These Iron Age Swords Were Smuggled Out of Iran and Modified to Increase Their Value on the Black Market

British border agents recently seized a collection of smuggled Iranian swords headed for the black market. Now, researchers have discovered that the Iron Age weapons are actually pastiches: Not long ago, their original iron blades were replaced with bronze ones.

After officials confiscated the swords, they sent them to the British Museum. There, with permission from Iranian authorities, scientists from the museum, Cranfield University and the ISIS Neutron and Muon Source studied the ancient weapons using a non-invasive imaging technique called neutron tomography.

According to a study published this month in the Journal of Archaeological Science, the researchers found glue, modern drill holes and even a fragment of a modern drill bit.

“These discoveries would not have been possible without the application of neutron tomography, which allowed, for the first time, to discover hydrogen-rich glue used in modern modifications of Iranian weaponry, without further compromising the integrity of the objects,” they write.

These kinds of modified weapons are somewhat common. Iran is known for weapons made during the Iron Age, which lasted from around 1250 to 550 B.C.E. After a trove of bronze and iron artifacts was discovered in Iran’s western province of Luristan in 1928, such objects became highly sought after. They appeared on the art market, and dealers and museums started searching for similar pieces.

“The demand triggered illicit excavations, forgeries and pastiches, understood as objects consisting of ancient elements which did not originally belong together,” write the researchers. “As a result, many of these Iranian bronzes in public and private collections are unprovenanced and loosely attributed to the regions or market towns where they first circulated.”

These pastiches are often assembled from fragments of genuine ancient artifacts. According to a statement from Cranfield University, each is made into a sort of “‘Frankenstein’s monster’ in an attempt to increase their value.”

During the Iron Age, iron became the dominant metal in the Middle East, beating out the previously ubiquitous bronze. However, Iron Age objects made with both metals weren’t uncommon, per the study. Such artifacts illustrate the region’s metalworking development.

“Bi-metallic objects are important in helping us understand the transition from the use of bronze to the use of iron,” says lead author Alex Rodzinka, an archaeologist at Cranfield University, in the statement. “Illicit modifications make this task much more complicated.”

Researchers initially suspected that the seized swords may have been altered when they noticed brown markings that looked like glue. Their suspicions were confirmed by neutron tomography imaging, which—unlike X-ray imaging—can “generate renderings of a subject’s internal features even if surrounded by dense material like bronze and iron,” as Popular Science’s Andrew Paul writes.

“Neutron analyses have been crucial in providing the true extent of modern modifications on ancient Iranian swords,” says co-author Anna Fedrigo, an imaging scientist at the ISIS Neutron and Muon Source, in the statement. “Any bronze-bladed sword with iron in the hilt may reveal to be a pastiche.”

Identifying altered Iron Age artifacts is not only essential to the study of ancient technological innovation. Per the statement, it also helps “uncover—and ultimately combat—the hidden practices of the illicit antiquities trade.”

The swords are still at the British Museum, but the researchers say they will eventually be repatriated to Iran.

Sonja Anderson | READ MORE

Sonja Anderson is a writer and reporter based in New York City.