La Tene sword found with organic hilt preserved

[Luka Borščak]

Have you guys seen this? The hilt is much less anthropoid than continental examples we know of, but nicely shaped. Also, I think La Tene II dating is a bit debatable I would say...
Scroll down, it's at the bottom...
http://www.mustfarm.com/discoveries/

[Dan D'Silva]

Very nice. It reminds me somewhat of a gladius hilt, but also of early Irish swords.

[Luka Borščak]

Additional picture:

[LUCIUS ALFENUS AVITIANUS]

Thanks! Any picture with more detail of the pommel and hilt?

[Vindex]

Oh - Must Farm! Can't WAIT to see the reports from this.

It is interesting that, from the link, the only Late Iron Age item listed is the sword.

[Luka Borščak]

Only these two pictures unfortunately... I would love to see more pictures and some measurements...

[Luka Borščak]

I just realized I'm not the first one to post this find: http://www.romanarmytalk.com/25-allies-a...ry-bc.html
Also a nice close up of the hilt. And the fact there were TWO swords...



Anyway, since this is not so new, there may be something published already on this? Anybody knows anything?

[LUCIUS ALFENUS AVITIANUS]

Seems very "roman"... No?

[Sextus Saturninus]

The hilt seems to have influence from Roman type swords at the least...

[Luka Borščak]

Possibly. But since the early La Tene III, some celtic swords start to have straight hilt plates and maybe also less anthropoid organic fittings. It's hard to say if it is because of roman influence. La Tene Irish swords have similar pommels and they didn't have much contact with Romans...

[Ammianus Marcellinus]

It could be interesting to recreate one of these swords and their scabards ....

[XorX]

The shape of the hilt parts reminds me of the Hod Hill sword...

[Luka Borščak]

Yes, it does look like Hod Hill but without fancy bronze stuff. I searched national museum of scotland and found these parts of hilts dated mostly to first or maybe second century AD. They all are of a Hod Hill type. This Must Farm sword has hilt of a shape that would easily fit together with such Hod Hill style bronze fittings. So it is difficult to precisely date any of these swords. It would be wrong to date Must Farm sword to roman era in Britain just because it doesn't have anthropoid hilt and Hod Hill hilts with organics partially covered in bronze might well have been in use before Romans influenced British swords. The only thing sure is that auxiliaries in Britain used swords with Hod Hill type fittings, probably both completely organic version and the ones with bronze caps over the pommel and with simpler or less simple guard plates. When the basic shape of these hilts was first used is hard to say. Also it is hard to say if Romans had any influence over it since it may well be that after Romans stopped using xiphos style swords their new swords sported hilts designed according to Celtic hilt types. We know roman later republican and early empire swords still sometimes had trilobated pommels and sloped guard plates. How can we know who first simplified that hilt type into globular or oval shaped fittings that we now think of as typically roman? We know of early La Tene III celtic swords with straight guard plates that obviously were fitted with fittings no longer of anthropoid shape. Do we know of roman straight guards and simple globular or oval pommels before that time? When do we think typical roman gladius fittings were first developed?

[Luka Borščak]

Here are the fittings from Scotland:

[Vindex]

Here are the drawings of Hod Hill and also Waddon Hill finds.

[attachment=11337]HodHillexamples.jpg[/attachment]

[attachment=11338]WaddonHillexamples_TimEdwards.jpg[/attachment]