5,000-Year-Old Sword Discovered In Venice

[Comfortably Numb]

5,000-year-old sword discovered in Venice

Source: ansamed.info
Date: 28 February, 2020

A 5,000 year-old sword, among the oldest Anatolian weapons in the world, was discovered by a PhD student at the University Ca' Foscari in Venice, Vittoria Dall'Armellina, in a monastery on the island of San Lazzaro degli Armeni in the Lagoon City. The weapon is at the museum of San Lazzaro. It is a small sword, located in a window together with Medieval objects. The sword however is very similar to 5,000-year-old weapons discovered inside the Royal palace in Arslantepe, eastern The museum of Tokat (Turkey) had a similar sword from the region of Sivas, which is extremely similar to the one in San Lazzaro.

Once it was established that the sword was not present in the catalogue of ancient Middle Eastern objects at the museum, in agreement with Elena Rova, a professor of archaeology at the Department of humanistic studies and her supervisor, Dall'Armellina continued her research. Scientific tests confirmed that the sword is similar to the most ancient in the world, dating back to 3,000 BC, not only in shape but in the composition of the metal.

Then research focused on how it came to the monastery and its connection to the community of the Armenian fathers. The research was carried out by consulting Father Serafino Jamourlian, of the mekhitarist monastery of San Lazzaro, who was able to partly solve the question by consulting the archives of the museum.

The sword arrived from Trabzon to Venice, donated by an art merchant and collector, Yervant Khorasandjian, in the mid-1800s, according to an envelope. It was found with other objects in an area called Kavak.

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http://www.ansamed.info/ansamed/en/...ice_bd0e7b77-15fc-4772-bc20-68afa0c4a6d5.html

 

[escargot]

That reads like a translation! So where was the sword from originally? Turkey?

 

[blessmycottonsocks]

Astonishingly well preserved if it is really 5,000 years old.

The description of its composition seems a bit odd:

"sword is made of a type of copper and tin frequently used before the Bronze age."

But isn't bronze an alloy of copper and tin anyway, so that would mean bronze was in use before the Bronze Age.

 

[Mythopoeika]

Astonishingly well preserved if it is really 5,000 years old.

The description of its composition seems a bit odd:

"sword is made of a type of copper and tin frequently used before the Bronze age."

But isn't bronze an alloy of copper and tin anyway, so that would mean bronze was in use before the Bronze Age.

It is very well preserved. Surprising that it is intact - it looks like a cast sword, and they frequently shattered. I'm guessing that this sword didn't get much use.

 

[EnolaGaia]

That reads like a translation! So where was the sword from originally? Turkey?

Yes (as far as we know to date). The earliest Bronze Age "swords" (really big daggers; like this one) are solely known from archaeological finds in modern day Turkey. The currently prevalent theory is that larger knives or proto-swords first appeared in the Black Sea region, if not Turkey per se.

These proto-swords didn't get much longer until the Iron Age, when metal capable of being effective and durable in longer lengths became available.

 

[Mythopoeika]

Yes (as far as we know to date). The earliest Bronze Age "swords" (really big daggers; like this one) are solely known from archaeological finds in modern day Turkey. The currently prevalent theory is that larger knives or proto-swords first appeared in the Black Sea region, if not Turkey per se.

These proto-swords didn't get much longer until the Iron Age, when metal capable of being effective and durable in longer lengths became available.

We get a sense of scale from this picture:

So... it is more of a dagger than a sword, as you say.