Alarming information about the frequency of antiquities fraud has been revealed by a new study that shows a collection of Iranian Iron Age bronze swords recently smuggled into England were not what they appeared to be. It seems the weapons had been tampered with, to make it appear they’d been recovered intact when this was not the case. Even their identification as bronze weapons was false, as they were originally constructed from iron, or from a combination of iron and other metals. In the words of the researchers involved in the new study, the allegedly intact swords were actually “pastiches,” which means they were essentially cut and pasted together from assorted metal parts. They were created by modern antiquities hucksters attempting to fool dealers and collectors of illegal antiquities, knowing that these individuals would unwittingly pay a high price for fake artifacts. To determine the truth, the scientists involved in this study used a technique known as neutron tomography to examine the illegally smuggled swords closely. With the images they obtained, it quickly became clear that the Iron Age swords were forgeries. “While bladed weapons were no doubt repaired in antiquity, numerous features indicate that the modifications identified in this assemblage are modern attempts to increase the marketability of these objects,” the study authors wrote in an article just published in the Journal of Archaeological Science. Read moreSection: ArtifactsAncient TechnologyNewsHistory & ArchaeologyRead Later