Article Title

Iron Sword, Small Silver Scroll From Lehi's Day Discovered

Authors

Keywords

meter-long iron sword, Avraham Eitan, Biblical Archaeology Review, Vered Jericho, Lehi

Abstract

A meter-long iron sword has been discovered recently by archaeologists digging at Vered Jericho, three miles south of modern Jericho. The sword dates to the seventh century B.C., during the lifetime of Lehi. "It was in quite bad shape," reports excavator Avraham Eitan in the July/August issue of the Biblical Archaeology Review, p. 33. "I believe that we have the haft and even the tip. The haft is of bronze with some wood remains." This is the first complete sword of this period and of this size ever to be found. "We do know of swords this size from Assyria [pictured on wall reliefs], but nothing like this, as far as I know, has been found before," Eitan reports. Only the unique and extremely dry conditions around Jericho allowed the remains of this sword to survive. Even at that, the sword is extremely fragile and badly deteriorated. The tempered tip survived intact.

Recommended Citation

(1986) "Iron Sword, Small Silver Scroll From Lehi's Day Discovered," Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship: Vol. 6: No. 2, Article 1.
Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/insights/vol6/iss2/1