Asset number
1612922470
Description
The upper part of an iron sword, 557 mm long, including the metal fittings of its handle. The blade, 435 mm long to the end of the hilt end and 52 mm wide, is flat in section and there is no discernible taper. It is corroded and its edges are damaged, especially in the lower part. It ends at a fairly straight, and probably deliberate, break, and it seems that a sharp bend has been straightened 143 mm from the present end. There is a copper-alloy crown-shaped hilt end (66 mm wide) with a ribbed band below (57 mm wide). Both sides and both ends are decorated with pairs of stippled comma motifs. The tang is rectangular in section and tapers towards the top, which is burred over a four-clawed copper-alloy pommel cover (55 x 25 mm) that is decorated with a grooved border and cross-grooves over the top. In the centre of the tang is a thick, rounded copper-alloy washer that is circular in plan and 29 mm diameter. It is decorated with diagonal grooves and is bordered top and bottom by two band… (See Merlin record for full description)
© The Trustees of the British Museum
Using this image
Commercial use
To license images for charged-for journals and publications, and other commercial uses, please contact British Museum Images.
Contact BM images
Non-commercial use
You are permitted to use images from the British Museum website subject to our terms of use.
The image will be released to you under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license. You can read more about the British Museum and Creative Commons here.
Download this image
New photography
If you cannot see an image that you want on the British Museum website, you can order new photography from us.
Order new image