Hebrew University Museum/Moshe Cohen

High-fashion equipment. A delicate cutout design and incised lines decorate the front of this scabbard chape, the ornamental bronze tip of a leather sheath for a sword. Originally the bronze was covered with silver, and the details were incised through the silver and then gilded. The hole in the upper edge allowed for the chape’s attachment to the rest of the sheath. Found in a southeastern casemate room at Masada, the 3-inch-long chape probably belonged to a legionary officer and may have been taken by the Zealots as booty.