a variant mainly produced in Luristan during the last third of the 3rd millennium. [No Reserve] Condition Report Fine condition.