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Details
LOT 1376
Western Asiatic Bronze Sword Sheath
2ND-1ST MILLENNIUM B.C.
22 in. (355 grams, 56 cm).
Triangular in plan, terminating in an exaggerated curving point; the outer face pierced towards the top and with a raised midrib; the convex interior possibly containing fragmentary remains of a weapon.
Provenance
From a Japanese collection, 1990s.
Literature
Cf. Moorey, P., Catalogue of Ancient Persian Bronzes in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 1971, no.60, for a sword contained in a similar sheath.
Footnotes
Scabbards with a curve at their base are shown on reliefs and seals from Anatolia from the middle of the second millennium to the 9th century B.C.
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LOT 1376
Western Asiatic Bronze Sword Sheath
Estimate £300 - 400€350 - 460 (for guidance only)$410 - 540 (for guidance only)
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The Arabs, following the Roman examples, made great use of these weapons. The efficiency of the weapon appears, for example, from the account of the siege of Akka in 1189, given by the contemporary historian Ibn al-Athir. He tells how the Christians exercised their engineering skill and built mighty beffroys. The situation was hopeless for the defending Arabs until a man from Damascus showed up, because he knew how to produce Greek Fire: ‘To trick the Christians he first threw some vesseIs with naptha and other things, which were not set on fire, upon one of the beffroy’s, and it was without power. The Christians...climbed the top of the beffroy...the man from Damascus waited until the contents of the vessels were spread all over. When the moment came,he threw a new pot, which was set on fire. In a few moments the fire was spread all over, and the beffroy was eaten up by the flames. The fire was spread in such a hurry that the Christians could not manage to climb down from the beffroy. Men, weapons, everything was eaten up by the flames.’
