Ancient blades - Live up to the hype?

[TZ750G]

So these claims of mystically sharp ancient blades…  What does that even mean?  How sharp were they?  400?  200?  100?  50?  25? 10?   BESS Exchange members know what sharpness means and thanks to EOU can actually measure it. 
 
For whatever reason, knives and sharpening is ensconced in mysticism as though there is some secret to steel and the only way to learn how to sharpen is to spend a lifetime of self-deprivation in a monastery. 
 
Yet the myth of these old blades persists.  What is the RHC of these blades?  Do they chip?  How do they perform in SET tests? (I bet they roll like any other blades or worse). What is the BESS sharpness number?  Maybe I'm full of crap, it seems to me that this is quantifiable and we can dispel the myths.
 
What do you guys think?

May it was possible that the occasional blade with almost mystical sharpness, hardness and strength WAS produced, but probably not many.  Without scientific measurement, we are a little stuck, and anyway, everybody likes a good myth.  Like Excalibur and Sala-din's sword. 

Ancient knives were often NOT steel, since steel as we know it was essentially nonexistent.

Originally, we DID have VERY sharp knives - they were stone-age obsidian knives.  REALLY sharp, easily sharpened, and inexpensive.  A little brittle maybe, but so's a wine glass.  Speaking of glass, there were a few examples of prehistoric GLASS knives - presumably from glass formed by lightning strikes........Both the obsidian and glass knives could be knapped to sharpness better that maybe 99% of the blades in most kitchen drawers.

Then we got bronze knives.  If they were ever really sharp, they certainly didn't stay that way.

Those were replaced with iron - which was WAY better than bronze - but certainly not as good as steel!

Certainly the "bigs" in the knife world can measure "sharpness" pretty well,
but until our little desk-top BESS testers for under $300 became available,
almost EVERY home or shop test was smoke and mirrors. 

NOW, we can do 20 laps on the ancient Surgical Hard
Black Arkansas stone, and get a reading. 

Any better?  if yes, why, if not why?  Rinse and repeat.

We have entered the modern age: 
the period demarked by BB and AB; 

That is: Before BESS and AFTER BESS.