NORTHWEST CHINA, 7TH-6TH CENTURY BC

In Traders and Raiders on China’s Northern Frontier, J. F. So suggests, p. 128, that the slits in the hilt would have allowed “silk or fabric to be wrapped through and around them for improved grip,” and notes that an identical hilt for a cast-iron blade of 7th-6th century date found at Jingjiazhuang, Lingtai Xian, Gansu province, illustrated in Kaogu 1981:4, pl. 5.10, p. 299, fig. 2.7, was apparently wrapped in silk.