Large Luristan Iron-age bronze garment pin

A cast bronze garment pin with a poppy-shaped head, below which are three protruding studs.

Luristan area of western Persia: 9th-7th century BC.

Very Fine condition good bronze with a rich dark-green patina a thin layer of accretions to much of the surface
Length 17.4 cms (6.9 ins).

For similar example see PRS Moorey: item 302 Catalogue of the Ancient Persian Bronzes in the Ashmoleon Museum, Oxford.

Such decorative simple items of fashion were used to fasten the clothes of the ancients before the invention of fibulae (brooches) and were amongst the earliest objects to be made of metal in western Persia from the third Millennium BC. onwards. They were particularly numerous between 1200-800 B.C. Their end can be directly related to the introduction of the fibula which in the Near East occurred sometime in the 7th century BC.