Dagger with King's Name

1261 Words6 Pages
Student: Xiaqi Xu
ID: 2466464
Course: LBST 1B02
Instructor: Lise Hosein

Dagger with King's Name A single piece of art work simply is not possible to reflect a whole time period of art, but it can always tell some part of it, even from a specific perspective. Obviously, art works possess their own beauty as independent pieces, but they also, inevitably, give historical information and knowledge of the time period they were created. Sometimes, even a simple object can contain amazingly large amount of background information and inspire hypothesis. Dagger with King's Name, which is now currently on display at Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, is a great example.
This knife, which is now generally known as Dagger with King's Name, was created by unknown artist around 1560BC. It has bronze blade, wood handle with gold and alabaster decorated on it. The blade is in a slim shape. Although the bronze has gone rusty and deformed over the thousands of years, the curve of the shape still implies how elegant it used to be. There is a vertical line across the blade so we can see the center line of it. The handle is mainly made by wood, which is painted in black. It is decorated with gold dots and a ring. The handle has a alabaster end, which is white and shiny. This dagger is named after the fact that it bears the name of King Ahmose (Ahmose I in this case) on it. Despite the age of it, the dagger is generally in a good shape. Although it's impossible to know who exactly made this dagger, it will be a logical assumption that it was related to the King or his domination or both. As a dagger, it may not be originally created as a piece of art work, but an actual functional knife. "daggers were adorned as ceremonial objects with golden hilts and later even more ornate and varied construction. One early silver dagger was recovered

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