How about this one from ancient Rome?
https://www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/collections/greeceandrome/7...
The tulip motives on the knife makes me wonder if it was actually Roman and not from the Middle East.
The Roman Empire covered a huge area, including some of the Middle East and North Africa so it’s highly likely that people, objects, and ideas all moved around. They could well have taken inspiration from something seen at one of the outposts.
> Also does it say something about generals and the military that the two missing/broken tools are the scissors and tooth pick?
The toothpick gets lost in the first months with these knives. Anyway, a bit weird to pick your teeth with the same stick for years.
The scissors might actually be the most useful thing on the knife, or at least on a par with the blades, depending on the owner. Scissors aren't used just for cutting when you aren't hauling around a toolbox. But they have a moving part with a rather feeble connection.
I wonder when the pen knife changed from being a simple folding blade to the multitooled wonder we have today?
Also does it say something about generals and the military that the two missing/broken tools are the scissors and tooth pick?
Edit: Apparently they have a longer history than I would have thought
"The Swiss Army Knife was not the first multi-use pocket knife. In 1851 in "Moby Dick" (chapter 107), Melville references the "Sheffield contrivances, assuming the exterior - though a little swelled - of a common pocket knife; but containing, not only blades of various sizes, but also screw-drivers, cork-screws, tweezers, awls, pens, rulers, nail-filers, countersinkers.""
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_Army_knife