LEAF-SHAPED SWORDS.
AMONG ancient weapons of bronze, perhaps the most remarkable both
for elegance of form and for the skill displayed in their casting
are the leaf-shaped swords, of which a considerable number have come
down to our times. The only other forms that can vie with them in
these respects are the spear-heads, of which many are gracefully
proportioned, while the coring of their sockets for the reception of
the shafts would do credit to the most skilful modern founder. Neither
the one nor the other belong to the earliest period[1003] when bronze
first came into general use for weapons and tools, the flat celts and
knife-daggers characteristic of that period being as a rule absent from
the hoards in which fragments of swords and spear-heads are present.
There is also this remarkable circumstance attaching to the bronze
swords, viz., that there is no well-authenticated instance[1004] of
their occurrence with any interments in barrows. It is true that
Professor Daniel Wilson[1005] speaks of the frequent discovery of
broken swords with sepulchral deposits, and mentions one found
alongside of a cinerary urn in a tumulus at Memsie, Aberdeenshire, and
another which lay beside a human skeleton in a cist under Carlochan
Cairn, Carmichael, Galloway. But one of these discoveries took place
so long ago as 1776, and in both cases there may, as Canon Greenwell
has suggested, either have been some mistake as to the manner of
finding, or the connection of the sword with the interment may have
been apparent rather than real. A portion of a sword 6½ inches long,
said to have been found in a cairn at Ballagan,[1006] Strathblane,
Stirlingshire, in 1788, is in the Antiquarian Museum at Edinburgh. A
“sarcophagus with ashes” is said to have been in the cairn. Another
sword, broken in four pieces, is said to have been found in a barrow
in Breconshire.[1007] Another, found at Wetheringsett, Suffolk, is said
to have lain fourteen feet deep in clay, with a great number of human
bones, but no pottery or other remains. In this case, however, there is
no mention of a barrow. The sword is elsewhere said to have been found
in a sandpit.[1008]
In Scandinavia, however, bronze swords have not unfrequently been found
with interments in barrows; and inasmuch as the owners of the bronze
swords in Britain were, after death, in all probability interred,
either in a burnt or unburnt condition, there appears no reason why in
some instances their swords may not have been buried with them, though
as yet the evidence of these weapons having been found in tumuli, is
far from satisfactory. Possibly at the time when the swords were in
use the practice of erecting mounds over graves had ceased, and there
are now no external marks upon the ground to indicate the graves of
the warriors who wielded the bronze swords, and who have thus escaped
disturbance in their “narrow cells” from the hands of treasure-seekers
and archæologists; or possibly the custom of burying weapons with the
dead may at that time have ceased.
But not only has there been a question, as to what was the method of
interment in vogue among the owners of the bronze swords, but, as
already mentioned in the Introductory Chapter, serious dispute has
arisen whether the swords themselves are not Roman, or at all events
of Roman date. The late Mr. Thomas Wright[1009] was the most ardent
advocate of this latter view, and he has been to some extent supported
by Mr. C. Roach Smith.[1010] The contrary view, that the swords belong
to a Bronze Age before the use of that metal was superseded by that
of iron, has been ably advocated by the late Mr. A. Henry Rhind,
F.S.A.Scot.,[1011] and Sir John Lubbock.[1012] It seems almost needless
for me here to enter further into this controversy, in which, to my
mind, as already stated in the Introductory Chapter, the whole weight
of the argument is in favour of a pre-Roman origin for these swords
in Western and Northern Europe. There was no doubt a time when bronze
swords were in use in Greece and Italy, and the substitution of iron
or steel for bronze, so far as we can judge from the early iron swords
found in the ancient cemetery at Hallstatt and elsewhere, involved
little if any alteration in the form and character of the weapon,
which was better adapted for thrusting than for striking. Even here
in Britain, by the time when the Roman invasion took place, not only
were swords made of iron in use, but the form of what is known as
the Late-Celtic[1013] sword was no longer leaf-shaped, but slightly
tapering, with the edges nearly straight almost as far as the point.
Among the Romans it would seem that more than one change was made in
the form of their swords after the introduction of iron as the material
from which they were formed. As Mr. Rhind has pointed out, Polybius
speaks of the swords wielded by the soldiers of Æmilius at the battle
of Telamon, B.C. 225, as made not only to thrust but to give a falling
stroke with singular effect. “During the Second Punic War, however,
which immediately succeeded the battle of Telamon, the Romans adopted
the Spanish sword,” the material of which we have no difficulty in
definitely ascertaining, as “Diodorus Siculus[1014] particularly
mentions the process by which the Celtiberians prepared their iron for
the purpose of manufacturing swords so tempered that neither shield,
helmet, nor bone could resist them.” How far their process of burying
iron underground until a part of it had rusted away would, in the
case of charcoal iron, leave the remaining portion more of the nature
of steel, I am unable to say. Perhaps the amount of manipulation in
charcoal necessary to restore the rusted plates to a serviceable
condition may have produced this effect of converting the iron into
mild steel. The steel of the sabres made in Japan,[1015] which will cut
through an iron nail without their edge being injured, is said to be
prepared in a similar manner from iron long buried underground.
Most of the bronze swords are shorter than those of the present day;
but the Roman sword would, in the time of Julius, appear to have
been longer than ours. Otherwise Cicero’s joke about his son-in-law,
Lentulus, would have but little point, however small in person he may
have been. Indeed, Macrobius[1016] expressly says that it was a long
sword that Lentulus was wearing when Cicero made the inquiry, Who has
tied my son-in-law to a sword?
The swords in use among the Britons at a somewhat later period appear
to have been of great size, for Tacitus speaks of them as “ingentes”
and “enormes.” They were also bluntly pointed, or “sine mucrone.” Such
a description is entirely inconsistent with the form and size of our
bronze swords, though it might well refer to some of the iron blades
of the Late-Celtic Period, which are 3 feet in length. Others are,
however, shorter.
Of the comparative rarity of bronze swords in Italy, and of their
abundance in Scandinavia and Ireland, countries never occupied by the
Romans, Sir John Lubbock[1017] has already spoken; and he has also
summarized the reasons which convince him, as they do me, that our
bronze weapons cannot be referred to Roman times. I will only repeat
one of the arguments, of which perhaps not sufficient use has been
made. It is that at the time when Julius Cæsar was invading Britain,
and its inhabitants were thus for the first time brought in contact
with Roman weapons, iron had been so long in use for swords in Italy
that the term for the weapon was “ferrum.”
Another feature in bronze swords, which has been frequently commented
on by archæological writers, is the comparatively small size of the
hilt. “The handles are always very small, a fact which tends to prove
that the men who used these swords were but of moderate stature.”[1018]
“The handles of the bronze swords are very short and could not have
been held comfortably by hands as large as ours—a characteristic much
relied on by those who attribute the introduction of bronze into Europe
to a people of Asiatic origin.[1019]
I must confess that I regard this view of the smallness of the hilts as
being somewhat exaggerated. My own hand is none of the smallest, and
yet where the bronze hilts of the Danish and Hungarian swords have been
preserved I have no difficulty in finding room to clasp them. The part
of the hilt where it expands to embrace the base of the blade was, I
think, probably intended to be within the grasp of the hand, and not to
be beyond it as a guard. In the case of some of the short dagger-like
weapons it seems possible that the projecting rim, which forms a kind
of pommel at the end of the hilt, was intended to rest between the
fourth and the little finger, and thus to assist in its being grasped
firmly when in use as a stabbing weapon. When the plates of horn or
wood, which, as we shall subsequently see, once covered the hilt
portion of the sword, have perished, it is hard to realise what was the
exact form of the hilt; but it is quite evident that we must not assume
that because the bare bronze does not fill the hand so as to give it
a good grip, the same was the case when it had a plate of some other
material on each face, which also possibly projected beyond the sides.
There is, moreover, one peculiarity about the hilt-plates of these
swords which I have often pointed out by word of mouth, but which
I think has not as yet been noticed in print. It is that there is
generally, though not universally, a proportion between the length of
the blade and the length of the hilt-plate; long sword blades having
as a rule long hilt-plates, and short sword blades short hilt-plates.
So closely is this kind of proportion preserved, that the outline of
a large sword on the scale of one-sixth would in some cases almost
absolutely correspond with that of one which was two-thirds of its
length, if drawn on the scale of one-fourth.
This relative proportion between the length and size of a blade and
its handle is by no means restricted to the swords of the Bronze
Period, but prevails also among various tools, such as the saws and
chisels of the present day. If, for instance, we were to argue from
the saw-handles in a carpenter’s shop as to the size of the hands of
the carpenters, we should soon find ourselves in difficulties. The
handle of an ordinary hand-saw is sufficiently large to admit the
hand of any one short of a giant, while the orifice in the handle of
a small keyhole-saw will not admit more than a couple of fingers,
and the handles of saws of intermediate size range between these two
extremes. This fact suffices to inculcate caution in arguing from the
hilt-plates of the bronze swords as to the size of the hands of those
who used them. It is a question which will be more safely determined on
osteological than archæological evidence; but, owing to the remarkable
absence of bronze swords from the interments in our barrows, it may be
some time before a sword and the bones of the hand that wielded it are
found in juxtaposition.
Professor Rolleston[1020] has well said, “I am not quite clear that
this bronze sword, leaf-shaped or other, has always a very small hilt.”
“At any rate, there can be no doubt that in this country the skeletons
of the Bronze Period belonged to much larger and stronger and taller
men than did the skeletons of the Long Barrow stone-using folk who
preceded them. In some parts of England the contrast in this matter of
size between the men of the Bronze and those of the Stone Age is as
great as that now existing between the Maori and the gentle Hindoo.”
[Illustration: Fig. 342. Battersea. ¼]
The stature of several of the men interred in the Yorkshire barrows,
examined by Canon Greenwell, was not less than five feet nine inches,
and the bones of the hands were proportional to those of the bodies;
but, unfortunately, no bronze swords accompanied them, though many of
the interments were of the Bronze Age.
The usual form of sword to which the term “leaf-shaped” has been
applied is that shown in Fig. 342. Their total length is generally
about 24 inches, though sometimes not more than 16 inches, but they
are occasionally as long as 30 inches, or even more. The blades are in
most cases uniformly rounded, but with the part next the edge slightly
drawn down so as to form a shallow fluting. In some instances, however,
there is a more or less bold rounded central rib, or else projecting
ridges running along the greater part of the blade near the edges. They
differ considerably in the form of the plate for the hilt, and in the
number and arrangement of the rivets by which the covering material
was attached. This latter, as will subsequently be seen, usually
consisted of plates of horn, bone, or wood, riveted on each side of the
hilt-plate. In rare instances the outer part of the hilt was of bronze.
Of the scabbards of such swords and the chapes attached to them I shall
subsequently speak.
The sword shown in Fig. 342 was found about the year 1864 in the
Thames, near Battersea Bridge, and is now in my own collection. Its
length is 25¼ inches, and the blade is 2⅛ inches broad in its broadest
part, though at the top of the hilt it is 2⅜ inches in breadth. Just
above this point the edge of the blade has been removed so as to form
two broad notches, the object being probably to save the hand of the
warrior from being cut should the sword be drawn back in his hand,
there being apparently no transverse guard. The hilt has been attached
by rivets or pins passing through three longitudinal slots, which have
been produced in the casting, and not subsequently drilled or made.
The hilt-plate expands into a kind of fish-tail termination, which
was probably enclosed in a pommel-like end formed by the plates of
horn, or other material, of which the hilt was made. I have another
sword, about 21 inches in length, which was found in the year 1851
near the circular encampment at Hawridge, on the south-eastern border
of Buckinghamshire. The hilt-plate is of the same character as that
of Fig. 342, but the lower slot is longer and the upper ones shorter.
In the latter were found the bronze rivets for fastening on the hilt.
This blade is figured on a small scale in the _Proceedings of the
Society of Antiquaries_.[1021]
[Illustration: Fig. 343. Barrow. ¼]
Another sword (22 inches) of the same character, with three pointed
oval slots for the rivets, was found at Washingborough,[1022]
Lincolnshire. Two other leaf-shaped swords were found near the
same spot. Another (24 inches), found near Midsummer Norton,[1023]
Somerset, has the central slot nearly rectangular.
The central slot is sometimes accompanied by two or more rivet-holes
in the projecting wings of the hilt-plate. A sword (24 inches) with
two rivets was found between Woodlands and Gussage St. Michael,[1024]
Dorset. Another, broken, was found, with fragments of others, socketed
celts, spear-heads, a sickle, and other objects, near the Pierre du
Villain, Alderney.[1025]
One (24½ inches) from the Thames,[1026] at Battersea, and now in the
Bateman Collection, has a long rectangular slot and four rivets. One
of two (24 inches), found in broken condition, with a spear-head and
two ferrules, on Fulbourn Common,[1027] near Cambridge, was of this
type. Another, from Aldreth, Cambs. (23½ inches), is in the Museum of
the Cambridge Antiquarian Society.
I have an example, originally 26 inches long, found with a leaf-shaped
spear-head near Weymouth.
The type occurs also in France. I have one (18¾ inches), with a slot
and four rivets, from Albert, near Amiens. Another was found near
Argenteuil,[1028] Seine et Oise. I have seen a bronze sword from
Spain, also with the three slots.
In the collection of Canon Greenwell, F.R.S., is a remarkably fine
sword (27½ inches) from Barrow, Suffolk, in which the long slot in
the hilt-plate is combined with ten small rivet-holes. The central
ridge on the blade is well pronounced, as will be seen by Fig. 343.
The blunted part of the blade near the hilt is engraved or milled
diagonally. The number of rivets is here larger than usual; but in a
sword (28½ inches) from the Thames, near Vauxhall,[1029] there are
five rivet-holes in the centre of the plate in lieu of the slot, and
four in each of the wings—thirteen in all. In another (23½ inches)
from the same locality there are eleven, three in each wing and five
in the centre. One (27 inches) from the Thames, in the Museum of the
Society of Antiquaries, has ten rivets, of which four are in the
centre.
Another (28½ inches) with ten rivet-holes, four in the hilt-plate and
three in each wing, was found in the Thames[1030] in 1856, and is in
the British Museum.
A sword from the Roach Smith Collection (20⅜ inches) has a well-marked
midrib to the blade, which is somewhat hollowed on either side of it.
The hilt-plate has the central slot and four rivet-holes, in which two
rivets remain.
In the British Museum is another sword (27⅝ inches) of much the same
form at the hilt, but with ten rivet-holes, three in each wing and
four in the central plate, which is prolonged beyond the fishtail-like
expansion in the form of a flat tang, 1 inch by ⅝ inch. It was found
in the Lea,[1031] near London. The lower part of the hilt has been
united to the blade by a subsequent process of burning on, as will
shortly be mentioned.
This prolongation of the hilt-plate is not singular. In the
Rouen Museum is a sword with thirteen rivets which exhibits this
peculiarity. The same exists in a Swiss Lake[1032] sword, and is not
uncommon in swords found in Italy.
Another sword from the Thames (23 inches) has five holes in the
hilt-plate and four in each wing. The blade, which expands from 1¼
inch near the hilt to 2⅛ inches at two-thirds of its length, is
ornamented with a single engraved line skirting the edge.
In the British Museum is another remarkably fine sword from the
Thames, ornamented in a similar manner, but with a slot in the
hilt-plate and three rivet-holes in each wing. The blade is 24½ inches
long and from 1⅞ inch to 2⅜ inches wide.
Another, from Battle, Sussex (29½ inches), has eleven rivets, three
in the hilt-plate, which is in form much like that of Fig. 343. The
blade is drawn down towards the edges. The lower end shows where the
runner was broken off after it was cast, and is left quite rough, thus
raising the presumption that it was covered by some kind of pommel.
Five rivets are still preserved.
A sword from the Medway, at Upnor Reach, is 31¼ inches long and
1⅞ inch wide at the broadest part. It has no less than fifteen
rivet-holes for the hilt, in three groups of five each.
One from the Thames (28⅝ inches), with plain blade and thirteen
rivet-holes, has five small rivets still _in situ_.
More commonly the rivet-holes are fewer in number. One (24½ inches)
in Canon Greenwell’s Collection, from Broadway Tower, Broadway,
Worcester, has nine rivet-holes, three in the tang and three in
each wing. One from the Thames at Battersea[1033] (26 inches), and
one from Ebberston, Yorkshire, in the Bateman Collection, have the
rivets arranged in the same manner, as has one which was found near
Whittingham,[1034] Northumberland, with another sword subsequently to
be described, and also with three spear-heads.
[Illustration: Fig. 344.—Newcastle. ¼]
I have one (19 inches) with eight rivet-holes, four in the centre and
two in each wing, found near Cambridge. The holes appear to have been
either made or enlarged by a punch having been driven through them,
the rough burr being left on. On either side of the central ridge of
the blade there is a pair of engraved lines parallel to the edges
and at about ¼ inch distant from them. The base of the blade next
the expansion for the hilt has been neatly serrated or engrailed,
like that of the sword from Barrow, but in this case transversely.
Unfortunately this blade, which is beautifully patinated, has been
broken into three pieces.
French swords of this class, both with a central slot combined with
rivets and with rivets only, are by no means uncommon. Specimens
of each, from the department of Seine et Oise, are figured in the
“Dictionnaire Archéologique de la Gaule.” One with a slot and four
rivets is in the museum at Nantes. Two with seven rivet-holes were
found at St. Nazaire-sur-Loire[1035] (Loire Inférieure).
Seven is, indeed, a more usual number for the rivet-holes than any
of these higher numbers. In Fig. 344 is shown a fine example of a
sword with seven rivet-holes, found in the Tyne, near Newcastle, and
now in the collection of Canon Greenweil, F.R.S. It is 28 inches in
length, and has a bead or rib just within the edges, which is somewhat
exaggerated in the figure. The hilt-plate is provided with slight
flanges for retaining the horn or wood that formed the hilt, and has a
semicircular notch at the base, possibly for the reception of a rivet.
See Fig. 356.
A sword from the Thames near Battersea (28⅝ inches), in the British
Museum, is of nearly the same form as Fig. 344, but the end of the
hilt-plate has no notch, and there is no midrib running down it. The
hilt has been fastened by seven rivets, which fit tightly in the holes
and are nearly all in position. Their ends have conical depressions
in them, as if a punch had been used as a riveting tool. In some the
rivets have been closed by a hollow punch, so as to leave a small stud
projecting in the middle of each surrounded by a deep hollow ring.
Some French swords present the same peculiarity.
A sword of the same form (23¾ inches), but with a plain blade and only
five small rivet-holes, was found in the Medway at Chatham Reach, and
is now in the same collection. The hilt seems to have been burnt on.
A sword of this form (25¼ inches), with raised ridges parallel to the
edges, has a rounded end to the hilt-plate and holes for six very
small pins or rivets at the base and for one large one. The hilt-plate
has been much hammered. It was found in the Thames. A second (24¾
inches), almost identical in every respect, has retained five of its
pins.
There are two swords in the Norwich Museum, each of them with seven
rivet-holes, both 21½ inches long, but the one found at Woolpit,
Suffolk, and the other at Windsor. One of the swords found at
Fulbourn,[1036] Cambridge, had its rivets arranged as in Fig. 344. The
blade is somewhat fluted between the central ridge and has smaller
ridges running parallel to the edges. Another (23¾ inches), found in
Glamorganshire,[1037] is of the same character. Another like this was
found in the bed of the Lark,[1038] at Icklingham, Suffolk.
I have two swords (about 23 inches) with seven rivet-holes, which
were found with spear-heads, a halberd, and other objects at Stoke
Ferry, Norfolk. They are unfortunately broken. One of them appears
to have been a defective casting, and to have wanted a portion of
its hilt-plate. This has been subsequently supplied by a second
hilt-plate having been cast over the broken end of the original plate,
a hole in which has been stopped with a rivet, which has been partly
covered over by the metal of the second casting. This is not an unique
instance of mending by burning on additional metal. I have a small
leaf-shaped sword (17⅜ inches), for which I am indebted to the Earl
of Enniskillen, found near Thornhill, Killina, Co. Cavan, which has
in old times had a new hilt-plate cast on the original blade in this
manner.
Other swords with seven rivet-holes arranged as in Fig. 344 have been
found near Alton Castle,[1039] Staffordshire, and at Billinghay,[1040]
Lincoln.
A sword with six rivet-holes (23 inches) was found near
Cranbourne,[1041] Dorset. Another of the same length was dug up at
Stifford,[1042] near Gray’s Thurrock, Essex. Another (20½ inches) was
found in the Severn[1043] at Buildwas, Salop. The rivet-holes are two
in the middle and two in each wing.
A leaf-shaped sword, the hilt broken off, but the blade still 22½
inches long, was found with a bronze spear-head, a palstave, and a
long pin, in the Thames,[1044] near the mouth of the Wandle. It is now
in the British Museum.
A sword with the hilt-plate like that of Fig. 344 has been found in
Rhenish Hesse.[1045]
[Illustration: Fig. 345.—Wetheringsett. ¼]
Another variety of the sword has a strong central rounded rib along
the blade, of which kind a good example is shown in Fig. 345.
The original is in the collection of Mr. Robert Fitch, F.S.A.,
who has kindly lent it to me for engraving. It was found at
Wetheringsett,[1046] Suffolk, and is said to have had remains of a
wooden hilt and scabbard, attached to it when found. Human bones are
also reported to have been found near it. It is 25½ inches long, with
engraved lines on the hilt, and has only two rivet-holes besides the
central square-ended slot.
Mr. Fisher, of Ely, has a sword of the same character (25 inches), but
with four rivets and a slot, found in the Fens near Ely.
A fragment of what appears to have been a sword of the same
character, but with two rivet-holes instead of the central slot, was
found with socketed celts and spear-heads at Bilton,[1047] Yorkshire.
I have a fragment of a blade of this kind in the Reach Fen hoard.
Another fragment, from Chrishall, Essex, is in the British Museum, as
is also one found under Beachy Head.[1048] It has two rivet-holes in
each wing, and three considerably larger in the centre. They appear
to be cast, and not drilled. With this fragment were found palstaves,
socketed celts, lumps of copper, and gold armlets.
The type also occurs in France. I have a specimen from the Seine at
Paris, with the hilt and lower part almost identical with Fig. 345,
but the blade does not expand in the same manner, and has two lines
engraved on each side of the central rib, the inner pair meeting on
the rib some little way from the point, the outer continued to nearly
the end of the blade. I have fragments of a sword of similar character
from the hoard found at Dreuil, near Amiens. The fragment from Beachy
Head already mentioned may possibly be of Gaulish origin.
On an Italian oblong bronze coin or _quincussis_, 6⅝ inches by 3½
inches, and weighing about 3½ lbs., is the representation of a
leaf-shaped sword with a raised rib along the centre of the blade, and
in general character much like Fig. 345. A specimen of this coin is
in the British Museum,[1049] and bears upon the reverse the figure of
a scabbard with parallel sides, and a nearly circular chape. Another
coin of the same type, engraved by Carelli,[1050] has a nearly similar
scabbard on the reverse, but the sword on the obverse is either
represented as being in its scabbard or is not at all leaf-shaped,
the sides of the blade being parallel. The hilt is also curved, and
there is a cross-guard. In fact, upon the one coin, the weapon has
the appearance of a Roman sword of iron, and on the other that of a
leaf-shaped sword of bronze. These pieces were no doubt cast in Umbria,
probably in the third century B.C., but their attribution to Ariminum
is at best doubtful. From the two varieties of sword appearing on coins
of the same type, the inference may be drawn either that at the time
when they were cast, bronze swords were in Umbria being superseded by
those of iron; or that the type originally referred to some sacred
weapon of bronze such as is represented on the coin in the British
Museum, but was subsequently made more conventional so as to represent
the sword in ordinary use at the period.
[Illustration: Fig. 346. Tiverton. ¼]
[Illustration: Fig. 347. Kingston. ¼]
The sword with a central rib was sometimes attached to the hilt in
a different manner from any of the blades hitherto described, as
will be seen by Fig. 346, copied from the _Archæological Association
Journal_.[1051] This sword was found at Tiverton, near Bath, and it is
provided with four rivets, a pair on each side of the continuation of
the central rib along the hilt-plate. Human remains and stag’s-horns
are said to have been found near it.
In the British Museum is a blade of the same kind (19⅝ inches), with
semicircular notches for the four rivets. It was found in the Thames
at Kingston. Another from the Thames (21 inches) has the two upper
holes perfect.
Leaf-shaped swords of the ordinary type also occasionally had their
hilts attached in the same manner. Fig. 347 shows a blade from the
Thames,[1052] near Kingston (16⅛ inches) with the rivet-holes thus
arranged. I have another, from the Hugo Collection (18 inches), found
in the Thames about a mile west from Barking Creek,[1053] which has
had four rivet-holes arranged in the same manner, though the margins
are now broken away, so that only traces of the holes remain. Another
apparently of this type was found in Lincolnshire.[1054]
In Canon Greenwell’s Collection is a leaf-shaped blade of the same
character (15¾ inches), which, however, has only two rivet-holes, one
on each side of the hilt-plate. It was found at Sandford,[1055] near
Oxford, together with a rapier-shaped blade.
Another variety has a narrower tang and rivet holes in the median
line. A blade of this kind, which is in Mr. Layton’s Collection,
was found in the Thames at Greenwich, and is engraved in the
_Archæological Journal_.[1056]
Before proceeding to the consideration of the swords with more perfect
hilts and pommels found in England, it will be well to give references
to some of the other instances of leaf-shaped swords found in this
country and in Wales. Several have been found in the Thames[1057]
besides those already mentioned. Others have been discovered in the
Isle of Portland;[1058] at Brixworth,[1059] Northamptonshire; and in
the sea-dike bank between Fleet and Gedney,[1060] Lincolnshire. Two,
one with the chape of the scabbard, of which more hereafter, were
found at Ebberston,[1061] Yorkshire.
Two were found at Ewart Park,[1062] near Wooler, Northumberland,
one of which is in the Museum of the Society of Antiquaries of
Newcastle-on-Tyne.
Some fragments of swords, regarded as being of copper, were found,
with spear-heads, celts, and lumps of metal, at Lanant,[1063] and also
at St. Hilary, Cornwall, about the year 1802.
There were also some fragments in the Broadward find,[1064]
Shropshire, which consisted principally of spear-heads and ferrules.
Occasionally a considerable number of swords are said to have been
found together. No less than twenty are reported to have been
discovered about the year 1726 near Alnwick Castle,[1065] in company
with forty-one socketed celts and sixteen spear-heads; and two broad
swords, one sharp-pointed sword, a spear-point, and a socketed celt
were found “in a bundle together” at Ambleside, Westmoreland,[1066]
about 1741.
Two swords, some spear-heads, celts, and other relics were discovered
at Shenstone,[1067] Staffordshire, in 1824. Near them are said to have
been some fragments of human bones. Some swords are reported to have
been found in a marsh on the Wrekin Tenement,[1068] Shropshire, with a
celt and about one hundred and fifty fragments of spear-heads.
Two swords and a fragment of a third were found in the Heathery Burn
Cave, in company with numerous bronze and bone instruments and a gold
armlet and penannular hollow bead. Most of these objects are now in
the collection of Canon Greenwell, F.R.S. Three swords were found at
Branton, Northumberland, and are now in the Alnwick Museum; where are
also two which had pommels of lead, and were found with two rings near
Tosson, parish of Rothbury, in that county. Another, which was also
accompanied by two rings, were found near Medomsley, Durham. These
rings may in some manner have served to attach the swords to a belt.
Most of the swords found in Wales appear to be in a fragmentary
condition. Engravings of some leaf-shaped swords are said to exist on
a rock between Barmouth[1069] and Dolgellau, North Wales.
A fragment of a sword was found, with a bronze sheath-end, looped
palstaves, spear-heads, and a ferrule, near Guilsfield,[1070]
Montgomeryshire. Fragments of three swords were found, with
lance-heads, ferrules, a chape, and other objects, at Glancych,[1071]
Cardiganshire. They appear to have had six rivets.
[Illustration: Fig. 348. Ely. ¼]
[Illustration: Fig. 349. River Cherwell. ¼]
English swords, with the hilts, or pommels, or both, formed of bronze,
are not of common occurrence. The first which I have selected for
illustration has the side edges so straight that it hardly belongs to
the class usually known as leaf-shaped. The hilt-plate is peculiar
in having well-developed side flanges which expand at the base so
as to form an oval pommel. The hilt has as usual been formed of two
plates of bone or wood, which have been secured to the hilt-plate by
six rivets. This sword, which was found in the Fens, near Ely, has
unfortunately lost its point, but is still 19¼ inches long. It was lent
me for engraving (as Fig. 348) by Mr. M. Fisher, of Ely. In some Danish
examples the high flanges of the hilt-plates are covered by thin plates
of gold, beyond which, of course, the hilt of bone, wood, or horn did
not project, and no doubt in this instance also the side flanges were
left visible and not in any way covered. They are upwards of 4 inches
in length, so that the hilt would fit into a large hand.
A small but very interesting sword with a perfect bronze hilt and
pommel is shown in Fig. 349. It was found in the River Cherwell,[1072]
and is now in the Museum at Oxford. It was kindly lent me by Professor
Rolleston for the purpose of engraving. The total length of the
weapon is 21 inches, of which the pommel and hilt, which is adapted
for a decidedly large hand, occupy about 5 inches. The hilt has the
appearance of having been cast upon the blade, and seems to be formed
of bronze of the same character. There are no rivets visible by which
the two castings are attached the one to the other.
[Illustration: Fig. 350. Lincoln.]
I am of opinion that the same process of attaching the hilt to the
blade by casting the one upon the other was in use in Scandinavia and
Germany. Some of the bronze daggers from Italy seem also to have had
their hilts cast upon the blades in which the rivets were already fixed.
In the British Museum is a sword blade with slight ribs inside the
edges, retaining a portion of the hilt, which is cast in a separate
piece and attached to the wings by two rivets. It is said to have been
found in the Thames.[1073] The hilt has had ribs round it at intervals
of about half an inch apart.
On a fragment of a sword blade, ornamented on each side with five
parallel engraved lines, the upper margin of the hilt is marked out by
a raised and engrailed line of the same form as the upper end of the
hilt of Fig. 350. It was found in the Fen, near Wicken, Cambs, with
a part of a scabbard end, spear-heads, and other objects now in the
British Museum.
A remarkably fine sword, found in the River Witham,[1074] below
Lincoln, in 1826, is shown in Fig. 350, for the use of which I am
indebted to the Council of the Society of Antiquaries. The original is
in the museum of the Duke of Northumberland, at Alnwick. It presents
the peculiarity of having two spirals attached to the base of the hilt
with a projecting pin between them, the whole taking the place of the
pommel. The blade appears to be engraved with parallel lines on either
side of the midrib. These spirals are of far more common occurrence
on the Continent than in Britain, and this sword, though found so far
north as Lincoln, is not improbably of foreign origin.
Several such have been found in France. One with the spirals but a
different form of hilt was found at Aliès, Cantal.[1075]
A bronze sword found in the Rhône at Lyons, but now in the museum at
Rennes,[1076] Brittany, has a nearly similar hilt and pommel It has
three raised bands on the hilt, but no pin between the spirals. Some
of the swords from the Swiss Lake-dwellings have similar hilts. They
have been found at Concise,[1077] in the Lake of Neuchâtel, and in the
Lac de Luissel.[1078]
[Illustration: Fig. 351.—Whittingham. ¼]
[Illustration: Fig. 352. Brechin. ¼]
Another of the same kind is in the Johanneum at Gratz, Styria. The
same form was also found at Hallstatt.[1079] Another was found near
Stettin.[1080] Another from Erxleben,[1081] Magdeburg, is in the
Brunswick Museum.
The hilt of a sword with spirals and a central pin was found in the
great Bologna hoard. A perfect example is in the Royal Armoury at
Turin.[1082]
There are several swords with this kind of hilt in the Museum of
Northern Antiquities at Copenhagen,[1083] some of which are figured
by Madsen.[1084] The spirals are sometimes found detached. A highly
interesting paper by Dr. Oscar Montelius on the different forms of
hilts of bronze swords and daggers is published in the Stockholm
volume of the Congress for Prehistoric Archæology.[1085]
The remarkable sword with a somewhat analogous termination to the
hilt, shown in Fig. 351, was found at Thrunton Farm,[1086] in the
parish of Whittingham, Northumberland, and is in the collection of
Lord Ravensworth. With it was found another sword already mentioned,
a spear-head with lunate openings in the blade (Fig. 418), and some
smaller leaf-shaped spear-heads. They are said to have been all
found sticking in a moss with the points downwards, and arranged in
a circle. The pommel end of the hilt is in this instance a distinct
casting, and is very remarkable on account of the two curved horns
extending from it, which are somewhat trumpet-mouthed, with a
projecting cone in the centre of each.
In Scotland a number of bronze swords have been found which bear, as
might have been anticipated, a close resemblance to those from England.
That shown in Fig. 352 was found in a moss at Leuchland, Brechin, in
Angus, and is now in the collection of Canon Greenwell, F.R.S. Its
length is 26½ inches, and the six rivets for attaching the hilt are
still in the hilt-plate, which is doubly hooked at the end. A rib
from the thicker part of the blade is prolonged part of the way down
the hilt-plate as in Fig. 344. Another sword, broken at the hilt, but
still 26¼ inches long, was found on the same farm. A find from Brechin
is mentioned further on. A sword with four rivet-holes, like those
from Arthur’s Seat, found on the borders between England and Scotland,
and engraved by Grose,[1087] has the same peculiar end to the
hilt-plate, as has one with five rivets from Methlick, Aberdeenshire,
now in the Antiquarian Museum at Edinburgh. Grose has also engraved
two, each with six rivet-holes in the wings and two or three in the
hilt-plate, found in Duddingston Loch,[1088] near Edinburgh, as well
as the hilt-plate of another, found near Peebles, with slots in the
wings and a slot and rivet-hole in the tang.
Some fragments of swords from this loch are in the Antiquarian Museum
at Edinburgh. Almost directly above Duddingston Loch, on Arthur’s
Seat,[1089] two other swords were found during the construction of the
Queen’s Drive. They are 26¼ inches and 24¼ inches long, in outline
like Fig. 342, with one rivet-hole in each wing and two in the centre
of the hilt-plate.
Two (23⅜ inches and 20½ inches) of the usual character, with
nine rivets and hilts much like Fig. 354, have been found in
Lanarkshire.[1090]
In Gordon’s “Itinerarium Septentrionale”[1091] a sword (24½ inches)
found near Irvine, Argyleshire, is engraved, as is also one (26
inches) found in Graham’s Dyke near Carinn, which is said to be in the
Advocates’ Library at Edinburgh. The figures do not seem accurate, but
show seven rivets in one and three in the other. Gordon makes no doubt
that these swords are Roman.
Other specimens have been found at Forse,[1092] Latheron, Caithness
(25 inches), near the Point of Sleat,[1093] Isle of Skye (22½ inches),
with two spear-heads and a pin. Another was found in Wigtonshire.[1094]
In the Antiquarian Museum are specimens from the following counties:
Aberdeen, Argyle, Ayr, Edinburgh, Fife, Forfar, Kincardine, and
Stirling.
In peat, at Iochdar,[1095] South Uist, were found two swords like that
from Arthur’s Seat, the hilts of which are said to have been formed of
wood. A leather sheath is also reported to have been present.
A bronze scabbard tip, such as will subsequently be described,
was found, with four bronze swords (about 24 inches) and a large
spear-head, near Brechin,[1096] Forfarshire; and in Corsbie
Moss,[1097] Legerwood, Berwick, a bronze sword and spear-head were
found, the former having, it is said, a scabbard, apparently of metal,
but so much corroded as to fall in pieces on removal. This also may
have been of leather stained by the metal.
[Illustration: Fig. 353.—Edinburgh. ¼.]
A sword with a large pommel (24 inches), closely resembling Fig. 353,
was found, together with two other sword blades (one 25 inches with
slots), a scabbard end, and two bronze pins, with large circular flat
heads, at Tarves,[1098] Aberdeenshire. Some of these were presented to
the British Museum by the Earl of Aberdeen. There is a recess on the
hilt-plate for the reception of the horn or bone of the hilt, which
was fastened by three rivets still remaining.
Another sword, the blade 22 inches long, the handle, including a
round hollow pommel, 5½ inches, was found in Skye, and is engraved in
“Pennant’s Tour.”[1099] It shows four rivet-holes arranged like those
in the sword from Arthur’s Seat, so that the hilt was probably formed
as usual of horn or wood and not of bronze.
A few other swords with pommels to their hilts have been found in
Scotland. That shown in Fig. 353 was found in Edinburgh,[1100] with,
it is said, thirteen or fourteen more, a pin, and ring, and a kind
of annular button, of bronze. It is now in the Antiquarian Museum at
Edinburgh. The hilt appears to have been added to the hilt-plate by a
subsequent process of casting. The pommel has been cast over a core
of clay, which it still retains within it. Another of the swords (24¼
inches) has the hilt-plate pierced for six rivets. Two others which
have been examined are imperfect.
Mr. Joseph Anderson, who has described this find, points out that this
hilt must have “been cast in a matrix modelled from a sword which had
the grip made up of two convex plates attached on either side of the
handle plate, and their ends covered by a hollow pommel”—in fact, from
such a sword as that from Tarves, already mentioned. He also observes
that the holes in the hilt are not rivet-holes, and thinks that they
may have been caused by wooden pins used to hold the clay core in
position, for the handle as well as the pommel is hollow. I am rather
doubtful as to the accuracy of this theory, as such pins would, I
think, produce blow-holes in the metal in casting. There may, however,
have been clay projections from the inner core which would leave holes
such as these, into which studs of wood, bone, or horn might afterwards
be inserted by way of ornament and to add firmness to the grip. For
details of the finding of from thirty to forty bronze swords in
Scotland, the reader is referred to Mr. Anderson’s paper.
The bronze leaf-shaped swords from Ireland, of which nearly or quite
a hundred, either perfect or fragmentary, are preserved in the Museum
of the Royal Irish Academy, have been treated of at some length by the
late Sir William Wilde,[1101] whose Catalogue the reader may consult
with advantage. Ingeneral appearance they closely resemble the swords
from the sister countries, and vary in length from about eighteen to
thirty inches. The blades are usually rounded on the faces, or have a
faintly marked median ridge, and are slightly fluted along the edges.
This fluting or bevelling is sometimes bounded by a raised ridge.
The form with a rounded rib along the middle of the blade is almost
unknown. There is considerable variation in the form of the end of the
hilt-plate, in which occasionally there is a deep V-shaped notch, or
several smaller notches. The most common termination is that like a
fish-tail as seen in Fig. 354. The number of rivet-holes is various,
ranging from four to eleven. There are occasionally slots[1102] in the
hilt-plate and in the wings at the base of the blade.
They have been found in most parts of the kingdom.
A common type of Irish sword is shown in Fig. 354 from a specimen found
at Newtown Limavady, Co. Derry, in 1870. One wing of the fish-tail
termination is wanting and has been restored in the sketch. The nine
rivet-holes seem to have been cast and not drilled, though they may
have been slightly counter-sunk subsequently to the casting. The
hilt-plate is slightly fluted, perhaps with the view of steadying the
hilt.
[Illustration: Fig. 354. Newtown Limavady. ¼]
[Illustration: Fig. 355. Ireland. ¼]
[Illustration: Fig. 356. Ireland. ¼]
[Illustration: Fig. 357. Ireland. ¼]
In a fragment of a sword found with spear-heads, a socketed dagger, and
a fragment of a hammer on Bo Island, Enniskillen, there are five deep
flutings on each side of the hilt-plate. As is the case with some of
the English examples already mentioned, this hilt-plate has been joined
to the blade by some process of burning on. One of the four rivet-holes
in it has been partially closed by the operation. Sir William Wilde
has noticed that several of the leaf-shaped swords under his charge
had been broken and subsequently “welded” both by fusion and by the
addition of a collar of the metal which encircles the extremities of
the fragments. The term “welding” is, however, inappropriate to a metal
of the character of bronze.
In the British Museum is a sword of this type with nine rivet-holes
(25¼ inches), found near Aghadoe,[1103] Co. Kerry.
In the small Irish blade of much the same type (Fig. 355) there are
only three rivet-holes, which have been cast in the blade, a fourth
having from some cause been filled up with the metal, though a
depression on each face marks the spot where the hole was intended to
be.
There were several swords, mostly broken, in the great Dowris hoard.
They had a rivet-hole in each wing and two or three in the hilt-plate.
Some of the bronze swords found in Ireland attracted the attention
of antiquaries upwards of a century ago. Governor Pownall described
two found in a bog at Cullen, Tipperary, which are engraved in the
_Archæologia_.[1104] They are 26½ inches and 27 inches long, and
one of them is of the same form as the Scotch sword, Fig. 352.
Vallancey[1105] has also figured one (22 inches) with eight rivets.
From among those in the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy I have
selected two for engraving. The first, Fig. 356 (26¼ inches), has had
its hilt attached by a number of very small pins instead of rivets
of the usual size. The second, Fig. 357, is a short blade about 19½
inches long, with a central rib extending down the hilt-plate, in
which there are four rivet-holes, two on each side.
A bronze sword from Polignac, Haute Loire, now in the Museum at Le
Puy, Haute Loire, has its hilt-plate like that of Fig. 356, but has
only four rivets. Another with seven rivets was found in a dolmen
at Miers,[1106] Lot. Another with six rivets from the Department of
Jura[1107] is in the museum at St. Germain.
Another from near Besançon,[1108] Doubs, has six small rivets. One
found at Alise Ste. Reine,[1109] Côte d’Or, has four rivets only.
The type also occurred at Hallstatt,[1110] and in Germany.[1111]
At least two swords have been found in Ireland still retaining the
plates of bone which formed their hilts. By the kindness of Mr. Robert
Day, F.S.A., I am able to reproduce full-sized figures of both sides
of one of the most perfect specimens, as Figs. 358 and 359, which
have already appeared in the _Journal of the Royal Historical and
Archæological Association of Ireland_.[1112]
[Illustration: Fig. 358.—Muckno. 1/1]
[Illustration: Fig. 359.—Muckno. 1/1]
The sword itself, shown on a small scale in Fig. 360, was found in
Lisletrim Bog, Muckno, Co. Monaghan. It is 24½ inches long, with a
thick midrib running along the blade. The plates of bone which are
still attached have been pronounced by Professor Owen to be mammalian,
and probably cetacean. It will be observed that at the wings of the
hilt-plate the bone projects somewhat beyond the metal. The same
peculiarity may be observed in the bone hilt of a sword found at
Mullylagan,[1113] Co. Armagh, which has somewhat the appearance of
having been carved at the end next the blade into a pair of rude
volutes. It is shown full-size in Fig. 361. The sword itself, on a
small scale, is shown in Fig. 362. In this instance the bone projects
beyond the sides of the hilt-plate. I have not seen the specimen,
which is preserved in the collection of Mr. A. Knight Young, of
Monaghan.[1114] A bronze sword with six rivets, found near Kallundborg,
Denmark,[1115] had the hilt formed of wood.
[Illustration: Fig. 360.—Muckno.]
[Illustration: Fig. 361.—Mullylagan. 1/1]
[Illustration: Fig. 362.—Mullylagan. 1/6]
As is the case with several of the bronze swords discovered in
Scandinavia, some of those found in Ireland seem to have been decorated
with gold upon their hilts.
[Illustration: Fig. 363. Ireland.]
On one of the rivets of a sword found in a bog near Cullen,[1116]
Tipperary, was a thin piece of gold weighing upwards of 12 dwts.
Another sword,[1117] found near the same place in 1751, had a plate of
gold on one side which covered the hilt; at the end was a small object
like a pommel of a sword, with three links of a chain hanging from
it. The whole weighed 3 ozs. 3 dwts. 11 grs. In this bog about twenty
bronze swords were found at intervals, besides about forty pieces of
hilt-plates in which the rivets stood. In one sword[1118] there was a
recess near the blade, ½ × ¼ × 1/6 inch, in which was “a piece of pewter
which just fitted it, with four channels cut in it, in each of which
was laid a thin bit of fine copper, so that they resembled four figures
of 1.”
A fragment of a blade which Wilde[1119] considers to be that of a
sword, is decorated with raised lines and circles in relief, which
were cast with the blade. A portion of it is shown in Fig. 363. As the
whole fragment is only 4¼ inches long, it may have formed part of a
socketed knife or some other instrument, and not of a sword. A part of
a spear-head, with a series of ring ornaments engraved on the blade,
was in the hoard found at Haynes Hill, Kent.[1120]
There is considerable general resemblance between the bronze swords
found in the British Islands and those of the continental countries
of Europe. The similarities with those from France have already been
pointed out. Several with ornamented hilts have been figured by
Chantre[1121] and others. One has a hemispherical pommel and a varied
design on the hilt.
The bronze swords from the Swiss Lake-dwellings[1122] have frequently
bronze hilts, like those of the swords from the South of France. In
some instances the hilt-plate has side flanges, with a central slot
or line of rivets, and rivets in the wings. In others the broad tang
forming the hilt has two or three rivet-holes. In some hilts cast in
bronze there is a recess for receiving a piece of horn or wood. The
blades have frequently delicate raised ribs, sometimes six on each
face, running along them.
The bronze swords of Italy[1123] present several varieties not found
in Britain. The sides of the blades are more nearly parallel, and many
have a slender tang at the hilt, sometimes with two rivet-holes forming
loops at the side of the tang, sometimes with one rivet-hole in its
centre. In some the blade narrows somewhat for the tang, in each side
of which are two semicircular notches for the rivets. In some Italian
and French swords the blade is drawn out to a long tapering point, so
that its edges present a somewhat ogival curve.
A fragment of a very remarkable Greek sword from Thera[1124] has a
series of small broad-edged axes of gold, in shape like conventional
battle-axes, inlaid along the middle of the blade between two slightly
projecting ribs.
The double-edged bronze swords found by Dr. Schliemann[1125] at Mycenæ
are tanged and often provided with pommels made of alabaster. The
hilts and scabbards are in some cases decorated with gold. The blades
are usually long and narrow, though some widen considerably at the
hilt-end, so as to form a broad shoulder to the tang. Swords appear to
have been much rarer on the presumed site of Troy.
There appear to be doubts whether the beautiful bronze sword in
the Berlin Museum,[1126] reported to have been found at Pella, in
Macedonia, does not belong to the valley of the Rhine.
Bronze swords have but rarely been found in Egypt. In my own
collection, however, is one which was found at Great Kantara during the
construction of the Suez Canal. The blade, about 17 inches long, is
leaf-shaped, and much like that of Fig. 360, but more uniform in width.
Instead of having a hilt-plate it is drawn down to a small tang about
3/16 inch square. This again expands into an octagonal bar, about ⅜
inch in diameter, which has been drawn down to a point, and then turned
back to form a hook, probably for suspending the sword at the belt.
At the base of the blade are two rivet-holes. The hilt must have been
formed of two pieces which clasped the tang. The total length of the
sword from the point to the top of the hook is 22⅜ inches. I have never
seen another similar example, but a bronze sword blade, presumably from
Lower Egypt, is in the museum at Berlin. It has an engraved line down
each side of the blade, and its sides are more parallel than in mine
from Kantara, already mentioned. The hilt is broken off. A German sword
from the Magdeburg district, with a tang and two rivet-holes at the
base of the blade, closely resembles mine from Egypt, except that it
has no hook to the tang.
The bronze swords found in Denmark[1127] and Northern Germany[1128]
have often side flanges to the hilt-plate, like Fig. 348, occasionally
plated with gold; but the blades are generally more uniform in width,
and have the edges straighter than those from the United Kingdom. Some
blades have a simple tang. On a very large proportion the hilt formed
of bronze (or of some more perishable material alternating with bronze
plates) has been preserved. The pommels are usually formed of oval or
rhomboidal plates with a central boss, and are generally ornamented
below.
Some of the swords found in Sweden and Denmark have been regarded by
Dr. Montelius[1129] and Mr. Worsaae[1130] as of foreign origin.
A bronze sword from Finland with a flanged hilt-plate and eight
rivet-holes has been[1131] figured.
In Germany[1132] the bronze swords present types which more nearly
resemble those of France and Denmark than those of the British Isles.
Those with a flanged hilt-plate are found, however, both in Northern
and Southern Germany, as well as in Italy, Austria and Hungary. Others
have long and narrow tangs, but a large proportion are provided with
bronze hilts, usually with disc-like pommels. These hilts conceal the
form of the tangs. Some few have spirals at the end of the hilt, as
already mentioned, and one from Brandenburg, in the Berlin Museum, has
a spheroidal pommel. In some of the bronze hilts there are recesses for
the reception of pieces of horn or wood, as on some of the French and
Swiss swords.
Iron swords of the same general character as those of bronze have been
found in the ancient cemetery at Hallstatt and elsewhere. Those from
Hallstatt[1133] are identical in character with the bronze swords from
the same locality. In one instance the hilt and pommel of an iron
sword are in bronze; in another the pommel alone; the hilt-plate of
iron being flat, and provided with rivets exactly like those of the
bronze swords. In others the pommel is wanting. I have a broken iron
sword from this cemetery, with the hilt-plate perfect, and having three
bronze rivets still in it, and the holes for two others at the pommel
end. The blade has a central rounded rib along it like Fig. 345, but
with a small bead on either side. I have a beautiful bronze sword from
the same locality, on the blade of which are two small raised beads
on either side of the central rib, and in the spaces between them a
threefold wavy line punched in or engraved. In this instance a tang
has passed through the hilt, that was formed of alternate blocks of
bronze and of some substance that has now perished, possibly ivory. A
magnificent iron sword from Hallstatt, now in the Vienna Museum, has
the hilt and pommel formed of ivory inlaid with amber.
The late Celtic iron swords found in Britain have been described
by Mr. A. W. Franks, F.R.S., in an exhaustive paper in the
_Archæologia_,[1134] in which also the reader will find many
interesting particulars of analogous swords found in continental
countries.
Several iron swords have been found in France with flat hilt-plates
and rivets exactly of the same character as those of the bronze
swords. Nine have been discovered in tumuli at Cosne, Magny Lambert,
and elsewhere in the department of Côte d’Or. Others have been found
at Cormoz, Ain; and at Gédinne, in Belgium. There can be but little
doubt that M. Alexandre Bertrand[1135] is right in assigning the French
examples to the fourth or fifth century B.C., and in regarding them as
direct descendants from the bronze swords of ordinary type. He adduces,
also, the remarkable fragment of an iron sword with a bronze hilt found
in the Lac de Bienne, which is in exact imitation of a bronze sword
with ribs on the blade, as an additional proof that these early iron
swords are the reproductions, pure and simple, of those in bronze, and
fabricated from the metal then recently introduced into the West. How
far back in time the use of bronze swords in Gaul may have extended
it is difficult to say, but the varieties in their types testify to a
lengthened use before they began to be superseded by those of iron.
I must, however, now describe the sheaths by which these blades were
protected.