Ancient Luristan
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Glasgow Museums has a collection of 47 artefacts from Ancient Luristan. These date from 2600 to 500 BC. This collection includes six examples of horse bits, cheekpieces and harness fittings. These are decorated with animals and one fitting, possibly from the neighbouring region of Kurdistan, is in the form of a human figure. There are also bronze pins, a penannular armlet, the handles of two whetstones and five bronze standards decorated with the ‘master of animals’ motif. Weapons include a pick head, four axeheads, three bronze daggers and one iron dagger and sword. Further items include eight bronze animal figurines, three bronze ornamented belt plates, several vessels, including a copper flask, and a spouted pottery bowl and a bronze cauldron protome. The collection also contains a unique silver spouted libation beaker that may also be from Luristan. The region of Luristan in the Zagros Mountains, in the west of what is now Iran, was home to a preliterate tribal society. It was invaded in the 9th to 7th centuries BC by Cimmerian and Scythian nomad horsemen from southern Russia and the Caucasus. Native smiths, exploiting the rich copper and metal deposits from the highlands of eastern Turkey and western Iran, produced ornamental metalwork for this warrior and horse-riding society, and supplied many richly ornamented bronzes.
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