Asset number
809801001
Description
Iron sword still in much of its scabbard; the upper part of the back plate was removed for study, but the lower part and the entire length of the front plate was firmly attached by corrosion products. Only the upper 360 mm of the sword blade could be examined, and on one side only. The blade is 620 mm long (measured with the aid of radiographs), the blade is 48 mm wide at the top. It is quite corroded, with a median ridge and sloping shoulders (one shoulder broken). The tang, 107 mm long, is broken at the end: Morel's illustration shows a button terminal. The rectangular section of the tang changes quite sharply to a circular section for the top 3 mm. The scabbard, 640 mm long and 52 mm wide at the top, has the front plate lapping the back with broad and salient overlaps. The chape end is rather more rounded than ML.2940 and ML.1619, with the discs projecting slightly outwards and a maximum width of 33 mm. The upper part of the chape no longer survives, but the binding extends to 85 mm and a mark on the back plate centred 110 mm from the bottom suggests the impression of a chape bridge. The mouth is sub-campanulate, 10 mm high, well preserved on the front but damaged at the back, and there is a 24 mm length of ferrule at the top of the front plate. The suspension loop and its lower plate survive; the loop is rectangular, some 28mm x 11 mm on top (de Navarro type IA). The lower loop plate is D-shaped, and the overall length would have been about 53 mm. The front plate is covered with very clear ?grass impressions, surviving as iron replacement.
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