dagger;
sheath
- Museum number
- 1860,0927.1
- Description
-
Iron dagger with ornate cast copper alloy cross-shaped hilt, and matching decorated sheath. The blade has hollow shoulders. The upper part is almost parallel-sided from which it narrows to a slender point. The centre of each face is recessed on the upper part with a fine rib running logitudinally along the centre of the depression. The copper alloy hilt is 'butterfly-shaped'. It is edged with a border of 3mm wide, 5mm thick. The interior is filled with an openwork pattern made up of circles each ornamented with a pair of concentric ridges on the back and with a hole in the centre. On the front each disk is concave and presumably held an inset, perhaps of coral, which was attached by a rivet passing through the central hole. The length of the blade including the tang is 27.8 cm. The lower edge of the hilt is grooved to receive the upper edge of the blade.
The back of the sheath is missing. The front is of copper alloy sheet bent over along the edges and with a raised rib down the centre. At the top is a mitre-shaped openwork plate. This comprises a border 3mm wide, 2mm thick, which is filled with a pattern of rings of which the insides are cupped. The chape comprises a horse-shoe shaped copper alloy terminal with three ribs on each face and a cup, presumably originally containing an inset at the tip. The horse-shoe shaped terminal contains seven cupped disks on the front, and three rows each of seven such disks extend upwards from the terminal. Each of the disks in the line at each side is backed with a disk carrying two concentric ridges and with a perforation in the centre which presumably held the rivet securing the setting in the cup on the opposite face. The circular openwork settings of the cast copper alloy hilt and chape probably originally held red coral studs.
- Production date
- 600 BC - 550 BC (circa)
- Dimensions
-
Length: 125 millimetres (chape)
-
Length: 357 millimetres (dagger)
-
Length: 281 millimetres (sheath)
-
Weight: 260 grammes (dagger)
-
Weight: 179 grammes (sheath)
-
Thickness: 3.10 millimetres (dagger blade, max)
-
Thickness: 6.50 millimetres (dagger handle)
-
Thickness: 10.60 millimetres (sheath, max)
-
Width: 80.20 millimetres (dagger handle, max)
-
Width: 53.90 millimetres (dagger, top of blade)
-
Width: 54.40 millimetres (sheath chape, max)
-
Width: 64.90 millimetres (sheath, top)
- Curator's comments
- Short iron daggers kept in sheaths appeared during the Hallstatt D period, after around 600 BC.
- Location
- On display (G50/dc10)
- Exhibition history
-
Exhibited:
1970 15 Oct-22 Nov, London, Hayward Gallery, Early Celtic Art
1970 22 Aug-12 Sep, Edinburgh, Royal Scottish Museum, Early Celtic Art
- Department
- Britain, Europe and Prehistory
- Registration number
- 1860,0927.1