Sword: Did you mean...?

A bronze, double-edged straight sword from the Eastern Zhou Dynasty. Decorated with turqoise and gold. Warring States Period, c. early 5th century BCE. China. (Courtesy of the Smithsonian Institute)

A bronze sword from the Eastern Zhou dynasty, China, 5th-3rd century BCE. (British Museum, London)

The gold revetment of a bronze Mycenaean sword. Grave Circle A, Mycenae, 16th century BCE. (National Archaeological Museum, Athens)

A photograph showing British troops moving inland off Sword Beach after the D-Day Normandy Landings of 6 June 1944. The town is La Brèche d'Hermanville. (Imperial War Museums)

A photograph showing British commandos of the 1st Special Service Brigade attacking Sword Beach on D-Day 6 June 1944. The brigade was led by Lord Lovat (seen in the photo on the right of the column wading in the sea). (Imperial War Museums)

A Celtic sword and its scabbard (now amalgamated) from c. 60 BCE, associated with the La Tene culture. The sword's hilt is decorated with the head of a warrior, geometrically reduced like many other examples of Celtic art. The sword and its...

The handles of a pair of samurai swords (the daisho or 'great and small') with traditional ray skin covers and silk bindings. 19th century CE. (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)

Ceremonial giant dirk of the Plougrescant-Ommerschans type, Plougrescant, France, 1500–1300 BC.

A close-up image of the lower end of an Assyrian sword's sheath.The sheath's end has been decorated with bodies of 2 roaring lionesses. The sword depicted on this alabaster bas-relief belongs to an Assyrian attendant and the feathers on...

A gold sword hilt decorated with interlaced dragons. Eastern Zhou dynasty, 6th-5th century BCE. The British Museum, London.