sword-sheath BM-1923-0716.88

Period:Han dynasty Production date:2ndC BC(late)-1stC BC (manufacture)
Materials:jade
Technique:carved

Dimensions:Length: 94.50 millimetres Weight: 59.79 grammes Width: 26.50 millimetres

Description:
Jade sword-sheath slider; rectangular bar with curved back ends; rectangular projecting attachment slot at back; carved low relief scrollwork decoration. Andrási 2008 One end of the bar is flat and expanded, the other narrows to a rounded terminal. The front surface is decorated with incised, low-relief scrollwork. From the back projects a large, cuboid block. It is perforated by a transverse, rectangular slot for attachment, 17mm from one end and 41mm from the other end of the bar. There are traces of metal on the back (iron corrosion ).
IMG


Comments:Andrási 2008Published: Rostovtsev M. 1923, Une trouvaille de l’époque gréco-sarmate de Kerch au Louvre et au Musée de Saint-Germain. Monuments et Mémoires Fondation Eugène Piot, XXVI. Paris, 145–61. 38 note 2. Rostovtsev M. 1930, La porte-épée des Iraniens et des Chinois. In: G. Millet, L’Art Byzantin chez les Slavs, Les Balkans 1. (Orient et Byzance IV). Paris, 337–46., 339–40 no. 2, figs 256–7. Werner J. 1956, Beiträge zur Archäologie des Attila-Reiches. (BayrAW. Abh., NF 38a) Munich. 27 note. Trousdale W. 1969, A possible Roman jade from China. Oriental Art, new ser. XV, 58–64. 61, fig. 8.Trousdale W. 1975, The Long Sword and Scabbard Slide in Asia. (Smithsonian Contributions to Anthropology, no. 17; Washington). 25, 102–3, 237–8, 264 table 2, pl. 19c.Khazanov A.M. 1971, Ocherki Voennogo Dela Sarmatov. Akademiya Nauk SSR. Institut Etnografii Moskva. Moscow. 25, 149, pl. XV:7 A very similar Chinese jade slide was found in Kerch in the Messaksoudi find, which is dated to the second half of the 3rd century.[1] Beck, Kazanski and Vallet date it to the first half of the 4th century.[2] A sword found in Pokrovsk (Voshkhod, Russia) dating to the Hunnic era has a similar slide made of nephrite, and a hilt decorated with garnet inlays.[3] Another slide of the same type from Alt-Weimar (lower Volga region, Russia) is said to be late Sarmatian.[4] According to Werner this fashion was spread from the East by the Alans coming from the Volga region in the period of the late Roman Empire.[5] Maksimenko and Bezuglov date the nephrite sword slide from the Sarmatian kurgan of Sladovsky (Rostov district, Russia) to the end of the 2nd–first half of the 3rd century.[6] Ginters associates the origin of this type of object with the Iranian people, while the ornaments and the use of jade are Chinese characteristics.[7] A similar nephrite slide from the Perm area (Russia) is published by Spitsin.[8]Trousdale’s monograph on sword and scabbard slides surveys a large number of this type of object discussing their history, origin, development and bibliography.[9] According to his idea the long sword and scabbard slide were first used by the equestrian people of the southern Ural steppe during the 7th–6th centuries bc, antedating the earliest appearance of the Chinese jade slides in the 5th century bc. The scabbard slide was brought westwards from China by the Yüeh-chih, a nomadic people living on the north-northwest frontier of China until the third decade of the 2nd century bc, who occupied Russian Central Asia in the third quarter of the same century. The Berthier-Delagarde piece was carved in China in the late 2nd/end of the 1st century bc and was found in a Sarmatian grave of the 3rd–4th century ad. In the 3rd and 4th centuries ad the scabbard slides manufactured in south Russia imitate the Chinese ones.The scabbard slides were then imported to the Ural steppe from south Russia. The history of this type of object therefore began in the southern Ural steppe and ended some thousand years later in the same region. Trousdale rules out the possibility that the scabbard slides could be associated with the Huns.[10] But Zasetskaya, as a proponent of this theory, dates the slide from Pokrovsk to the 2nd half of the 5th century.[11]The ‘in situ’ finds of two sword slides of this type, one from the Han period from Korea,[12] the other from the above-mentioned kurgan in Alt-Weimar, solved the problem of how these objects were used.Comparative bibliography1. Rostovtsev M. 1923, Une trouvaille de l’époque gréco-sarmate de Kerch au Louvre et au Musée de Saint-Germain. Monuments et Mémoires Fondation Eugène Piot, XXVI. Paris, 145–61.3a, 10–11, ills 3–52. Beck F., Kazanski M. and Vallet F. 1988, La riche tombe de Kertch du Musée des Antiquités Nationales. Antiquités Nationales 20, 63 et seqq. 63 et seqq. – with further literature and references.3. Werner J. 1956, Beiträge zur Archäologie des Attila-Reiches. (BayrAW. Abh., NF 38a) Munich. 26–7, pl. 40:3; Bóna I. 1991, Das Hunnenreich (Budapest-Stuttgart). 1993, ill. 22/1; Menghin W. 1994/95, Schwerter des Goldgriffspathenhorizonts im Museum für Vor- und Frühgeschichte. Acta Praehistorica et Archaeologica (Berlin), 26/27, 140–91.178, 185, ill. 35 – with further literature and references.4. Rau P. 1927, Prähistorische Ausgrabungen auf der Steppenseite des deutschen Wolgagebietes im Jahre 1926. Mitteilungen des Zentralmuseums der Aut. Soz. Räte-Republik der Wolgadeutschen, 2. Pokrovsk. 395. Werner 1956 op cit 26–7, 42, pl. 38:46. Maksimenko V.E. and Bezuglov S.I. 1987, Pozdnesarmatskie pogrebeniya v kurganakh na reke Bystroi. SA, 1987 – 1, 183–92, 187–8, ill. 2:77. Ginters W. 1928, Das Schwert der Skythen und Sarmaten in Südrussland. Berlin. 173 – pl. 29a is wrongly attributed to the Berthier-Delagarde Collection 8. Spitsin A.A. 1902, Drevnosti Kamskoi Chudi po Kollektsii Teploukhovukh’. MAR, 26. 28, pl. II:19. Trousdale W. 1975, The Long Sword and Scabbard Slide in Asia. (Smithsonian Contributions to Anthropology, no. 17; Washington). 1–33210. Trousdale 1975 op cit, 11211. Zasetskaya I.P. 1986, Nekotorie itogi izucheniya khronologii pamyatnikov gunnskoi epokhi v yuzhnorusskikh stepyakh. Arkh. Sbornik 27, 79–91, 85–6, ill. 1:5512. Yetts W.P. 1926, A Chinese scabbard-jade, Burlington Magazine 49, 197–201.