Old Iron Things

Here is a collection of various interesting iron and steel objects I took or found somewhere. Many more can be found somewhere else in the Hyperscript


Iron knife from the Cozia-Saharna culture		"Holy Lance" from Vienna treasury museum
Source: Photographed in the National Museum, Moldova		Source: Treasury Vienna; Spiegel Geschichte 6; 2011

Iron knife from the Cozia-Saharna culture, (Hlinjeni, 8th century BC) The knife is on display in the Chisinau, Moldova museum.
One of the few really old iron artifacts but now reduced to rust. It is not known if there is still some iron inside the blade.

Holy Lance. This is one of several "holy lances" around that purportedly was used by the Roman soldier Longinus to finally kill Jesus. (read the Wikipedia article for a long story). It is supposed to contain (one of the many) true nails from the cross and plays a major role in medieval lore.
Robert Feather, an English metallurgist and technical engineering writer, tested the lance in January 2003. He was allowed to remove the delicate bands of gold and silver that hold it together. In the opinion of Feather and other academic experts, the likeliest date of the spearhead is the 7th century A.D. – only slightly earlier than the Museum's own estimate. However, Dr. Feather stated in the same documentary that the iron pin hammered into the blade and set off by tiny brass crosses is "consistent" in length and shape with a 1st century A.D. Roman nail".
I don't doubt that at all but just wonder if it would also be consistent with a nail from other centuries.

The next two objects are from the "Rüstungskammer" (Armory) in Dresden / Germany. Taking pictures in there is not allowed so I won't say how I came by these pictures.


Chastity Belt

It's a modern myth that chastity belts were used during the crusades. There is no credible evidence that chastity belts existed before the 15th century, more than one hundred years after the last Crusade. This one is from the renaissance and may have served the same purpose as modern ones: to induce instead of prevent what couples like to do.
In any case: it was forged by a smith.

Here is a real treasure: a scythe sword from the 15th / 16th century:


The purported scythe sword of Thomas Müntzer (1489–1525)

This sword shwin in a Dresden museum seems to be the only known surviving example of a true scythe sword, i.e. a sword with a blade made from a real scythe and not just a sword with a scythe shape. The incisions on the blade represent a runic calendar.

It may be the sword Thomas Müntzer, an early Reformation-era German theologian, who became a rebel leader during the Peasants' War. In the Battle of Frankenhausen, Müntzer and his farmers were defeated. He was captured, tortured and decapitated in 1525.

Well, here is another scythe used as weapon. I found it in a castle in Schmalkalden, Germany