Late republic-early imperial era sword

[Dave G]

Dont know if this has been seen on here before, if so apologies.
It could be roman or roman inspired as the text states, unusual pommel that is similar in shape to the lobed mace heads found in egypt, and the surviving cloth grip is something to note too.

http://dlib.nyu.edu/awdl/isaw/isaw-papers/9/

[LUCIUS ALFENUS AVITIANUS]

That handle is so diferent that i have to recreate it... I have used table weaving strip, it have 5 layers of it round the iron. The grip is comfortable and sure, and probably avoid loosing grip with the sweat in hot climas.
[attachment=12044]67210_10203765173075497_292168146266909422_n.jpg[/attachment]

[Creon01]

"With the exception of a few nicks, the iron blade is fully preserved. It weighs around 1.3 kg (including the pommel and grip). From the point to the remains of the peened over/riveted end of the tang it measures 945 mm (37"), consisting of the 172 mm long tang, 13.7 mm wide at its lower end, and the 773 mm long blade (30.4").

For a Roman sword, that seems a bit long. Are there others known that are that long?

[Michael J. Taylor]

The so-called Jericho glades has a blade 29 inches long if I remember correctly. Both seem to be Hellenistic knock offs of the gladius hispaniensis, rather actual Roman swords. I wonder if the length could suggest a cavalry variant.

[Bruno Bazzani]

I apologize for the cross post in the "original" thread but I have noticed only now that Dave G had already posted the link to the article a couple of days ago (a few seconds after it was published ;-).

The SNP team want to be sure that their thanks to the members of the forum is not missed since, after all, posting here was the first step of the long process of which the article is the final outcome.

Just a quick note to mention the authors: Paola Davoli, director of the mission at Soknopaiou Nesos and the archaeologist who dug the sword, and Christian Micks, of the Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum Forschungsinstitut für Archäologie, Mainz.

The article is freely available at http://dlib.nyu.edu/awdl/isaw/isaw-papers/9/ under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.

Thanks to all Roman Army Talk members !