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Rat-tanged dirk (sword blade used as a dagger or spearhead), with long thin blade, pointed at both ends, with sloping shoulders. A rib runs nearly the full length of the piece (flattened in the last 2 cm of the blade end). The middle of the rib, near the attachment end, is thin, rhomboidal in section, narrowing to pointed tip or tang which is turned up slightly at the end. Approximately 1/4 down the length of the blade the flange broadens, so that two flat sides spread from the centre rib. The blade end of the dirk has nearly straight sides, but tapers gently to a rounded tip. Catling's type 1d; near Åstrom's type I4. As Catling suggests (1964, 56) the rat-tailed weapon, the most characteristic of prehistoric Cypriote metal forms, occurs in so many sizes that it is impossible to classify them as swords, dirks, daggers, or even spearheads.
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