Who Owned the Golden Dagger?│ Ornamental Dagger Sheath!

This splendid decorative dagger sheath combining precious stones with gold is believed to have been created somewhere between Central Asia and the Black Sea coast and then transported to Silla. Its wooden sheath has rotted away, and the iron dagger it once enclosed has also rusted and disappeared.

The gold sheet is decorated with inset agate stones and gold granules, surrounded by pinwheel and leaf-shaped design bands. Similar in style and appearance to the Kazakh ornamental dagger from Burabay and the Kucha dagger from the Kizil Caves, this dagger sheath is presumed to have been made sometime in the 5th century in Central Asia by a Sogdian artisan.
It is now generally agreed that the owner of the bejeweled dagger was a wealthy noble man of Silla.