Persian Scabbard Tip in the Walters Art Museum, September 2009

Scabbard Tip

This ornament once decorated the tip of a sword's scabbard. In a relief carved on a wall of the palace of the Achaemenid king Darius I (reigned 522-486 BC), a man is depicted wearing a scabbard with a nearly identical tip. The design derives from an image of a lion attacking an ibex.


Creator: Iranian (Artist)

Period: 1st half 5th century BC (Achaemenid)

Medium: ivory (Ivory & Bone)

Accession Number: 71.1199

Measurements: H: 2 1/16 x W: 2 13/16 x D: 1/2 in. (5.2 x 7.2 x 1.3 cm)

Geography: Iran (Place of Origin)

Text from: art.thewalters.org/detail/35769/scabbard-tip/