Reconstructions of the inlaid Mycenean daggers.
I saw the originals in Athens a few years back now.
This is the first time I have seen a reconstruction of these, I hope I am not duplicating the item here. Beautiful work. I always wanted to be able to do something like this.
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hello
absolutly beautifull daggers,the blade i immagine that is in bronze so the figure are on the original wax and after they were silvered.the handle is in bronze or in wood whit silver sheet?
I recall the originals have gold inlay.
The handles I cannot recall, will need to look at my old pictures.
How they are constructed, I cannot say.
These are absolutely beautiful, the lion hunt dagger has always been a favourite of mine. Incidentally have any of you taken a look at the war scenes on a) seals and b) ivories? Some would say even better.
In fact I recall one find, listed in the "Polemos : le contexte guerrier en Egée à l'âge du Bronze" series, I think II, which was the most ridiculously brilliant over the top lion decorated sword ever.
re: pommel attachments your best bet is some of Nancy Sandar's work I should imagine, it's an interesting topic (production in general) and is sort of always in fashion.
I was struck by the riveted on handles on many of these bronze swords and daggers.
I guess they must have worked to a degree, and possibly better than one might think. They certainly knew a bit more about bronze than we do.
Quote:I was struck by the riveted on handles on many of these bronze swords and daggers.
I guess they must have worked to a degree, and possibly better than one might think. They certainly knew a bit more about bronze than we do.
Well, you have to understand that you can't expect, say, perfectly tempered wootz steel blades with the most elegant designs, this is the age of bronze after all.
Whatever they had was, simply, better than before and not as good as later in most given situations. In general you have to examine the blades holistically i.e you can actually see evidence of re-designs, innovations and improvement as time goes on. I.e the odd riveted handles give way to better ones; there's evidence for development in blade profile and so on and forth.
Fascinating.
No, I was amazed by the quality of the bronze blades, and possibly they were later than than riveted handle ones, but you would have thought they had been designed and cast using computer aided technology! Quality!
Images from my childhood. Age 14 I pored over pictures of these daggers and anything Mycenaean, going on to get top grades in Classical Studies exams and going on to a university degree. I used to draw pictures and plans of Mycenae too. When I got to visit back in 2004, I was a Christian going to Jerusalem.
It was a moving experinece for me. Felt like I knew it well.
Byron, you didn't mention where you saw these replicas.....
Quote:Byron, you didn't mention where you saw these replicas.....
Apologies, forgot to add description from FB album. The Ashmolean, Oxford!