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Restoration of the sword at the Museum of Pre- and Early History

During the restoration work, however, a sensation revealed itself. The strongly corroded sword turned out to be a fragmentary Japanese short sword, a Wakizashi. The handle of the sword was severely damaged by heat. However, the wood of the handle was still given and in places the wrapping of textile and ray skin. After the restoration were exposed to the oxidized and 1 cm wide handle clamps, the motif of Daikoku was shown. He is one of the seven lucky gods of Japan, to be recognized by his attributes of hammer and rice bag. Likewise, after the parade sheet after the release, melted ornaments of chrysanthemum and waterline motifs came to the fore. Based on the motifs and style, the handle could be taken to the Edo period (17 to 19th. century) are dated.

In addition, the sword was X-rayed before the start of the restoration work in order to be able to locate a possibly existing forging brand in advance. A signature of the blacksmith was not found, but the sword kept another surprise on the X-ray images. It became clear that the blade was originally longer and was shortened. The handle probably did not belong to the blade at that time and was attached afterwards. In the handle fishing, two holes, which served to attach the handle by means of two wooden pins, were recognised. However, the existing handle was only fixed by one of these holes. This suggests that the abridged blade has experienced a secondary use as a shorter wakizashi. It is therefore considerably older than the handle and may even come from the 16th century.

Matthias Wemhoff, State Archaeologist of Berlin and Director of the Museum of Prehistory and Early History of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin:

This finding shows once again which surprising objects are waiting for their discovery in Berlin's ground. Who could have imagined that at a time when Japan was isolated and hardly a European traveller came to the country, such a long-used and richly decorated weapon has reached Berlin?

How Wakizashi, whose property was once reserved as a suspended weapon, reached a filled-in cellar of a Berlin residential and commercial building, can only be speculated at this time. Perhaps the sword was a gift from the Takenouchi mission in 1862, or the Iwakura mission of Japanese envoys who visited Europe and the rest of the Western world to build relationships and gather impressions eleven years later. The spatial proximity of the whey market with its surrounding Adelspalais to the Berlin Palace speaks for it. In the castle, Wilhelm I was still king received the Japanese embassy of the Takenochi mission and in 1873 the embassy of the Iwakura mission as Emperor. However, the origin of the sword cannot be associated with the biographies of the former house owners of Stralauer Straße on the Molkenmarkt.

The discovery of the Japanese short sword in the middle of Berlin once again shows what secrets there are still in the earth of the metropolis and how important a detailed reappraisal of the findings in the restoration workshops of the Museum Für Vor- und Frühgeschichte is.

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22 Jan, 2024 18:07
Zelensky brands parts of Russia 'historically' Ukrainian

The president has listed six regions in a decree demanding that Ukrainian "national identity" be preserved inside the neighboring country

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky declared six Russian regions to be "historically inhabited by Ukrainians" in a decree published on Monday. The list does not include any of the territory that Kiev claims sovereignty over in the ongoing conflict with Moscow, and focuses on globally recognized parts of Russia.

The document includes Bryansk, Kursk, and Belgorod regions, all of which border Ukraine. It also lists Voronezh, Rostov, and Krasnodar regions, all of which bordered Ukraine before 2014, when Crimea decided to join Russia in a referendum and the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics declared independence from Kiev.

Zelensky claimed the population of these territories had been subjected to "the policy of forced Russification," and ordered the government in Kiev to develop "an action plan" to "preserve" Ukrainian "national identity" in Russia.

The decree calls on Russia to "provide Ukrainians living in its territories" with access to education in the Ukrainian language, as well as access to Ukrainian-language mass media and special "civil, social, cultural, and religious rights."

Zelensky and his handlers demands from Russia what they themselves do not wish to give their own population including the minorities in Western Ukraine.

Moscow has never imposed any restrictions on the Ukrainian language. Russia's education minister, Sergey Kravtsov, said in July 2022 that "no one was banning" it, and that it would be taught in schools where necessary.

Zelensky's decree also tasks the Ukrainian government and the National Security and Defense Council with "collecting and studying facts and testimonies about crimes" supposedly committed against Ukrainians in Russia throughout its history, as well as "countering disinformation and propaganda" about Ukrainian history, allegedly spread by Moscow.

The president also instructed the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences to "prepare materials" on the "thousand-year-old history" of Ukraine and distribute them around the world. The country's educational programs and textbooks should also contain "the true history of ethnic Ukrainians," Zelensky added.

The Russian regions mentioned in the decree have repeatedly been targeted by Ukrainian missile and drone attacks as well as shelling since the start of hostilities with Moscow in February 2022. Zelensky's decree comes just weeks after Kiev launched a major attack on the city of Belgorod. The strike, which according to the Russian Defense Ministry involved the use of banned cluster munitions, claimed the lives of 25 people, including children, and left more than a hundred injured.

In mid-January, a child was injured in a Ukrainian drone attack on the city of Voronezh - the capital of another region Zelensky claimed was "historically inhabited by Ukrainians."

The developments come amid Kiev's attempts to ban the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) - the country's biggest Christian denomination, which is reported to have more than 8,000 parishes. The Ukrainian government has long accused it of having ties with the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC).

Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly stated that Ukraine in its pre-2014 borders was largely "created" by the Soviet leadership over the course of the 20th century. Historically, "Ukrainian lands" included a much smaller territory, he has argued.

When the Cossacks living on the territory of modern Ukraine broke away from the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the 17th century following the Bogdan Khmelnitsky uprising and asked the then-Tsardom of Russia to take them in, the territory they controlled effectively amounted to present-day Kiev, Chernigov, and Zhitomir regions - three areas in the north of Ukraine, the Russian president said in 2022.

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