• latw-213-1
    War (?) sickle from destruction level inside the fortification (No. 213). (©Archaeological Exploration of Sardis/President and Fellows of Harvard College)

Iron sickle

Date
Ca. 570-540s BC, Lydian
Sardis or Museum Inv. No.
M94.013
Material
Iron
Object Type
Metalwork
Metalwork Type
Tool
Site
Sardis
Sector
MMS/S
Trench
MMS/S 94.1
Locus
MMS/S 94.1 Locus 58
B-Grid Coordinates
E115 / S156.4 *105.9
Description
Iron. Adhering to the blade is part of an iron sieve or filter. Blade and “wrap-around” handle socket were made together. Preserved length 0.27 m, maximum width 0.035 m (blade length 0.22 m; handle socket length 0.05 m).
Comments
The sickle was recovered near the iron sword, No. 212, and also resting on an occupation surface covered by destruction debris of the mid-sixth century BC. It may belong to a traditional Anatolian curved-blade weapon, either a short-handled one (drepanon in Greek) or the spear-sickle (dorudrepanon), which are attested in ancient literature and art (Sekunda 1983, Sekunda 1996; also depicted in paintings of a tomb of ca. 480 BC at Tatarlı: Cahill, “The Persian Sack of Sardis”). Other curved blades, rather small for weapons, together with skewers of iron that were recovered under the same destruction debris in the same location, however, suggest to N. D. Cahill that agricultural and household utensils might have been used as weapons in the conflict that resulted in destruction.
See Also
Cahill, “Persian Sack”.
Bibliography
Greenewalt 1997, 10-12, 17-18.
Author
CHG