Iron Age Swords Seized at Heathrow Were Fakes

Alarming information about the frequency of antiquities fraud has been revealed by a new study that shows a collection of Iranian Iron Age bronze swords recently smuggled into England were not what they appeared to be. It seems the weapons had been tampered with, to make it appear they’d been recovered intact when this was not the case. Even their identification as bronze weapons was false, as they were originally constructed from iron, or from a combination of iron and other metals.

In the words of the researchers involved in the new study, the allegedly intact swords were actually “pastiches,” which means they were essentially cut and pasted together from assorted metal parts. They were created by modern antiquities hucksters attempting to fool dealers and collectors of illegal antiquities, knowing that these individuals would unwittingly pay a high price for fake artifacts.

To determine the truth, the scientists involved in this study used a technique known as neutron tomography to examine the illegally smuggled swords closely. With the images they obtained, it quickly became clear that the Iron Age swords were forgeries.

“While bladed weapons were no doubt repaired in antiquity, numerous features indicate that the modifications identified in this assemblage are modern attempts to increase the marketability of these objects,” the study authors wrote in an article just published in the Journal of Archaeological Science.

“Bimetallic weapons are especially vulnerable to modern modifications, as iron blades are likely to heavily corrode and be replaced with bronze counterparts to render the object complete and increase its value on the antiquities market.”

Ever since they were first discovered in the country’s Luristan region in 1928, bladed weapons from the Early Iron Age (1,250—1,000 BC) found in Iran have been studied intensely by experts seeking to learn more about the development of metalworking techniques 3,000 years ago. Forgery makes this a far more difficult task, which is why finding a way to separate real artifacts from fakes is so important to scientists who study this topic.

Iranian Iron Age swords seized at Heathrow Airport, London. (Cranfield University)

As of now, no one knows how significant the problem actually is. Over the past century major museums around the world have been adding Iron Age weapons from Iran to their Near Eastern collections, assuming they were displaying artifacts that were 100-percent genuine. As a result of what this new study (the first of its kind to be performed) shows, experts believe many of these artifacts are probably not genuine at all, but were instead made by modern forgers desperate to exploit the vigorous antiquities market, both legal and illegal.

Neutron Tomography Reveals the Startling Truth

When United Kingdom Border Force agents seized the illicit artifacts at London’s Heathrow Airport, it was believed that the swords were legitimate and likely quite valuable. The swords were sent to the British Museum for safekeeping, and the weapons were due to be shipped back to Iran soon after that.

But some experts who examined the swords began to get suspicious when they noticed brown stains on their outside surfaces. They thought this might be glue that had long ago dried, suggesting some kind of trickery had been used to create these supposedly intact ancient artifacts.

With permission from Iranian authorities, researchers from Cranfield University, in collaboration with British Museum officials, performed a sophisticated analysis of the swords using neutron tomography. This scanning technique can produce detailed images of solid objects that reveal intricate details about their exterior and interior surfaces, allowing for a good analysis of what they are made from.

Neutron tomography imagery showing signs of fakery on one of the Iranian Iron Age swords. (Journal of Archaeological Science)

When the scientists analyzed the artifacts at the ISIS Neutron and Muon Source in Oxfordshire using this methodology, their worst suspicions were confirmed. They found small drill holes in the swords along with evidence showing that glue and lead solder had been used to attach copper-alloy blades to the remaining sections of the sword hilts. This was done because the ravages of time had caused the original iron blades of the swords to decay away. Without blades the Iranian swords wouldn’t have been as valuable to collectors, so the fake blades were attached to raise the value of these antiquities.

Interestingly, the fake swords were not made using any modern metals. They were instead constructed from pieces of ancient metals glued together, masking the true nature of where all of these various pieces actually originated.

Untangling the Tangled Web of Antiquities Fakery

In the past, the existence of iron cores in the hilts of bronze-bladed weapons from Iron Age Iran was considered a sign of the elaborate techniques ancient metalworkers were using to make these objects. But now it is known that the original weapons were simply made from iron, and that the bronze was added on only in the 20th and 21st centuries.

However, such fakery has an ironic impact, because it has helped hide the truth about weapons from ancient Iran that really were made from combinations of iron and bronze. These weapons would have been created in the later stages of the Iron Age and early stages of the Bronze Age, which was a time of transition in ancient metalworking.

“Bi-metallic objects are important in helping us understand the transition from the use of bronze to the use of iron,” stated Alex Rodzinka, a PhD student in archaeology at Cranfield University and the lead author of the new study, in a press release. “Illicit modifications make this task much more complicated.”

Moving forward, scientists should be able to use neutron tomography to analyze other Iron Age Iranian swords, including those currently held in museum collections. This should help clear up questions about how ancient metalworking actually evolved thousands of years ago.

“Iran has been a center of metallurgical innovation for thousands of years, though many aspects of these traditions are poorly known” said study co-author Nathaniel Erb-Satullo, a Senior Lecturer in Archaeological Science at Cranfield University. “Separating ancient practice from modern forgery using advanced imaging techniques is an important step in bringing greater recognition to these early traditions of complex metallurgy.”

Top image: Aerial view of Heathrow Airport in London. Inset; the Iron Age swords from Iran.          Source: DiscoA340/CC BY-SA 4.0 International, Inset; Cranfield University

By Nathan Fald