Archeologists Find 2,300 Chinese Sword-its Still Shiny

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**Frazzled**

Article has pictures-way cool.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4088214/Incredible-moment-archaeologists-pull-2-300-year-old-sword-discover-s-shiny-lethal.html?ito=social-facebook

Incredible moment archaeologists pull out a 2,300-year-old sword and discover it's still shiny and lethal

Ancient weapon was found inside a coffin next to its owner in central China
Experts were surprised to see the blade was still sharp after two millennia
Video of the sword-drawing ceremony has been viewed 9.3 million times
The sword did not oxidise because the tomb chamber had been sealed

By Tracy You For Mailonline

Published: 17:33 GMT, 4 January 2017 | Updated: 17:54 GMT, 4 January 2017

Chinese archaeologists were surprised to discover that an ancient sword they had unearthed were in near perfect condition.

Last Friday, experts pulled out the blade from its scabbard and realised that the 2,300-year-old relic was shiny and sharp.

The traditional Chinese weapon was found inside an ancient coffin in Henan Province in central China, where the Chinese civilisation is thought to have originated.

The sword, discovered by archaeologists from Henan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, was believed to be from China's Warring States period (475 BC -221 BC).

It had been kept inside the coffin at the left-hand side of its owner.

Archaeologists found the blade in a laboratory as they opened the coffin, which had been excavated from the No.18 ancient tomb in the ruins of Chengyang city.

After carefully removing the mud-covered sword from the coffin, archaeologists cleaned the sheath before separating the blade from its cover at around 12pm on December 30.

The sword was found in Henan, where the Chinese civilisation is thought to have originated

According to a statement from Henan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, all experts were surprised when the blade turned out to be in near mint condition.

A member of the staff filmed the moment two archaeologists pulled out the sword and uploaded the footage onto the institute's official account on Weibo the same day.
WHY IS CHENGYANG CITY IMPORTANT

Chengyang ancient city is the best preserved and largest city of the ancient kingdom of Chu (770-223 BC).

It is located 25km (15.5 miles) north of Xinyang city in Henan Province.

The city is believed to be first established 2,700 years ago as the barracks of the Chu Kingdom.

The Chu emperor set up a temporary capital in Chengyang in 278BC after being defeated by the neighbouring Qin kingdom.

Chengyang continued to be a political, economic, cultural and military centre in the following millennium.

The 12-second clip has been played more than nine million times. Viewers were stunned by ancient Chinese craftsmen's sword-making skills as the weapon was still lethal after more than two millennia.

The footage was also widely shared by Chinese media, including CCTV News.

Liu Yong, the deputy supervisor of the Chengyang Protected District, witnessed the sword-drawing ceremony.

He was impressed by the ancient sabre. He said through a poem that though the loyal general had died, his treasured sword was still glittering.

Wu Zhijiang, a team leader from Henan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, was one of the two archaeologists who pulled the sword.

Mr Wu told MailOnline that it was in fact not uncommon to see well-protected ancient swords in the region.

He explained that the ancient tombs from the Chu Kingdom were usually sealed off from the outside world in a humid environment, so weapons would not oxidise easily.

Experts are yet to confirm the identity of the owner of the tomb.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4088214/Incredible-moment-archaeologists-pull-2-300-year-old-sword-discover-s-shiny-lethal.html#ixzz4WgFFSv3L
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

**Do_I_Not_Like_That**

Frazz, is this not the beginning of an old Nostradamus prophecy:

"When the toupee sits on its White Throne, and the sword that is lost is refound,

then the red dragon shall rise, the bald eagle will fall from the skies..."

Sorry Frazz, as was foretold, the American Empire is over

OT, it's a very interesting story.

Amateur archaeology is a hobby of mine. A few years back, I dug up the garden. Went 3 feet down. Got nothing

**Skinnereal**

Do_I_Not_Like_That wrote:
Amateur archaeology is a hobby of mine. A few years back, I dug up the garden. Went 3 feet down. Got nothing

How did that happen? The Romans went everywhere, making a right mess.
Finding nothing is a find in itself.

**Frazzled**

I heard the baying of the Great Wienie in my dreams last night. You may be correct.

Some discussion about whether the sword was a child's sword due to the length of the hilt. Bronze sword with special casting technique to avoid corrosion.

**Skinnereal**

Balin: "Not actually sure it is a sword. More of a letter opener, really."

**jhe90**

So a sword older than a good chunk of Roman empire, and still sharp...

Wow. The makers life time guarantee was not joking.

**Do_I_Not_Like_That**

Skinnereal wrote:
Do_I_Not_Like_That wrote:
Amateur archaeology is a hobby of mine. A few years back, I dug up the garden. Went 3 feet down. Got nothing
How did that happen? The Romans went everywhere, making a right mess.
Finding nothing is a find in itself.

I live in Scotland. Unlike the rest of the UK, we managed to repel the Romans

**Frazzled**

Do_I_Not_Like_That wrote:
Skinnereal wrote:
Do_I_Not_Like_That wrote:
Amateur archaeology is a hobby of mine. A few years back, I dug up the garden. Went 3 feet down. Got nothing
How did that happen? The Romans went everywhere, making a right mess.
Finding nothing is a find in itself.

I live in Scotland. Unlike the rest of the UK, we managed to repel the Romans

Mine liked pizza so much, they destroyed the Romans.

**Do_I_Not_Like_That**

Frazzled wrote:
I heard the baying of the Great Wienie in my dreams last night. You may be correct.

Some discussion about whether the sword was a child's sword due to the length of the hilt. Bronze sword with special casting technique to avoid corrosion.

Might not be a child's sword. Historically, people have been quite small, the average height being a lot lower than this day and age.

Tall people is a relatively modern phenomena based on having access to good quality nutrition on a regular basis through the generations.

Your average WW2 Japanese soldier was only about 5 foot 1 inch.

**Frazzled**

More about the size of the handle (I forget the correct name for it) vs. normal adult hand size. Otherwise its about gladius length, which from other discussions, appears about par for the sword type during that period.

**SagesStone**

Hilt?

Either way [joke about sword almost being as old as some of Frazzled's socks].

**Gitzbitah**

Yeah, hilt does look small- though I haven't seen quoted dimensions. The sword of Goujian, from a similar period of time in China has a hilt of 3.3". That's about a handspan for most of us- and in the images of the newly discovered sword, you can see the hilt is barely half a hand across.
http://www.ancient-origins.net/artifacts-other-artifacts/goujian-ancient-chinese-sword-defied-time-003279

Bronze swords deform terribly when used for hacking, and so are generally short enough to be used for stabbing.

**Alpharius**

That was awesome!

I was going to say 'Thanks for posting something interesting in the OT Forum' but of course it lasted until...the first reply.

Still, thanks for posting something interesting in the OT Forum!

**Frazzled**

Alpharius wrote:
That was awesome!

I was going to say 'Thanks for posting something interesting in the OT Forum' but of course it lasted until...the first reply.

Still, thanks for posting something interesting in the OT Forum!

Here's the real trip. If you go to the article ((I can't paste the pics from here) you can see how shiny the sword is directly from being draw, which is stunning, like Conan finding a magic sword kind of stunning. But once polished, imagine that blade on par with the blade noted in the wiki article from the same period. Yowsa.

**Iron_Captain**

Do_I_Not_Like_That wrote:
Frazzled wrote:
I heard the baying of the Great Wienie in my dreams last night. You may be correct.

Some discussion about whether the sword was a child's sword due to the length of the hilt. Bronze sword with special casting technique to avoid corrosion.

Might not be a child's sword. Historically, people have been quite small, the average height being a lot lower than this day and age.

Tall people is a relatively modern phenomena based on having access to good quality nutrition on a regular basis through the generations.

Your average WW2 Japanese soldier was only about 5 foot 1 inch.

People being tall is not just a modern phenomena though, unless you are talking about the extreme height increases in Northern Europe since the 1950's. There have been several periods in history during which a majority of people had widespread access to good nutrition and were not noticeably shorter than modern humans, as evidenced from skeletons of the Roman era. Romans from Pompeii were on average taller than people from modern Southern Italy for example. Ancient Germans were even taller than that due to the high amount of protein in their diet and were not shorter than modern Germanic peoples well up until halfway the 20th century. After the 1950's the average height in Northern Europe just explodes skywards.

I have little knowledge of the average height of people in China over the course of its immensely long history, but just a quick Google search yields that people during the Han Dynasty were on average 2 inch taller than the average height of modern Chinese. Now I don't know how accurate this measurement is, especially considering the large timeframe, but in any case it suggests the difference in height is not going to be all that big.

**tneva82**

Do_I_Not_Like_That wrote:

Might not be a child's sword. Historically, people have been quite small, the average height being a lot lower than this day and age.

Tall people is a relatively modern phenomena based on having access to good quality nutrition on a regular basis through the generations.

Your average WW2 Japanese soldier was only about 5 foot 1 inch.

Which makes entering replica of 1500 year old japanese building challenge in itself. Doors are ridiculously short.

**A Town Called Malus**

Skinnereal wrote:
Do_I_Not_Like_That wrote:
Amateur archaeology is a hobby of mine. A few years back, I dug up the garden. Went 3 feet down. Got nothing
How did that happen? The Romans went everywhere, making a right mess.
Finding nothing is a find in itself.

DINLT lives in Scotland (AKA the place that was so rainy even the Romans couldn't be bothered to launch a massive invasion)

**Do_I_Not_Like_That**

Iron_Captain wrote:
Do_I_Not_Like_That wrote:
Frazzled wrote:
I heard the baying of the Great Wienie in my dreams last night. You may be correct.

Some discussion about whether the sword was a child's sword due to the length of the hilt. Bronze sword with special casting technique to avoid corrosion.

Might not be a child's sword. Historically, people have been quite small, the average height being a lot lower than this day and age.

Tall people is a relatively modern phenomena based on having access to good quality nutrition on a regular basis through the generations.

Your average WW2 Japanese soldier was only about 5 foot 1 inch.

People being tall is not just a modern phenomena though, unless you are talking about the extreme height increases in Northern Europe since the 1950's. There have been several periods in history during which a majority of people had widespread access to good nutrition and were not noticeably shorter than modern humans, as evidenced from skeletons of the Roman era. Romans from Pompeii were on average taller than people from modern Southern Italy for example. Ancient Germans were even taller than that due to the high amount of protein in their diet and were not shorter than modern Germanic peoples well up until halfway the 20th century. After the 1950's the average height in Northern Europe just explodes skywards.

I have little knowledge of the average height of people in China over the course of its immensely long history, but just a quick Google search yields that people during the Han Dynasty were on average 2 inch taller than the average height of modern Chinese. Now I don't know how accurate this measurement is, especially considering the large timeframe, but in any case it suggests the difference in height is not going to be all that big.

I don't deny there have been regional and genetic variations through the ages in different parts of the world.

King Edward I of England was noted for his height as he literally towered over most people.

But from my limited knowledge of various subjects, I'm concluding that the sword's owner was about 5 feet 2 inches in height, and that's taking corrosion into effect as well, as the sword doesn't look like it has 'shrunk' that much.

I have no idea what style of warfare was happening in China at this time, so I have no idea if this sword was ceremonial or was used for close fighting and was designed for thrusting like a Gladius.

Automatically Appended Next Post:

tneva82 wrote:
Do_I_Not_Like_That wrote:

Might not be a child's sword. Historically, people have been quite small, the average height being a lot lower than this day and age.

Tall people is a relatively modern phenomena based on having access to good quality nutrition on a regular basis through the generations.

Your average WW2 Japanese soldier was only about 5 foot 1 inch.

Which makes entering replica of 1500 year old japanese building challenge in itself. Doors are ridiculously short.

Some of those buildings were desgined to be anti-Ninja so that may well be a deliberate design.

Automatically Appended Next Post:

A Town Called Malus wrote:
Skinnereal wrote:
Do_I_Not_Like_That wrote:
Amateur archaeology is a hobby of mine. A few years back, I dug up the garden. Went 3 feet down. Got nothing
How did that happen? The Romans went everywhere, making a right mess.
Finding nothing is a find in itself.

DINLT lives in Scotland (AKA the place that was so rainy even the Romans couldn't be bothered to launch a massive invasion)

Slighty OT. I have no knowledge of how much you know about Roman Britain and Scotland in particualr, but there is a surprising amount of Roman stuff in Scotland.

Antonine's wall, ruined forts etc.

The River Forth was a jumping off point for Roman campaigns into the Highlands and their ships could sail right up the Forth and deliver supplies and soldiers.

Ships were the best method of transport back then, so there is a lot of infastructure on the Scottish coast to support the Roman navy bringing in supplies.

**tneva82**

Do_I_Not_Like_That wrote:
Some of those buildings were desgined to be anti-Ninja so that may well be a deliberate design.

I very much doubt that

a) this was from town circa ~500. Ninja fame comes from warring state so about millenia later b) there's no evidence ninjas actually existed c) this was farmers home

Even if there was ninja's 1000 year before they became famous and assuming they existed I very much doubt common FARMERS would build anti-ninja doors

Nah they were more commonly built deliberately small for castles etc. Especially doors that were at the top of(generally very steep and ceiling coming down randomly) ladders. Climbing those is nightmare to climb even now let alone in full armour with angry guys poking with spear at the top or firing arrows at you

(not that many probably even tried. Archers+starvation would seem obvious counter ploy unless you are being pressed on time due to reinforcements coming to enemy)

**LordofHats**

That and Ninja's are from Japan

**Relapse**

Skinnereal wrote:
Do_I_Not_Like_That wrote:
Amateur archaeology is a hobby of mine. A few years back, I dug up the garden. Went 3 feet down. Got nothing
How did that happen? The Romans went everywhere, making a right mess.
Finding nothing is a find in itself.

Kind of like that she, "The Detectorists".

**Nostromodamus**

LordofHats wrote:
That and Ninja's are from Japan

LoH mins the thread

**tneva82**

LordofHats wrote:
That and Ninja's are from Japan

Seeing this WAS regarding Japanese village reconstruction I have visited in reference to DINLT's comment about japanese height no surprise there.

**LordofHats**

tneva82 wrote:
LordofHats wrote:
That and Ninja's are from Japan

Seeing this WAS regarding Japanese village reconstruction I have visited in reference to DINLT's comment about japanese height no surprise there.

So it is XD

**Easy E**

Obviously, the wielder of the sword was a short fingered vulgarian with small hands.

Also, after reading the article and looking at the pictures, they failed to show proof that the sword was in fact still lethal. That was all just speculation.

**Frazzled**

Easy E wrote:
Obviously, the wielder of the sword was a short fingered vulgarian with small hands.

Also, after reading the article and looking at the pictures, they failed to show proof that the sword was in fact still lethal. That was all just speculation.

Hard to find archeologists willing to fall on swords they find to test their legality. I guess you could volunteer...

**Skinnereal**

Easy E wrote:
Obviously, the wielder of the sword was a short fingered vulgarian with small hands.

Wasn't one of those just sworn in? This sounds a bit prophetic...

**Frazzled**

It is the 8th sign,

"and when the Orange Haired demon arises, a hero shall come, armed with burning bronze from a faraway land. And the hero shall be named Legion, for his wiener dogs are many."