August 15, 2016

Something Well Made: The Bronze Sword of Goujian, King of Yue State 越王勾踐劍

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In December 1965, 7 kilometres (4.3 mi) from the ruins of Jinan, an ancient capital of Chu, a casket was discovered at Wangshan site #1.

Inside, an ornate bronze sword was found with a human skeleton.

The sword was found sheathed in a wooden scabbard finished in black lacquer. The scabbard had an almost air-tight fit with the sword body. Unsheathing the sword revealed an untarnished blade, despite the tomb being soaked in underground water for over 2,000 years.


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On one side of the blade, two columns of text are visible. Eight characters are written in an ancient script which was found to be one known as Bird-worm seal script (literally “birds and worms characters” owing to the intricate decorations of the defining strokes), a variant of seal script. Initial analysis of the text deciphered six of the characters, “King of Yue”and “made this sword for [his] personal use”. The remaining two characters were probably the name of this King of Yue.

You have to be patient with (and pay close attention to) this video. But if you do you will be rewarded.




[Other details at Vintage News]

Posted by gerardvanderleun at August 15, 2016 4:56 PM
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Gol Dang it Gerard ! This is why I love this site.

Posted by: tonynoboloney at August 15, 2016 9:05 PM