Maxwell-Hyslop. Daggers and Swords in Western Asia PDF

Daggers and Swords in Western Asia: A Study from Prehistoric Times to 600 B.C.
Author(s): Rachel Maxwell-Hyslop

Source: Iraq, Vol. 8 (1946), pp. 1-65
Published by: British Institute for the Study of Iraq
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/4199525
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WESTERN ASIA
MAIN TRADE ROUTES (certain ahdh?caabie)_
SITES ofHQARDSand ANCIENT SETTLEMENTS
SITES OF MODERN TOWNS ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
'<w ...tee. : C 3 ???/? and oftr WM?&

CONTOURS : C 600fi a?
^S/ac^ ?e a.
U
DAGGERS AND SWORDS IN WESTERN ASIA
A STUDY FROM PREHISTORIC TIMES TO 600 b.c.
By RACHEL MAXWELL-HYSLOP, F.S.A.

INTRODUCTION
'During the purification of Delos by Athens in this war all the graves in the
taken up, and it was found that above half their inmates were Carians: they we
by the fashion of the arms buried with them, and by the method of interment, whi
same as the Carians still follow.' (Thucydides 1. 8, tr. Crawley.)
INdevelopment
the Near East the material
of man's term 'Bronze Age'and
civilization still
canrepresents
be used witha advantage
well-defined
in stage in the
conjunction with a chronological framework based on historical evidence.1 In
Mesopotamia, for example, the term 'prehistoric' can be confined to a period earlier
than the beginning of the third millennium B.c., and the 'Bronze Age', which in
Europe denotes a period which is entirely 'prehistoric', in the Near East signifies
a stage whose efflorescence, varying in different regions, can be historically dated
with fair accuracy. Within this period we can isolate the various archaeological
remains of different civilizations by classifying them according to their material
(pottery, bronzes, ivories, faience, &c). Then for purposes of detailed study we
can classify the objects within each of these main branches into groups (though
here the division does not invariably depend on material), and a 'grammar' of one
group can be described as the definition by their forms of the various classes in the
general group, giving a series of dated or datable instances. Thus the different
bronze types which illustrate Childe's division of the 'Bronze Age' into 'modal
sequences' based on technological achievement can each be subjected to detailed
typological and chronological analysis.2 The present study provides a sketch of the
'grammar' of one particular class (swords and daggers) within the main group of
objects, i.e. weapons, and for such a 'grammar' a distinctive method must be used,
not necessarily applicable to other groups of objects or even to other classes of the
same group. The material has been divided, on the basis of general form, into
fifty-six types, and these types are classified into sub-types based on variations in
the method of hafting, in the pointing and outline of the blade, form of the
shoulders, and other individual differences from the main type. The region
includes the geographical or political areas of Persia, Babylonia, Assyria, the
Assyrian Eastern provinces, Mesopotamia (used in the Classical sense), Syria,
Phoenicia, Palestine, Asia Minor, and Cyprus,3 and the catalogues provide a list of
examples arranged as far as possible chronologically within the five main divisions :
Prehistoric period, 2700-2400, 2400-1600, 1600-1200, 1200-600 b.c., though for
a few types these general divisions have been slightly amended to suit the require-
ments of certain areas. While the arrangement is mainly based on the typological
1 For a discussion of the misleading results arising (Royal Anthropological Institute, 1944).
from the misuse of this term in European prehistory 3 This has not been treated in detail, reference
see Glyn Daniel, The Three Ages (Cambridge, 1943). being given to Gjerstad's classification.
2 See Archaeological Ages as Technological Stages
B
2 RACHEL MAXWELL-HYSLOP
development from the most simple form

defined region or regions have been g
Types i-ii cover western Asia excludin
Asia Minor, and Types 17-28, Palestin
of daggers cast in one piece with the h
hooked tang, and of the flange-hilted se
with Luristan, and Types 42-5 with t
developed leaf-shaped daggers and sw
Sea peoples, and Types 54-6 with Assy
Europe, and the Caucasus are discusse
study devoted to bronze daggers and s
calls for explanation. In parts of the N
weapons at a period when iron was in ge
iron types are therefore included. The di
by material would lead are shown by the
often covered with a thin sheath of bro
A study of this nature may be highl
printed facts may be), but typological
chronological appearance, and any atte
much more hazardous with copper or br
ornamented pottery. This is illustrated b
weapons that have been found belongi
Sargon of Agade are both technically an
of the period 2000-1800 B.c. The eviden
is not conclusive because it is by nature
provided by a 'grammar' of any particula
The study was started in 1938 with th
Wheeler Memorial Fund, and was inte
Asiatic weapons. Owing to the outbreak
dagger and sword section was not resu
a study of material in the British Museu
of Archaeology and Ethnology, Cambrid
University, and the Edwards Library,
weapons published in excavation repo
imposed many limitations on the scop
not visit foreign museums, as I had plan
many of the books and periodicals rec
while many objects in the collections
inaccessible. Yet, though much could b
to be comprehensive, it seemed advisable
form, and later, in more favourable cond
to insert more photographs and drawing
and to make good other lacunae.
I should like to express my gratitud
suggested this subject of study, for his
many of my friends and colleagues fo
Stewart generously suggested that I sh
DAGGERS AND SWORDS IN WESTERN ASIA 3
Vounous, Cyprus, and Miss Kenyon has given me great assistanc
weapons in the P?trie collection at the Institute of Archaeology.
has been responsible for the drawings and Miss Dallas for the m
especially grateful to my husband, who has read both the original m
the proofs, and made many invaluable suggestions.
CATALOGUE
TYPE I
This is the most primitive form of western Asiatic dagger, but

was strengthened by thickening or a midrib down the centre
introduced, it cannot have been a very efficient weapon, and
buckled up on impact. When compared to the earliest Egyptian
with its short triangular blade, this Asiatic dagger is longer, narro
more useful as an offensive weapon.1
The type is also known outside the Near Eastern area. In Eur
'Western European' dagger, with its flat blade and short tang, is a
Early Bronze Age with Beaker interments in eastern Spain, B
Britain, upper Italy, Sicily, Bohemia and Moravia, south Germ
southern France, and Sardinia.2 The semicircular indent wher
meet is traceable on nearly all the European examples. This is a
on Egyptian triangular-shaped blades, but not usually found on A
The dagger from Tepe Hissar, however, shows traces of the V-
hilt and blade. It is interesting that this type, which first appear
of Tepe Hissar and Tepe Sialk when smiths were beginning to
mould, was not confined to the Prehistoric period, and that an ex
is dated as late as the Third Dynasty of Ur or First Dynasty of
In western Asia the geographical distribution extends to Persia,
Assyrian Eastern Provinces, Babylonia, Asia Minor,3 the Cauca
and it seems probable that on the Asiatic mainland the type origi
lands of Persia and spread to the river valleys in the Jemdet Nasr
when the inhabitants of this area became acquainted with the tec
working and were able to obtain supplies of copper from the Zagr
Cilicia. The fact that metal types in Cyprus in the Prehistoric
the common Asiatic tradition is not surprising, and the view that
types which resemble Cypriot examples are specifically Cypr
undoubtedly fallacious in view of the recently published evid
Sialk concerning the development of the primitive technique o
during the earliest periods. Enough evidence concerning the o
working in the Near East has not yet been collected, yet it is like
covery of metallurgy was made in a highland region rich in ores
1 Wolf, Die Bewaffnung, Taf. 4, 2. Ancient Bronze Implements of Great Britain, Fig
Some of
2 For a general discussion of the distribution ofthe above examples have slight raised fla
these
daggers see Childe, Dawn, 216 ff., Fig. on each
106, side
and of the tang and the blade is triang
shaped pis.
Castillo, La Cultura del Vaso Campaniforme, ; others,
?, ?, especially some of the Spanish a
8; LXXVII, 4? 5? xcvii, 3; cxii, ?; cxvii,of
7; the British
cxxiii, ?. examples, resemble more closely
See also Dechelette, Manuel, 11, Fig. 57, 4; Piggott,
western Asiatic type.
Early Bronze Age in Wessex, 56 and note 3 See
1 ; introduction
Evans, to Type 13.
south-eastern Asia Minor or north-west Iran. In th
remarkable similarity of metal types all over wester
different areas were in close contact with each other and that there must have
been a centre situated in a metalliferous area where the smiths could learn their
trade, and then once the technique was mastered could return home and invent
local types. Cilicia, with its long tradition of trade in metal and metal objects, has
been suggested by Smith,1 while Frankfort2 has stressed the importance of the
Caucasus as a metallurgical centre in the Early Dynastic period. Against this
latter view Jessen,3 in his study of the ancient metallurgy of the Caucasus (in view
of the fact that there is as yet no evidence that Caucasian copper ores were being
worked as early as the first half of the third millennium, although this is probable),
believes that it cannot be strictly established that the earliest metal objects found
in the Caucasus were produced locally, and that it is not until later, in the second
millennium, that the district attained its full importance as a centre for metal-
working.
The fact, however, that simple tanged rivetless daggers are found in the Kuban-
Terek region at Novosvobodnaya (Carskaya),4 Konstantinovka,5 and Privolnoe6
is not surprising in view of the widespread distribution of this type all over the
Near East, and Childe, in his summary of recently published Russian evidence,7
concludes that the foundation of a local school of metallurgy in northern Caucasia
begins in Period II (Schmidt's Middle Kuban period, c. 2300-1600 B.c.), when
'hammer-pins and other ornaments decorated in cire perdue in imitation of
filigree work, narrow flat celts and flat rivetless daggers' are found. The extent of
Mesopotamian influence on the Caucasus region in Period I is difficult to deter-
mine, but the available evidence suggests that it undoubtedly existed in or soon
after the Early Dynastic period. A final solution must await the results of further
excavation, especially in the Kuban region.
Type i
Pointed blade; slightly convex sides; curved section; shoulders sloping to short tang;
no rivets.
Variations
Type ia. Slight thickening down the centre of the blade.

Type lb. The blade is blunt.
Type ic. The shoulders are wider than in Type 1, and the point sharper.
Type id. The shoulders are square, the tang narrow, and the blade has a sharp point.
Extant Examples
Prehistoric Period
Type 1. Perda. Tepe Hissar. Schmidt, pi. xvi, H. 3408. Copper,

hammered. Hissar I c.
Type ia. Persia. Tepe Sialk. Ghirshman, 1, pi. lxxxv, S. 127, S. 1735.
Sialk III, Level 5.
1 Smith, Early History of Assyria, 57 ff. 4 Hangar, Urgeschichte Kaukasiens, Taf. xxxviii, 5,
2 Frankfort, Archaeology and the Sumerian Problem.6>7.
3 A. A. Jessen and B. E. Degen-Kolvalevski, Iz 5 Ibid., Taf. lu, 3.
Istorii Drevney Metallurgii Kavkaza (Moscow/Lenin- 6 Ibid., Abb. 26, 1.
grad, 1935). English summary in Ge?rgica, 1937, nos. 7 Man, XLii, no. 74.
4 and 5, pp. 312 ff.
Type ib. Persia. Tepe Sialk. Ghirshman, 1, pi. xcv, S. 76. Si
dated to Jemdet Nasr and begin
Early Dynastic period.
Tepe Hissar. Schmidt, pi. xvi, H. 3483. Co
Hissar I c.
Type lb. Turkestan. Anau. Pumpelly, pi. 38, 275. Anau III.
Type ic. Babylonia. Fara. Schmidt, Museum Journal, xxii, pi. xxvn,
Fig. 2. Dated to Jemdet-Nasr period.
2700-2400 B.c.
Type ic. Babylonia. Kish. Mackay, Part I, pi. xvn, 10. Copper.
Type id. Babylonia. Ur. Woolley, pi. 228, U. 12679. Copper.
Continues in use during Sargonid period.
Assyria. Tepe Gawra. Speiser, pi. xlviii, ii. Levels VII, VI.
2400-1600 B.c.
Type ia. Assyria, Eastern Yorgan Tepa. Starr, pi. 55, v. From grave 5. Copper.
Provinces. Dated to period between Early Dynastic
and 3rd Ur period.
Type id? Assyria, Eastern Yorgan Tepa. Starr, pi. 55, x. Copper, possibly 3rd
Provinces. Dynasty of Ur or ist Dynasty of Babylon.
Assyria. Tepe Gawra. Speiser, pi. xlviii, ii. Levels V and III.
TYPE 2
This type represents an improvement on Type 1. While the blade rema

shaped and only slightly curved in section, the rivets in the tang ensure
hilt and blade remained securely fastened together when the weapon
combat.
Outside western Asia this type is known in Egypt only in Hyksos
On the Asiatic mainland most of the examples date from the Early
period, and there are many examples from Cyprus dating from as early
but the type remained in use until the middle of the second millenni
present evidence it seems to have died out in Babylonia after the Sargon
Yet this form of dagger, which must have been evolved by an Asiatic cr
Early Dynastic times, is found later in Syria, Phoenicia, and even Asi
well as in Persia and the Assyrian Eastern Provinces. The fact is not
when one considers the widespread trading facilities which were prevalen
out Syria at the time of the First Dynasty of Babylon, both within those
which acknowledged Babylonian suzerainty and among the independe
states. These favourable conditions affected not only the exchange of
the movement of classes of people such as metalsmiths whose prosperity
upon facilities for safe and easy travel between often widely separated t
villages. The popularity of this type of Asiatic dagger in Egypt during t
period, coupled with its occurrence in a Hyksos context at Ras Shamra, s
1 Wolf, Die Bewaffnung, Taf. 5, ?. shoulder rivets, and I do not believe in the existence of
a Mr. Stewart has found examples at Vounous a tangdating
plus one rivet class as a separate entity.' This
classexamples
from E.C. I?III and thinks the earliest of these of Cypriot dagger has been mentioned in the
should not be dated before 2700 B.c. He writes: ? catalogue of Type 2, and owing to the numerous
large percentage had two extra rivets in position by the examples which have been found where no signs of the
shoulder, but not touching the metal. . . . Where only shoulder rivets remain it seems unlikely that in every
the tang remains it is safe to assume the decay of the 'case the extra shoulder rivets would have decayed.
the metalsmiths working in Egypt were

form which remained in use alongside th
the Hyksos period in Egypt.
Schmidt has referred to the tanged dagger from Ashur when considering the
date of the north Caucasian Kuban-Terek culture,' but it is unwise to base much
on this analogy, in as much as the typical Kuban type is the tanged dagger without
rivets discussed in the introduction to Type i, and scholars have not yet finally
agreed on the dates of the Kuban culture.
TYPE 2
Flat blade, pointed; slightly convex sides; tang with one, two, or three rivets.
Variations
Type 2a. The shoulders slope to narrow tang; three vertical rivet-holes.
Type 2b. Shoulders slightly rounded; two or three vertical rivet-holes.
Type 2C. Square shoulders; pronounced narrow tang; one or more vertical rivet-holes; the
blade tapers to a narrow point.
Type 2d. Rounded shoulders; pronounced tang; blunt point.
Extant Examples
2700-2400 B.C.
Type 2. Babylonia. Ur. Woolley, pI. 228, U. 9i2i. This is the most
common type of Early Dynastic blade,
and two gold examples were found in
graves P.G. I789 (U. 10553, pl. 157a), and
P.G. I6i8 (U. 13788, pl. 157a). The hilt
has a curved guard slightly wider than the
blade and a handle with a slender grip
swelling out to a pear-shaped pommel
which was usually made of wood, but
could be plated with silver; the pommel
and guard were often decorated with studs
of copper, silver, or gold.
Kish. Mackay, Part I, pl. XXXIX, 2730. Hilt of
ivory, curved guard decorated with a thin
gold band, one edge of which is turned
under the handle. The handle is riveted to
the short tang with three copper rivets
whose heads are sunk to allow the insertion
of three small gold studs on either side.
Part II, pl. xxxix, I839, and pl. Lxii, i6.
The blade of this example may owe its
slightly convex outline to frequent sharpen-
ing. Curved guard, copper hilt which is
hollow, probably to hold a wooden handle.
Three rivet-holes.
Part I, pl. xvii, 9.
Tell Asmar. Frankfort, O.I.C. No. 17, Fig. 53. Dated
to Early Dynastic III b.
Khafaje. Frankfort, O.I.C. No. i3, Fig. 52.
',E. Schmidt, Die Kurgane der Stanica Konstantinovskaja (E.S.A. IV, p. zo).
Type 2a. Babylonia. Ur. Woolley, pi. 228, U. 8651. Copper.

Kish. Mackay, Part I, pi. xvn, 14, and Ash-
molean Museum, No. 1925, 189. Copper.
Mesopotamia. Arbit. Mallowan, Iraq, iv. 2, Fig. 13, 3. Copper.
Persia. Susa. R. de Mecquenem, Antiquity, v, Fig. 16,
4? P- 339?
Type 2b. Babylonia. Ur. Woolley, pi. 228, U. 7850. Copper.
Tello. Heuzey, p. no. Copper.
Type 2c. Babylonia. Ur. Woolley, pi. 228, U. 7988. Copper.
Kish. Mackay, Part I, pi. xxxix, 2438 and pi.
lxii, 15. Four rivet-holes.
Part II, pi. lxii, 19. Impress of deco-
rated sheath, probably of leather, on blade.
2400-1600 B.c.
Type 2. Cyprus. Lapithos. Gjerstad, S.C.E. 1, pi. cxuii, L. 313a,
104. E.C. III.
Type 2a. Ashur. Bittel, P.F.K. Taf. xxi, 5. Level E.
Dated to 3rd Dynasty of Ur period.
Mesopotamia. Tell Ahmar. Thureau-Dangin, pi. xxx, 8, 9, 10.
c. 2200 B.c. (see references in catalogue to
Type 29).
Tell Kara Ashmolean Museum, No. 1913. 21. Tang
Kuzak. broken. From the evidence of the pottery
this tomb may now be dated c. 2200-
1900 B.c.
W. Ana Minor. Yerten, near Ashmolean Museum, No. 1911.304. Tang
Istanoz. broken. Unstratified.
Phoenicia. Byblos. Dunand, pi. lxx, 2180, 2181. Jar 2132,
12th Dynasty.
Type 2b. Perda. Tepe Giyan. Contenau, pi. 27, Tomb 88, Level III.
Dated to 2500-1800 b.c.
Type 2c. Assyria, Eastern Yorgan Tepa. Starr, pi. 62 E. Copper. Transition from
Provinces. Akkadian to Hurrian levels.
Type 2d. N. Syria. Ras Shamra. Schaeffer, Syria, xix, 3 (1938), Fig. 39,
a, B, c. Dated to i8th-i6th centuries b.c.
Mesopotamia. Tell Ahmar. Thureau-Dangin, pi. xxvm, 4. c. 2200 B.c.
1600-1200 B.c.
Type 2d. Babylonia. Tell Sifr. Naue, Vorr?mischen Schwerter, pi. xlv, io.
Unstratified.
TYPE 3
In this type the arrangement of the rivets shows an attempt to ensure that the
blade did not break off from the tang on impact. The tang is therefore shorter
than in Type 2, and the blunt point on some of the extant examples may be due
to lack of sharpening or, alternatively, may show that the blade was used as a tool
where only a sharp cutting-edge was needed.
Outside western Asia this type is known in Egypt in the Hyksos period,1 and
a rather similar form with tang and rivets in the shoulder of the blade appears for
1 P?trie, Tools and Weapons, pi. xxxiii, 9, io.
the first time in Crete in Middle Minoan

on the Asiatic mainland it remained in us
middle of the second millennium. Like Ty
and subsequently spread into Palestine, Sy
examples are known from Persia or Asia
examples belong to the Hyksos period, and the widespread distribution of this
type in the second millennium is probably due to the economic situation in Syria
and Palestine during the eighteenth and seventeenth centuries B.C., when the trade
routes were kept open and free movement was afforded to both the merchants
dealing in copper and the smiths trading their metal goods. Yet the danger of
regarding weapons belonging to the Hyksos period as specifically Hyksos types
or Hyksos inventions cannot be overstressed. If it can be proved that the Hyksos
triumph over Egypt depended, not so much on political power in north Syria but
on the command of adequate supplies of bronze from Cilicia, then the evidence of
the weapons can be used with advantage.
TYPE 3
Flat blade; slightly convex sides; three rivets; shoulders sloping to narrow tang.
Variations
Type 3a. The point is rounded, and the shoulders sloping.
Type 3b. Straight sides; the rivets are all in the tang, which is short and stumpy.
Type 3c. Sloping shoulders and curved section to blade.
Type 3d. Blunt point and four rivets.
Type 3e. Slight centre thickening and three rivets.
Extant Examples
Prehistoric Period
Type 3. Mesopotamia. Chagar Bazar. Mallowan, Iraq, iii, i, Fig. 8, i. Copper.
Level 5. Dated to 3000-2700 B.C.
2700-2400 B.C.
Type 3. Babylonia. Kish. Mackay, Part I, pl. xvii, No. 12.

Tell Asmar. Frankfort, O.I.C. No. 17, Fig. 53, a.
Early Dynastic III b.
Type 3a. Babylonia. Fara. Andrae, Taf. 40 c. First from left.
2400-I600 B.C.
Type 3. Babylonia. Tello. De Genouillac, pl. 92, i c. Dated to 3rd
Ur and Larsa periods.
Ur. Woolley, pl. 228, U. 9I17.
N. Syria. Sreisat. Ashmolean Museum, No. 19I3. i84.
Length 17-5 cm. From the evidence of t
pottery this tomb may now be dated
C. 2200- I900 B.C.
Palestine. Megiddo. Guy, Tombs, p1. 33. 6. Middle Bronze II.
Type 3a. Phoenicia. Byblos. Dunand, pl. xcv, 6569. Unstratified.
Type 3b. Palestine. Jericho. Garstang, A.A.A. XIX, 3-4, pl. XXXVII, 4.
Hyksos period.
x PENDLEBURY, Crete, P1. XI, 3, d.
Type 3c. N. Syria. Ras Shamra. Schaeffer, Syria, xin (1932), pi. xm, 6.
2oth-i7th centuries B.c.
Mesopotamia. Tell Ahmar. Thureau-Dangin, pi. xxx, 7. c. 2200 b.c.
(see references in catalogue to Type 29).
Type 3d. N. Syria. Ras Shamra. Schaeffer, Syria, xix, 3 (1938), Fig. 27, o.
17th century b.c.
Type 3e. Cyprus. Lapithos. Gjerstad, S.C.E. 1, pi. cxliii. L. 313A. 7.
E.C. III.
1600-1200 B.c.
Type 3. Mesopotamia. Chagar Bazar. Mallowan, Iraq, hi, i, Fig. 8, 9. O

rivet-hole. Dated c. 1500 b.c.
TYPES 4 AND 5
While the shape of many blades with convex sides is undoubtedly the r
sharpening, some may have been designed with this outline when a lo
blade was needed for some special purpose. The Anatolian examples
probably date from the third millennium and, like the Cypriot type,
related to the Sumerian form. The wide distribution of this simple
Type 2, again suggests that close contacts existed between smiths in
areas who had been trained in a common technical tradition. The shorter tri-
angular-shaped blade, Type 5, seems to be an Anatolian and Syrian development,
but the examples, while certainly later than Type 4, are unfortunately not closely
dated.
Type 4
Flat blade; pointed, slightly convex sides; round shoulders sloping to short tang; three
rivets, two below and one above.
Variations
Type 4a. The shoulders are wide and angular. Two rivet-holes close together in the
shoulders and one above.
Type 4b. Slightly curved section to blade; two rivet-holes near the edge of the shoulders.
Type 4c. Slight centre thickening; three rivets; sloping tang.
Extant Examples
2700-2400 b.c.
Type 4. Babylonia. Ur. Woolley, pi. 228, U. 8108. Remains in use
in Sargonid period.
24OO-160O B.C.
Type 4a. SW. Ana Minor. Yerten, near Ashmolean Museum, No. 1911. 305.
Istanoz. Przeworski dates this to the end of the 3rd
millennium b.c. Die Metallindustrie, Taf.
ix, 6 and p. 49.
SE. Asia Minor. Tarsus. Goldman in A.J.A. xli (1937), 270 f.,
Fig. 21. 'Early Bronze Age.'
Type 4b. Mesopotamia. Kara Kuzak. Ashmolean Museum, No. 1913. 22. Tang
broken, c. 2200-1900 b.c.
?? RACHEL MAXWELL-HYSLOP
Type 4b. Mesopotamia. Serr?n. Ashmolean Museum, No. 1914. 529.

(cont.) Length 14-5 cm. Unstratified. From the
evidence of the pottery from Amarna,
Kara Kuzak, and Hammam, these tombs
may now be dated c. 2200-1900 B.c.
Type 4c. Cyprus. Lapithos. Gjerstad, S.C.E. 1, pi. cxliii, L 313a, 60.
E.C. III.
Type 5
Pointed blade with straight sides ; curved section ; two or more rivets in the shoulders which
slope to a narrow tang with one rivet.
Variations
Type 5a. The blade has a slight thickening down the centre.
Type 5b. Square shoulders with rivets, short rectangular tang.
Extant Examples
2400-1600 B.C.
Type 5a. Mesopotamia. Serr?n. Ashmolean Museum, Nos. 1914. 527.
Length 16-5 cm.; 1914. 528, length
17-2 cm.; 1914. 426, length 14 cm.; 1914.
137, length 157 cm. For date, see Type 4b?
1600-1200 B.C.
Type 5. SE. Ana Minor. Soli, near Luschan, Globus lxxxi/lxxxii (1902), 297,
Mersin. 2, 3, dated by Przeworski to c. 1300 B.C.
SW. Asia Minor. Tlos. Przeworski, Die Metallindustrie, Taf. ix,
8 = Ashmolean Museum, No. 1911. 310.
Blade broken. Unstratified.
Type 5b. SE. Ana Minor. Soli, near Luschan, op. cit. 297, 1.
Mersin.
TYPES 6 AND 7
The wide angular shoulders and strong tang with several rivets which dis-
tinguish Type 6 make it an efficient blade which could be used either as a tool
or weapon. In the third millennium the type seems to be in common use only in
Cyprus and Sumer, though in its developed form (Type 20) it became a popular
type in Syria in the early second millennium. The spatula-shaped blade, Type 7,
can hardly have been used as a weapon, but was no doubt useful for a variety of
domestic tasks.
Type 6
Flat blade; angular shoulders; concave sides; pointed, narrow tang with three vertical rivets.
Variations
Type 6a. The shoulders are round, sloping to wide tang; the point is blunt.
Type 6b. Three rivets, at the base of the tang and in each shoulder.
Extant Examples
2700-2400 B.c.
Type 6. Babylonia. Ur. Woolley, pi. 228, U. 8105. Early Dynastic
and Sargonid periods.
Type 6a. Mesopotamia. Chagar Bazar. Mallowan, Iraq, iv. 1, Fig. 13, 2. Dated
to c. 2500 B.c.
DAGGERS AND SWORDS IN WESTERN ASIA n
Type 6b. Cyprus. Lapithos. Gjerstad, S.C.E. I, pi. cxliii, L. 313A, 90.
E.C. III.
(Several unpublished examples found by Mr. Stewart at Vounous belong t

(E.C. I?III). See Introduction to Type 2, note 2.)
Type 7
Blunt blade; slightly concave or straight sides; well-marked shoulders; narrow tang with
one, two, or three rivets.
Extant Examples
2700-2400 B.C.
Type 7. Babylonia. Ur. British Museum, 128430 (1931?10?10,
302). Length 22-6 cm.
Assyria. Tepe Gawra. Speiser, pi. xlix, i. Level VI.
2400-1600 B.C.
Type 7. Mesopotamia. Chagar Bazar. Mallowan, Iraq, iv. 2, Fig. 13, 4. Early
intermediate level I. 1900-1600 b.c.
Phoenicia. Byblos. Dunand, pi. xcvi, 1934. 12th Dynasty.
TYPE 8
This is a technically advanced type, as is shown by the strong midrib, the

arrangement of the rivets, and the straight sides. Typologically it is a logical
development from Type 3. There would be no danger of the blade buckling on
impact, and the leaf-shaped blade forms which may have sometimes proved a
disadvantage (owing to the difficulty of withdrawing the weapon quickly) were
discarded in favour of this narrow straight-sided form.
In the Aegean the midrib appears in Crete in the Early Minoan II period, first
on the tangless triangular-shaped blades and later on the longer and narrower
form. Similarly, in the Cyclades at Amorgos the midrib is known in Early
Cycladic times, and the extension of Aegean maritime trade into the western
Mediterranean and Adriatic about the middle of the third millennium was prob-
ably responsible for the occurrence of Early Minoan dagger-forms in Etruria1
and in the Remedello culture area of north Italy, where tangless triangular-
shaped blades and narrower blades with a short tang, both with strong midribs,
are found.2 The latter Italian form approximates more to the Sumerian type. As
yet there are few extant examples of this type of dagger in western Asia outside
Sumer, and therefore it is difficult to judge whether the Soli dagger is an example
of a local type made under Aegean influence, as Przeworski has suggested,3 or
whether it was made by a smith familiar with Sumerian methods, until more
stratified examples are found. But it seems probable that the idea of strengthening
the blade by means of the midrib, which is exemplified on Cretan and Sumerian
daggers, represents the efforts of two distinct schools of metallurgy to improve on
earlier types, and the fact that the Sumerian examples are probably earlier than
the Cretan need not lead one to suppose that the idea originated only in Sumer.
136 and 139; Hawkes, Prehistoric Foundations, Fig.
1 Rea?exikon der Vorgeschichte, vi, Taf. 23, Monte
Bradoni Cave. 15? 3.
1 Pbbt, The Stone and Bronze Ages in Italy, Figs.3 Przeworski, Die Metallindustrie, 50.
Type 8
Pointed blade with curved shoulders; straight sides; triangular-shaped tang with three
rivets; raised midrib down centre of blade.
Variation
Type 8a
There are two vertical rivets in a short narrow tang.
Extant Examples
2700-2400 B.c.
Type 8. Babylonia. Ur. Woolley, pi. 228, U. 8140.
Type 8a. Babylonia. Ur. Childe, Bronze Age, Fig. 7, 4.
Kish. Mackay, Part I, pi. xvn, 13.
1600-1200 B.c.
Type 8. SE. Asia Minor. Soli, near Luschan, Globus, lxxxi/lxxxii (1902),
Mersin. p. 297, 4. Probably c. 13th century B.c.
Cyprus. Gjerstad, S.C.E. 1, pi. cxliii, A. J. 14. 7.
Beginning of L.C. I period.
TYPES 9 AND 10
The leaf-shaped blade was also strengthened by a midrib or longitudinal blood-
rills, and on present evidence Type 9 seems to have been more popular in western
Asia than the straight-sided Type 8. The earliest examples of Type 9 are from
Babylonia, and the type probably spread into Iran at the end of the third millen-
nium, where it later developed into a short sword. Unfortunately the Talish
weapons with raised central rib are useless for dating purposes as, while they are
mostly found in the earliest tombs, they remained in use during the later periods.
The two blades from Tell Ajj?l (Type 10) are especially important. When
compared to a practically identical example from Eseri in Abkhazia it is evident
that if they were not made in the same workshop the smiths must have received the
same metallurgical training. And to these blades can now be compared the recently
published daggers from Trialeti, Georgia, where silver and bronze examples have
been found.1 Tallgren has dated the Eseri weapons to the sixteenth to fifteenth
centuries B.c., and on comparison with the Tell Ajj?l examples one would expect
them to be roughly contemporaneous in date. The evidence of the Tell Ajj?l
blades, which can be dated from the associated pottery to the Hyksos period, also
reinforces Schaeffer's proposal that the date of the Trialeti barrow attributed by
Kuftin to the Middle Bronze Age before 1700 b.c. should be lowered, even if not
to quite so low a date as 1550-1400 b.c.2
Type 9
Leaf-shaped blade; single rib down centre; bronze guard, separate from the blade which is
socketed to take the wooden handle. Standard Royal Cemetery type, including most of the
gold examples.
Variations
Type ?a. Sides practically straight; short tang with one rivet.
Type gb. The blade is long and thin; narrow tang and no rivets.
1 M. M. Ivanscenko, Beitr?ge zur Vorgeschichte(E.S.A. ix); cf. KuFTiN, Trialeti, ?, pi. cv.
Abchasiens (E.S.A. vu, Abb. 22), and Tallgren, Sur 2 Antiquity, xvn, 183, and Man, xuv, No. 30.
les monuments m?galithiques du Caucase occidental
Type gc. The blade is made from two pieces of metal, driven into the hi
by two lips. The hilt is forged in an openwork pattern.
Extant Examples
2700-2400 B.C.
Type 9. Babylonia. Ur. Woolley, pi. 228, U. 14222, and pis. 152,
155, 157, 190. British Museum, 121581
has multiple rivets in triangular-shaped
tang. Length 22-4 cm.
Kish. Mackay, Part I, pi. p?, 5, and pi. xvn, 13.
Copper. Vein 2 mm. wide down centre of
blade. Two vertical rivet-holes in tang.
Part II, pi. xxxix, 2396, pi. xliii, ii,
and pi. lxii, 17. Copper, hammered. This
example has two incised lines down centre
of blade, three rivet-holes in tang, two be-
low and one above.
Tello. Heuzey, p. 112. Copper. Three rivets in
tang, two below and one above. Un-
stratified.
Type gc. Kish. Watelin, p. 22. Cemetery Y.
2400-1600 B.C.
Type 9. N. Syria. Tal Atchana. Woolley, J.H.S. lvi, Fig. 2. Found in
filling with M.M. Ill sherds on floor. See
Introduction to Type 22.
Persia. Tepe Giyan. Contenau, pi. 28, 5, Tomb 93, Level III.
C 2500-1800 B.C.
Tepe Djam- Contenau {Giyan), pis. 76-8, Tombs 8-10.
shidi. C 25OO-180O B.C.
Tepe Hissar, Schmidt, pi. xxix, H. 3012. This has no
rivets. Probably Hissar II.
Type ga. Persia. Western Persia. I.L.N. 1 June, 1929, Fig. 3, left-hand
example. One rivet-hole. Unstratified.
Type gb. Persia. Western Persia. I.L.N. 1 June, 1929, Fig. 3, right-hand
example. This weapon could be described
as a short sword. Unstratified.
1600-1200 B.C.
Type gb. Persia ?Russia. Talish region. De Morgan, Mission scientifique, iv, Fig.
56, 6.
1200-600 B.C.
Type gb. Persia. Luristan. Speelers, Bulletin des Mus?es Royaux, 3,
1932, p. 64, F and G.
Type io
Leaf-shaped pointed blade with multiple longitudinal ribbing,

Extant Examples
Type 10. Babylonia. Ur. Woolley, pi. 228, U. 12479. Dated to 2nd
Dynasty of Ur. This is a unique example
from Ur.
Palestine. Tell Ajj?l. P?trie, iv, pi. xxvi, 271 (probably a spear-
head) ; pi. xxn, 239. Both Hyksos period.
TYPE II
The custom of casting the hilt and blade together in one

been mainly confined to technically advanced types often cas
in the later second or first millennia, but there are a few iso
The Tello dagger with lion hilt, unfortunately lost en route fo
been intended for use at important ceremonial or ritual o
standard of craftsmanship can be compared to that of the gol
Type i i
The hilt and blade are cast together in one piece; the blade has a slight midrib and belongs
to Type 9 class; the hilt is in the form of two recumbent lions.
Variations
Type na. The blade is leaf-shaped and pointed with round hilt pointed at the base.
Type lib. Straight-sided blunt blade; round hilt with flat base.
Extant Examples
c. 2700-2400 B.C.
Type 11. Babylonia. Tello. Contenau, Manuel, 11, Fig. 404. Copper.
Type lia. Babylonia. Tello. Heuzey, p. 255. Unstratified.
Type lib. Phoenicia. Byblos. Dunand, pi. xciv, 4054. Level XX.
TYPE 12
This type is technically more advanced than Types 8 and 9 as the rigid
blade is completely ensured by the wide central flange, and the shape of t
with its slightly convex sides widening out near the point, combined the
of the leaf-shaped and straight-sided forms. The greatest injury could t
be inflicted on an opponent, while the weapon could still be withdrawn
The type is not common outside western Asia,1 but was used in the ear
millennium in Mesopotamia and Syria and as late as the mid-first mil
Luristan. The blades with this feature, which vary in form considera
distribution which does not include Babylonia. The earliest example c
Anatolia, but the other early examples are Syrian, and in the second m
the type may well have spread along the trade routes between Syria,
central Anatolia, where the idea of a wide flange found favour amon
metalsmiths. Its subsequent history suggests that metalsmiths travelling
highland routes were responsible for its introduction into the Talish regi
and the Caucasus.2
The later distribution of this type is of considerable interest in considering the
relationship of the numerous hoards of bronze tools and weapons found in Asia
Minor, Transcaucasia, and the Caucasus, belonging mainly to the thirteenth and
twelfth centuries B.c. Przeworski has studied this question in detail,3 and while the
hoards are mostly composed of axes and axe-adzes, the occurrence of daggers with
1 The wide central flange is found on a tanged dagger2 See Han?ar, Urgeschichte Kaukasiens, Abb. 30.
Dagger blade from Machosevskaja (Kuban-Terek),
from the Grotte du Castellet, near Aries, and a flint
also E.S.A. ix. 51, Abb. 1, d. Kalakent.
weapon from the same site shows the same feature. See
Castillo, La Cultura del Vaso Campaniforme, pis. 3 Der Grottenfund von Or du (A.Or. vii. 390 ff. and
xcvi, 7 and xcvii, 3. vin. 49 ff.).
DAGGERS AND SWORDS IN WESTERN ASIA IS
wide raised midribs must be mentioned here. These hoards, which probably
represent part of the stock of travelling metalsmiths, have been found in Asia
Minor at Bogazk?y,1 Sazazkale2 (Artvin Vilayet, 56 km. south-east of Batum),
Ordu, in Georgia at Kvemo-Sasiret'i,3 and Mekhchis Tsikhe.4 There are also
many others from Transcaucasia, some still unpublished. The Soli hoard must also
be noted, although its connexions lie with the Aegean and Syria rather than with
the Caucasus. That the smiths who made these bronzes were trained in a common
school of metallurgy is evident from the close typological relationship of these
hoards. This is shown especially by the axes, but the dagger with wide raised
midrib is found both at Bogazk?y5 and at Kvemo-Sasiret'i, and is well known in
both Asia Minor and Transcaucasia. The sculptured 'Dieu Ep?e' of Yazili Kaya
has two smaller ribs on each side of the wide midrib which cannot be paralleled on
blades from Asia Minor. Przeworski has compared the blade of the sculptured
weapon to a dagger from Koban, yet the hilt with the two recumbent lions is more
reminiscent of the much earlier Lagash dagger (Type 11), and the lion motive is
well known on Assyrian sword-sheaths. The weapon portrayed was undoubtedly
ritual in origin, but without documentary evidence as to the exact nature of the
ceremony its purpose remains obscure.
Type 12
Narrow pointed blade, with wide raised flange down centre; concave or straight sides; well-
marked shoulders with narrow tang; no rivets, one or several.
Variations
Type 12a. Short sword, pointed, with straight sides; one rivet-hole; hafted into hilt with
crescentic-shaped pommel.
Type 12b. Blunt blade, with round shoulders; wide tang with one or possibly two rivet-
holes and straight sides.
Type I2C. Long pointed blade; short tang, with three rivet-holes, two in the shoulders, one
in the tang.
Type I2d. Long pointed blade with hooked tang.
Type 12e. Square shoulders; long narrow tang with one rivet-hole.
Extant Examples
2400-1600 B.c.
Type 12. Central Asia Ahlatlibel. Turk Tarih, n. 92, Ab. 363. c. 2500-
Minor. 2200 B.c.
Mesopotamia. Chagar Bazar. Mallowan, Iraq, iv. 2, Fig. 13,

to Early Intermediate Level I, c. 1
1600 B.c.
Syria. Tell et Tin. De Morgan, La Pr?histoire orientale, ni,
Fig. 233.
Palestine. Ascalon. Cambridge, Museum of Archaeology, No.
27. 939. Unstratified. One rivet-hole.
Length 18 cm.
1 Winckler, Vorl?ufige Nachrichten ?ber die Ausgra- ?sten (J.D.A.I, xlix, 1934).
bungen in Boghas-Koi im Sommer igoy {M.D.O.G. 3 G. Nioradze, Der Verwahrfund von Kvemo-Sasi-
xxxv. i, 1907, 7 f.). rithi (E.S.A. vu).
2 Bittel, Neue Funde vorklassischer Zeit aus Klein- 4 Przeworski, Die Metallindustrie, pl. in, 5, 6.
?6 RACHEL MAXWELL-HYSLOP
160O-I2OO B.C.
Type 12. SE. Asia Minor.

Soli, near Luschan, Globus, lxxxi/lxxxii (1902), 297,
Mersin. 5. Probably c. 13th century B.c.
Type 12a. SE. Ana Minor.
Soli, near Luschan, op. cit., 297, 10. Probably
Mersin. c. 13th century b.c.
Type 12b. SW. AsiaElmali.
Minor. Bittel, P.F.K. Taf. xxi, 4. One rivet-hole.
Dated by Przeworski to c. 13th century b.c.
E. Ana Minor. Bogazk?y. Bittel, Mitt. No. 77, Abb. i8e (8-3 cm.
long). Three vertical rivets. Dated to
I4th-i3th centuries b.c. Another example
from Bogazk?y is published by Prze-
worski, Die Metallindustrie, Taf. ??, 5.
Dated to 14th century B.c. This example
is badly damaged, but it belongs to this
type-series.
Type I2C. Russia j Persia. Talish region. De Morgan, Mission scientifique en Perse,
iv, Fig. 62, 1. These daggers are found
in the earliest and the later tombs. The
wide flange is also found on the flange-
hilted daggers from Talish, cf. Type 45,
and Hutchinson, Iraq, 1. 2, pi. xxil, 4.
(For dating of Talish Bronze Age see
Introduction to Type 44.)
1200-600 B.c.
Type I2d. Perda. Elburz region. B.M.Q. xi, pi. xxi. The wide flange is also
found on an ornate example from Ardabil,
British Museum, reference ibid. See Type
45b?
Type 12e. Persia. Luristan. British Museum, 128690 (1936?6?13,
73). Length 25 cm.
TYPE 13
This is the Anatolian version of the Sumerian Type 2, and while most examples
belong to the third millennium it was also used during the Hittite Empire period.
The distribution in the third millennium from Anatolian sites as widely separated
as Troy and Alisar is additional evidence for showing the common cultural back-
ground of the western Asiatic metalsmiths, discussed in the introduction to this
type's original prototype, Type 1. The Anatolian distribution again reinforces the
evidence of the pottery which shows that the inhabitants of the eastern and western
Anatolian sites enjoyed sufficient commercial contacts with each other to borrow
and share technical improvements in spite of the barrier of the barren salt steppes
north of Konya.
Type 13
Pointed blade with curved section ; round shoulders ; slightly convex or straight sides ; short
tang, and one rivet.
Variations
Type 13a. Angular shoulders and slightly concave sides.

Type 13b. Sloping shoulders ; straight sides ; two rivet-holes.
Extant Examples
Prehistoric period
Type 13b. E. Asia Minor. Ali?ar. Von der Osten, O.I.P. ??????, Fig. 96, c 289.
Copper. Dated to 'Chalcolithic' period.
W. Ana Minor. Thermi. Lamb, pi. xlvii, 31.30. Copper. From
Thermi IL c. 3100-2900.
2800-2200 B.C.
Type 13. NW. Asia Minor. Troy. H. Schmidt, 5851, 5853, 5854. From
Troy II. H. Schmidt, 6155, 6157-9.
From Troy II-V.
E. Ana Minor. Alisar. Schmidt, O.I.P. xix, Fig. 65, b, 921.
Copper. From Level I.
Type 13a. NW. Asia Minor. Troy.
H. Schmidt, 5850. From Troy II.
Central Asia Ahlatlibel. Turk Tarih, 11, 93, Ab. 585. c. 2500-2200
Minor. B.C.
Type 13b. E. Asia Minor. Alisar. Schmidt, O.I.P. xix, Fig. 192, b. 2042.
Copper. From Level I.
1600-1200 B.C.
Type 13b. E. Asia Minor. Alisar. Von der Osten, O.I.P. xxix, Fig. 288,
c. 286. Hittite Empire period.
TYPE 14
This is another Anatolian type with two longitudinal slits in the blade, a fea
also known on Anatolian examples with the hooked tang (Type 29). The u
these slits when present on a dagger is difficult to understand. There wou
no obvious advantage in extending the hilt down the back of the blade and attac
it with binding through the slits?a method used on Cycladic spear-heads
strengthen the junction of blade and shaft. It is possible that a cord may
been threaded through the slits to attach the blade to the sheath or to ensure
the weapon could be withdrawn from .the opponent. This feature, on da
blades, however, does not seem to have been very popular either in Anato
elsewhere ; the two examples both belong to the third millennium and there a
known later examples.
Type 14
Pointed blade; shoulders sloping to a short tang with one rivet. The blade is pierced by two
longitudinal holes.
Extant Examples
Type 14 NW. Ada Minor. Thermi. Lamb, pi. xlvii, 32.2. Bronze. From
Town IV. Thermi IV and V are dated
C. 27OO-235O B.C.
W. Asia Minor. Troy. H. Schmidt, 5848. Troy II.
TYPE 15
This early Anatolian type is closely related to Type 3, but the well-marked
midrib is an improvement.
Type 15
Small blade; usually concave sides; well-marked angular shoulders; two or more rivets in a
wide tang, thickening down centre of blade,
c
?8 RACHEL MAXWELL-HYSLOP
Variation
Type 15a. The surface of the blade is flat.

Extant Examples
Type 15. Western Asia Troy. H. Schmidt, Nos. 5855 (Troy II), 6146,
Minor. Troy II?III, both with two rivet-holes.
Type 15a. Western Asia Thermi. Lamb, pi. xlvii, 29.11. Copper. Three
Minor. rivet-holes. From Thermi IV.
TYPE 16
This is the earliest form of the tangless round-heeled dagger, and the smaller
examples were used as knives. The type is well known outside western Asia.
In Egypt the earliest type had a flat triangular-shaped blade and was hafted into
a bone or wooden sheath with a semicircular indent where it met the blade ; later
forms were concave in outline, either flat or strengthened by ribbing down the
centre of the blade.1 In Crete triangular daggers with straight or slightly curved
bases appear in E.M. IP and from E.M. Ill onwards are analogous to Egyptian
daggers in a similar stage of development. Later examples are longer and develop
into the M.M. I type which is a long thin blade with concave sides.3 On the
Helladic mainland the developed ogival form appears in the Middle Helladic
period at Prosymna.4 An earlier example was found at Zigouries,5 dated to the
end of the Early Helladic period, and examples from Amorgos in the Cyclades
and Cyprus6 must not be forgotten. Isolated examples also occur in the shaft
graves at Mycenae, and Late Helladic inlaid examples from Prosymna may
be noted.7
In Europe the round-heeled riveted daggers fall into two groups. The first,
which can be compared to Type 16, is a flat triangular round-heeled or rhomboid-
shaped blade which is found in the Chalcolithic period, notably in north Italy
(Remedello Culture),8 Sicily (Siculan I),9 Spain (Almer?a),10 the east Alpine Lake
Dwellings, south Germany (Goldberg III),11 and Hungary (Bodrogkereztur
culture).12
The second type approximates more to Type 16 and was used throughout the
European Early Bronze Age, notably in the Aunjetitz cultural area,13 in Hungary
(Toszeg),14 north Italy (Lake Dwellings and Terremare),15 Spain (El Argar),16
France (notably in the Cevennian cists, at Fort Harrouard, and in Brittany),17 and
Britain.18 The subsequent development of this type in north Italy, characterized
by bronze hilts, cast separately from the blade in Italy and in one piece with the
1 P?trie, Tools and Weapons, pi. xxxiv, Nos. 37, 38, 11 Childe, Dawn, 282.
48, so. 12 Ibid., 109.
2 Pendlebury, Crete, pi. xi, 3; Xanthoudides, 13 Danube, 190, mentions round-heeled daggers in
Vaulted Tombs of the Messara, pi. xxxix, 1435 (M.M. I), Beaker graves from Bohemia and Moravia and Heides-
pi. LV, 1870. heimer near Mainz.
3 Seager, Mochlos, Fig. 45, iii o. 14 Ibid., 263.
4 Blegen, Prosymna, Fig. 603. 15 Hawkes, Prehistoric Foundations, Fig. 25, c; Peet,
5 Blegen, Zigouries, pi. xx, 25. op. cit., Fig. 166.
6 P?trie, op. cit., pi. xxxv, 73. 16 Childe, Dawn, Fig. 130.
7 Blegen, Prosymna, Figs. 420, 421. 17 Ibid., Fig. 140; Philippe, Cinq ann?es de fouilles
8 Childe, Dawn, Fig. 116. ? Fort Harrouard, pi. v; see Piggott, Early Bronze
9 Peet, Italy, Fig. 142. Age in Wessex, 64 ff., for a discussion of the Breton
10 Pericot, La Civilizaci?n Megal?tica Catalana, types.
pi. xii, ?. 18 Piggott, op. cit.
blade in Germany, need not be discussed here; it is only necessar
briefly the measure of Asiatic influence discernible in Aunjetitz m
to relate, if possible, the European round-heeled dagger to its An
Aegean counterparts. Firstly, both Mr. Hawkes and Professor Chi
the immigration of groups of metallurgists from the Aegean-Anatolia
Hungarian and Bohemian copper-making centres at the beginning o
millennium, and the 'lock rings', roll-headed and racquet pins, flatten
and other objects certainly suggest that these craftsmen had bee
Asiatic schools and were responsible for the earliest use of Bohemian t
the extension to the Adriatic of Aegean-Anatolian trade, which in the t
nium had played so important a part in the development of coppe
D?nubian Europe, was probably responsible for the Minoan influe
Remedello culture in north Italy as exemplified by the round-heeled d
open trade-routes between Italy and Bohemia contributed to the st
of the Aunjetitz dagger type and its subsequent widespread use in
Bronze Age. Finally, when considering the question of the impor
Anatolian elements in the Asiatic influence discernible in the early m
Hungary and Bohemia, it is interesting to note that the daggers listed
from Anatolia and that in Anatolia examples of both round-based an
shaped blades are known at the end of the third millennium.
examples are analogous to the Anatolian and, though not so com
tanged type, are known in Transcaucasia1 and in the Kuban-Terek
this point we must stress the role played by Cretan and Aegean m
the maritime trade of the mid-third millennium. That they wer
whereby Anatolian technical ideas were transmitted (sometimes in
form) to Europe and westward along the Mediterranean to Spain is a l
tion of the occurrence and adaptation of the round-heeled dagger in A
it is also not surprising to find among other evidence of Aegean penetr
heeled daggers in Sicily and the Early Bronze Age level at Hal Tarx
In Asia Minor the Hittite Empire examples are merely developed from
riveted knife form known in levels at Bogazk?y dated by Assyrian tab
twentieth century B.c.4
Type 16
Riveted blade; round base; straight, slightly convex or slightly concave sides; thickening
down the centre of the blade; blunt point.
Variations
Type 16a. The base is pointed, with several rivet-holes; the blade is small and triangular
shaped.
Extant Examples
2400-1600 B.c.
Type 16. E. Asia Minor. Alisar. Schmidt, O.I.P. xix, Fig. 270, b. 3. From
1 G. Nioradze, Der Verwahrfund von Kvemo-Sasirethi 3 See Antiquity, xvi, 19, 1942; J. B. Ward-Perkins,
(E.S.A. vu,.Abb. 8). Unstratified. Problems of Maltese Prehistory, Note on the daggers by
2 At Cambykskaja, Han? AR, Urgeschichte Kaukastens,K. R. Maxwell-Hyslop. The date of the Bronze Age
Abb. 23, 7, Middle Kuban period, dated by Tallgren level at Hal Tarxien awaits the further study of the
?500-1100, Schmidt 2300-1600, Childe 2100-1500 pottery.
b.c. Tallgren, ?tudes sur le Caucase du Nord (E.S.A. 4 Bittel, Mitt. No. 77, 1939, Abb. 41.
rv), mentions 8 other examples.
Level III, dated to 'Early Bronze Age'.

SW. Asia Minor. Tarsus. Goldman, A.J.A. xli (2), Fig. 21, top
right-hand example and left-hand ex-
ample. Dated to 'Early Bronze Age*.
Cyprus. Lapithos. Gjerstad, S.C.E. 1, pi. xxiv, Tomb 313
c-d. Mid E.C. III.
Type i6a. SW. Asia Minor. Tarsus. Goldman, A.J.A. xli (2), Fig. 21, lower
right-hand example. Dated to 'Early
Bronze Age'.
1600-1200 B.c.
Type 16. Asia Minor. Alisar. Schmidt, O.I.P. xix, Fig. 194, b. 1361;
Fig. 193, b. 1314; Von der Osten, O.I.P.
xxix, Fig. 287, d. 2480. Hittite Empire
period.
TYPE 17
This type could be used either as a tool or a weapon, according to its size. Early
examples are known outside western Asia in the Aegean in Crete1 in E.M. II?III
and M.M. I, where the sides of the blade are markedly concave and the centre often
strengthened by a midrib. Stratified examples are not known earlier than the
Hyksos period in Palestine, and an unstratified Caucasian example from Koban
is not likely to be much earlier than the Hittite Empire period.2
Type 17
Triangular-shaped blunt blade, with flat base curving inwards at the centre; four rivets, and
thickening down the centre of blade.
Variations
Type 17a. The blade is pointed and has a well-marked midrib.

Type 17b. The blade is long and narrow, with slight midrib.
Type 17c. The blade is flat.
Extant Examples
1800-1500 B.c.
Type 17. Palestine. Tell Fara. P?trie, 1, pi. ix, 38 (Institute of Archae-
ology, No. F. 556 e). Hyksos period.
P?trie, 1, pi. ix, 46; 1, pi. xi, 76; all
Hyksos period.
Macdonald, Starkey, Harding, 11, pi.
xliii, 18 (Institute of Archaeology, No.
1021). Miniature example. Hyksos period.
Type 17a. Palestine. Tell Fara. P?trie, 1, pi. vi, 11 (Institute of Archae-
ology, No. F. 551. The edges of this have
perished).
Type 17c. Palestine. Tell Beit Albright, A.A.S.O.R. xvii, pi. 41, 6, 17.
Mirsim. Strat. D. Dated to c. 1600-1550 b.c.
1 Seager, Mochlos, Fig. 45, xiii m; also Xan- Pendlebury, Crete, pi. xi, 3.
thoudides, Vaulted Tombs, pi. xxiv, 1175, 1178; 2 P?trie, Tools and Weapons, pi. xxxv, D. 88.
IS0O-I200 B.C.
Type 17b. E. Asia Minor. Alisar. Von der Osten, O.I.P. xxix, Fig. 287,
d. 2111. Dated to Hittite Empire period.
TYPE 18
As a knife, this may have been quite an efficient tool, but the narrowness of such
a long blade would preclude its use as a weapon. All the examples come from
Palestine, and probably none are later than the early second millennium.
Type 18
Long narrow blade, with straight sides; slight thickening down centre; four or more rivets
at the base, which is slightly rounded.
Variations
Type 18a. The surface of the blade is flat or curved, and the base square.
Type 18b. The blade has centre thickening.
Extant Examples
Type 18a. Palestine. Kerazeh, P.E.F.Q. 1931, pi. iv. Copper. From
Galilee. 'Early Bronze Age' enclosure.
Megiddo. Guy, Tombs, pi. 86, 4. Early Bronze Age
Stage O.i.
2000-1600 B.C.
Type 18. Palestine. Provenance British Museum, 129407. Four rivet-
unknown, holes. Length 24-5 cm.
British Museum, 129420, 129425 (frag-
ment). These examples can be dated to
Middle Bronze I period, c. 2000-1800 B.c.
Palestine. Tell Ajj?l. P?trie, p, pi. ?, 47-51; pi. ??, 53, 54
(Institute of Archaeology, No. 1570), 55,
56 (Institute of Archaeology, No. 1539),
57-9. Middle Bronze I period.
Bethlehem. Cambridge, Museum of Archaeology, No.
27. 941. Length 24 7 cm.
Type 18b. Palestine. Provenance British Museum, 129406, with six rivet-
unknown, holes, 129427. These examples can be
dated to Middle Bronze I period.
TYPE 19
This is an improvement on Type 18; the tang is well made with several rivets
to attach it to the hilt, the thickening down the centre of the blade found on Type
18 has become a carefully cast midrib, and the blade is capable of being used as an
efficient dagger. The type is confined to Palestine, where it seems to have originated
at an early period, and it is worth noting that there is a distinct similarity between
this Palestinian dagger and the huge sword (see Type 52) found at Gaza and
identified by Hall as the weapon commonly used by the Shardana and the Philis-
tines. For smiths used to making the dagger the casting of a similar type of blade
for use as a sword would present no insuperable difficulty, and it is likely that the
sword also was made in a Palestinian workshop.
Type 19
Long pointed blade; well-marked midrib; four or more rivets in the rudimentary tang.
Variations
Type iga. The blade is shorter, with slight midrib, and three rivet-holes, two in the
shoulders and one in the tang.
Type igb. One edge of the tang is hammered to form a low raised flange.
Extant Examples
Type iga. Palestine. Lachish. Starkey, P.E.F.Q. 1935, pi. xin, 2. 'Late
Copper Age.'
c. 2000-1600 B.c.
Type ig. Palestine. Tell Ajj?l. P?trie, p, pi. xin, 64, 66 (Institute of
Archaeology, Nos. A. 1542, A. 1565,
Middle Bronze I).
Provenance British Museum, 129419. Length 31 cm.
unknown.
Ashdod. British Museum, 129417. Length 115 cm.
Provenance Cambridge. Museum of Archaeology and
unknown. Ethnology, Nos. 32. 237; 22.1238. Length
29-5 cm.
Type igb. Palestine. Provenance Cambridge, Museum of Archaeology, Nos.
unknown. 22. 1236 and 1237. Length 30 cm. and
36-6 cm.
TYPES 20 AND 21
The sloping tang on these daggers ensured firmness at the junction o

blade and while at present third millennium examples are confined to C
would not be surprising if early examples turned up on the Phoenician
Syrian coast.1 A close connexion between Ras Shamra and Cyprus is kno
the contents of the late sixteenth and early fifteenth century B.c. tombs at
it is possible that Cypriot and mainland metalsmiths exercised a mutua
before this period, during M.C. Ill and earlier. At Ras Shamra thes
are found in tombs, associated with Hyksos pottery, and along with Ty
which these types are an improvement) they afford evidence that m
inhabitants of Ras Shamra were martial people who could command
supply of well-made weapons (see introduction to Type 3). It is po
these weapons were made either by Human or Hyksos metalsmiths,
evidence concerning the importance of the Hurrian element in the pop
Ras Shamra will greatly assist scholars in solving the intriguing proble
made and who used these three dagger types.
Type 20
Pointed blade, with straight or slightly convex sides; wide tang sloping to a point; three
rivet-holes; flat, slight thickening at centre, or curved surface.
example was found in the prehistoric cemetery (see

1 Since writing this I have been able to consult
Catalogue of Type 20).
Dunand's Fouilles de Byblos (1940), where a copper
Variations
Type 20a. The blade is blunt.

Type 20b. Midrib down centre of blade.
Type 20C Blunt flat blade with pointed base; five rivet-holes.
Type 2od. The shoulders are wide and angular, the outline of the bla
Extant Examples
Prehistoric period
Phoenicia. Byblos. Dunand, pi. clxxxix, 5889. Copper?
'N?cropole ?n?olithique.,
2800-2400 B.c.
Cyprus. Vounous. An unpublished dagger found by J. R.
Stewart from Tomb 105 belongs to E.C. I.
2400-1600 B.C.
Cyprus. Vounous. Tomb 143. E.C. III. Unpublished.
Ajos Jakovos. Gjerstad, S.C.E. 1, pi. cxliii, A? J. 88.9.
M.C. III.
Type 20. N. Syria. Ras Shamra. Schaeffer, Syria, xix. 3 (1938), Fig. 27 M,
Tomb LV. Dated to 17th century b.c.
Schaeffer, Ugaritica, 1, Fig. 63, o, Tomb
LVI. Dated to end of 18th and 17th cen-
turies b.c.
Amarna. A.A.A. vi. 3, pi. xxiv ; right-hand example.
From the evidence of the pottery these
tombs may now be dated c. 2200-1900
b.c.
Mesopotamia. Serr?n. Ashmolean Museum, Nos. 1914. 136,

1914. 530. Length 13-8 cm. 1914. 135.
Length 167 cm. c. 2200-1900 B.C.
Type 20a. N. Syria. Ras Shamra. Schaeffer, Ugaritica, 1, Fig. 63, q, Tomb
LV. Dated to 17th century b.c.
Schaeffer, Syria, xvii. 2 (1936), Fig. 17, H
Dated to 17th and 16th centuries b.c. Fig
19, D. Dated to end of 18th to 16th cen-
turies b.c.
Type 20b. N. Syria. Ras Shamra. Schaeffer, Syria, xix. 3 (1938), Fig. 27, Q.
Dated to end of 18th and 17th and begin-
ning of 16th centuries b.c.
Schaeffer, Syria, xvn. 2 (1936), Fig. 17, A.
Dated to 18th and 17th centuries b.c.
Type 20c. N. Syria. Ras Shamra. Schaeffer, Ugaritica, 1, Fig. 63, c, Tomb
turies b.c.
Type 2od. N. Syria. Ras Shamra. Schaeffer, Ugaritica, 1, Fig. 63, n, Tomb
turies B.c.
Mesopotamia. Kara Kuzak. Ashmolean Museum, No. 1913.24. A.A.A.
vi, 3, pi. xxv, c, left-hand example. From
the evidence of the pottery these tombs
may now be dated c. 2200-1900 B.c.
160O-I2OO B.C.
Type 2od. SE. Aria Minor. Soli, near Luschan^ Globus, lxxxi/lxxii (1902), 297,
Mersin. 6. Probably 13th century B.c.
Type 21
Pointed blade with round base and three rivet-holes.
Extant Examples
2400-1600 B.c.
Type 21. N. Syria. Amarna. A.A.A. vi, 3, pi. xxiv, left and middle
examples. From the evidence of the
pottery these tombs may now be dated
c. 2200-1900 B.c.
Ras Shamra. Schaeffer, Ugaritica, Fig. 63, P, Tomb
turies B.c.
Schaeffer, Syria, xvn, 2 (1935), Fig. 19,
B, c. Dated to end of 18th to 16th cen-
turies B.C.
Phoenicia. Byblos. Dunand, pi. xciv, 1128. Unstratified.
TYPES 22 AND 23
Type 22 could be used as a dagger or a knife, and early copper examples of this
type come from Byblos. These primitive blades, with large rivet-holes in the
round base, are closely paralleled by a much later example from Cyprus. Type 23
belongs to the Hyksos period. Its origin must be sought in Egypt, where it is
well known in the Twelfth Dynasty and is the prototype for the later Egyptian
Hyksos daggers. The form of the gold hilt and lapis pommel of the Egyptian
example from Dahshur, tomb of Princess Ita,1 can be closely paralleled by the
interesting Tal Atchana sword (see Type 9), which must have been made by a
smith familiar with much earlier Sumerian weapons.
Type 22
Thin pointed blade, with concave sides, wide shoulders, round base, and three rivet-holes.
Variations
Type 22a. The blade has straight sides and.round point. The base is more pointed and the
rivet-holes large and placed close to the edge of the base.
Type 22b. There are engraved longitudinal ribs on the surface of the blade.
Extant Examples
Prehistoric period
Type 22a. Phoenicia. Byblos. Dunand, pi. xcv, 4056, Level xx; pi.
clxxxix, 6772, 6775, 6776, from 'N?cro-
pole ?n?olithique\
2800-2400 B.c.
Type 22b. Phoenicia. Byblos. Dunand, pi. xcv, 3657, Level XVII.
2400-1600 B.C.
Type 22. Palestine. Megiddo. Guy, Tombs, pi. cxxii, 8. Middle Bronze II.
1 Wolf, Die Bewaffnung, Taf. 4, 6.
Type 22a. Cyprus. Lapithos. Gjerstad, S.C.E. 1, pi. cxliii, L. 315, A.
64. Middle Cypriot I.
1600-1200 B.c.
Type 22. Phoenicia. Byblos. Dunand, pi. xcix, 1809, Level IV.
Type 23
Blunt straight-sided blade, with sloping shoulders, flat or curved section, and extremely
short tang.
Variations
Type 23a. The blade is pointed.

Extant Examples
180O-I5OO B.C.
Type 23. Palestine. Megiddo. Guy, Tombs, pi. 146, 5, 6, found with lime-
stone pommels; pi. 146, 1 and 2; pi. 154,
23. Late Bronze I.
Jericho. Garstang, A.A.A. xix. 3-4, pi. xxxvn, 2.
Dated to Middle Bronze II.
Type 23a. Palestine. Tell Ajj?l. P?trie, ?, pi. xvi, L. 5 (Institute of Archae-
ology No. D. 784). Probably 16th century
B.c.
N. Syria. Qatna. Du Mesnil du Buisson, Fig. 54. Copper.

TYPE 24
This type is the logical development from Type 23, and blades with short flat
tangs were well known in Egypt during the Middle Kingdom. Many examples of
the crescentic-shaped pommels of these blades, made of bone, ivory, or limestone,
were found at Byblos (cf. Type 25), and also the round type of pommel with two
openings on each side of the bronze guard, known in Egypt first in the Eleventh
Dynasty and common on Hyksos daggers.
This type could be cast as a sword, and the remarkable Byblos blade, 0*57 m. in
length, invites comparison with the slightly earlier and longer sword from Mallia,
Crete,1 where the width of the shoulders is also one-tenth of the length, but the
midrib on the Cretan example is flat and there is no tang. It is unlikely that the
Byblos sword, which is a unique example, was ever used for combat, as the rapier
never found favour on the Asiatic mainland where daggers or short swords were
preferred.
Type 24
Pointed blade with midrib, pronounced shoulders, and small rudimentary tang. Three
rivet-holes, one in the tang and two in the shoulders.
Variations
Type 24a. Long narrow sword blade with midrib, short tang, and three rivets.
Extant Examples
2400-1600 B.C.
Type 24. Phoenicia. Byblos. Dunand, pi. lxx, 2183, 2184, 2186. From
Jar 2132. 12th Dynasty.
Kafr ed- Contenau, Civilisation Ph?nicienne, Fig. 81.
Djarra. Dated to 12th Dynasty.
1 Hall, Greece, Fig, 102.
Type 24a. Phoeniiaa. Byblos. Dunand, PI. LXVII, 2178 and Fig. I38.
From Jar 2I32. i2th Dynasty.
TYPE 25
This is a technically advanced type and would be an efficient stabbing weapon.

The larger examples may have been used as spearheads. The Asiatic examples
are all from Palestine, but blades with finely ribbed surfaces were known in Egypt as
early as the Eleventh Dynasty.I The remains of the handles on two of the Megiddo
examples are Egyptian in form; but one Gaza example was found with a round
ball-shaped pommel, pierced with a hole, and a wooden handle covered with sheet
bronze. This type of pommel, of which examples have been found at Gaza,
Megiddo, and Jericho, is found in Hyksos contexts and was used for other types
of M.B. II daggers in Palestine, yet like the ribbed daggers it seems to have enjoyed
a long period of use. Unfortunately not many of the daggers can be closely dated
inside the M.B. II period, though some of them are definitely found in a Hyksos
context. There is, therefore, not yet enough evidence to call this blade a specifically
Hyksos type.
TYPE 25
Pointed leaf-shaped blade, with multiple longitudinal ribs; short tang with several rivets.
Variations
Type 25a. The blade has a blunt point.
Type 25b. There are only two ribs on the blade.
Extant Examples
2000-I500 B.C.
Type 25. Palestine. Megiddo. Guy, Tombs, pl. 122, 9. Middle Bronze II
period. Pl. I49, 6, 7. Late Bronze I.
Jerusalem, British Museum, 129426.
Mount Scopas.
Provenance British Museum, 129422. Length 20 cm.
unknown. Cambridge,MuseumofArchaeology,No.
27,940. Length I7-6 cm. Tang broken.
Tell Ajjfl. Petrie, III, pl. xix, io. Hyksos period.
Petrie, I}, Pl. xIv, 7I. C. 1750-1500 B.C.
Petrie, II, P1. xIv, 74. c. I8oo-I700 B.C.
Gezer. Macalister, I, pl. 6o, 6. Middle Bronze II.
Type 25a. Palestine. Gezer. Macalister, III, p1. cxx. Tomb deposits No.
226.
Type 25b. Palestine. Ashdod. Ashmolean Museum, Nos. I921, 1054,
192I, IO63. Described as 'Philistine
spearheads'.
Jericho. A.A.A. XIX, 3-4, pl. xxxvii, 6. Dated to
Middle Bronze II period, c. I700-I600 B.C.
Found with Hyksos scarabs.
I WoI*, Die Bewaffnung, Taf. 4,8; PETRnE, Diospolis Parva. The Cemeteries of Abadiyeh and Hu, pl. XXXII, 4.
TYPE 26
This type could be used either as a dagger or as a lance-head and like Type 25
is confined to Palestine. The stratified examples from Gaza belong to the Hyksos
period; they are often found with the round limestone or marble pommels which
are well known from Hyksos levels at several Palestinian sites,1 and the Gezer
blade was found with Mid-Empire scarabs. It is important to note that the
evidence afforded by other weapons as well as the daggers shows that during the
period from 1800 to 1600 b.c. in Palestine smiths were less influenced by their
foreign colleagues and began to concentrate on forms which were especially suited
to the inhabitants of the country at that time. Technical improvements such as
the use of the closed mould which was introduced at Megiddo at the beginning
of this period, probably by Hyksos smiths, must have assisted in an increased
production of well-made tools and weapons, and this may well have become an
important factor in the preliminary consolidation of Hyksos military supremacy
in Palestine prior to the attack upon Egypt.
Type 26
Narrow pointed blade, with a wide curved rib down the centre; narrow tang with one or
occasionally two vertical rivets.
Variations
Type 26a. The point is blunt.

Type 26b. There is an extra curved rib on top of the central rib, and the point is blunt.
Extant Examples
2000-1500 B.c.
Type 26. Palestine. Provenance British Museum, 129418 (length 25 cm.),
unknown. 129404.
Tell Ajj?l. P?trie, in, pi. xviii, 7. 16th century b.c.
Two rivet-holes.
Jericho. A.A.A. xix, 3-4, pi. xxxvii, 5. Tomb 9
with Hyksos scarabs. Dated to 1700-
1600 b.c*
Gezer. Macalister, 1, Fig. 160, pi. 60, 4. (These
are classed as spear-heads by Macalister.)
Middle Bronze II context.
Type 26a. Palestine. Tell Ajj?l. P?trie, iv, pi. xxv, 262. Late Hyksos.
Type 26b. Palestine. Tell Ajj?l. P?trie, iv, pi. xxvn, 280. Hyksos.
TYPE 27
Small tanged blades without a rivet, which have sometimes been identified as
spear-heads, are certainly knives, while the riveted form could be used as a dagger
or for domestic purposes. Both forms are characteristic of the Hyksos period in
Palestine. A curious blade from Byblos (Level 19) represents the earlier form of
this type.2
1 Tell Ajj?l, P?trie, u, pi. ???, 7^ ni, pi. xix, io, J?richo, Garstang, A.A.A. xix (3-4), pi. xxxvii, 1-2.
pi. xviii, 7; iv, pi. xli, i io-i i , 115, 118. Gezer, Mac- 2 Dunand, Byblos, pi. xciv, 3872.
alister, hi, pi. Lxi, 23-4. Megiddo, Guy, pi. 118. 2.
Type 27
Flat, blunt blade, with well-marked shoulders, long narrow tang, and one or two rivets.
Variations
Type 27a. There is no rivet-hole.
Extant Examples
1800-1500 b.c.
Type 27. Palestine. Tell Ajj?l. P?trie, in, pi. xix, 14. Hyksos. 16th
century b.c.
P?trie, iv, pi. xxvm, 293. Hyksos.
P?trie, iv, pi. xxi, 214. Hyksos. 16th
century b.c.
Tell Fara. P?trie, n, pi. xliv, 60. Hyksos.
Jerusalem. British Museum, 129412. Length 20-5 cm.
Tyre. British Museum, 129415. Length 22 cm.
Type 27a. Palestine. Tell Fara. Macdonald, Starkey, Harding, 11, pi. xliii,
A 1 (Institute of Archaeology, F. 1021),
pi. xliv, 66. Hyksos.
P?trie, 1, pi. vi, 14 (Institute of Archae-
ology, F. 550), pi. xi, 67, and many other
examples.
Tell Ajj?l. P?trie, 1, PI. xvn, J. 30, PL xix, J. 42.
Hyksos. Pis. iv, xxv, 265. Hyksos.
Tell ed P.E.F.Q., Oct. 1937, pi. vin. This has an
Duweir. incised inscription in pictographic charac-
ters. Hyksos period dated to c. 1600 b.c.
Unpublished dagg?rs D. 129; D. 1552,
2198; D. 1552, 2197. Hyksos, pre-
1600 b.c.
Tell Beit Albright, A.A.S.O.R. xvn, pi. 41, 11.
Mirsim. Strat. D. Dated to 1600-1500 b.c.
Jericho. Garstang, A.A.A. xix (3-4), pi. xxxvu, 1 ;
I. L. N. 16 Dec. 1933. Middle Bronze II.
Gezer. Macalister, in, pis. ccxvi, lx, 3 and 5.
Middle Bronze II.
TYPE 28
The smaller examples of the type listed here were probably used as dagge
but the blade with stop-ridge was more suited for lance or spear heads and
larger examples from Palestine undoubtedly were used for this purpose. T
type seems to have remained in use over a considerable period, and while
Palestinian examples belong to the fourteenth to thirteenth centuries b.c., the
Ajj?l example (P?trie, m, pi. xix, 11) has a blade obviously related to Types
and 25 which were in common use in Palestine during the Hyksos period. T
examples were found in the 'Governor's tomb' at Tell Ajj?l with a leaf-sha
blade cast in one with its hilt?a type known during the Eighteenth Dynasty
discussed in the introduction to Type 33 (see note 5, p. 39).
Type 28
Flat blade with blunt point, well-marked stop-ridge between the base of the blade and the
long narrow tang.
Variations
Type 28a. There is no stop-ridge and the tang is sometimes hooked.
Type 28b. There is no stop-ridge and two raised wing-shaped flanges at juncture of blade
and tang.
Extant examples
1600-1200 B.C.
Type 28. Palestine. Tell Ajj?l. P?trie, 11, pi. ???, J. 76, L. 77 (Inst, of
Archaeology, A. 1514) c. 1400-1200 b.c.;
pi. xxviii, 296; in, pi. xxviii, 8; pi. ix, 21,
c. 1400-1200 b.c.
Provenance Cambridge, Museum of Archaeology, 22,
unknown. 1238. Length 29 cm.
British Museum, 129421, 129424?5?23.
Length 20-5 cm. Tang broken.
Gezer. Macalister, ni, pi. evi, from Tomb 143.
Found with Mycenaean pot.
Cyprus. Provenance P?trie, Tools and Weapons, pi. xxxin, 26.
unknown.
Type 28a. Palestine. Tell Ajj?l. P?trie, in, pi. xix, 11, 17th to 16th cen-
turies b.c.; pi. ix, 22, 1400-1200 b.c.; iv,
pi. xxvi, 274.
Tell Duweir. Inge, Harding, Tufnell, pi. xxvn, 34.
Temple area. c. 1475-1223 b.c.
Tell Fara. P?trie, 1, pi. xxi, 89. 13th to 12th cen-
turies B.C.
Provenance British Museum, 129423. 27 cm.
unknown.
Megiddo. Guy, Tombs, pi. 96, 1-3; pi. 125, 3-5, 13,
14, 15. L.B. II.
N. Syria. Minet-el Schaeffer, Syria, xn. 1 (1932), pi. x, 3.
Beida. Dated to 15th to 13th centuries b.c.
Type 28b. N. Syria. Atchana. British Museum, 126095. Length 27 cm.
c. 1350-1250 B.C.
TYPE 29
The triangular blade, with long tang, hooked at the end, was used as a knife or a
dagger according to its size. The tang must have been inserted in a thick wooden
hilt which covered it to the base of the blade, and the purpose of the hook, which
was fixed in a lateral niche inside the hilt (probably sometimes emerging at the
side), was to provide extra strength to the hafting when the blade Was sharply
withdrawn from the opponent.1 If the blade was used as a hunting-knife, the
hook would serve the same purpose. When the hilt was extended on to the back
of the blade, the longitudinal holes were probably used to bind the end of the hilt
and blade firmly together, and in Asia this feature, while it is more suited for
1 For detail of method of hafting, see Schaeffer, see G. ?. Gardner, Le Probl?me de la garde de V?p?e
Missions en Chypre, Fig. 16. For another suggestioncypriote de G Age de Bronze (B.S.P.F. 12, 1937).
spearheads, was probably also used for dagger and
hafting is known from the Cyclades, where Early Cycl
similar longitudinal slits in the blade, both with and
the catalogue of Type 29 reference is made to Gjer
Cypriot types (see Studies^ p. 234). The earliest publ
Cyprus, dating from E.C. Ill, yet among unpublishe
excavations at Vounous are several blades of this typ
contexts, his earliest example being dated E.C. I A.
important points may be noted. Early Cypriot exam
can be more nearly compared to the Anatolian form
types. The earliest example (Vounous 105-24) has a sh
at the end like the Trojan blades and sloping should
Anatolian examples from Punarbasi G?l and an ex
probably a javelin blade.2 This treatment of the
Vounous 118-47 (E.C. Ic-IIa) and it is not till E.C.
and b (see Type 30 and 30 a), with round shoulders beco
examples dating from this period are known from V
and other Cypriot sites. It seems probable that the e
Cypriot and Anatolian smiths who would have been
other and that later the type was developed on a
Anatolian examples (found with Kusura ? pottery, c.
much the same date as the E.C. I examples (c. 2700-2
be later. In Cyprus the simple hooked tang was im
button-shaped knob as early as E.C. Ib, and two exa
square shoulders representing the next stage of dev
shoulders are found with this feature; but the Anat
button-shaped knobs nor heart-shaped shoulders and
the advanced Cypriot models.3
The striking similarity between the Tarsus, Alaca, an
that these weapons must be relatively close to each o
available evidence it would seem that the excavator's
must be lowered to a period nearer to the end of the t
Type 29
Rhomboid-shaped blade, with thickening down centre, two longitudinal holes, and hooked
tang.
Variations
Type 2ga. The shoulders are square or sloping and the blade leaf-shaped.
Type 2gb. There are no holes in the blade, the shoulders are wider, and the point blunt.
Section of tang is rectangular. (Cf. Gjerstad, Type 2 b.)
Type 2gc. The shoulders are pronounced, point blunt. There is a well-marked midrib.
Extant Examples
2400-1600 B.c.
Type 2g. NW. Ada Minor. Troy. H. Schmidt, Nos. 5842-7. Troy II.
1 Childe, Dawn, Figs. 23, 26. See also an example 2 De Mecquenem, M.D.P. xxv, Fig. 25.
from Thermi IV, Lamb, Thermi, pi. xlvii, 32*2 with- 3 Cf. Gjerstad, Studies, 234, Type 2 a.
out tang. Cf. Type 14.
Central Asia Minor. Alaca. Arik, P.S.H.T. v. 1, pi. cclxxv, Belleten,
1, 1, Fig. 49. Tomb TM.
Type 2ga. SE. Asia Minor. Tarsus. Goldman, A.J.A. xliv. i, Fig. 19. Four
examples from 'Early Bronze Age* level.
Mesopotamia. Tell Ahmar. Thureau-Dangin, pi. xxxi, 4; pi. xxx, 2
(probably a lance-head). From 2nd mil-
lennium tombs. (Braidwood has suggested
a date of c. 2200 for the tombs where these
weapons occur. See McCowan, Compara-
tive Stratigraphy of Early Iran, p. 53. See
also Albright in B.A.S.O.R. 95, 7, for a
discussion of the date of the Til Barsib
caliciform tomb.)
Type 2gb. W. Ana Minor. Punarbasi G?l, Bittel, P.F.K., Taf. xxi, 8. Unstratified.
nr. Afyon Probably a lance-head. Ashmolean Mu-
Karahisar. seum, No. 1911.115, 1911.114. Ham-
mered copper or bronze. High percentage
of copper. Found with two pots of
Kusura ? period, c. 2700-2000 b.c.
Type 2gc. Asia Minor. Provenance Undset,DiV ?ltesten Schwertformen, Fig. 32.
unknown.
1600-1200 B.c.
Type 2gb. E. Asia Minor. Bogazk?y. Bittel, Neue Untersuchungen, Taf. io, 3.
Hittite Empire period.
???? 30
In a form typologically more advanced than Type 29, the dagger or spearhead with
hooked tang was used in Syria, Palestine, and Iran during the second millennium,
and in Cyprus it continued in use into the M.C. Ill period. On the later Cypriot
examples, the heart-shaped shoulders with well-marked incisions at the base of
the blade along the midrib are abandoned in favour of round shoulders, and the
Ras Shamra example shows this later characteristic. This is not surprising when
one recalls the evidence from the Cypriot pottery at Ras Shamra for the com-
mercial connexions which linked the north Syrian coast and Cyprus at the end of
the sixteenth century b.c. and which must certainly have existed earlier between
metalsmiths on the island and the adjacent coast. On the results of the metal-
lurgical analysis of the Ras Shamra weapons it has been suggested that they
were made of imported Cypriot ore, and in Palestine the examples are Cypriot in
type and by analogy can only be dated to some time between E.C. Ill and
M.C. II-III.
Little can be learnt from the unstratified example from Rizagad, Geo
was purchased at Tiflis and may well be a modern import from
Kurdistan example, however, is more related to the Tepe Hissar an
Tepe series than to Cypriot types, and the idea of the hooked tang
have travelled via smiths from the Syrian coast, who were familiar wi
Cypriot methods, travelling along the trade routes into Persia wh
specialized local form was devised. But the primitive leaf-shaped b
Tureng Tepe (probably a spearhead) may be comp
Cypriot example from Lapithos1 dated to the be
At this point a few words must be said concern
which are obviously lance-heads used for huntin
At Ras Shamra3 a spearhead with stop-ridge, hea
technically advanced form?has been dated to th
centuries b.c., and this weapon is closely paralle
Goldman at Tarsus,4 one from Tureng Tepe near
Soli near Mersin. A pottery dagger and sheath fo
(and dated by him to E.C. II b or c) is considered by
this form, but as yet no metal examples are kno
with slightly different shaped blades come from G
have been used by McCowan in his attempt to pr
Hissar III.6 Hissar III lance-heads, however, have
tangs comparable to the Ras Shamra example me
stressed that when such typological features are
long period of time it is dangerous to use them as
Kuftin has discussed Caucasian examples in Archaeo
and while Schaeffer has suggested (Man. xliv. 30)
western Caucasus by sea from north Syria, the exa
that the overland routes through Asia Minor or
entirely disregarded and may well have played an im
of this type.
Type 30
Long blade with blunt end, sloping shoulders, square hooked tang, midrib down centre of
blade. (Cf. Gjerstad, Studies, 232, Type ia.)
Variations
Type 30a. The shoulders are heart-shaped, and the rib upstanding near the tang. (Cf.
Gjerstad, Type 1 b.)
Type 30b. The midrib is accentuated and is practically a flange.
Type 30c. Tepe Hissar type. Pointed blade, with convex sides, pronounced round
shoulders, midrib, and square tang, with the end hooked and button-shaped; grip cover of
silver bands and cords forming a chequer-board pattern.
Type 3od. The tang has no button at the end, and the shoulders are narrow and sloping.
1 Gjerstad, S.C.E. ?, pi. cxlii, L. 302, A. 38, E.C. Stratigraphy of Early Iran, p. 53.
III. 7 The idea of the stop-ridge is also common on
spearheads without hooked tangs, both on the poker
2 Schaeffer, Missions en Chypre, 30 ff., discusses
the importance of the position of the bladesbutt
in form
the and those with leaf-shaped blades. Cf.
graves. At Vounous many blades were found Woolley,
lyingRoyal Tombs, pi. 227, and Hittite Burial
beside the body but pointing upwards to theCustoms
head,(A.A.A.
a vi, pi. xix; the fragmentary example,
position which would be more natural for a lance 4, has stop-ridge and hooked tang, cf. Survey of
than
a dagger. Persian Art, pi. 54 f) ; Tallgren, ?tudes sur les monu-
3 Schaeffer, op. cit., Fig. 16, 3. ments du Caucase (E.S.A. ix, Fig. 21, 8). Another
4 Goldman, A.J.A. xlii. i, Fig. 14. example with wider blade is known from S. Russia,
5 R. Heine-Geldern, New Light on the Aryan Migra- R. Heine-Geldern, op. cit., Fig. 10. For a discussion of
tion to India (B.I.A.A. v. 1, Fig. 9, 3rd from left), and the distribution of these spearheads see Childe, Axes
Rostovtzeff, J.E.A., vi, 1920, pi. in, 10. from Maikop and Caucasian Metallurgy (A.A.A. xxin),
6 Contenau, Giyan, pi. 32, T. 112, 3; Schmidt, and also Frankfort, Archaeology and the Sumerian
Hissar, pi. L, H. 3582. See McCowan, Comparative Problem.
Type 30e. Narrow blade with sloping shoulders; the hooked tang is round and continues
into the blade as a midrib ; the hook is button-shaped.
Extant Examples
2200-1600 B.C.
Type 30. Cyprus. Lapithos. Gjerstad, S.C.E. 1, pi. cxlii. L. 313A, 65.
E.C. III.
Type 30a. Cyprus. Lapithos. Gjerstad, S.C.E. 1, pi. cxlii. L. 313A, 66,
1600-1200 B.c. L. 313a, n. Both EC. III.
Type 30. N. Syria. Ras Shamra. Schaeffer, Syria, xix. 3 (1938), Fig. 23,
Tomb Liv. Dated to 17th century or
beginning of 16th century b.c.
Palestine. Provenance British Museum, 129414. Length 27 cm.
unknown.
Provenance British Museum, 129413 (length 33 cm.),
unknown. and 129411. These two blades have no
hook at the end of the tang, but belong
typologically to this series.
Type 30a. Palestine. Gezer. British Museum, 129410.
Provenance British Museum, 129405. Length 15-8 cm.
unknown.
Type 30b. Palestine. Gezer. British Museum, 129409. Length 21 cm.
Provenance British Museum, 129408.
unknown.
Type 30c. Persia. Tepe Hissar. Schmidt, pi. l, H. 2023, H. 2024, from
Hissar III b.
Tureng Tepe. R. Heine Geldern, B.I.A.A. v. 1, Fig. 9,
right-hand example.
Type 3od. Persia. Tepe Hissar. Schmidt, Museum Journal, xxin, pi. c iii,
H. 1040, from Hissar II.
Type 30e. Persia. Kurdistan. Reputed to have come from Moukri
district, now in Teheran Museum. J. de
Morgan, La Pr?histoire orientale, in, Fig.
225.
Caucasus. Rizagad, Zakharoff, R.H.A. 1, ?tudes sur V arch?ologie
Georgia. de G Asie Mineur et du Caucase, pi. 7, 1 a.
TYPE 31
The class of daggers and swords characterized by Ranged hilts', usually cast
one piece with the blade, represents an advance in the technique of casting
working of bronze weapons. The fashion was widespread in the late second a
first millennia, and the method employed involved the raising of the edges
each side of the hilt so that decorative inlay in the form of wood, bone, or othe
perishable material could be applied as a handle. The inlay was usually fixe
the bronze hilt by rivets, but sometimes the presence of the raised flanged e
was sufficient to keep the inlay in place. The result was a strong and service
weapon which could have a narrow blade tapering gradually to a sharp point.
The Syrian and Palestinian examples are usually characterized by a crescent
shaped pommel, and a widening of the blade at the juncture of hilt and blade
to two protuberances or rudimentary 'horns' being
This feature, which is undoubtedly Aegean in or
In Crete the M.M. Ill type of sword with a round
to have survived into L.M. I a, but was displaced
lb which also had a crescentic-shaped, and in L
circular, pommel. This 'horned' form was caused
shoulder being projected upwards. In L.M. II th
horizontally, resulting in a cruciform shape, and i
carried right round the hilt and the pommel wh
Daggers follow the same pattern. On the Greek main
the round Mycenaean Shaft-grave weapon has a rig
carried all the length of the tang, not including th
the Chamber tombs (early in Late Helladic II),
logically intermediate between the Shaft-graves
rudimentary flange, for the edges of the tang are
wooden side-pieces.3 This leads R. W. Hutchinson
the idea of raising a flange to keep the inlay in
some Minoan sword-smith from the rudimentar
by hammering the ricasso to make it blunter for t
with a rudimentary flange was found at Chamai
and another from Hagia Triada6 in a M.M. Ha
slightly more advanced.
With the exception of the Babylonian example wh
in Asia this type is confined to Syria and Palesti
Shamra, as one would expect, Aegean influence
especially strong, and it is possible that these w
Asiatic smiths copying Aegean features which they
of the incoming colonists. The example from R
63, u), with its well-marked horns and crescenti
a method used for other weapons of Syrian type fr
dagger found by Schliemann at Mycenae, and fo
Type 32 b. The blades were forged lengthways i
was fibrous, the two pieces could be welded toge
Ras Shamra weapon to an L.M. II cruciform swo
outstanding difference from the true Aegean type
Ras Shamra it is short and blunt, and no long thin
rapiers are known from Ugarit.
Schaeffer has dated the tombs in which the Ra
to the Hyksos period (seventeenth to sixteenth cent
1 The weapons worn by the curious 2 Remouchamps,
female op. cit., figures
Abb. 19.
on the fragment of a Mycenaean 3 Wace,
vaseArchaeologia,
from Ras LXXXII, pi. vii, No. 49, from
Shamra
have exaggerated crescentic-shaped Tomb 518pommels,
at Mycenae. See alsoand from
PERSSO*i,Dendra, pi. xxi.
the shape of the sheath one may 4 R.infer
W. Hutchinson, Iraq, I. 2, p. 169. of
the existence
large horned guards: Syria, xn,5 1931, Xanthoudides,
pi. m. Eph. Arch.,
A similar1906. Cited by
weapon with crescentic-shaped pommel and wide Hutchinson, loc. cit.
shoulders is found among the Cretan pictographic 6 Evans, Palace of Minos, I. 195 and Fig. 142c, and
signs which belong to M.M. II, and another with Halbherr, Monumenti Antichi dell* Accademia dei
round pommel is depicted on the stele from the 5thLincei, xix; also cited by Hutchinson, loc. cit.
Shaft-grave: Remouchamps, Griechische Dolch- und 7 And Asia Minor. See addendum to Type 31.
Schwertformen, Abb. 16 and 17. 8 Citing B.S.A. ?, Supp. Papers, pi. xxv.
provided by the associated pottery and Mycenaean analogies, they are more likely
to belong to the sixteenth century. Schaeffer also suggests that they represent
evidence for the arrival of Aegean colonists or merchants at Ras Shamra. The
Palestinian weapons are dated to Hyksos times, and the possibility that the
fashion was originally invented by a Hyksos metalsmith is discussed in the
introduction to Type 33.
Types with flanged hilts
In all examples the hilt and the blade are cast in one piece. The edges of the hilt and ricasso
are raised to hold in place the inlay of bone, wood, or other perishable material.
Type 31.
The blade is blunt with straight sides, the section flat or slightly curved. The base of the
hilt is crescentic-shaped; the sides are concave and swell out to two protuberances or rudi-
mentary 'horns' at the juncture of hilt and blade.
Variations
Type 31a. There are no horns at the juncture of blade and hilt. The ricasso is a continua-
tion of the blade.
Type 31b. Rudimentary horns, and the surface of the pointed blade is rilled.
Type 3IC. The blade has rounded point, straight sides, rudimentary horns; the sides of the
hilt are only slightly concave, and the base flat.
Extant Examples
I80O-15OO B.C.
Type 31. N. Syria. Ras Shamra. Schaeffer, Ugaritica, 1, Fig. 63, u. Three
rivets, one in ricasso, the others at base of
hilt. 16th century B.c.
Schaeffer, Syria, xvn. 2 (1936), Fig. 17,
t. Four rivets, broken hilt. Tomb LVI.
17th and 16th centuries B.c. Another
example was found in Tomb LXV.
Palestine. Tell Ajj?l. P?trie, iv, pi. xxi, 215. Two rivet-holes.
Hilt broken. 17th and 16th centuries B.c.
P?trie, iv, pi. xxv, 261. No rivets. Hilt
broken. Hyksos period.
P?trie, iv, pi. xxviii, 294. No rivets.
Hilt broken. Leaf-shaped blade. Hyksos
period.
P?trie, iv, pi. xxvi, 268. Seven rivet-
holes, five in ricasso, two in hilt. Hyksos
period. The hilt of this example is broken
across half-way up.
Tell Fara. P?trie, ?, pi. ??, 82. Hyksos period.
(Institute of Archaeology, No. F. 554).
There are other examples both from Tell
Ajj?l and Tell Fara published by P?trie.
Type 31a. Palestine. Tell Ajj?l. P?trie, m, pi. ??p?, 4. Eleven rivet-holes.
16th century B.c.
P?trie, iv, pi. xxviii, 295. Three, prob-
ably four, rivet-holes. 16th century B.c.
Gezer. Macalister, ni, pi. cxxxv, 12a. Un-

stratified.
I500-II00 B.C.
Type 31b. Palestine. Sichern. Watzinger, Denkm?ler Palastinas, ?, pi.
xxiv. Dated to Amenhetep III.
Type 31C. Syria. Provenance Dussaud, Syria, vu (1926), Fig. 1, b.
unknown.
c. 600-500 B.C.
Type 31a. Babylonia. Babylon. Koldewey, Abb. 145. Long thin blade,
with slight midrib, and several rivets.
From Merkes Mound.
TYPE 32
Where hilt and blade were cast in one piece the smiths could easily vary the
shape of the blade to suit different purposes, and the leaf-shaped blade is ofte
found on shorter weapons which were probably used as knives (see Type 32
and d). The fashion of extending the side flanges, usually near the point of juncture
of hilt and blade, and hammering them over the inlay in the shape of wings,
found both on technically advanced examples where the hilt is longer in relation
to the blade than in other types, and on more primitive forms. This feature
known in the Aegean in M.M. Ill, and it is found on an early sword type from
the fifth Shaft-grave at Mycenae.1 Other examples with rudimentary flanges hav
been mentioned in the introduction to Type 31, but the true winged ricasso in its
advanced form does not seem to have been used in the Aegean.
The Asiatic daggers of this type are confined to Syria and Persia,2 but Trans
caucasia provides an interesting analogy from Kalakent3 on the Baku peninsul
(East Transcaucasian Gandzha-Karabagh culture), where a pointed straight-side
dagger-blade has a flanged hilt with the whole of the side flanges bent over to th
centre. Two other examples showing the same feature from Elizavetpol are i
the Hermitage Museum,4 and the development of this idea is seen on daggers from
Helenendorf5 (Gandzha-Karabagh culture), in examples of unknown provenanc
in the Hermitage Museum,6 and on a Georgian dagger from Atchadzore,7 wher
it has become a purely decorative feature on a solid hilt. A similar hilt is found on
a dagger from Redkin-Lager, Armenia.8 In view of the close connexions betwee
the Luristan daggers and the Talish series and analogies between Talish an
Caucasian weapons (see introduction to Type 44), it is surprising that the feature
of winged flanges is not known in the Talish region, but future excavations in th
area may well produce examples.
The earliest examples maybe as early as the eighteenth century B.c. and, it seems,
were made at a time when Egyptian influence, which during the Twelfth Dynasty
had extended to Byblos and as far north as Ras Shamra and the Lebanon, wa
declining. This decline was probably due both to the extension of Babylonian
power under Hammurabi and to the rise of a non-Semitic element, of a militar
1 Childe, Bronze Age, Fig. 8, 6. 5 Han?ar, op. cit. 51, e and f.
2 And Asia Minor. See addendum to Type 32 d. 6 Zakharoff, op. cit., pis. xi, 6 and 7.
3 Han?ar, Kaukasus-Luristan, E.S.A. ix, p. 51, c. 7 Ibid., pis. xi, 9.
4 Zakharoff, ?tudes sur Varch?ologie de VAsie 8 Chantre, Recherches anthropologiques dans le
Mineure et du Caucase (R.H.A. 1, pis. x, 7; xi, 1).Caucase, 11, Fig. 124.
character, in the population of Ugarit, and as Schaeffer has suggested, it is possible

that the civilization represented in the levels of the eighteenth and seventeenth
centuries B.c. at Ras Shamra may have been responsible for provoking the Hyksos
movement to the south. It is also important to note that although other types of
weapons are rare in the tombs after the sixteenth century, the flanged dagger with
winged ricasso in its developed form is found during the fifteenth to thirteenth
centuries B.c. at a time when the political power of the Hurrian element in the
mixed population of Ras Shamra was probably declining, and the settlement of
Mycenaean traders and merchants was on the increase. It is unlikely, however,
that these daggers can be regarded as products of Aegean workmen, as presumably
some of them would have been exported to their homeland; while the idea
seems to have been spread by smiths travelling along the trade routes eastward to
Persia, northwards along the coast to Atchana, and southwards to Palestine.
Whether we are dealing here with the activities of Hurrian metalsmiths and
traders it is impossible to say, but the point is perhaps worth mentioning as a
possibility which awaits further evidence (see also introduction to Type 33).
In Persia the Luristan examples have to be studied in relation to the inscribed
daggers with flanged hilts (see Type 35) and the inscribed example with the
distinctive winged ricasso now in the Louvre. The fact that the Persian series is
so much later in date than the Syrian group is not very surprising. The idea may
have reached Babylonia through the activities of an enterprising smith working
for new markets for his products, perhaps profiting from the stable conditions of
the Syrian trade routes due to the complete control exercised over them by
Tiglath-pileser I after he had destroyed the Aramaean resistance to Assyrian
expansion. It seems that his products were highly valued by the Babylonian king,
and that after this success, when conditions in Babylonia were becoming chaotic,
the fashion should pass into Persia and remain in use for at least two or three
centuries, is perfectly natural (see introduction to Type 35).
Type 32
The flanges of the ricasso are rectangular in shape and are extended and hammered over
the inlay in the form of wings; the base of the hilt is practically flat. The pointed blade has
straight sides, and sometimes has slightly wide raised flange down the centre.
Variations
Type 32a. The ricasso is merely a continuation of the hilt.

Type 32b. The hilt is separated from the ricasso by two well-marked recesses.
Type 32c. The blade is short, blunt, and leaf-shaped, the ricasso is a continuation of the hilt.
Type 32d. Short blade with small rudimentary flanges on the ricasso, two, three, or six
rivets.
Extant Examples
18OO-160O B.C.
Type 32d. Syria. Ras Shamra. Schaeffer, Ugaritica, 1, Fig. 63, g, e. End
of 18th and 17th centuries B.c.
Ras Shamra. Schaeffer, Syria, xvn. 2 (1936), Fig. 19a.
End of 18th and 17th centuries B.c.
Assyria. Chagar Bazar. Mallowan, Iraq, iv. 2, Fig. 13, 6. From
Level I. Probably Intermediate period,
c. 1700 B.C.
?6??-?200 B.C.
Type 32c. Palestine. Tell Ajj?l. P?trie, in, pi. xxn, 94. Probab
Bronze Age.
N. Syria. Atchana. British Museum, No. A.T. 8/111. Blade
made of two pieces welded together.
Length 20-5 cm.
Ras Shamra. Schaeffer, Syria, xvn. 2 (1936), Fig. 13, p.
Dated to 14th century b.c.
Ras Shamra. I.L.N., 14 June 1941. 15th and 13th
centuries B.c.
Persia. Tepe Giyan. Contenau, pi. 10, 7, Tomb 10. Dated to
post 1400 B.c.
I20O-60O B.C.
Type 32. Perda. Luristan. British Museum, No. 120938. 1929?4?

15, 10. Length 3675 cm.
Luristan. Mus?e du Louvre. I.L.N., 29 Oct. 1932,
Fig. 3. Inscribed with the name of King
Marduk-nadin-ahk?of2nd Dynasty of Isin,
1080-1065 B.C.
Luristan. Cambridge, Museum of Archaeology, No.
34.903. Length 367 cm.
Tepe Giyan. Syria, xiv (1933), pi. 1, Fig. 2. End of
12th century B.c.
Type 32a. Persia. Luristan. Cambridge, Museum of Archaeology, No.
34.902. Length 347 cm.
Luristan. Hutchinson, Iraq, 1. 2, Fig. 1, 2.
Luristan. Speelers, Bulletin des mus?es royaux d'art
et histoire, 3, 1932, 64, c.
Type 32b. Persia. Luristan. Speelers, op. cit., 64, b.
TYPE 33
For thrusting, the short pointed dagger-blade, or short sword with straight sides
cast in one piece with a flanged hilt, could not be improved upon, and it was not
until the use of armour became general, as at the time of the invasions of the Sea
peoples, when it was worn by the Egyptians, Philistines, and Shardana, that the
slashing leaf-shaped sword and the long straight-sided cutting blade superseded
a thrusting weapon, often, however, retaining the flanged hilt (see introduc-
tion to Type 52). Many examples of this type have been found in Egypt, and
these must be briefly summarized before any attempt can be made to discuss the
various theories which have been put forward as to the original home of the
flanged hilt. It is clear without any doubt that the earliest example with this form
of hilt is the dagger found at Sakkara bearing the name of the Hyksos King Apophis
and the name of the owner Nhmn. The smith who made this weapon obviously
possessed extremely advanced technical knowledge, using wood and gold in the
plating of the hilt and decorating the side with a hunting-scene.1 The hilt measures
11 cm., the blade 24 cm. The weapon can be dated c. 1700 b.c., and technically
it is interesting to compare with the unskilled attempts of the smiths who made the
weapons found at Chagar Bazar and Ras Shamra (see Type 32) to cast an efficient
1 Wolf, Die Bewaffnung, pp. 43 f., Taf. 13, 8. For another example bearing the name of a Hyksos king see ibid.
71, footnote 1 a.
flanged hilt. These daggers cannot be far removed in date from
examples, yet these latter are not native to Egypt and must eith
imported from Asia or made in Egypt by Asiatic smiths employed by
kings. The development of this type can be clearly traced during t
Dynasty. A beautiful example (approximating more to Type 36) w
Thotmes III to his general Thot.1 Here the blade is thinner, m
and improved by a strengthening down the centre. The hilt has a sma
the first finger in the ricasso and the ivory inlay is inscribed. Two ex
inscribed, are in the British Museum,2 the first with ricasso indent (c
the second similar to an example from north Syria, mentioned in t
also in the British Museum. Two other examples now at Turin and
to the same type,3 and it is used by Semitic tribute-bearers and
tribesmen depicted on the chariot of Thotmes IV.4 An extant Egyp
of Eighteenth Dynasty date with a wide concave-shaped blade sho
influence has a hilt inlaid with wood or ivory,5 and a developed Egypt
has a straight-sided pointed blade and six rivets to keep in place th
(as on the dagger from Nineveh) extended on to the ricasso. It remain
a curious weapon with an unusually wide blunt blade, described by
sword, which has an inlaid hilt. A similar blade has also been fou
which tapers to a narrow riveted tang.7 Analogies for this weapon can
Greece and Crete about 1400 b.c., and it may either be an import
manufactured by an Aegean metalsmith working in Egypt.
In all its forms this type is known in Syria and Palestine at the
Eighteenth Dynasty, and the widespread popularity of the fashion of
hilt is shown by the fact that flanged hilts are found on daggers f
(see Types 35 and 36), swords and daggers from the Talish region
44 and 45) on the borders of Russia and Persia, on Caucasian dagg
on certain Hittite weapons (see Types 48 and 49). The difference b
31a and 33 a will be seen to be chiefly in the shape of the pomm
chronologically later, and it is possible that it may represent a type of
for the Hurrian 'Marianu' (the aristocratic class used to further
ambitions of Mitanni) both at the time of and after their dispersio
Syria and their southward movement into Palestine. It is interest
this connexion that the example from Nuzu comes from Hurrian
recall that Shaushater (c. 1450 b.c.) was acknowledged suzerain of N
his rule was acknowledged by Atchana, and possibly, for a time, by
At the same time it was probably Hurrian intrigues which forced Am
to quell a revolt at Ugarit on his way back to Egypt from his expeditio
The type remained in use in Palestine for a long time and becam
in Assyria in the first millennium. This is not surprising and was alm
due to the Assyrian custom of transporting skilled craftsmen and
1 Wolf, op. cit. 71, Taf. 13, 9. see Bonnet, op. cit. 63 f, Abb. 23, c, d, and Abb. 25 b.
2 Ibid. Taf. 5, 4 and 5; see also P?trie, Tools and Examples are also known from Gaza, P?trie, Gaza, in,
Weapons, pi. xxxiv, 52. pi. ix, 26, and Ras Shamra, Schaeffer, Syria, xin,
3 Wolf, op. cit. 71, footnote 1. 1932, pi. x, 1.
4 Carter-Newberry, The Tomb of Thoutm?sis IV, 6 Bonnet, Die Waffen, Abb. 24 e.
pie. ? and xi. 7 Wolf, Die Bewaffnung, Taf. 13, 12; Bonnet, op.
5 Bonnet, Die Waffen, Abb. 25 a; Archaeologia, cit., Abb. 31.
Llil9 pi. rv, 4. For a discussion of this type of blade,
to their capital after each foreign campaign. Evidence about Assyrian armaments
is mainly gained from a study of the scenes portrayed on reliefs. The short
dagger with flanged hilt was often worn by the king himself, sometimes in pairs,
each in a separate sheath or two daggers in the same sheath. A miniature dagger
in the British Museum belonging to the end of the second millennium is of the
same type, and this weapon was used both in battle and for ceremonial occasions,
as it is worn by archers taking part in the siege of a city and by the winged
figures performing a ritual before the sacred tree. An example of this type
was found at Nimrfuid dating from the reign of Shalmaneser III (see catalogue).
After his reign the flanged hilt seems to have gone out of fashion in Assyria, and
later types of Assyrian daggers and swords are discussed in the introduction to
Types 54, 55, and 56.
From the above evidence it will be seen that the question of where the flanged
hilt was invented is extremely complicated. Hutchinson has expressed the view
that probably the idea owes its origin to a Hyksos metalsmith who introduced it
into Egypt 'perhaps from Syria, perhaps under the influence of Minoan models'.I
Bonnet has suggested that the place of origin should be sought in Assyria or the
neighbouring countries. Early dated examples from Assyria are not yet known,
but the association of the fashion with the Hyksos period is a pointer to north Syria,
as are also its possible Hurrian associations. If the home of the Hurri is to be
found in the hill country north of Nisibin towards Lake Van, then the spread of
the fashion into the Talish region is more understandable. But here we enter the
field of conjecture and a great deal more evidence is needed before any theory
capable of factual substantiation can be advanced with any degree of certainty.
TYPE 33
Pointed blade with straight sides, plain flanged hilt cast together with blade; the sides of the
hilt are concave, the base practically flat, and the ricasso rectangular shaped.
Variations
Type 33a. The raised edges of the flanged hilt do not include the ricasso; the surface of the
blade is curved in section.
Type 33b. The blade is leaf-shaped, blunt, flat, or slightly curved in section; the ricasso
is a continuation of the hilt, and the base of the hilt is rounded.
Type 33c. Straight-sided blade with blunt point.
Extant Examples
I600-I200 B.C.
Type 33. N. Syria. Ras Shamra. Schaeffer, Syria, x. 4(1929), Fig. 7, right-
hand example.
Persia. Luristan. Hutchinson, Iraq, 1. 2 (1934), Fig. i, i.
The blade has a wide raised flange down
the centre. Unstratified.
Type 33a. Assyria. Eastern Pro- Starr, II, pl. 125, K.K. 2. The blade is of
vinces. Nuzu. copper and the hilt of iron. From Hurrian
(Yorgan Levels I and II.
Tepa).
N. Syria. Provenance British Museum, No. 1294I6 and
unknown. B.M.Br.G., Fig. i8o. Length 40 cm.
I Hutchinson, op. cit., p. 34, note 4.
Palestine Megiddo. Guy, Tombs, pi. 149, 8. Late Bronze
Age I, 1550-1100 b.c.
Type 33b. Palestine Tell Fara. Macdonald, Starkey, Harding, 11, pi.
xlviii, 2 (Institute of Archaeology, No. F.
914). I4th-i2th centuries b.c.
P?trie 1, pi. xxvi, 851. I3th-i2th cen-
turies B.c.
N. Syria. Atchana. Ashmolean Museum, No. 1938.170. Un-
stratified. Length 18*4 cm.
Type 33c? N. Syria. Ras Shamra. Schaeffer, Syria, x. 4 (1929), Fig. 7, left-
hand example.
Minet el Schaerfer, Syria, xin. 1 (1932), pi. x, 2.
Beida. Dated to i5th-i3th centuries b.c.
I2OO-60O B.C.
Type 33. Persia. Nihavend. Hall, B.M.Q. iv. 1, pi. 4b.
gth century b.c.
Type 33. Assyria. Nimr?d. British Museum, No. 120937. Layard,
Mon. Nineveh, 1, pi. 96.10. From Palace
of Ashur-nasir-pal.
Layard, ibid., pis. 7 and 7a.
TYPE 34
The terms 'Sichelschwert' or 'scimitar' for the Asiatic curved sword is mis-
leading because the scimitar was usually sharpened on the inside only and required
a slashing stroke, while the curved sword could be sharpened either on both inside
and outside or more commonly only on the outside. In its more primitive form
it must have attempted to combine the advantages of the battle-axe and the cutting
sword, yet the length between hilt and the curved part of the blade shows that it
was invented primarily for use in the same way as an axe. Later examples, with
the curved part of the blade lengthened and the straight base shortened, approximate
more in shape to the sabre, a weapon which has always been popular among Eastern
peoples. The type, with the exception of the special Egyptian form the Hp?, is
peculiar to western Asia.1 One extant example2 from Egypt with flanged hilt
belongs to Type 34, and was probably made during the Nineteenth Dynasty by
an Asiatic smith working in Egypt or for the Egyptian market. Another example
from Tell Rot?b in the Wadi Tumal?t3 is almost exactly similar to a weapon in
the Louvre which may have come from Byblos, with the cutting part of the blade
only slightly curved so that it could only be used for a wide slashing stroke. Egyptian
influence is seen on the Byblos example decorated with the uraeus and the Sichern
example decorated with the lotus flower,4 and the Hps, the Egyptian development
of this weapon, is often decorated with the lotus flower at the junction of hilt and
blade. On the Egyptian forms the straight part of the blade disappeared and, to
protect the hand, the curved edge of the blade was projected far in advance of the
handle. The Egyptians who fought against people using the curved sword seeme
to have begun to use this weapon (in the form with reduced base to the blade) a
1 With the exception of the two curved swords from
2 Wolf, Die Bewaffnung, Taf. ?, ?.
Norre, Ostergotland, and Kondstorp, Schonen. 3 Naville and Griffith, Tell el Yah?d?yeh, pi.
Forssander, Der Ostkand Norden w?hrend der ?ltesten
xix, 30.
Metallzeit Europas (Lund, 1936), 198, Taf. xli, xlii. 4 See Catalogue.
Dated as end of Aunjetitz.
the beginning of the New Kingdom (though some
by the word Hps must have been used in Mid-Ki
purposes it was not commonly used after the end o
to symbolize the divinity of the gods or the power
became less practical ; the hilts were made in the fo
an animal and the weapon itself was designed pu
the earliest extant example of a curved blade wa
representations of this weapon come from Baby
weapon, it was also a ceremonial symbol of migh
made of wood. On the circular relief from Lagash3
of the figures and in form is very similar to th
possibly may be as early as this representation. A l
logically more primitive, is carried by Eannatum
here the head is not so curved and the weapon m
Representations of scimitars on cylinder seals show
were stuck in the wooden blades; later a metal
wooden part, and finally the blade was made entire
Assyria the scimitar remained in use for a longe
or royalty than as a weapon. It is found on a statue
king's right hand, and the head was then made int
extended round three-quarters of a circle.6
The idea of the curved blade spread from Baby
symbol, and was probably taken up by the Egyptia
in western Asia as early as the end of the Twelf
The fashion of raising the flanges and inlaying the
cally developed forms which are cast in one piec
century B.c. The hilt was then given a large curv
cutting-side of the weapon to prevent the fingers
on the ricasso also acted as guards to the hand.
The sword with curved point found at Beisan w
as a Hittite weapon imported into Palestine, and ha
worn by the king at Bogazk?y which has a sim
But this weapon is different from the true curved
portrayed on the reliefs at Yazilikaya, which is not
Dynasty examples with short handles.
Type 34
Wide, curved blade, straight base and handle fixed on to a short tang, often nearly semi-
circular in shape with cutting-edge on the outside.
Variations
Type 34a. The curved part of the blade is flatter and the straight base reduced in length.
The hilt is flanged and inlaid with wood, ivory, or bone.
Type 34b. The blade is more curved than (a) and nearer in shape to Type 34 above. The
hilt is flanged and the straight base of reduced length as in Type 34a.
1 Wolf, op. cit., Taf. 7, 6-11. s Bonnet, Die Waffen, Abb. 41. See Langdon,
2 Bonnet, Die Waffen, Abb. 42. Semitic Mythology, Figs. 84 and 86, for the scimitar and
3 Contenau, Manuel, 1, Fig. 324. curved sword on Assyrian cylinder seals.
4 Zervos, VArt de la M?sopotamie, ?. 111. 6 Budge, Assyrian Sculptures, pi. 1.
Type 34c. The shape of the curved blade approaches that of a sickle an
sharp point.
Type 34J. The blade is straight except for its curved point ; it is sharp on both sides and
has a flanged hilt with well-marked guards at the juncture of hilt and blade. Wide crescentic-
shaped pommel.
Extant and other examples from reliefs, statues, terra-cottas, &c.
2700-2400 B.c.
Type 34. Babylonia. Tello. Circular relief shows a figure carrying this
weapon. Bonnet, op. cit., Abb. 38.
2400-1600 B.c.
Type 34. Babylonia. Tello. Heuzey, pi. vili, 4, and Bonnet, op. cit.,
Abb. 34. In this exceptional example both
sides of the curved blade are sharpened.
Copper.
Tello. Heuzey, pi. vin, 5, and Bonnet, op. cit.,
Abb. 33. Here the cutting-edge is flatter
and the blade has a curved end. Handle
and blade both of copper.
These two examples may belong to the
Early Dynastic period.
Tello. Bonnet, op. cit., Abb. 41. Sargonid cylin-
der seal showing scimitar in the hands of
the god Shamash.
Tello. Heuzey, pi. vin, and pp. 137, 243. Terra-
cottas showing scimitar in the hands of a
divinity.
De Genouillac, n, pi. 120. 3rd Dynasty of
Ur and Larsa periods.
Phoenicia. Byblos. Virolleaud, Syria, in (1922), pi. lxv.
Bronze blade reinforced by a rib which
ends in a gold uraeus incrusted with silver,
wooden hilt decorated with gold rosettes.
Length 65 cm. Tomb I. Amenemhet III.
Montet, Byblos et V?gypte, pi. xcix, 653,
Tomb II, Amenemhet IV; pi. c, 654.
Tomb III.
Palestine. Sichern. Bohl, pi. v. This may be dated to the
reign of Amenemhet III.
Type 34c. Palestine and Syria. Wolf, Die Bewaffnung, Taf. 7, 4 and 5.
18th Dynasty (Amenhetep II and Thot-
mes III). Montet, Les Reliques de G Art
Syrien, Fig. 17.
1600-1200 B.c.
Type 34a. Phoenicia. Byblos.(?) Dussaud, Syria, vii. 3 (1926), Fig. ic.
Unstratified.
Assyria. Smith, Early History of Assyria, Fig. 12.
Adad-nirari I.
E. Asia Minor. Yazilikaya. Garstang, Hittite Empire, pi. xxiv.
Type 34?? N. Syria. Ras Shamra. Schaeffer, Syria, xvn. 2, pi. xvni, 2.
Palestine. Gezer. Macalister, in, pi. 75,16. 14th century B.c.
Type 34d. Beisan. I.L.N., 12 Nov. 1927. From temple of
Thotmes III.
TYPES 35 AND 36
The indented ricasso found on Types 35 and 36 could be used on pointed blades
with straight sides designed for thrusting or on a leaf-shaped blade more suitable
for cutting ; variations sometimes show several indentations for the fingers along
each side of the flanged hilt, and two examples from Georgia1 with single indents
at the base of the hilt have straight-sided blades with blunt ends, obviously intended
for cutting. The flanged hilted Russian dagger may well represent the influenc
of Assyrian smiths in the Vannic Kingdom, which, at the time of Argistis I (the
contemporary of Shalmaneser IV, 782-772 b.c.), extended as far north as Alex-
andropol and later, owing to the campaigns of Rusas (the adversary of Sargon o
Assyria, 722-705 b.c.), to the region between Erivan and Tiflis. The Assyrian
influence in Vannic metal-work at which the Urartuan people were extremely
skilled is well known from the bronzes discovered at Toprakkale and elsewher
in Armenia and from the account of the spoil of Musasir, and it is possible tha
where weapons were concerned the Vannic smiths began to copy Assyrian tech
nique as early as the reign of Ashur-nasir-pal, when the cuneiform system of
writing was introduced to Armenia from Assyria. The similarity between the
hilts of the Georgian examples and the Assyrian dagger (called by Andrae a
miniature sword) from Ashur dating from Shalmaneser Ill's reign2 is striking,
and the campaign by a general of Shalmaneser III against Sarduris I of Urartu in
831 B.c. may have opened up contacts between Assyrian and Vannic smiths at
time when skilled Assyrian metal-workers had become capable of technically
advanced productions such as the Balawat Gates. Owing to the crescentic-shaped
hilt, Bonnet considers the Assyrian weapon to be a Hittite import, but this need
not be so, as this feature is well known outside Asia Minor.
For comparison with the Gezer hilt where the inlay may have been held in place
by the projections on the flange, an unpublished flat leaf-shaped blade with simila
hilt found at Ras Shamra in a Late Bronze Age level and now in the Louvre mus
be mentioned, as must two Aegean swords belonging to L.M. Ill c period, one
from Mouliana in Crete,3 the other possibly from Thiaki,4 This feature also occur
on swords from central Europe in the Late Bronze Age, and mention must be made
of the short sword from Norcia in Umbria5 with well-marked projections on the
flanged hilt, belonging to the Late Italian Bronze Age (see Type 47, Introduction).
The Egyptian Hyksos examples have already been discussed in the introduction
to Type 33, and in western Asia this weapon can be considered a Persian type
which may have been first used as early as the thirteenth century and attained th
height of its popularity during the twelfth and eleventh centuries B.c. In the
Talish region swords with a swelling at the centre of the flanged hilt have bee
found, and this feature was also used where the hilt was round and not flanged (see
Type 43). While a great many of the unstratified 'Luristan Bronzes' can b
ascribed to Median workmanship, it is probable that Median smiths had adopte
1 Zakharoff, R.H.A. ?, pi. xii, 3 and pi. xi, 2. Fig. 22.
2 See Catalogue. 4 Benton, ?.S.A. ????, 114, Fig. 1.
3 Citing Hutchinson, Iraq, I. 165; Xanthoudides, 5 Reallexikon der Vorgeschichte, vi, Taf. 29, f.
Eph. Arch. 1904, 29, Fig. 7 and Evans, Shaft Graves,
the fashion of inlaid hilts as early as the thirteenth century B.c.,
groups of Median settlers were arriving on the Iranian plateau fro
to the north-west of Persia, in the vicinity of Lake Urmia, and north
the west coast of the Caspian. The close relationship between the grou
found in the Talish district and the Luristan series is obvious, and ag
cultural connexions discerned by Hancar between Luristan and
Karabagh culture of east Transcaucasia provides archaeological evid
movement of tribes which, starting from north of the Caucasus,
regions of Transcaucasia, Armenia, north-west Persia, and Lurista
climax roughly some time before or after 1200 b.c.1 At a later date th
and technical skill of the Medes is well known ; Rusas II of Urartu em
men from the land of Man near Lake Urmia to assist in the embellishm
temple at Toprakkale and the description of Agbatana given by He
be taken literally, would suggest an extremely high standard of craf
Type 35
Leaf-shaped blade, pointed, with thickening down centre, accentuated crescentic-shaped
pommel, flanged hilt and rectangular shaped ricasso, which is pierced by one rivet-hole;
another rivet-hole below the pommel.
Variations
Type 35a. The ricasso is indented on each side; the blade is leaf-shaped and blunt; there
are no rivet-holes.
Type 35b. On each side of the hilt below the pommel there are two small protuberances ;
the ricasso is rectangular-shaped, but there are two small recesses on each side immediately
above it.
Extant Examples
c. 1200-600 B.c.
Type 35. Persia. Luristan. British Museum, 123060, cf. B.M.Q.

vu. 2, pi. xviii. Inscribed 'Belonging to
Shamash-killanni, officer of the King'.
Length 45 cm. Probably 2nd Dynasty of
Isin.
Type 35a. Persia. Luristan. British Museum, 123061, cf. B.M.Q.
vu. 2, pi. xviii. Leaf-shaped blade, in-
scribed belonging to Marduk-nadin-akh?,
King of all, King of Babylon, King of
Sumer and Akkad\ Length 36-2 cm. End
of 12th century B.c.
Luristan. B.A.S.O.R., 74, Fig. 1. Inscribed 'sa
Marduk-sa-pi-ik-z?ri, ?ar kiSsati (Belong-
ing to Marduk-Sa-pi-ik-z?ri, King of all).
There are three blood-grooves down the
centre of the blade, which is leaf-shaped.
2nd Dynasty of Isin.
1 Whether India can be included in this list if these the Aryan Migration to India (B.A.I.I.?. ?, i), whose
tribes contained people of Indo-European speech, or arguments are partly based on a second millennium
whether the movement was caused by a second Aryan date for Hissar III. Swords with flanged hilts found in
migration similar to that which must have occurred India are discussed by Piggott, Prehistoric Copper
between 1500 and 1450 b.c. or earlier, cannot be dis-Hoards in the Ganges Basin (Antiquity, xvm. 173-82).
cussed here, but see R. Heine-Geldern, New Light on
Type 35b. Persia. Luristan. British Museum, 122932, cf. B.M.Q.
vi, 3, pi. 30. Length 33 cm. Leaf-shaped
blade.
Assyria. Ashur. Andrae, Der Anu-Adad Temple, Figs. 46-7.
Shalmaneser III and Sargon.
Type 36
Pointed blade with straight sides, flanged hilt; the ricasso has two angular indentations on
each side similar to Type 35 a.
Variations
Type 36a. The pommel is circular shaped; there is a raised rib round the hilt above the
ricasso, which is slightly indented.
Type 36b. Similar to Type 35b, but the blade has straight sides.
Type 36c. The sides of the hilt are notched on the outside to facilitate the grip.
Extant and examples from wall-paintings

c. 1200-600 B.C.
Type 36. Persia. Luristan. Cambridge Museum of Archaeology, No.

34.904. Length 34 cm.
Luristan. Speelers, Bulletin des Mus?es Royaux, 3,
1932, 64, d.
Luristan. Upham Pope, Survey of Persian Art, pi.
54, c.
N. Syria. Hama. Ingholt, pi. xxv, 6. Level F. Dated to
?2??-9?? B.C.
Type 36a. Persia. Tepe Sialk. Ghirshman, 11, pi. xxvi, 8. Iron blade
and bronze hilt. From Cemetery ?. i2th-
8th centuries B.c.
Type 36b. Persia. Luristan. Speelers, Bulletin des Mus?es Royaux, 3,
1932, 64 e.
Type 36c. Mesopotamia. Arslan-Tash. Thureau-Dangin, pis. xlix-li. ist half
of 8th century b.c.
Palestine. Gezer. Macalister, 11. Fig. 473. From debris of
'3rd Semitic period', c. 1200-1000 b.c.
TYPES 37, 38, 39, 40, 41

For use in combat the efficiency of the Luristan dagger-blades with thei
elaborately decorated hilts is questionable ; it is probable that some of them were
designed by their makers as elaborate hunting-knives or for display or rit
purposes. Type 38 would, for example, be more suitable for hunting than wa
fare. It has been compared by Godard to the dagger from Ur where a not dissimila
hilt is used, though the Ur blade is thinner and obviously intended for comb
Type 37, with its long decorated ricasso, may well have been primarily a ceremoni
weapon, but Type 39 is more practical with a well-made pointed blade. Many
the same metallurgical methods were used by smiths in the Talish region in makin
the weapons found in both the Russian and Persian graves. The curved pen
nular guards on Types 39 and 40 are only a variant of the guard on Type 45 a
on Type 43, where hilt and blade are cast in one piece. Here the guard is sho
as a circular rib enclosing each side of the midrib and is merely decorative. T
idea, however, was widespread from the Mediterranean to Persia, and can be
traced to its home in Egypt where it occurs on Predynastic daggers and in varying
forms on Mid-Kingdom and Hyksos weapons. Elaborate curved guards are well-
known on horned swords from Mycenae,1 and cruciform rapiers of L.M. II date
from Zafer Papoura;2 they also appear on central European swords,3 and are
therefore useless for dating purposes. A close comparison can be made between the
pommel of Type 37 and that of Type 45 a ; examples come from both Luristan and
the Talish region, and a representation of this pommel is known from daggers
portrayed on a relief of Sennacherib which formed part of the booty taken in a
campaign against a people of south Babylonia which is dated c. 700 b.c. The extant
examples are probably of Median workmanship,4 and the fact that both the
Luristan and the Talish example have iron blades combined with the portrayal
on Sennacherib's relief leads one to suppose that these three types belong to the
centuries after the inscribed Luristan example, i.e. the ninth to seventh centuries
b.c. The flange-hilted example Type 40 is probably early in the series as it can
be noted that the inscriptions all occur on daggers with inlaid handles while the
solid hilt is a typologically later development.
There is no evidence, however, that daggers with solid hilts are always chrono-
logically later and they may well have been used alongside the flanged-hilted
examples. Type 41 is found in the early Talish graves, but its connexions seem
to lie with Georgia rather than Luristan as similar-shaped blades occur in the
Gandzha Karabagh culture.
Type 37
The hilt is solid, cast in one with the blade, with no inlay. The pommel is crescentic in
shape and has two upstanding wings, the flanges of the ricasso are hammered down flat. The
rivet which would have held in place the wood or bone is represented by a boss on the out-
side of and between each wing of the pommel.
Extant Examples
c. 1000-600 B.C.
Type 37. Persia. Luristan. British Museum, 128618. Length 30-5 cm.
B.M.Q. xi. 2, pi. xxi, 6.
Luristan. B.A.S.O.R., No. 74, Fig. 2, d.
Luristan. Moortgat, Bronzeger?te aus Luristan,
pi. 1, 2.
Luristan. Godard, Bronzes du Luristan, pi. vin, 18
and 19.
Luristan. Upham Pope, Survey of Persian Art,
pi. 54, D.
Type 38
Short dagger, leaf-shaped blade, with ribs down the centre, riveted to round hilt which is
pierced by one hole at the base and another in the narrowest part. The surface has raised
studs and a serpent in relief between them. The guard is curved.
1 Karo, Schachtgr?be von Mykenai, pis. lxxxi, 4 Godard thinks that some of the Luristan weapons
lxxxii, No. 725. can be ascribed to the Kassites, but there is no con-
1 Hall, Greece, Fig. 257 vincing evidence that the Kassites were ever competent
1 Childe, Bronze Age, Fig. 8, 8. metallurgists.
Variations
Type 38a. The hilt is straight-sided, and above the guard t

in relief.
Extant Examples
c. 1000-600 B.C.
Type 38. Persia. Luristan. British Museum, 128761 (1936- -*3>

151). Length 28 cm.
Luristan. Moortgat, Bronzeger?te aus Luristan,
pi. 1, 1.
Luristan. Godard, Bronzes du Luristan, pi. ix, 21.
The guard is straight, and there is a face of
a man shown in relief on the base of the
hilt.
Type 38a. Persia. Luristan. British Museum, 123298 (1933?10?16,1).
Length 27 cm.
Type 39
Pointed blade, with straight sides, cast separate from the blade. The hilt is round with
raised rib across the centre, flat pommel and penannular guard.
Extant Examples
c. 1200-600 B.c.
Type 3?. Persia. Luristan. British Museum, No. 123315. Length

27-6 cm.
Type 40
Long narrow pointed blade, with flanged hilt cast in one with the blade. The flanges extend
round the edges of the penannular guard.
Variations
Type 40a. The ricasso is indented as in Type 35.

Extant Examples
c. 1000-600 B.C.
Type 40. Persia. Luristan. Cambridge Museum of Archaeology, No.

34, 905. Blade broken across towards
point.
Type 40a. Persia. Luristan. British Museum, No. 128762. Length
32 cm.
Type 41
Long blade with straight sides, rounded point, thickening down the centre, square shoulders
and narrow tang, with one rivet.
Variations
Type 41a. The blade is pointed ; sides straight or slightly concave ; one or no rivets.
Extant Examples
c. 1000-600 B.c.
Type 41. Persia. Luristan. British Museum, 123058 (1932?1?18,4).

33'5 cm?
Type 41a. Persia. Luristan. Przeworski, Die Metallindustrie, Taf. xxii, 2.
TYPES 42 AND 43
The Talish daggers are all well-made weapons eminently suited for warfare and
the examples of Type 43, one from the Talish and the other from Luristan, have
identical characteristics and may well have originated in the same workshop. The
Talish example, from Bronze Age III graves for which Hutchinson has suggested
a date of 1500-1200 B.c.,1 may easily be later than this. It is typologically later than
the flanged-hilted series, but examples of this type were found in the same graves
alongside the flanged-hilted daggers and the decorative penannular guard is also
found on a flanged-hilted example from Veri with hilt belonging to Type 36a and
on an iron dagger from Chagula Derre.2 The Luristan dagger is not likely to be
earlier than the inscribed series belonging to the twelfth to eleventh centuries B.c.
and is probably later.
Type 42
Narrow blade, thickening down the centre, with rounded point, concave sides, round
shoulders, and short stumpy tang, three rivets, one in each shoulder and one in the tang.
Extant Example
Type 42. Russia/Persia. Talish region. De Morgan, La Pr?histoire orientale, in,
Fig. 197 a. *ist-3rd Bronze periods.'
Type 43
Straight-sided pointed blade, with square shoulders, midrib and raised penannular guard,
cast in one with a solid cylindrical hilt and pommel. Slight swelling round centre of hilt.
Variations
Type 43a. Plain cylindrical hilt; round pommel; rectangular opening in the guard which is
cast in the shape of a lion's head flanged by animal paws.
Type 43b. The hilt and penannular guard are flanged.
Type 43c. The hilt is flanged; blade and penannular guard similar to Type 43.
Extant Examples
c. 1400-600 B.c.
Type 43. Persia. Luristan. Godard, Bronzes du Luristan, pi. vn, 14.
Russia/Persia. Talish region. De Morgan, La Pr?histoire orientale, ni.
Fig. 198, 2, Veri, and De Morgan, Mission
scientifique en Perse, ? ?, Fig. 63, 6.
Type 43a. Persia. Luristan. Godard, pi. ix, 20.
Type 43b. Russia I Persia. Talish region. De Morgan, M.D.P. vili, Fig. 638.
Agha-Evlar.
Type 43c. Russia I Persia. Talish region. De Morgan, M.D.P. vin, Figs. 277, 283;
Hutchinson, Iraq, 1. 2, pi. xxn.
???? 44
The purpose of this type with its enormous pommel must have been primarily
ceremonial, but Type 44a could certainly have been used as a weapon. There are
many analogies for the huge curved pommel, and while it occurs on Egyptian
reliefs on swords used by the Shardana and the Philistines (see introduction to
1 Hutchinson, Iraq, ?. 2, 1934. See also introduction
2 Hutchinson, op. cit., pi. xxii, 3. De Morgan,
to Type 44. La Pr?histoire orientale, m, Fig. 251, 1.
E
So RACHEL MAXWELL-HYSLOP
Type 52), the earliest example of this pommel is fou
from Ur.
Both examples come from the Talish Bronze Ag
compare the square shoulders and the ribs at junctio
Talish daggers with blades from Kvemo-Sasiret'i in G
ment of blade, hilt and pommel can be found in the G
eastern Transcaucasia,2 whose close relationship to the
cussed in detail by Han car.3 The Talish smiths seem to
placed between the Transcaucasian and Luristan scho
must have formed a convenient link between the tw
a date of c. 1400-700 B.c. for the Gandzha-Karabagh cul
series can only be dated by analogy, it may well be
metallurgical activity reflected by the rich Bronze Age
be dated within the thirteenth century b.c. The Ir
seem to be closely related to the Lelvar culture in Tr
Yeri, &c), which itself shows connexions with north
of metallurgy. Bell-shaped pommels, well known in
Lelvar cultures, occur on an iron dagger from Hiveri i
evidence (which has been discussed by Hancar), apart fr
weapons, points to close connexions between Transca
during the period when iron was commonly used. T
Luristan bronzes of which the daggers form only a sm
sidered in relation to the Koban culture. Hancar's concl
metal trade between Transcaucasia and Luristan during
millennium, and suggest that the Cimmerians in the
in the ninth to eighth centuries b.c. were largely respon
discernible on many Luristan bronzes, the bulk of whi
Contacts between the Cimmerians and Median metal
at this time, if not earlier. The Cimmerians are
correspondence dating from the end of Sargon's re
victory over Argistis of Urartu in the course of their
Asia Minor after they had been forced across the C
pressure of the Scyths. Their alliance with the Me
Scyths was broken up by Esarhaddon in 679 b.c., but t
set-back, and we know that one branch of them re
region for the rest of the seventh century b.c. The
that the Cimmerians were ever expert metallurgist
between Koban and Luristan smiths may equally exp
Type 44
Pointed blade with midrib and concave sides ; square shoulders with transverse horizontal
ribbing; round hilt and large crescentic-shaped pommel.
Variations
Type 44a. The hilt and small crescentic-shaped pommel are flanged with rivets to keep
the inlay in place.
1 G. Nioradze, Der Verwahrfund von Kvemo- 2 Hancar, Kaukasus-Luristan (E.S.A. ix, Abb. 2).
Sasirithi (E.S.A. vu, Abb. 8). 3 Ibid.
Extant Examples
Type 44. Persia. Talish. De Morgan, Mission scientifique en Perse,
Iv, Fig. 62, 7.
Type 44a. Persia. Talish. De Morgan, op. cit., Fig. 63, 3.
TYPE 45
Examples of this type are known in bronze and iron or with bronze hilts and
iron blades. The silver-hilted example Type 45b has been studied in detail by
Gadd, who has drawn attention to the remarkable similarity of the pommels of
daggers which form part of the booty portrayed on a relief of Sennacherib (B.M.
Nineveh Gallery I24782) relating to a campaign which must have taken place
about 700 B.C. (see Type 37). The skill of the Iranian metal-workers at this period
is reflected in the numerous ornate pommels of bronze and iron found on weapons
from Luristan and the Iron Age Talish graves whose close connexions with the
Lelvar culture of the southern Caucasus have been studied in detail by Hancar.2
TYPE 45
Pointed blade with strong midrib increasing in width near the ricasso, cast in one with hilt;
square shoulders and rectangular opening in the guard; flanged hilt and hollow pommel.
Variations
Type 45a. Hilt and ricasso as above. The pommel is a more complicated form of Type 38.
Space between the two wings of pommel partly filled by a curved tubular member with seven
ridges across it as though a lashing were represented.
Type 45b. The hilt is silver cast direct on to the iron blade by cire perdue process. 'Topmost
point of the iron tang penetrates the silver at the bottom of the deep 'valley' between the wings
of the pommel. Originally it may have projected higher and helped to fix in place some perish-
able decorative substance occupying at least a part of this space.'
Extant Examples
Type 45. Russian Talish. Djonu. De Morgan, Mission scientifique, iv, Fig.
62, 8.
Type 45a. * Chagula De Morgan, La Prihistoire orientale, In,
Derre. Fig. 251, 4.
Persia. Ardabil. British Museum, 1904-12-I2, I. Blade
broken.
Russian Talish. Chagula De Morgan, La Prihistoire orientale, III,
Derre. Fig. 25I, 2. Bronze hilt and iron blade.
Type 45b. Persia. .. B.M.Q. XII. 2, P. 36. 7th or 6th century B.C.
TYPE 46
The advantages of the simple leaf-shaped dagger-blade, which have been noted
in the introduction to Types I, 3, and 8, had long been known in the Near East.
On this developed type, however, the blade is wider and heavier, and the Aegean
feature of the wide 'horned' guard was combined with the Asiatic practice of
raising the flanges round the edge both of the hilt and of the 'horns'; but the pom-
mel was not flanged and must have consisted of a knob made of bone, ivory,
alabaster, or metal such as have been found at Bogazk6y. The longitudinal ribs
on the surface of the blade are also found on Aegean daggers from Mycenae,
I B.M.Q. XII. 2,736. Fig. 59, for an example similar to the Chagula Derre
11 E.S.A. Ix. 76 ff.; see also KUFTIN, Trialeti, weapon.
Thiaki, Zafer Papoura, Karpathos, &c, which date fr
twelfth centuries B.c.1
In the Near East the fourteenth century B.c. was
communications developed to a degree not experienced
Dynasty of Babylon. Travelling was easy, and full a
favourable conditions by metalsmiths of all nationa
upheavals during the early part of the century. It is n
technical improvements which had been developed b
in different areas should have been copied and quick
smiths of other countries. Hence a description, as an i
when found outside the area considered the home
accepted unless it is based upon evidence other than p
tions. The composite character of the weapons of b
following century, when the vast movements of peop
considerably disorganised the trade routes and the c
products of the metalsmiths' shops were distributed f
for regarding with suspicion dating by typology only
that wars between the Great Powers, such as Egypt
invasions such as culminated in the great movement o
the end of the thirteenth and the beginning of the tw
disturbed the prosperity of the metalsmiths, provided
a town which suffered the full force of the invasions a
as was Alalakh. The invaders had to be supplied wit
probably weapons were often provided by local sm
form especially needed by the invaders for their own
introduced features which were the special inheritanc
training, wherever that may have taken place. The in
was thus accelerated alongside a new demand from all
for efficient weapons with which to defend themselve
Outside western Asia this type of blade is well know
appears at the same time as the leaf-shaped sword (Ty
and beginning of the twelfth century B.c. and superse
sword with its straight-sided pointed blade, which
and had become useless against armour. Hall has assign
shaped swords) to the Achaeans and has listed some of
bladed Achaean type' which occur at Mycenae, Mou
acropolis and Delphi, together with an example in
have come from Corfu.2 From the available evidenc
the leaf-shaped sword originated in Europe, and certa
at home in central Europe, where an example from
dates from Middle Bronze Age times.3 But while t
not an Asiatic conception, it must have been used by t
1 Hall, Greece, Fig. 331, d, e; Remouchamps, approximating more to that of Type 47 are known
Griechische Dolch- und Schwertformen, Abb. 25. from Denmark, N. Germany, and Upper Italy, and
2 Hall, op. cit., p. 256, Note 1 and Fig. 331 d; belong to the period 1600-1400 b.c. Cf. Otto Uenze,
Remouchamps, op. cit., p. 17, discusses the develop- Die fr?hbronzezeitlichen triangularen Vollgriff dolche,
ment of this type in the Aegean. pp. 72 ff.
3 Other early European short swords with blades
it was actually introduced into the Aegean area by Achaean smiths is
It is also possible that some of the Aegean weapons were made fo
by metalsmiths working in the Aegean area. And the peculiar Aegean
the Asia Minor examples, combined with the broad midrib, a feat
by Anatolian smiths (and found on the Thermi dagger), lead one
Przeworski that the Anatolian weapons were made locally, as was
Gezer example, and were not Aegean imports.
Type 46
The blade is leaf-shaped with three longitudinal ribs down the centre. The hilt is flanged,
and at the juncture of hilt and ricasso there are two accentuated protuberances, or 'horns',
which act as a guard. There is a short tang for the pommel at the base of the hilt.
Variations
Type 46a. The blade has straight sides and blunt point.
Type 46b. The blade has a wide midrib, is longer and thinner than Type 46.
Extant Examples
Type 46. W. Asia Minor. Bergama. Przeworski, Die Metallindustrie, Taf. xviii,
5. c. 1300 B.c. (Ashmolean Museum, No.
1927. 1385). Length 357 cm.
Type 46a. Palestine. Gezer. Macalister, in, pi. lxxv, 13. From Tomb
30 with curved sword (see Type 34). c.
1350-1300 B.c.
Type 46b. W. Asia Minor. Thermi. Lamb, pi. xxv, No. 32. 63. Length 34 cm.
c. 1350-1300 B.C.
Cyprus. Idalion. Gjerstad, SCE. 11, pi. clxxi, 319. 1200-
1000 b.c. Iron.
TYPE 47
The leaf-shaped dagger-blade which was designed with a blade contracting
width towards the centre and then swelling out to the leaf-shape towards the poin
would have certain advantages over the purely leaf-shaped form as the wou
inflicted would be aggravated when the weapon was withdrawn. There are analog
for this isolated Asiatic example in Crete,1 where a serrated blade of this form w
cast in one piece with the hilt, the projecting guard recalling Mycenaean crucifo
swords. In the Caucasus a technically advanced example with hilt decorated w
rams' heads has a similar shaped blade with identical longitudinal incisions wh
may have served as blood-rills. This comes from the Iron Age graves at Ko
but is of bronze.2 Another example has projecting guards like Mycenaean weapon
This form of blade with similar ricasso incision is also known in Italy and Switze
land, where it was used for the short swords which finally developed out of
broad straight-sided triangular daggers3 (see Introduction to Type 46 and footno
3). The origin of this type has already been discussed in the introduction to Typ
46, and it seems likely that the Balikisir example was made by a local smith who
while preferring to cast a solid hilt, based his design on a flanged form, w
central swelling, examples of which are known on Aegean daggers and sho
1 B.M.Br.G., Fig. 169. Weapons, pi. xxxvi, 166.
3 Peet,
a H. Hubert, De quelques objets de bronze trouv?s ? Italy, Fig. 169; Childe, Danube, pi. ?, A.6
Byblos (Syria, vi, 1934, pi. m); P?trie, Tools(Swiss).
and
swords.1 Several Italian daggers also show this charac
the blade is similar to Type 46 and tapers graduall
sequent development of this type in iron in Greece a
Remouchamps, and there are many representation
metric date. It remains to mention a Cypriot swo
can be compared to one represented on an engrave
700-650 B.C.3
Type 47
Pointed leaf-shaped blade with sides concave near the hilt, swelling out to leaf shape towards
the point. Thickening down the centre and eight longitudinal blood-rills. Hilt, blade and
pommel are cast in one piece, the hilt is solid with slight protuberances on each side half-way
up. The pommel is round.
Extant Examples
Type 47. NW. Asia Minor. Balikisir. British Museum, 1927?2?8, 1 (length
47 cm.), and Przeworski, Die Metall-
industrie, Taf. xviii, 6. Dated to 1000-
7SO B.C.
TYPE 48
Type 46, the leaf-shaped dagger with horned guard, could be elongated and cast
as a sword, and smiths who were familiar with Aegean weapons were probably
responsible for its manufacture. It was designed especially for slashing, and some
of the Hittite swords, as portrayed on the reliefs, are particularly interesting as
they show a mixture of two influences, Aegean and European; the blade is some-
times leaf-shaped and the Corns' present on the ricasso. The Hittite examples
belong to the Empire period and persisted into the ninth century B.c., and the
extent of the influence of Aegean technical methods is illustrated by the fact that
a mould for a long sword with narrow blade and well-defined Corns' is known
from the Caucasus.4 Aegean analogies with flanged horned guards are numerous
(Dendra,5 Ialysos, Mycenae, Zafer Papoura),6 and are earlier in date than the
true leaf-shaped type (see introduction to Type 49).
Type 48
Long sword, with leaf-shaped or straight-sided pointed blade with horns at the juncture of
blade and ricasso. Large crescentic-shaped pommel.
Variations
Type 48a. The pommel is round and the 'horns* rudimentary.

1 Phokis. See Montelius, Gr?ce pr?classique, I, pi. 4 Chantre, Recherches arch?ologiques dans le
14, 4. Vrokastro, Hall, University of Pennsylvania Caucase, I, pi. iv.
Anthropological Publications, 3, pi. 21, F, G. 5 Persson, Dendra, Fig. 20, 3, 5.
2 Norcia, Reallexikon der Vorgeschichte, vi, Taf. 6 Remouchamps, Griechische Dolch- und Schwert-
29, f; Syracuse, Remouchamps, Griechische Dolch- undformen, Abb. 23-25. See also Childe, The Minoan
Schwertformen, Abb. 45 b; Veji, Remouchamps, op. cit.,Influences on the Danubian Bronze Age, Fig. 2, in Essays
Abb. 41a; Terni, Notizie degli Scavi, 1907, 626, 636.in Aegean Archaeology, presented to Sir Arthur Evans,
Perugia, Rome, Montelius, Civilisation primitive en where the Ialysos sword (dated to c. 1300 b.c.), is com-
Italie, 2, PI. 252, 12, pi. 355, 17a; Cumae, Monumentipared to a sword from Hammer, Nuremberg. I am
Antichi, xxii, Fig. 27, 1. indebted to Prof. Stuart Piggott for this reference.
3 Myres, Cat. Cesnola Collection, 4726 and 4554.
Examples from Reliefs
Type 48. E. Ana Minor. Yazilikaya. Bittel, I.F. 5, Taf. 28f.; Bonnet, op. cit.,
Abb. 3od.
Karabel. Przeworski, Die Metallindustrie, Taf. xvn,
1 ; Garstang, Hittite Empire, Fig. 12. Early
13th century b.c.
Type 48a. SE. Asia Minor. Zincirli. Luschan, Taf. xl; Bonnet, op. cit., Abb.
30c; Pottier, UArt Hittite, Syria, 11, Fig.
71. i2th-ioth centuries b.c.
Zincirli. Luschan, Abb. 126. i2th-ioth centuries
B.c.
TYPE 49
The long leaf-shaped sword cast without the 'horned* ricasso was e
designed for slashing, but was a heavier weapon than Type 48 and useful
in order to avoid the necessity of close combat. It was also suited for w
horseback, and this may account for its widespread popularity in Eur
about 1400 B.c. onwards. The influence of European smiths, as show
shape of the blade, can be discerned in the leaf-shaped swords found
Aegean in the Late Mycenaean period1 and examples appear in Greece
after about 1300 b.c. Leaf-shaped swords are first known in Egypt i
Nineteenth Dynasty; one bears the name of Seti II,2 and it is quite pos
while some of these weapons may certainly represent imports, others we
in Egypt, probably by foreign smiths for the equipment of foreign mer
One of the Egyptian examples has a flanged hilt cast in one with the blad
an Asiatic feature, but often found on Hungarian and other European lea
swords.3 Contacts between metalsmiths in Europe and the Mediterranean
were certainly very close in the thirteenth and twelfth centuries b.c., an
Shamra and Tell Mutesellim examples were probably brought by or m
for the sea raiders and pirates who infested the eastern Mediterranean at
of the second millennium. While no extant examples of Types 47 an
been actually found in Asia Minor, many examples are portrayed and sug
Hittite smiths were not averse from borrowing ideas from the smith
nations with whom they may have come in contact both before and a
arrival in Asia Minor, and the numerous late Hittite examples from
show the conservative tendencies of the smiths in the ninth century b.c
to have been content to copy older forms.
In central Europe the fashion of inlaying hilts is commonly found on lea
swords, and while we are not concerned with the origin or subsequent de
of the European form, we can note that early examples of these sword
sidered by Childe to be native creations of east central European smi
one considers such features as the protruding shoulders known on typica
1 See Hall, Greece, Fig. 332, footnote ?, and xin. 576~"7> mentions the slashing swords which come
Watzinger, Tell el Mutesellim, 11. 45, footnote 1 for
from Thrace.
Aegean distribution and references; Remouchamps, 2 Wolf, Die Bewaffnung, Taf. 15.
Griechische Dolch- und Schwertformen, Abb. 31-7. 3 An example from Aryanos, Childe, Danube, pi. n,
A. R. Burn, Minoans, Philistines and Greeks, 41, thinks
c. 3 (dated to Danubian period V, c. 1400-1200 B.c.) can
these swords were carried south from Europe by bands be compared with the Cypriot example from Kurion;
of marauding warriors who may have taken part in boththe have flanged hilts, round shoulders, and rivets
Phrygian invasion of Asia Minor; Hall, op. cit., 256,
to keep the inlay in place.
associates this type with the Achaeans ; Homer, Iliad,
European and Italian examples, reminiscent of the Aegean
possible that the European smiths, who no doubt consta
well-defined trade routes between central Europe, Italy, an
seen Aegean weapons and borrowed technical ideas which t
creating their own specialized forms.
Type 49
Leaf-shaped sword with pointed blade, round shoulders. The hilt and ricasso are usually
flanged and the pommel crescentic-shaped.
Variations
Type 49a. The blade is wider, and there is a rectangular opening in the curved guard.
Extant and Examples from Hittite Reliefs
Type 49. N. Syria. Ras Shamra. Schaeffer, Syria, x. 4 (1929), pi. lx, 3.
N. Syria.
1350-1300 B.C.
Palestine. Tell el Watzinger, 11, Fig. 45. 1200-900 b.c.
Mutesellim.
Cyprus. Kurion. Myres, Cesnola Collection, 4725, and
Bonnet, Abb. 30a. c. 1000 b.c.
Enkomi. Murray, Excav. in Cyprus, 16, Fig. 31.
c. 1200 b.c.
Central G?vurkalesi. Perrot and Chipiez, 11, Fig. 352 (i

Asia Minor. centuries), and Garstang, Hittite Empi
Fig. 9.
E. Asia Minor. Imamkulu. Gelb, Hittite Hieroglyphic Monuments, pi.
xlii.
SE. Asia Minor. Zincirli. Bonnet, op. cit., Abb. 30c. I2th~9
turies B.c.
SE. Asia
Type 49a. SE. Minor.
Asia Minor. Zincirli. Luschan,Figs. 266, ii2,and
op. cit., Abb. 69. i2th-ioth centuries
Babylonia. Contenau, Manuel, 11, Fig. 704. I3th-
centuries b.c.
TYPE 50
A short sword was also used by the Hittites, often shown with a hooked point,
and a bronze hooked sword-tip was actually found at Troy.1 While these weapons
were obviously intended for slashing, it is possible that in some cases the sheath
was hooked and the blade only slightly curved like the sword from Beisan (Type
34d). The true curved sword was also used by the Hittites (see Type 34).
Type 50
Short sword with crescentic-shaped pommel and hooked point.
I4th-I2th centuries b.c.
Type 50. E. Asia Minor. Yazilkaya. Bittel, I.F. 5, Taf. 12 ff.
Bogazk?y. Przeworski, Die Metallindustrie, Taf. xvi,
1 a. Curved blade.
Firaktin. Przeworski, op. cit., Taf. xvn, 2.
SW. Asia Minor. Malatya. Przeworski, op. cit., Taf. xvi, 3, and Gar-
stang, A.A.A. 1, pi. v.
N. Syria. Ras Shamra. Schaeffer, Syria, xiv (1933), pi. xvi.
1 Przeworski, Die Metallindustrie, Taf. vi, 7.
TYPE 51
The straight-sided pointed dagger with a long hilt and round pomm
by the Shardana and the Hittites when fighting against each other
of Kadesh, and pommels in alabaster like those portrayed on these dag
reliefs are well known in Asia Minor (Bogazk?y, Troy, Alisar, and
Later the Shardana, Philistines, and other Sea peoples seem to have pre
large sword, which was developed from this type of dagger.
Extant examples from Georgia and Transcaucasia can be mentio
also have similar pommels and the same shaped blades (though som
pointed as the Egyptian representations), and while no examples are k
Asia Minor itself, it is probable that the Georgian type must have
and used in eastern Asia Minor and future excavations should yield
Type 51
Triangular-shaped blade; sharp point; straight sides; practically square shoulders; long
narrow hilt with pommel, which is round on top and flat underneath.
Variations
Type 51a. The angle of the shoulders is obtuse and there is no pommel.
Examples from Egyptian Reliefs
Type 51. Battle of Kadesh, 1294 b.c. Bonnet, Die Waffen, Abb. 23 e.
Type 51a. Battle of Kadesh, 1294 b.c. Bonnet, Die Waffen, Abb. 23 f.
TYPE 52
In the thirteenth century b.c. the thrusting sword developed into a huge unwieldy
weapon with a long broad-pointed blade and often a flanged hilt. Typologically
this is a development from the Talish and the Minoan rapiers and Late Mycenaean
short swords, which unlike the leaf-shaped sword were not designed for slashing.
It could be used with effect where armour was not worn by the opponent, and
the Shardana, who especially used this type of sword, are portrayed bearing at the
same time a round shield. A slightly shorter version (Type 52c) was carried with
a spear and round shield. The corslet, an oriental invention, was usually worn by
the Shardana, presumably as a defence against the slashing leaf-shaped sword.
Type 52 is definitely an Asiatic weapon. In Europe, the thrusting rapiers which
probably were made by smiths who were familiar with their Minoan and Mycenaean
prototypes, are not so wide at the base, do not have the absolutely straight edge of
the Shardana sword, and anticipate the leaf-shaped blade in outline. Many
different opinions have been expressed as to the type of sword wielded by the
warrior fighting the griffin portrayed on the Late Mycenaean ivory mirror-handle
from Enkomi,3 yet the nearest extant analogies are the flange-hilted sword from
1 Bittel, Bogazk?y (Die Kleinfunde der Grabungen Shardana sword, Burn, Minoans, Philistines and Greeks,
IQ06-12. ,1. Funde hethitischer Zeit), from LevelI Ha; 120, calls it 'a characteristically "Homeric" weapon, the
H. Schmidt, 6059-64, 7900; Von der Osten, O.I.P. 29, cut and thrust leaf-shaped sword*, yet swords of this
Fig. 261, c. 1419, d. 2876. K?rte, Gordion (Ergebnisse type have protruding 'noms' on the ricasso (see Intro-
der Ausgrabung im 1900), 174. See also Introduction to duction to Type 46). H. L. Lorimer, Defensive Armour in
Type 25 for Palestinian examples dating from the Homer (A.A.A. xv, 3-4, p. 94), describes it as a 'narrow
Hyksos period. rapier with well-marked midrib of the Shaft-grave type',
1 Zakharoff, R.H.A. 1, pi. 12, 4-6; Przeworski, yet the blade is certainly leaf-shaped and not straight-
Die Metallindustrie, Taf. xxii, 3 ; De Morgan, Missionsided as it should be if the weapon belonged to the
scientifique au Caucase, p, Fig. 36. Shaft-grave series.
3 Hall, Greece, p. 229, describes this weapon as a
Hammer near Nuremberg and the Ialysos sword (s
note 6). Other swords of this type come from Bavaria
ing that the usual Aegean 'horns' on the ricasso are ab
the shoulders are round, and can be especially com
where the shoulders are either round or sloping
where many straight-sided pointed blades occur, have
but in the Georgian weapons the shoulders are alw
shorter than in the true Shardana sword, and a mo
drawn between Type 52 d (a short sword also carri
Georgian swords. The type with large crescentic-
compared to Type 44 from Dj?n? in the Russian Tal
shaped blade, square shoulders, and well-marked m
gestive in view of the undoubtedly close connexio
between the Talish and Transcaucasian smiths and reinforces ZakharofFs and
Hall's theories for the origin of the Shardana. The large crescentic-shaped pom
mel, however, was also known in the Aegean ; it also occurs on what must be
similar weapon portrayed on the fragment of a Mycenaean vase found at Ra
Shamra (though here the shoulders are sloping) and again on Hittite weapons. (See
p. 34, note 1, and Types 48 with square shoulders and 49 with sloping shoulders.)
It remains to mention the Sardinian bronze statuettes of a warrior bearing th
Shardana sword, horned helmet, and round shield3 which suggest that the Shar
dana were well known in the central Mediterranean area and eventually either
raided or settled as far west as Sardinia. Whether or not they started from th
Caucasus according to Hall's theory based on ZakharofFs evidence, and reached
the Syrian coast and Palestine via the Black Sea round the coast of Asia Minor
they are first heard of as mercenaries in the Amarna letters, so some of them mus
have arrived in the eastern Mediterranean by the fourteenth century B.c. Most of
the representations of their weapons, however, date from the Nineteenth Dynasty
reliefs of the thirteenth and early twelfth centuries b.c., and the extant example in
the British Museum probably used by a Philistine is dated 1200-1150 b.c. Contac
between the Philistine and Shardana metalsmiths must have been very close, a
the two peoples are shown using similar swords even though they were ofte
adversaries. The Keftiu and Libyans are also portrayed carrying variants of th
true Shardana sword, and the important part played by these weapons in th
armament of the Sea peoples is shown by the account of the 9,000 bronze swords
taken as booty on the battlefield after Merenptah's great victory in 1221 B.c.
Type 52
Long sword with triangular-shaped blade with sharp point, straight sides, square shoulders,
and long narrow hilt which was probably flanged.
Variations
Type 52a. The hilt is large and half-moon shaped.

Type 52b. There is no pommel, and the hilt has a round base.
Type 52c. The angle of the shoulders and hilt is obtuse and the pommel is a small knob.
Type 52a. The blade is wider than the above with midrib and no pommel.
1 Childe, Danube, pi. p, Type Co and Cl. Mineure et du Caucase (R.H.A. i).
2 Zakharoff, ?tudes sur Varch?ologie de G Asie 3 Perrot and Chipiez, h, Fig. 53.
Extant and other examples from Reliefs
I3th-I2th centuries b.c.
Type 52. Palestine. B?t Dag?n, B.M.Br.G., Fig. 179. Length 42 in.
near Gaza. 1200-1150 b.c. Wolf, op. cit., Abb. 43;
Breasted, History of Egypt, Fig. 163.
Type 52a. .. .. Bonnet, op. cit., Abb. 27d.
Type 52b. .. .. Ibid., Abb. 27e.
Type 52c. .. .. Ibid., Abb. 27c; Wolf, op. cit., Abb. 42.
Type 52d. .. .. Montet, Reliques d'art syrien, Fig. 12.
TYPE 53
Alongside the thrusting Shardana sword, the Philistines and the
cutting-weapon with blunt point and straight sides. This weapon
by the Shardana and the Sea peoples in the thirteenth and twelfth cen
by the Keftiu and Shardana as early as Hatshepsut's reign. The M
and Asiatic cutting weapon was often used in combination with the c
and the fifth Keftiu in the tomb of Menkheperre'senb (who wa
reign of Thutmose III) holds this sword upwards leaning the blade on
Sometimes the hilt is extremely long, and it has been suggested t
were needed to wield this weapon. Another sword of this type is fou
painting in the tomb of Senmut, dated c. 1500 B.c.2 Comparisons may
swords from east Transcaucasia (Gandzha-Karabagh culture)3 and e
Semo-Avcalo, Samt'avro,4 and the Talish region.5 Zakharoff has
important question of the large Transcaucasian cutting swords which
shaped blades and both round and square ends, and has suggested, in
archaeological evidence, that close cultural connexions existed be
caucasia, Asia Minor, and the Aegean world during the Bronze A
would dispute this argument, where the weapons are concerned t
conclusion is surely that close contact existed between metalsmith
for and travelled with the Shardana, Philistines, Keftiu, and other p
Sea and there must have been a constant interchange of ideas. It is in
compare the sword of this type with large hilt and crescentic-sha
ricasso, carried by a Keftiu in the tomb of Rekhmire* with the brok
Mussi Yeri, Armenia,6 which was probably also a slashing weapon
a similar ricasso and midrib. This weapon is related to swords found
Caucasus region (Koban culture) and also the Talish. In Egypt th
sentation of this weapon dating from Rameses Ill's reign with a
to the pommel, and a flanged-hilted short sword with blunt end fro
Rameses II's reign belongs to this type.7 The same type of blade i
an Eighteenth Dynasty dagger discovered in Egypt8 with gold po
heads of Hathor. This dagger, with midrib and crescentic-shape
ricasso, can be paralleled and seen in the developed form of a sw
midrib and similar ricasso) in the tomb of Rekhmire4 (Amenhe
1 A. Zakharoff, R.H.A. ?, p. 129 and pi. 5?,De 2. Morgan, La Pr?histoire orientale, ni, Fig. 24
2 W. ?. M?ller, Egyptological Researches,611,Hall,pi. op.
x, cit., Fig. 267, and Childe, The Arya
1, pi. vi; Hall, Greece, Fig. 260. Fig. 25, 7.
3 Hancar, Kaukasus-Luristan (E.S.A. ix), 7Abb. 1, a.
See catalogue.
4 Hancar, op. cit., Abb. 19, b and c. 8 Wolf, op. cit., Taf. 5, 2.
6o RACHEL MAXWELL-HYSLOP
where it is borne by a Keftiu tributary

this blade come from a Mid-Kingdom c
are used by Asiatic tributaries,3 and, in c
which are all sharply pointed, are related
Hyksos period which are also straight-
made by Asiatic metalsmiths.4 Anothe
pointed, blade and a cylindrical hilt simila
in the tomb of Menkheperre'senb. The hi
separately, and Wolf has drawn attenti
28) with a long tang which must have bee
examples. It also has the same spiral de
this type6 in the British Museum, dating
possible that the Egyptian examples w
settled in Egypt at a time when trading
very close. Later, when the smiths worki
ended cuttipg swords, it is probable th
Dynasty daggers was used as the protot
At the time of the Twentieth Dynasty t
at Medinet Habu and in the tomb of R
would therefore seem that if the Shard
their large blunt cutting swords as well as
could also have been influenced by the
period whose blunt slashing sword blade,
back in the eastern Mediterranean to T
clusions drawn from the weapons, when
the Shardana, must be regarded as purely
Type 53
Short sword. Blunt blade with straight sides, angular shoulders, sloping to hilt with
rounded base.
Examples from reliefs

Wolf, Die Bewaffnung, Abb. 46. Left-hand example. Rameses III.
Montet, Les Reliques d'art syrien, Fig. 17.
Extant example
P?trie, Tools and Weapons, xxxiv, 40. Rameses II.
TYPES 54, 55, 56

From the ninth century B.c. onwards the dagger (patru)7 and the short sword
(nams?ru) played an important part in the complicated armament of the Assyrian
horseman. Horse soldiers of Tiglath-pileser III are portrayed with simpler equip-
ment, but retain the spear and short sword which also formed part of the equip-
1 Hall, Greece, Fig. 267. slit' or 'peel', which may imply that in Assyria the
2 Bonnet, Die Waffen, Abb. 20 c; Wolf, Die dagger was originally used as a tool and that its use as
Bewaffnung, Abb. 20 (right-hand example). a weapon of war was a later development. Bezold's
3 Newberry, Beni Hasan, ?, PI. 47; Wreszinsky, translation of iibbu as a girdle or loin-cloth worn round
Atlas zur alt?gyptischen Kulturgeschichte, 11, 8. the hips is not correct as daggers were always worn
4 Wolf, op. cit., Taf. 5, ?. with the sheath stuck through the belt at the waist. On
5 Wolf, op. cit., Taf. 5, 3. sikkat karri, 'pommel', see B. Meissner, Beitr?ge zum
6 P?trie, Tools and Weapons, pi. ??????, 26. assyrischen W?rterbuch, ?, p. 6i, no. 60.
7 It is suggestive that the meaning of paparu is 'to
ment of the heavy infantry, slingers, and the mounted an

sword was always an essential part of the accoutrement of
men, and while the dagger was worn at the waist, kept in
the sword sheath could be suspended from the shoulder by
the time of Ashur-nasir-pal the blade was sometimes longe
of the usual short sword. This form, however, would im
which was alien to Assyrian military tradition and nev
Asiatic mainland. It is interesting that Assyrian iron s
covered with a thin sheath of bronze, and the purpose
more to prevent the formation of rust than to give the ir
appearance as Contenau suggests.1
Daggers were frequently used for ceremonial and ritu
portraying the rites before the sacred tree show pairs of
by the king and the winged figures. Other ritual scenes ar
figures who are armed with daggers, and references in th
Sages, to the lion-men and the 'divine Seven, the grea
daggers formed part of their magical equipment. Extant e
have been found in situ?t Ur, and for the priests and thos
the diff?rent cult implements, each endowed with form
must have effectively symbolized the triumph of the pro
battle with the evil spirits.2
Type 54
Short dagger with round hilt and square ricasso which was probably flanged and inlaid.
The pommel is round on top and flat where it meets the hilt.
Type 54, Nimr?d. Budge, Assyrian Sculptures, pi. 11, and Layard, Mon. Nineveh, n, pi. 4,
Ashur-nasir-pal.
Type 55
Short sword. The hilt is round and sometimes decorated with two animal heads on the
ricasso. The pommel is similar to Type 53. The blade is straight-sided and short. The sheath
is much longer than the blade and is often decorated at top and bottom with two pairs of lions.
Variations
Type 55a. The hilt is similar to Type 55, but the central piece is rounder. The blade is
wider and shorter with a distinct thickening down the centre.
Type 55b. The pommel is crescentic-shaped and the hilt is round in section.
Type 55. Assyria. Nimr?d. Layard, Mon. Nineveh, 1, pi. 19, and
Budge, pi. xxiv (sword in sheath) and
many other examples. Ashur-nasir-pal.
Layard, Mon. Nineveh, 1, pi. 29 (sword
withdrawn from sheath). Ashur-nasir-pal.
Type 55a. Assyria. Khorsabad. Botta, Monument de Ninive, pis. 14, 15,
159, Loud, Khorsabad, 1, Fig. 28, and
many other examples dating from the
reigns of Sargon and Sennacherib.
1 Contenau, Manuel, p?, p. 1247. in the Irra myth. Also Gadd, The Assyrian Sculptures,
2 O. Gurney, Babylonian Prophylactic Figures and51, for the identification of the figures described in the
their Rituals (A.A.A. xxn, Nos. 1-2). See Langdon, texts with those portrayed on the reliefs.
Semitic Mythology, 138, for the seven deified weapons
Type 55b. Assyria. Khorsabad. Place, Ninive et G Assyrie, pi. 47, Bonnet,
op. cit., Abb. 25 d. Sennacherib.
Type 56
Dagger. Short, pointed, triangular-shaped blade with thickening down the centre. The
shoulders slope to plain round hilt with round pommel.

Type 56. Assyria. Nineveh. Smith, Assyrian sculptures, pi. xxxvi,
Sennacherib.
Nineveh. Gadd, Stones of Assyria, pi. 32. Ashur-
bani-pal.
SOURCES OF THE ILLUSTRATIONS
Type 1. Tepe Sialk. Ghirshman, Fouilles, 1, pi. lxxxv, S. 127.

Type 2. Ur. Woolley, Royal Tombs, pi. 228, U. 9121.
Type 3. Ur. Woolley, op. cit., pi. 228, U. 9117.
Type 5. Soli, nr. Mersin. Luschan, Globus, lxxxii (1902), 297, 3.
Type 6. Not illustrated.
Type 7. Chagar Bazar. Mallowan, Iraq, iv. 2 (1937), Fig. 13, 4.
Type 8. Ur. Woolley, Royal Tombs, pi. 228, U. 8140.
Type 12. Palestine. Mus. of Archaeology and Ethnology, Cambridge,
Type 13. Troy. Schmidt, Heinrich Schliemanris Sammlung, No. 5854.
Type 14. Troy. Schmidt, op. cit., No. 5848.
Type 16. Alisar. O.I.P. xix, Fig. 270.
Type 17. Alisar. O.I.P. xxix, Fig. 287, d. 2111.
Type 18. Palestine. Mus. of Arch, and Eth. Cambridge, No. 27.941.
Type 19. Palestine. Mus. of Arch, and Eth. Cambridge, No. 22.1236.
Type 20. Ras Shamra. Syria, xix. 3, Fig. 27, m.
Type 21. Amarna (Syria). A.A.A. vi, pi. xxiv.
Type 22. Megiddo. Guy, Tombs, pi. 122, 8.
Type 23. Megiddo. Guy, op. cit., pi. 146, 6.
Type 25. Palestine. Mus. of Arch, and Eth. Cambridge, No. 27, 940.
Type 25.* Megiddo. Guy, Tombs, Fig. 171, 1.
Type 26. Gaza. P?trie, hi, pi. xviii, 7.
Type 27. Gaza. P?trie, p?, pi. xix, 14.
Type 28. Palestine. Mus. of Arch, and Eth. Cambridge, No. 27, 939.
Type 30c. Tepe Hissar. Schmidt, Excavations, pi. l, H. 2023.
Type 31a. Gaza. P?trie, p?, pi. xviii, 4.
Type 32. Luristan. Mus. of Arch, and Eth. Cambridge, No. 34, 903.
Type 33. Nimr?d. Layard, Mon. Nineveh, 1, pi. 7.
Type 34.* Tello. Heuzey, Nouvelles fouilles, pi. vin, 5.
DAGGERS and SWORDS IN WESTERN ASIA 63
Type 34. Byblos. Syria, in (1922), pi. lxv.
Type 34/:. Thebes, Tomb of Menkheperre'senb. Montet, Reliques d'art syrie
Type 36.* Gezer. Macalister, ii, Fig. 473.
Type 36a. Tepe Sialk. Ghirshman, Fouilles, p, pi. ????, 8.
Type 3??. Arslan Tash. Thureau-Dangin, Fouilles, pi. xlix.
Type 37. Smith, Assyrian Sculptures, pi. xlvii.
Type 42. Talish. H. de Morgan, M.D.P. vin (1905), Fig. 410.'
Type 43. Talish. J. de Morgan, Misrion scientifique en Perse, Fig. 63, 6.
Type 44. Talish. J. de Morgan, op. cit., Fig. 62, 7.
Type 44a. Talish. J. de Morgan, op. cit., Fig. 63, 3.
Type 45. Talish. J. de Morgan, op. cit., Fig. 62, 8.
Type 48. Yazilikaya. Bonnet, Die Waffen, Abb. 30d.
Type 49. G?vurkalesi. Perrot and Chipiez, Histoire de l'art, p, Fig. 352?
Type 49a? Zincirli. Luschan, Ausgrabungen, Abb. 266, and Syria, 11 (1921),
Type 51. Amarna. Bonnet, Die Waffen, Abb. 23 e.
Type 52a. Karnak. Montet, op. cit., Fig. 12.
Type 53. Thebes. Tomb of Menkheperre'senb. Montet, op. cit., Fig. 17
Type 54. Budge, Assyrian Sculptures, pi. xxiv, and Layard, Mon. Nineveh, 1
Type 55. Budge, op. cit., pi. xxiv, and Layard, op. cit., 1, pi. 19.
Type 55a. Botta, Monuments de Ninive, pi. 159.
Type 55?. Place, Ninive et Assyrie, pi. 47.
Type 56. Gadd, Stones of Assyria, pi. 32.
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
(In addition to those listed on the cover of this volume)

A.A.A. = Annals of Archaeology and Anthropology. Liverpool.
A.A.S.O.R. = Annual of the American Schools of Oriental Research.
A.J.A. = American Journal of Archaeology.
B.A.S.O.R. ? Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research.
Bonnet, Die Waffen = H. Bonnet, Die Waffen der V?lker des alten Orients. Leipzig, 1926.
B.I.A.A. ? Bulletin of the American Institute for Iranian Art and Archaeology.
Bittel, Mitt. = K. Bittel, Vorl?ufiger Bericht ?ber die Ausgrabungen in Bogazk?y (M.D.O.G.
lxxvii, 1939).
Bittel, P.F.K. = K. Bittel, Pr?historische Forschung in Kleinasien. (I.F. vi, 1934).
Buisson, Qatna = Comte du Mesnil du Buisson, Les Ruines d'El Mishrif? au nord-est de
Homs. Paris, 1924/1927.
BM.Br.G. = British Museum. Guide to the Antiquities of the Bronze Age.
B.M.Q. = British Museum Quarterly.
Bohl, Sichern ? Fr. Bohl. De Geschiedenis der Stad Sichern en de opgravingen aldaar. Compte
rendu de G Acad?mie royale des sciences. Amsterdam, 1926.
B.S.?. = Annual of the British Schools at Athens.
B.S.P.F. = Bulletin de la Soci?t? Pr?historique Fran?aise.
Contenau, Manuel = G. Contenau, Manuel d'arch?ologie orientale, i-in. Paris, 1927/31.
Dunand, Byblos ? M. Dunand, Fouilles de Byblos, 1926-32, 1 and 11. Paris, 1937/40.
E.S.A. = Eurasia Septentrionalis Antiqua. Helsinki.
Gjerstad, S.C.E. = Einar Gjerstad et al. The Swedish Cyprus Expedition. Stockholm.
Gjerstad, Studies = Einar Gjerstad, Studies on Prehistoric Cyprus. Uppsala, 1926.
Hall, Greece = H. R. Hall, The Civilisation of Greece in the Bronze Age. London, 1928.
I.F. = Istanbuler Forschungen. Istanbul.
Ingholt, Hama = H. Ingholt, Rapport pr?liminaire sur sept campagnes de fouilles ? Hama
en Syrie, 1932-8. Copenhagen, 1940.
I.P.E.K. = Jahrbuch f?r pr?historische und ethnographische Kunst. K?ln.
I.L.N. = Illustrated London News.
J.D.A.I. = Jahrbuch des Deutschen Archaeologischen Instituts.
Luschan, Zincirli = F. von Luschan et al., Ausgrabungen in Sendschirli 1-4: Mitteilungen
aus den orientalischen Sammlungen 11-14, 1893-1911.
M.D.P. = M?moires de la D?l?gation en Perse. Paris.
Morgan, Mission scientifique = J. de Morgan, Mission scientifique en Perse, IV. Pa
1896/7.
Montet, Reliques de l'art syrien = P. Montet, Les Reliques de l'art syrien dans l'Egypte du
Nouvel Empire. Publications de la Facult? des Lettres de l'Universit? de Strasbourg,
Fase. 76. Paris, 1937.
O.I.C. = Oriental Institute Communications. Chicago.
O.I.P. = Oriental Institute Publications. Chicago.
P.E.F.Q. ? Palestine Exploration Fund Quarterly. London.
Perrot and Chipiez II = Perrot and Chipiez. History of Art in Sardinia, Judaea, Syria
and Asia Minor, vol. 11.
P.S. = Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, Cambridge.
Przeworski, Die Metallindustrie = S. Przeworski, Die Metallindustrie Anatoliens in der Zeit
von 1500-??? vor Chr. Leiden, 1939.
P.S.H. T. = Publications de la Soci?t? d'Histoire Turque. Ankara.
S.A.O.C. = Studies in Ancient Oriental Civilisation. Chicago.
T.T. = T?rk Tarih Kurumu, Belleten. Ankara.
T.T.K.B. = T?rk Tarih, arkeologya ve etnografya dergisi. Ankara.
Wolf, Die Bewaffnung = Walther Wolf, Die Bewaffnung des alt?gyptischen Heeres.
Leipzig, 1926.
Woolley, Ur = C. L. Woolley, Ur Excavations, II: The Royal Cemetery. London, 1934.
PLATE I
r<y&*^
Scale of 2, 3, 4, 5,7, 8, 9,10 ? cm.
TYPES 1-5, 7-10
PLATE II
?zzzzzzzzzzzz*
14 16
15
?\
????????'
12 O O
IS
Scale of 14. 15, 16, 18, 19

TYPES 12-21
PLATE ??
<??S????????22>
??
-m
*
15
16
<ZZZZZZZ>
zz
Scale of 22, 23, 25*. 28, 29 ? ? ? cm.

TYPES 22, 23, 25, 25*, 26-9
PLATE IV
3Za
32
TYPES 30-4
PLATE V
36*
36,
36?
<zZZ2Z22>
40
<a???????&>
LI
56
?~?
44a
Scale of 36, 40, 42, 44, 44a,

cm.45
TYPES 36, 37, 40, 42-5
PLATE VI
4S
55
TYPES 48, 49, 51-5
ADDENDA
Type 3e. Palestine. Megiddo. Guy, Tombs, PL 123, 4. Three rivets, one
in the tang, two in the shoulders. Middle
Bronze I period.
Type 9. Central Ana Minor. Alaca. La Turquie Kemaliste, 32-40, p. 25. With
curved pommel of gold. 'Copper age'
levels. Unstratified. Cf. Woolley, Royal
Tombs, pi. 152 and J.H.S. lvi, Fig. 2, from
Atchana.
Type 15. Central Asia Minor. Alaca. La Turquie Kemaliste, 32-40, p. 26, Silver
dagger from 'Copper age' levels. Un-
stratified.
Type 18b. Palestine. Tell Ajj?l. P?trie, p, pi. ?, $2. (Institute of Archaeo-
logy No. A. 1569.)
Type 19. Palestine. Tell Ajj?l. P?trie, p, pi. xn, 61. (Institute of Archaeo-
logy No. A. 1537.)
Type 27a. Palestine. Tell Ajj?l. P?trie, 1, pi. xvn, 31. (Institute of Archaeo-
No. D.C. 635?) Hyksos period.
Tell Fara. Institute of Archaeology No. F. 569.
Middle Bronze II Period.
Type 31. Central Ana Minor. Alaca. Ko?ay, Alaca H?y?k (1944), Taf. li,
AL/A.ioi. Hittite Empire period.
Type 31a. Palestine. Jaffa. Zeitschrift des deutschen Pal?stina-Vereins
(1938). Taf. 24. Middle Bronze II period.
Type 32d. S.E. Ana Minor. Mersin. Garstang, A.A.A. xxvi, pl. lxxii. Early
Hittite period,
p. 35, line 3. 'merchants at Ras Shamra*. Professor Sidney Smith has suggested that the
occurrence of these dagger types at Ras Shamra may be due to the invasion of
Syria by the Hau-nebut, the sea-people of the Eastern Mediterranean who were
"acquainted with the products of Crete and the Greek mainland, [and] had
previously penetrated Egypt and Palestine ". Alalakh and Chronology, p. 7, foot-
note 22, and p. 36?

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Daggers and Swords in Western Asia: A Study from Prehistoric Times to 600 B.C.

Author(s): Rachel Maxwell-Hyslop

'<w ...tee. : C 3 ???/? and oftr WM?&

A STUDY FROM PREHISTORIC TIMES TO 600 b.c.

By RACHEL MAXWELL-HYSLOP, F.S.A.

development from the most simple form

This is the most primitive form of western Asiatic dagger, but

Type ia. Slight thickening down the centre of the blade.

Type 1. Perda. Tepe Hissar. Schmidt, pi. xvi, H. 3408. Copper,

This type represents an improvement on Type 1. While the blade rema

the metalsmiths working in Egypt were

Type 2a. Babylonia. Ur. Woolley, pi. 228, U. 8651. Copper.

the first time in Crete in Middle Minoan

Type 3. Babylonia. Kish. Mackay, Part I, pl. xvii, No. 12.

x PENDLEBURY, Crete, P1. XI, 3, d.

Type 3. Mesopotamia. Chagar Bazar. Mallowan, Iraq, hi, i, Fig. 8, 9. O

Type 4b. Mesopotamia. Serr?n. Ashmolean Museum, No. 1914. 529.

(Several unpublished examples found by Mr. Stewart at Vounous belong t

This is a technically advanced type, as is shown by the strong midrib, the

Leaf-shaped pointed blade with multiple longitudinal ribbing,

The custom of casting the hilt and blade together in one

Mesopotamia. Chagar Bazar. Mallowan, Iraq, iv. 2, Fig. 13,

Type 12. SE. Asia Minor.

Type 13a. Angular shoulders and slightly concave sides.

Type 15a. The surface of the blade is flat.

Level III, dated to 'Early Bronze Age'.

Type 17a. The blade is pointed and has a well-marked midrib.

The sloping tang on these daggers ensured firmness at the junction o

example was found in the prehistoric cemetery (see

Type 20a. The blade is blunt.

Mesopotamia. Serr?n. Ashmolean Museum, Nos. 1914. 136,

Type 23a. The blade is pointed.

N. Syria. Qatna. Du Mesnil du Buisson, Fig. 54. Copper.

This is a technically advanced type and would be an efficient stabbing weapon.

Type 26a. The point is blunt.

Type 27a. There is no rivet-hole.

Gezer. Macalister, ni, pi. cxxxv, 12a. Un-

character, in the population of Ugarit, and as Schaeffer has suggested, it is possible

Type 32a. The ricasso is merely a continuation of the hilt.

Type 32. Perda. Luristan. British Museum, No. 120938. 1929?4?

Type 35. Persia. Luristan. British Museum, 123060, cf. B.M.Q.

Extant and examples from wall-paintings

Type 36. Persia. Luristan. Cambridge Museum of Archaeology, No.

TYPES 37, 38, 39, 40, 41

Type 38a. The hilt is straight-sided, and above the guard t

Type 38. Persia. Luristan. British Museum, 128761 (1936- -*3>

Type 3?. Persia. Luristan. British Museum, No. 123315. Length

Type 40a. The ricasso is indented as in Type 35.

Type 40. Persia. Luristan. Cambridge Museum of Archaeology, No.

Type 41. Persia. Luristan. British Museum, 123058 (1932?1?18,4).

Type 48a. The pommel is round and the 'horns* rudimentary.

Central G?vurkalesi. Perrot and Chipiez, 11, Fig. 352 (i

Type 52a. The hilt is large and half-moon shaped.

where it is borne by a Keftiu tributary

Examples from reliefs

TYPES 54, 55, 56

ment of the heavy infantry, slingers, and the mounted an

Examples from Reliefs

SOURCES OF THE ILLUSTRATIONS

Type 1. Tepe Sialk. Ghirshman, Fouilles, 1, pi. lxxxv, S. 127.

(In addition to those listed on the cover of this volume)

Scale of 2, 3, 4, 5,7, 8, 9,10 ? cm.

TYPES 1-5, 7-10