Posted on 03/01/2020 5:36:47 PM PST by SunkenCiv
A 5,000 year-old sword, among the oldest Anatolian weapons in the world, was discovered by a PhD student at the University Ca' Foscari in Venice, Vittoria Dall'Armellina, in a monastery on the island of San Lazzaro degli Armeni in the Lagoon City. The weapon is at the museum of San Lazzaro. It is a small sword, located in a window together with Medieval objects. The sword however is very similar to 5,000-year-old weapons discovered inside the Royal palace in Arslantepe, eastern Anatolia, believed to be the most ancient in the world.
The museum of Tokat (Turkey) had a similar sword from the region of Sivas, which is extremely similar to the one in San Lazzaro...
The sword arrived from Trabzon to Venice, donated by an art merchant and collector, Yervant Khorasandjian, in the mid-1800s, according to an envelope. It was found with other objects in an area called Kavak. Ghevond Alishan, a famous poet and writer who was friends with John Ruskin, a monk with the congregation and a researcher, died in Venice in 1901. It is thougth therefore that this episode dates back to the last decades of the 19th century. The analysis on the metal's composition has been carried out in collaboration with Professor Ivana Angelini and (Centro Interdipartimentale di Ricerca Studio e Conservazione dei Beni Archeologici, Architettonici e Storico-Artistici) Ciba at the University of Padua.
The sword is made of a type of copper and tin frequently used before the Bronze age. This data and the marked similarity with twin swords in Arslantepe, allowed to date it between the end of the 6th and start of the 3rd millennium BC and to confirm that it was a very rare type.
(Excerpt) Read more at ansamed.info ...
Another sworded affair
Steel is hard AND flexible, so it can be hammered into long, slender blades. This is some kind of Bronze which is relatively brittle and less flexible, and therefore is relatively short & thick.
“ The sword is made of a type of copper and tin frequently used before the Bronze age.”
Copper and tin is bronze.
I learnt some martial arts in an accompanying Kukhri book.
I’d call it a dagger, not a sword. Most likely it’s a hunting dagger used to finish off an animal in a snare. It requires much to close in fighting to be a sword.
I noticed her loveliness right away. Sword shmord, I’ll take the girl.
Listen. Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.
Thanks for publishing this reference.
5000 years ago, if you were up against the guy who had this, you would think it was a sword. They were rare and expensive -- you wouldn't have one.
Your weapon would be a sharp stick, maybe a short stick with a stone tied to the end of it. The guy with the sword would close on you and stab you in the belly. The wound would put you out of the fight right away, but would only be fatal after a couple of days.
How many people were stabbed with the sword..... turned green from all the goo.
Good point.
Hubba Hubba
That is not a sword. That is a knife.
A regular old club would trump that little thing. So would any staffed weapon.
Looks like its seen a few battles.
Uh oh, I just had a Crocodile Dundee flashback.
Hey, not every photo I post is for purely scientific reasons, although, y'know, biology is a science..
LOL! Some discoveries armor important than others, of course.
Well stated! From the classical period Spartans, there's an anecdote about a Spartan warrior who was complaining to his mother that his sword was too short; in the inimitable way of the Spartan mother, she told him to take a step forward, and it would become long enough.
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