Antique museum Luristan bronze spear or dagger or short sword, 1000 BC-600 BC, The bronze blade has a short handle with a small hole to connect to a bigger wooden handle. Origin: from Iran; Length: 8.25 inches = 20.5 cm; Width: 1 inch = 2.6 cm = 26 mm; Weight: 2.4 oz. = 59 g: Condition: covered with genuine patina. Luristan bronze: Context, dating and stylistic development The term "Luristan bronze" is not normally used for earlier bronze artifacts from Lorestān between the fourth millennium BC and the (Iranian) Bronze Age (c. 2900–1250 BC), although they are often quite similar (see illustration). These earlier bronze objects, including those from the Elamite Empire, which included Lorestān, were broadly similar to those found in Mesopotamia and on the Iranian Plateau, though as in the later pieces, animals are a very common subject in small bronze pieces. From slightly before the period of the canonical bronzes, a number of daggers or short swords said to come from Luristan are inscribed with the names of Mesopotamian kings, perhaps reflecting patterns of military service. The area had, before the period of the bronzes, been the original home of the Kassites, who spoke a non-Iranian language, then under the control of the Iranian-speaking Medes. For most of the period of the bronzes it was, at least in theory, part of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. As a mountainous rural region, what the rise and fall of these empires meant for the region remains largely uncertain; a climate change before 1000 BC seems to have significantly affected the area. The few pieces attributed to Luristan that carry inscriptions are unrecorded pieces from the antiquities market. Archaeologists divide the periods producing the bronzes in "Luristan Late Iron" (Age) I to III. Luristan Late Iron II was less productive, and remains less well understood. Dates for these periods "remain fluid" but "it is possible to suggest that the material from Luristan Iron I was manufactured in the years around 1000 B.C., that of Iron II about 900/800–750, and that of Iron III about 750/725–650." The stylistic development of the pieces is now thought to be from naturalistic depictions of humans and animals towards stylization, though it is not yet clear if this was a consistent trend. This reverses the trend proposed by Michael Rostovtzeff, one of the earliest writers on the bronzes.