Daggers, dirks, and short swords in the cultural-historical property repository of the Administration of Cultural Heritage of Kerman. An Introduction

In this paper, the authors have examined 95 unprovenanced bladed weapons that are stored in the cultural-historical property repository of the Administration of Cultural Heritage of Kerman Province (Southeastern Iran). The illegal possessors claimed to have discovered the artefacts via illegal diggings in the Kerman Province. The entire collection consists of double edged items made out of bronze. Most of the examined items were probably designed for combat and are comparable to findings within current borders of Iran. Most of the artefacts have very simple designs and probably date from the 2nd to early 1st millennium BCE. Almost all handled examples were cast in one piece and can be dated to 1450-c. 1000 BCE. Only one item was made by the “casting on” technique which probably dates to the 9th-8th centuries BCE.