Rare Byzantine swords found in medieval stronghold

This iron sword, now fragmentary and corroded, was discovered in 1993 in the Byzantine city of Amorium. Its surviving hilt with the ringed pommel is unique.

(Image credit: Amorium Excavation Project)

Archaeologists in Turkey have discovered two "rare and unique" swords in a heavily fortified city from the Byzantine Empire, a new study finds. One of the swords, unearthed in a church, may have been placed there as an offering.

Both iron weapons are ring pommeled swords, meaning that the pommel — a rounded knob at the end of the handle — is shaped like a ring. Ring pommeled swords were a rarity in the Byzantine, but these blades are also unique for another reason: Intriguing features on the swords distinguish "them from the ring pommeled swords of the nearby civilizations," the researchers wrote in the study.

Archaeologists discovered the swords in Amorium, a Byzantine city that was an important crossroad between Constantinople, the empire's capital, and other major cities, such as Nicaea and Ancyra (modern-day Ankara). Amorium was also, temporarily, a military hotspot and became a stronghold that served as the region's first defense line against the Arab invasions, including the Arab conquest of Amorium in A.D. 838, the researchers said.

For instance, Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos, the Byzantine emperor from A.D. 913 to 959, wrote that St. Theodore Teron's shield was hung as a relic under the dome of a Byzantine church honoring him, Maniotis said. Weapons placed in churches are "usually associated with holy relics connected with the warrior saints," he noted. "Moreover, we have the deposit of armament in Mount Athos monasteries [in Greece], such as a chainmail shirt that is stored in Iveron Monastery. So, this sword could have a votive character, offered by its owner to the church along with other objects, perhaps."

The second sword, found in the lower city, has a 5.5-inch-long (14 centimeters) handle and a double-edged blade that was at least 24 inches (61 centimeters) long, Maniotis and study co-researcher Zeliha Demirel-Gökalp wrote in the study. Demirel-Gökalp is the director of the excavations at Amorium and a professor in the Department of Art History, with an expertise in Byzantine art, at Anadolu University in Turkey.

Though rare in the Byzantine Empire, ring pommeled swords are known from other cultures. The earliest known ring-shaped pommel can be traced back to the Chinese Han Dynasty (206 BC. to A.D. 220), and the practice spread to the nomadic Scythians and Huns, the researchers said. Ring pommeled swords are also seen in other cultures, including the Sarmatians, who lived in Central Asia, and the Romans, who may have adopted the practice from Sarmatian mercenaries.

However, unlike previously discovered swords, the sword found in the church has a structure that looks like a cross-guard — a piece of metal that sits perpendicular to the blade at the end of the handle. Cross-guards are often used to identify old swords, and this one resembles a "sleeved cross-guard," the researchers said. This feature, as well as others, have never been seen on ring pommeled swords before, "which is a fact that makes this specimen unique," the researchers wrote in the study.

Laura is the managing editor at Live Science. She also runs the archaeology section and the Life's Little Mysteries series. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Scholastic, Popular Science and Spectrum, a site on autism research. She has won multiple awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association for her reporting at a weekly newspaper near Seattle. Laura holds a bachelor's degree in English literature and psychology from Washington University in St. Louis and a master's degree in science writing from NYU.