- Museum number
- ML.1577
- Description
-
Iron socketed spear-head, lacking the tip. The blade, chipped on one side, is sharply angled from the socket and has a low maximum width above which it is concave before a relatively long narrow point. There is a bent nail inside the socket on one side, and possibly the head of another nail on the other side.
- Dimensions
-
Length: 197 millimetres
-
Width: 29 millimetres
- Curator's comments
- Stead and Rigby 1999
Findspot: Somsois ‘Perriere-la-Guilliere’ (Marne)
For this, his first excavation, Morel published a detailed account and a plan of the cemetery. He read his report to the Société des Sciences et Arts de Vitry-le-François on 3 August 1865 and published it in the first volume of their transactions (Morel, L., 1867, Cimetière galuois de Somsois, ‘Bulletin de la société des sciences et arts de Vitry-le-François’ (1861-7), 169-86); the same paper was read at the annual meeting of the Sociétés Savantes des Départements at the Sorbonne on 4 April 1866, and then published in two different journals (Morel, L., 1866a, Cimetière gaulois de Somsois, RA, 14, 23-34 and Morel, L., 1866b, Cimetière gaulois de Somois, ‘Mémoires lus à la Sorbonne (Archéologie)’, 177-87). The contribution to Morel 1898 (83-93) was thus the fourth publication of this excavation report. Two versions (Morel 1866a and 1867) are identical, although the illustrations are taken from different blocks and vary slightly; there is one figure in the text and two plates (a plan of the cemetery and a selection of grave-goods). The final version (Morel 1898) is almost the same as Morel 1866b, which varies slightly from the 1866a and 1867 versions. Likewise, the plan, Morel 1898, pl. 28, is very similar to Morel 1866b, pl. vii, although it was not taken from the same drawing and has had lists of grave-goods added. The plan in the other two publications is different and much cruder. The orientation of burials and their overall positions relative to one another is identical on both versions, but the distances between burials varies considerably from one plan to the other: e.g. grave 16 and grave 19 seem to be about 5 m apart on the one plan (Morel 1866a and 1867) but only about 1 m apart on the other (Morel 1866b and 1898). Neither plan has a scale, and one version (Morel 1866b and 1898) lacks a north point. Smith, R.A., 1925, ‘A guide to the antiquities of the Early Iron Age’ (second edition), London, 72-3.
The cemetery was found when seven or eight graves were disturbed in the course of road-works. Morel started an excavation in September 1863 at the side of the road and into the adjoining field. The cemetery was on the slope of a hill and covered an area 21 by 12 m. Below 0.4 m of topsoil there was a compact layer of chalk, 0.6 m, before the 0.2-0.3 m of terre noire covering each skeleton. There was no consistent orientation of the graves, which were on average 2 m long, 0.85 m wide and 1.3 m deep, and no suggestion of coffins. All burials were extended inhumations: one (grave 25) had the hands crossed on the pelvis, two (graves 10 and l4) had the legs crossed, and the others were fully extended with the arms by the sides; one skeleton (grave 23) faced downwards. This cemetery was regarded as exceptional in that all the graves were intact (Morel 1898, 184).
Grave-goods found by the road-workers included: four bracelets (one of glass); four anklets; a torc; two belt chains; three brooches; a finger ring; and two amber beads.
Grave 2: Upper part cut by the road, but grave-goods survived (ML.1569, ML.1570, ML.1576 and ML.1577).
Context: Spearheads
The spear was the dominant weapon from Hallstatt D to La Tène lb, found sometimes singly and sometimes in groups of two, three and four spearheads. Eight spearheads are said to have been found in a cart-burial at Epoye (Bosteaux-Paris, C., 1892, Resultats de fouilles aux environs de Reims, ‘Association française pour l’avancement de science’ (II), 614). At Quilly they were by the right foot, pointing into the foot of the grave (graves 8, 12, 15), a position favoured in half the Mont Troté graves with spearheads (graves 23, 98 and 102), whereas at Les Grandes Loges the preferred position was on the left of the skeleton and more usually at the head than the foot of the grave (as at Mont Troté graves 32 and 136, and Vert-la-Gravelle grave 6bis). Spearheads are occasionally found with daggers or swords, and rarely with the remains of shields. In La Tène Ic and La Tène II there was a change in practice with the typical warrior's assemblage comprising a single spear with a sword and shield.
Most spearheads have mineralized wood in the sockets, and seem to have been attached to the shank by an iron rivet (or sometimes perhaps a wooden peg?) that passed through holes in the socket below the wings of the blade. Not many rivets survive intact.
8. Miscellaneous types.
Bibliography: Morel, L., 1898, ‘La Champagne souterraine’ Reims, pl. 18, fig. 10 = L 198 mm according to the scale. Type IVb (bayonet form) in Rapin's typology (Brunaux, J.-L., and Rapin, A., 1988, ‘Gournay II: boucliers et lances, dépôts et trophées’, Paris, 134).
- Location
- Not on display
- Department
- Britain, Europe and Prehistory
- Registration number
- ML.1577