To answer some questions about the first image in this series, let me tell you how I ended up coming across this sword... Ebay, (a collector's best friend and worst enemy) had this on auction with a starting price of only $9.99. It claimed it was from the Shang Dynasty (1600BC to 1060's BC.) Figuring it was probably a fake I went ahead and bid no more than $15 on it. I figured that even with it being a fake it would be a nice piece just for fun. A week later I decide to check on my auction only to find that every single other item this person had up for bid was selling for $300+ (mostly $2,500+!) and somehow my item was still at $9.99. The auction closed, the item is shipped (with some grumbling from the person who put it up) and then I received it. However, something looked a little too authentic about the piece. So instead of taking it to be appraised (and possibly get it taken from me because it is so ancient and I believe it was illegal for him to sell it) I decided to rely on my own science. You see, bronze made before the 1700's AD had radium in it. So to see if it was at least that old all that was needed was a Geiger counter. Well calculating from the amount of radiation it did put off and taking into the account the average amount of radium in bronze of the day with the half-life of radium (the rate at which it decays) we were able to discern that the sword was indeed from 2000BC - 1AD. So take it or leave it. Trust my science or don't. Because either way this is a beautiful piece IMHO. :-)