Four broad fenestrated axes in the British Museum: some considerations on a symbolic weapon between the 3rd and the 2nd millennium BC

This paper illustrates four bronze Levantine fenestrated axes dating back from the Early Bronze IVB (2200-2000/1950 BC) to the Middle Bronze I (2000/1950-1800 BC) preserved in the collection of the British Museum.1 The study gets underway from some recent discoveries (‘Enot Shumi, Sana’iye, al-Nasim) and takes the opportunity to re-analyze the corpus of Levantine fenestrated axes, to update it by defining some diagnostic and chronological characteristics, and to highlight the symbolic value of these weapons in the divine, rulership and ritual realms.