Single-Edged Knife (Scramasax) (c. 500–700): Art, History and Details

Single-Edged Knife (Scramasax) (c. 500–700) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

The scramasax, a single-edged knife, was a general purpose implement. It could serve equally well as a tool or as a weapon and usually did not exceed 12 inches in length. As with most objects of the Migration period, iron weapons survive as excavated grave goods and tend to be heavily corroded. The grips, now missing, were probably fashioned from wood or bone and silver inlay decorated the pommels (the knob on the hilt, or handle). The ornamental gold foil bands, perhaps from the original scabbards (the cases in which the blades of swords or daggers are kept) have survived relatively intact.

Object facts

• Title: Single-Edged Knife (Scramasax)
• Date: c. 500–700
• Culture: Merovingian, Migration period, 6th-7th Century
• Type: Arms and Armor
• Technique: iron, brass, gold foil, gold wire, gemstones
• Dimensions: Overall: 54.3 x 6.4 cm (21 3/8 x 2 1/2 in.)
• Collection: MED - Migration Period
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 1926.429

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958.
• Gertsman, Elina and Barbara H. Rosenwein. The Middle Ages in 50 Objects. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.