[Anton de Vries]

I work as a volunteer in the Allard Pierson Museum in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Which is fully dedicated to archaeology.
As such I often wave access to very nice items - like these:
This supposedly is a Luristan find and as there is no documentation I think the finder just dug these up and sold them to the first interested person he met.
My rough guesstimate is that these are 2500-3000 years old.

As I'm interested in the sword thing I was curious to learn how they felt when held so...
Sadly I'm unable to find the sword-in-hand pictures in my chaotic multi-thousand pictures so this shot will have to do.May update later.
Bewcause of my involvement in HEMA I've held MANY swords so I kind of know what I'm talking about.

Top - iron - seemed very fragile so I did not touch it.
Second from top - iron - very disappointing. Boat anchor.
Third from top - bronze - this is more like it, an actual sword - not great or even good but I'd label it useful.
Fourth from top really surprised me - bronze - as the shape is so similar to the 2nd from top I had no expectations...Oh boy the thing seems ALIVE in hand - it's small-ish but feels super inviting -
THIS IS THE BEST SWORD I'VE EVER HELD
Obviously it was never used, it has not been sharpened.
Mind you as this is bronze it was cast, not forged.
How did the maker do this? I have absolutely no idea - I'm in awe of that man's skill.
Moving on to the dagger which is actually very nice.

I had trouble parting with the magic piece but it couldn't be helped.
Even if I could afford to own this I'd still consider it a museum piece, it doesn't belong in a private collection.