12-16-2014, 03:40 PM
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?
