sword-sheath
- Museum number
- 1989,0302.4
- Description
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Bronze sheath-fitting from top of a scabbard.
- Dimensions
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Length: 35 millimetres
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Width: 59 millimetres
- Curator's comments
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From I. Meadows 'Nene Valley Archaeological Survey: The Late Bronze Age and the Iron Age':
"A substantial deposit of metalwork [was] deposited into one course of the River Nene at Orton Meadows. The metalwork included swords, spearheads and currency bars that had been bent, perhaps ‘ritually killed’ (Stead 1984). These objects were found during gravel extraction in a channel near to a pair of Bronze Age round barrows, perhaps reflecting some continuity of respect for the general location. As a practice the deposition of metalwork in water is also more a Bronze Age trait than Iron Age although significant deposits of both periods are known. The recovered objects comprised two La Tène I swords, a La Tène III sword in a copper alloy scabbard, a spearhead with engraved decoration, seven complete currency bars (additional fragments were also found), a rare ladle perhaps used in wine consumption and a latch lifter of La Tène III style. Whilst the objects span a 400-year period, and although some could have arrived in the water accidentally, the currency bars were deposited in a single event. That many of the pieces showed damage that was probably deliberate would also suggest the conscious separating of them from this world. No other deposits of metalwork have come from the Nene."
Stead, I. 1984. 'Iron Age metalwork from Orton Meadows [Cambridgeshire: currency bars, swords, ladle, etc - dredger finds]' Durobrivae 9, pp.6-7
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Found on sword 1989,0302.3
- Location
- Not on display
- Department
- Britain, Europe and Prehistory
- Registration number
- 1989,0302.4