Cleveland Museum of Art

Single-Edged Knife (Scramasax)

Date

c. 500–700

Medium

iron, brass, gold foil, gold wire, gemstones

Culture

Merovingian, Migration period, 6th-7th Century

Department

Medieval Art

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

The scramasax, a single-edged knife, was a general purpose implement. It could serve equally well as a tool or as a weapon and usually did not exceed 12 inches in length. As with most objects of the Migration period, iron weapons survive as excavated grave goods and tend to be heavily corroded. The grips, now missing, were probably fashioned from wood or bone and silver inlay decorated the pommels (the knob on the hilt, or handle). The ornamental gold foil bands, perhaps from the original scabbards (the cases in which the blades of swords or daggers are kept) have survived relatively intact.

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