Votive decorated dagger & sheath, made of gold, ivory, & silver. From the Temple of the Obelisks, Byblos; dated to 2000 – 1800 BCE. Considered to be an offering to the warrior god Resheph, who is probably depicted on the hilt. At the Beirut museum, nr. 16492 [3206 x 4822]

>Bronze Age daggers with decorated handles are well documented in the Levant. This ceremonial weapon was offered to the warrior god Reshef of the Temple of the Obelisks, and the figure with conical cap represents in local tradition the god worshipped in the temple. While other offerings from the temple betray Egyptian influence, the motifs on the dagger, such as facing antelope or the standing lion in an attacking posture, were borrowed from Mesopotamia.

from Beyond Babylon: Art, Trade, and Diplomacy in the Second Millennium B.C., Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2008, p. 54, in [https://books.google.com/books?id=gr5BgOwEJicC&pg=PA54#v=onepage&q&f=false](https://books.google.com/books?id=gr5BgOwEJicC&pg=PA54#v=onepage&q&f=false)

photo by Michael in [https://www.flickr.com/photos/mcophd/50806671171/](https://www.flickr.com/photos/mcophd/50806671171/)