Ornamental Bronze Axe-Head with Fighting Bulls
This finely made bronze axe-head was crafted as an ornamental piece rather than a functional weapon. Its blade is pierced with an intricate openwork scene of two bulls locked in combat, their horns interlaced in a moment of tense, sculptural energy. Both sides show carefully tooled internal detail, revealing the high skill of the metalworker.
Although the piece has suffered warping, cracks, and corrosion over time, the cutting edge was never sharpened, confirming its purpose as a ceremonial or decorative object rather than for use in battle.
Scholars date this ornamental axe-head to the 18th Dynasty through a combination of the openwork design of interlocked animals (especially fighting bulls) a characteristic of New Kingdom metalwork, particularly during the 18th Dynasty. Similar motifs appear in decorative bronze and faience pieces from the reigns of Thutmose III, Amenhotep II, and Amenhotep III.
The fine chiselling and internal tooling, and the decision to leave the cutting edge unsharpened, align with known ceremonial axes from elite New Kingdom burials and temples. Openwork metal was a fashion during the mid–late 18th Dynasty, continued in early 19th Dynasty but less common before or after.
Several analogous bronze axe-heads with animal motifs were excavated at Deir el-Bahari (18th Dynasty levels) and Medinet Habu (18th–19th Dynasty contexts), catalogue comparisons (e.g., Davies 1987, Hilton Price 1884) place this axe firmly in that stylistic tradition.
Even without an exact find spot (which is sadly common for 19th-century acquisitions), the stylistic and typological evidence strongly anchor it to the 18th Dynasty.
Where would such an ornamental axe be used in ancient times?
This axe-head was never meant for battle. Rather, it served as a ceremonial or symbolic object: a piece of prestige craftsmanship instead of a working tool. Such ornaments were used in several elite contexts. They were often placed in high-status tombs, where ceremonial weapons symbolised a man’s strength, rank, and protective power in the afterlife; the interlocked bulls, emblematic of virility, dominance, and kingship, made the motif perfectly suited to funerary symbolism.
They were also deposited within temple foundations as ritual offerings; bronze tools dedicated during building ceremonies or laid down as part of sacred cornerstone deposits.
Equally, an axe of this refinement could have belonged to an elite household, displayed as a mark of wealth and status. In Ancient Egypt, the bull evoked physical power, royal authority, fertility, and divine potency, qualities embodied in the royal Ka-bull itself.
The axe once belonged to the Scottish traveller and early Egyptologist Robert James Hay (1799–1863), whose decades of work in Egypt made him one of the great private collectors of the 19th century. Hay lived in Egypt for long stretches between 1824–1827 and again in the 1830s, during which he not only amassed a vast collection but also undertook significant recording, copying, and archiving of ancient monuments. His teams produced hundreds of drawings, plans, and transcriptions of tombs and temples, many of which preserve details now lost to time and remain invaluable to Egyptology today.
Hay acquired antiquities through Cairo, Theban, and Luxor dealers, as well as from local excavators, tomb-clearers, and direct purchases made near archaeological sites, particularly around Thebes and Memphis. His collection became one of the largest and most respected of its generation.
After his death, his widow and children sold major parts of the collection to public institutions, notably the British Museum in 1868 and 1879.
As Hay sourced many objects from Upper Egypt, especially the Theban region, it is probable (though not certain) that this ornamental axe originated from a Theban elite tomb or a temple context, perhaps retrieved from cleared debris or early 19th-century excavations.
Dimensions: L. 11.25 cm; W. 8.1 cm; Weight: 113.3 g
Now at the British Museum. EA 36764
