Late Sasanian sword
- Gallery: Room 52
- Culture: Late Sasanian
- Made in: Iran
- Date: 6thC-7thC
- Object type: sword, sword-sheath
- Materials: iron; gold
- Museum number: 135738
- Museum: The British Museum
- Collection record: British Museum website
- Image © The Trustees of the British Museum, shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 licence.
Listen to the free audio guide
About this object
Before you is a Late Sasanian iron sword, dating to the 6th to 7th century and made in Iran. You'll notice a gold hilt attached to a blade that was inserted into the scabbard the wrong way, leaving it fixed in corrosion. The scabbard is richly decorated—on one side, a delicate, feather-like honeycomb pattern, and on the other, a raised central rib flanked by applied gold spirals. Running your eyes along the left side, you’ll see two P-shaped gold mounts, each fastened with tiny rivets, once used to suspend the sword.
This is one of only a dozen Sasanian swords known today, most from the mountainous region of Daylaman in northwest Iran. In Sasanian art and culture, swords were more than weapons—they were symbols of status and identity. You're looking at a masterpiece from a time when craftsmanship and ornamentation were central to both function and power.
See it in person
Late Sasanian sword is on display in Room 52 at the British Museum on Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury, London — free to enter. Choose British Museum on audioguide.london and take a photo of it to hear this free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
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