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Document Details : Title: Les pointes de «flèches à percussion» d'Ougarit Author(s): CARBILLET, Aurélie , MATOÏAN, Valérie Journal: Semitica Volume: 61 Date: 2019 Pages: 185-214 DOI: 10.2143/SE.61.0.3286691 Abstract : In 2007 Hermann Genz drew our attention to a category of bronze objects characteristic of the Late Bronze Age. These objects are commonly interpreted as arrow tips of a particular type, called 'stunning bolts' or 'flèches à percussion'. The authors publish for the first time a corpus of these objects in the Near East and in Eastern Mediterranean according to the publications, in which is included the only published specimen of Ugarit (Ugaritica IV). A study of the Mission archéologique syro-française de Ras Shamra – Ougarit archives allows us to add 29 unpublished specimens from the Ras Shamra excavations. This article presents the Ugaritian corpus, the most important of the Near East. The results of the contextualizing approach support Genz’s hypothesis of an association of these objects with the elite, but indicate a preferential association with domestic and palatial contexts rather than tombs as shown by Egyptian, Cypriot, Central and Southern Levant discoveries. Until now, Ugaritic documentation (archaeological, archaeozoological, textual and iconographic) does not provide sufficiently clear clues to decide between the various hypotheses discussed by the authors concerning the function of these objects: jet weapons associated with bird hunting or tools? |
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