The World’s oldest and first swords ever discovered

Arkeonews ^ | 11 March 2023 | Leman Altuntas

[Mean Daddy]

Maybe they were letter openers?

[Ezekiel]

The World’s oldest and first swords ever discovered...

There is a lot of debate about how these pieces work. Were they merely status symbols, or could they have served a practical purpose? Swords have been used for both purposes throughout history, and even if they appear unwieldy to our modern standards, they may have worked well enough in the hands of an antagonist in 3000 BCE to ruin your day.

It's like when Jacob listened to his mother and -- dressed in Esau's Sunday Best, essentially the very first Purim costume (Rivka, what a mom) -- got in first to nab Esau's blessing, which then meant that Esau received the blessing about living by his sword. He was blessed with not just the regular dew of heaven (what Jacob 'stole'), but the dew of heaven from above.

Lacking vision and skipping over the fine print, he became incensed, convinced that he got the shaft and that Jacob was "obviously" a real piece of work.

As anyone can see, it doesn't take much for things to go horribly wrong when people jump to conclusions. Judging by his actions, Esau assumed that his sword was an instrument of hate and death. What kind of blessing is that. Yet instead of stopping to think for a moment, he went flying off the handle, enraged. Self-fulfilling prophecy, yikes.

Genesis 27

38 And Esau said unto his father, Hast thou but one blessing, my father? bless me, even me also, O my father. And Esau lifted up his voice, and wept.
39 And Isaac his father answered and said unto him, Behold, thy dwelling shall be the fatness of the earth, and of the dew of heaven from above;
40 And by thy sword shalt thou live, and shalt serve thy brother; and it shall come to pass when thou shalt have the dominion, that thou shalt break his yoke from off thy neck.
41 And Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing wherewith his father blessed him: and Esau said in his heart, The days of mourning for my father are at hand; then will I slay my brother Jacob.

Nobody can take a yoke!

Eh, it'll all work out in end because these boys are twins, the sons of Isaac meaning "he will laugh". And as everyone knows, in *Isaac* is Abraham's seed called. Accept no substitutes.

When Jacob was dubbed "Israel", it was because he wrestled with God and man, and *prevailed*, the verb for "can".

Esau is the "Do" part of the Can-Do team because that's the meaning of his name. It's a key detail. "Time and Date" keeps telling everyone over and over, like on this page:

An Eclipse Never Comes Alone!

Anyone remember a particular spat in the sequel (what a plotline!)? It was when the Heat Miser snapped at the Snow Miser,

"Mother always did like *you* best." 😡

Gotta laugh.

Isaiah 2:4 And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.

[Honest Nigerian]

They all seem to have that early-phallic look. I wonder if the designer filed for patent protection./LOL

[Larry Lucido]

Maybe they were ballots for King.

“We have a tie. We’re going to need more swords and watery tarts!”

“Moistened bints lobbing scimintars is no basis for a system of government!”

[Track9]

That’s excellent. Thank you!

[Deplorable American1776]

I wondered if the anti sword kooks (leftists) wanted them banned...🤓

[Sacajaweau]

There’s so much arsenic around...I wonder if there’s an attraction. I know they put cathodic protection along cast iron water mains...I think with Magnesium to attract chems that destroy the cast iron. Just thinking about it...my own dots.

[sauropod]

.

[Sacajaweau]

https://jguaa2.journals.ekb.eg/article_6693_c76d2eee29f14a1107690308e48deded.pdf

[Sacajaweau]

From an article I read...the arsenic is naturally occurring and the resulting objects are made from the ore containing both arsenic and copper.

[Sacajaweau]

I remember drawing my first chain link fence post for a demo...it was like that the sculpture on “Everyone Loves Raymond”.

[pierrem15]

What possessed man 5000 years ago to produce arsenic? And then why use it in forging swords.

It's present in a lot of ores and comes out as a byproduct of smelting the other ore. Someone noticed that adding it to copper (or smelting copper ore with a high arsenic content) made the copper harder.

[csvset]

I imagine the amount of people who have succumbed to the knife and sword over the eons is too vast to comprehend.

[bunkerhill7]

Gen 3:21 The First Sword
“After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side[e] of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.”

[flamberge]

No need for any sarcasm or irony in your post. It may well have been correct.

It has been commonplace throughout history for rulers to forbid the common people from possessing swords or other weapons used by the warriors. And that was for exactly the reason that you mentioned.

Good swords and daggers are most definitely "assault weapons". They are also costly - as much as firearms are today.

Our second amendment "rights" are an historical anomaly. Governments of all types and in all times usually refuse to be restrained by such ideas.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

It is truly astonishing what the ancients accomplished in metallurgy just by trial, error, and guesswork. Documenting and analyzing results was probably almost non-existent.

Alloys are amazing mixtures where just a tiny amount of alloying material radically changing the properties of the alloy. In this arsenical bronze, adding 0.5 - 2 wt% Arsenic results in a 10 - 30% improvement in hardness and tensile strength.

[fella]

The design shows a foregoing period of experience.

[fella]

The design shows a foregoing period of experience.

[fella]

The design shows a foregoing period of experience.

[fella]

The design shows a foregoing period of experience.