Scabbards, covered in leather or NOT?

[Medicus matt]

The scabbards from the third century bogs do not have leather either, the slide and chape are mounted straight on to the wood.

From the research I've done on Danish bog finds, there is evidence that some of the scabbards were covered in very thin (ie parchment thin or even onion skin paper thin) untanned hide. The best example of this is on one of the Nydam II scabbards, where a decent sized piece of hide is still in place at the chape end, moulded over the carved wood of the scabbard core but other traces have been found between the wooden core and metal fittings.

The lack of any evidence of the same sort of covering on the Illerup Adal scabbards is almost certainly due to the highly alkaline nature of the environment, the same is true of the 300 or so leather belts that were deposited. Many, many fittings but no leather or hide products remain.