Feltwell Roman Villa and 5th century Spatha

[Medicus matt]

i apologise if i was a little short or standoff-ish, .

Not necessary, as I agree with you entirely.

[Medicus matt]

Kaj, in case you're still interested, I've now got a full set of hi-def pics of the Snape sword. Went to see it as I'm going to be making a set of hilt fittings to put on my pattern welded blade.

[K J Seago]

definately!

[john m roberts]

Matt, could you share these pics with the rest of us? There's a sad dearth of good pictures and information on Migration-era swords. Not many repros, either.

[Medicus matt]

Matt, could you share these pics with the rest of us? There's a sad dearth of good pictures and information on Migration-era swords. Not many repros, either.

I'll have to talk to the Archaology Department at Bury to see if they're happy for me to publish them; they probably won't mind as there are no plans to publish it further (they weren't even aware of it's importance; I've persuaded them to talk to West Stow with a view to getting it on display). In the meantime I'm happy to email some representative shots to interested parties if they PM me an email address. Even though the grave it came from is late 6th/7th C, it's almost certainly of earlier manufacture (much like the Cumberland organic hilt); stylistically it's clearly related to the fully organic hilts of the 4th century, like the examples from Nydam.

For pictures of some other Migration period swords, you could do worse than take a look at some of my albums on photobucket:-
http://s418.photobucket.com/profile/medicusmatt

Especially the Illerup, Mainz, Vendel, Museo Del Alto Medievo and Nydam Hall albums.

[john m roberts]

Matt,
Thanks for steering me toward your picture albums. There is some great stuff there, some of it new to me or only seen before in drawings.

[Medicus matt]

You're welcome. I'm very lucky that my partner is an archaeologist and doesn't mind the fact that all of our holidays are planned around museums and historical sites.

[Caballo]

Lucky man! I used to get "Not more stones, Dad....." from my kids....

[Augustus Janus]

You've got some really nice photos in your album Medicus matt. Not sure how many you've purchased or made of the lot but a really nice collection regardless.

I have some personal items I've manufactured myself but they aren't really show quality as I only had a belt and disc sander to work with and using rough stock removal methods and hand working everything. Might also add that they aren't constructed traditionally either as most have a 10mm threaded rod attachment for the hilt pieces.

I do however own a nice John Barnett Spatha and a Deepeeka gladius.

[dave74]

Here are some pictures of the sword,I'm not sure if the pommel cap was found with it.

[Medicus matt]

That pommel cap wasn't found with the sword and, although it's from roughly the same period, I'm not sure why the museum has chosen to put it there as many organically hilted swords of this period didn't have pommel caps.

[Medicus matt]

Ah, it's this pommel I think, only discovered recently some 40 miles from Feltwell:-
http://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/record/id/480473

If the labelling in the cabinet doesn't make it clear that the sword and pommel are unconnected then the museum really should correct that as it's rather misleading.

[dave74]

If the labelling in the cabinet doesn't make it clear that the sword and pommel are unconnected then the museum really should correct that as it's rather misleading.

Very misleading and,pointless.
I'm curious about the measurements of the sword. It's shorter than most I'm guessing a blade length of about 64cm and,width less than 5cm?