Marathon Spearheads
Monday, September 19, 2011 at 6:19PM Dr. Yannis Galanakis graciously agreed to allow us to reprint the beginning of his really excellent piece on two spearheads allegedly from Marathon and now in the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford.
Re-thinking Marathon: two memorabilia from the battle of Marathon at the Pitt-Rivers
Dr Yannis Galanakis, Department of Antiquities Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
Introduction
Among the objects in the founding collection of Augustus Henry Lane Fox Pitt-Rivers, and within a relatively small group of ancient Greek antiquities, are two iron socketed spearheads. The first of the two spearheads (1884.120.42; FIGURES 1, 2, 5) has a much-corroded, leaf-shaped blade, with a slightly-pronounced midrib and a socket, which still contains traces of the wooden haft (total length: 26.5 x max. blade width: 4.4cm, 125gr). The second spearhead (1884.120.43; FIGURES 3, 4, 5), also badly-corroded, has a long narrow blade with a slightly-pronounced midrib and is curved upwards [1] (total length: 35.1cm x max. blade width 3cm, 126gr).
Source: Rethinking Pitt-Rivers | Marathon Spearheads
Figure 1. 1884.120.42
Reader Comments (63)
I just wanted to say that your blog has been really useful.
I am really enjoying reading your well written articles. It looks like you spend a lot of effort and time on your blog. I have bookmarked it and I am looking forward to reading new articles. Keep up the good work.
Looks good