Ottoman Period swords found in the Giresun Museum

The sword is one of the oldest tools of war, which developed in parallel with the development of human intelligence and civilization throughout human history and disappeared with the widespread use of gunpowder weapons. As humanity developed civilization and the art of mining, they also improved their sword-making techniques and used this tool of war in their ceremonies by attributing a symbolic meaning to it in addition to protecting themselves. It is possible to mention that both the decorations and symbols on the swords, which are a work of metal art, occupy an important place for the art of metal, and that the masters who make swords are divided into different occupational groups. In order to understand how these works occupy a place in the field of Ottoman metal art, it was deemed appropriate to examine the typological differences of these Ottoman period works in the Giresun Museum. It was determined that all of the swords in the museum date from the 19th and 20th centuries and are late Ottoman artifacts. The artifacts examined in the catalog section of the Giresun Museum were determined to be of nine different types in terms of barrels. Among these, Laz yatagans, a regional sword type, were identified and added to the literature. The types, typologies, materials, dimensions, decorations, and techniques used in the artifacts were analyzed, and the results were presented in the Master's thesis. The evaluation and conclusion section aims to reveal a scientific study by examining these Ottoman-period works in terms of the aforementioned features within the scope of art history methodology and by comparing them with their counterparts, if any.