DAGGER WITH DECORATED HANDLE

Description Wide beveled blade dagger with a flat central part, modeled laterally and a triangular tip. The blade is connected to a small, wider and thicker hilt with a trapezoidal profile: the cable decoration on both faces is composed of two square spirals placed side by side. The hollow oval-section handle, tapering downwards, is adorned with incisions representing two juxtaposed rows of meanders on each side. The handle ends in a flattened pommel, also oval in cross-section, crossed transversely by a rectangular hole that was used to pass a suspension lace. On the handle there are other very small holes that must have had a technical reason. The shape, bevels and triangular tip of the blade recall, on a smaller scale, the Chinese sword of the 6th-5th century BCE. Although this dagger is not “Chinese” in the strict sense, but comes from a northern peripheral region, it would seem to derive from those swords.