Luristan, modern day Iran, ca. 900 to 700 BCE. This is an iron shaped sword blade and handle with a flat, disc-shaped pommel. The rest of the handle would likely have been covered with bronze, bone, wood, or wrapped in leather. This would have been a "cut and thrust" weapon. The remarkable thing about this sword is its age -- Luristan seems to have been one of the first areas in the world to create iron swords. Swords like this one would have been created through the smelting process, creating an iron "bloom" that would then be hammered into shape. However, because they were produced in workshops that either concurrently or previously had produced bronze swords, they share much of the same morphology and style as their predecessors. The inherent strength advantages of iron -- especially for longer weapons -- doubtless won over the sword makers to do the more difficult task of producing iron blades. The Metropolitan Museum of Art holds a similar example to this piece. Size: 19" L x 2.7" W (48.3 cm x 6.9 cm).

Provenance: Ex-Private PJ. Piscopo Collection, Ex M. Pedersen acquired before 1990.

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#111758

Wear and rust to blade as expected, else excellent.