sword
- Museum number
- 1952,0202.1
- Description
-
Iron sword found in, and removed from, a wooden scabbard with bronze and gunmetal fittings (1952,0202.2). The sword is in good condition overall, after conservation, with much of the surface well preserved but the edges of the blade chipped. Blade is fairly flat in section, and only a little thickened in the centre. There is very little taper until about 80 mm from the end, when it tapers to a sharp point. The tang is rectangular in section, wide and flat towards the blade, and its top is burred. The shoulders are shaped, almost stepped, but with a different outline on each edge. There is the mark of a straight, or very slightly convex, hilt end (which is not metallic), where the organics of the handle have terminated. Some 74-86 mm from the top of the blade, in the left half of one face, there is a depression that could be interpreted as a pelta-like stamp with a central dot, but X-rays indicate that it is an effect of corrosion.
- Production date
- 1 - 100 (circa)
- Dimensions
-
Length: 697 millimetres (blade)
-
Length: 833 millimetres
-
Weight: 948 grammes (including mount)
-
Thickness: 26.60 millimetres (max, including mount)
-
Width: 47.20 millimetres (top of blade)
- Curator's comments
- Stead 2006
Before conservation, Plenderleith (in Wheeler 1954: 46) reported that X-rays showed that the sword was in an advanced state of corrosion and extremely frail, but it retained its original contours.
For a technological report on the iron sword, see p. 109. Metal analysis: gunmetal chape and suspension loop, bronze band, Dungworth 1996:419, nos 1747:a-c (incorrectly classified as from the hoard at Stanwick, i.e. Melsonby); Table 1.
Found during an archaeological excavation in 1951. The sword in its scabbard was waterlogged in 'sodden silt' about 300 mm from the flat bottom of a major defensive ditch. It was found near the end of the ditch, and the excavator suggested that, apart from the possibilities of loss and deliberate deposition, it might have formed part of a trophy on a neighbouring gatepost. The deposit was dated by the excavator to the period AD 50-74. The sword was in its scabbard, and only the organic parts of the handle were missing. It was taken immediately to the British Museum and promptly conserved. Piggott in Wheeler 1954: 44-50; Haselgrove et al. 1990: 52; Jope 2000: 127 and 281, pl. 215:a-d.
- Location
- On display (G50/dc21)
- Department
- Britain, Europe and Prehistory
- Registration number
- 1952,0202.1