mace-head

Updated: May 13, 2025

The early Egyptian mace-head is of exactly the same type as the early Babylonian one. The Egyptian art of the earliest dynasties bears again a remarkable resemblance to that of early Babylonia. It is not till the time of the IId Dynasty that Egyptian art begins to take upon itself the regular form which we know so well, and not till that of the IVth that this form was finally crystallized.

H. R. (Harry Reginald) Hall - History of Egypt, Chaldea, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria in the Light of Recent Discovery

From a small mace-head preserved in the British Museum we know of another conquest of Elam by a Semitic ruler of this early period. The mace-head was made and engraved by the orders of Mutabil, an early governor of the city of Dûr-ilu, to commemorate his own valour as the man "who smote the head of the hosts" of Elam.

H. R. (Harry Reginald) Hall - History of Egypt, Chaldea, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria in the Light of Recent Discovery