knife
- Museum number
- ML.1595
- Description
-
Iron knife with long plate-tang in line with the back of the blade and an arched cut-out underneath. The handle has a straight back, a high arch underneath and a deeply flanged end. Traces of replaced organic (?bone) handle-plates; five rivets.
- Production date
- 500 BC - 300 BC (circa)
- Dimensions
-
Length: 316 millimetres
-
Weight: 144 grammes
-
Thickness: 15.60 millimetres (handle, including rivets)
-
Width: 39.80 millimetres (blade, max)
-
Width: 37.40 millimetres (handle)
- Curator's comments
- Stead and Rigby 1999
Context: Knives, Shears and Razors; Knives with long plate-tangs
Knives whose handles have a plate-tang in line with the back of the blade and an arched cut-out underneath to provide a grip. Organic handle-plates were attached to the tang by rivets; two at the end of the blade, two at the end of the grip and one or more between. The end of the cutting edge curves to meet the straight back of the blade at a point. Osterhaus (Osterhaus, U., 1981, ‘Zur Funktion und Herkunft der frülatènezeitlichen Hiebmesser’ (Kleine Schriften aus dem Vorgeschichtlichten Seminar Marburg, 9)) includes the two finer pieces (ML.1505 and ML.1595) in his type IB which is concentrated in Champagne with a few examples in Hunsrück-Eifel graves.
Handles with straight backs: Found in Hallstatt D, La Tène Ia and Ib contexts, at Charvais graves 6 and 7, Tinqueux grave 16 (with a man), the Châlons-sur-Marne cart-burial, and Beine 'le Montéqueux' grave 1 in a La Tène Ib woman's grave group.
Bibliography: Morel, L., 1898, ‘La Champagne souterraine’ Reims, pl. 24, fig. 1; Déchelette, J., 1914, ‘Manuel d’archéologie préhistorique, celtique, et gallo-romaine’ 2, 3 ‘Second âge du fer ou épogue de La Tène’, Paris, fig. 596, 6; Osterhaus, U., 1981, ‘Zur Funktion und Herkunft der frülatènezeitlichen Hiebmesser’ (Kleine Schriften aus dem Vorgeschichtlichten Seminar Marburg, 9), 21, no. 13.
- Location
- On display (G50/dc13)
- Exhibition history
-
Exhibited:
1980, London, BM, Celtic Antiquities from Gaul
- Department
- Britain, Europe and Prehistory
- Registration number
- ML.1595