Hod Hill sword

[Caballo]

As some of you know, I have been working to create a replica of the Hod Hill sword.

The Hod Hill sword has been identified as a crossover sword having both Roman and Celtic traditions, and as such is believed to have been evidence of auxillary troops keeping native weapons while in service in the Roman army (Bishop & Coulston, Stead, Miks).

The original is held in the British Museum (pic below). The copper alloy hilt end is described by Stead in British Iron Age Swords and Scabbards and is a "cocked hat" (type viii in Stead's methodology). Five type viii hilt ends have been found in the south, four of them from sites with a Roman military presence. This further strengthens the case for these being used by auxillaries or other soldiers serving in the Roman army.




As I re-enact a Batavian auxillary, I have been interested for years in re-creating this sword, and am very pleased that Suhel of Al- Hamdd in India agreed to work with me on this.

The base we used to work off was the drawing reconstruction in Miks ( Studien zur romischen Schwertbewaffnung in der Kaiserzeit)- see below.



Miks chose rounded wooden sections for his drawing. A strong case can be put for the Celtic hilt design these being flush with the "washers", but I decided to go down this route to reflect the mixed Romano-native tradition of this sword. I also prefer it!

Here (on the Vicus site) is an alternative reconstruction with a straight handle http://www.vicus.org.uk/images/swordhandles2.jpg

Also, Miks shows clearly more "washers" than shown on the BM exhibit. This number of washers was also replicated in the Manning replica. I decided to follow Miks here and continue to look for the original archeological report- did some fall off in retrieval/ conservation?

Next reconstruction.[/img]

[Caballo]

A further issue was that no scabbard was found. Al Hamdd and I therefore agreed that two scabbards would be made- one showing Roman influence, and one Celtic.

The Celtic design chosen is the Isleham scabbard found in Cambridgeshire as certain design elements reflect the sword hilt.

This is in the BM as well.

[Caballo]

The combination of sword and Celtic scabbard should therefore look like this. (Pic thanks to Peronis)







The Roman scabbard design will now be based around the Hod Hill chape (thanks to Crispus for pointing me in the right direction here.)



The plan would be to try to create a sword and scabbard that are created from pieces found at the same place, deposited at the same time. Obviously, its unlikely that all were on the same sword- but it shoudl give a certain unity.

The scabbard design will be fairly simple, with palmettes.

(Btw, sorry about these multiple posts- the only way I can get the images in).

[Caballo]

The first prototype was sent over from Suhel of Al Hamdd and arrived on Thursday- for which many thanks. A number of us- notably Peronis, Crispus, and Celer looked it over and swung it about on Saturday.

Overall, I think it is potentially a very impressive sword, and great for auxillaries (and probably Celts as well!). It felt good in the hand, and the grip worked well. It also attracted a fair bit of attention!

A number of important changes need to be made- to be expected on a prototype.







The width at 52mm is spot on. The original blade ends at 435mm with no tapering. The replica blade is long , and at first I wondered (being more used to the Deepeeka spatha) if the replica was too long- however, I was surprised to find out from Stead that the Celtic longswords' blades were between 635mm and 850 mm ( hock: ). This would be well within that range.

A number of changes will be going back to Al Hammdd (and I am very pleased with their willingness to really work on making it authentic).

Some of the changes will be:-

a/ Blade - point more tapered and less heavy.

b/ Hilt- blade grip and guard need re-working.

c/ Scabbard- flatter, and some major re-design now that I have got the Hod Hill scabbard mouth. No guttering, palmettes, and complete chape redesign.


Anyway, I will be continuing to work on this, but thought that you would like an update of work in progress. I also thought it might be helpful to see how I have approached developing a replica at a distance- very much working around drawings and photographs of the originals. All comments very welcome!

Cheers

Caballo

[Robert]

Salve Paul!

Great work by all, it would seem. I have some questions as to the blade, as based on Miks this could be classed as Hamsfelde Pompeji blade due to its width of 52 mm, which point starts at about 3.5 cm from the tip, causing a very rounded type of tip. The Hamsfelde type gladius also does not have a triangular cross section, but is rounded. It could just make the Claudian period. Looking at the find drawings however, one could believe it was trapezium shaped, till you look at the cross section. Miks, by the way, does show tapering towards the point, and following the classification as Pompeji would leave you with a 47 centimeter blade with a somewhat rounded tip. It does look a bit unusual, but I believe you will find it has great balance (they made a Hamsfelde blade for me).
Having said that, perhaps the best choice is to go for the Fontillet spatha blade for this handle, as the tapering could indicate the onset of the long taper of that type of blade, making the Hod Hill a rehilt of an original Roman spatha. It that case, the blade would look a lot different from the one you posted, but will make an excellent choice.
I have found Suhel of Al Hamdd to be very cooperative and applaud your choice for his company. I am presently working with them on a Nijmegen gladius and am really looking forward to the results!

Great work, much looking forward to further progress!

[Chuck Russell]

you need to talk to that nasty celt Nate, he's got a lovely one he does

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

Very nice work Caballo! Looks great so far!

[Chris B]

Comment Removed because Suhel corrected the issues with my previous order. I do not have any complaints with this vendor. Suhel seems very commited to ensuring customer satisfaction so I am sure anyone who deals with them will end up happy with their order.

[Lugorix]

Nice looking sword. I would like to buy one of those if it ever came up for sale. I'm wondering why there is the fancy openwork near the hilt. I don't recall ever seeing somethng like that on swords from that period. Is that something you have in mind to remove in the next version?



Anyway, thaks for sharing. Very nice work you're doing there.

[Caballo]

The fancy openwork is too large and the cut out shapes are also the wrong design- these are being changed in the next version. The Manning Imperial version (which has a number of other inaccuracies IMHO) is here a lot closer to the original.


Compare this with the original



From using the prototype, it acts in the scabbard to tighten the blade and stop movement. It actually works in practise- one of the joys of re-enactment and reconstruction!

There are a number of possible thoughts from this- all conjecture....
Was the overall scabbard therefore slightly larger than the blade, for example to have a fleece lining as per later swords?
Does this imply that the scabbard mouth did not have a metal top as per (for example) a Pompeii gladius?

And I didn't "get" this in the original, either! :oops:

[Aryan Steels]

"I ordered custom chainmail for Al-Hamdd that I could not find anywhere else in months of searching. Suhel, took my custom order and worked very hard to ensure satisfaction. There was a considerable wait for the items, but the final quality and cost of the chainmail makes it well worth it. He was so determined to make sure that I was happy with the order that he ended up sending parts of it twice to me free of charge to ensure proper fit. You will not find that kind of customer service at many vendors in any industry. Suhel seems very concerned about developing products to historical accuracy and it currently working to improve all their lines of product. I would definately recommend them based on price, quality, and committment to customer satisfaction."

Chris

[Caballo]

Help- translation needed! I've just had the pictures of the Al Hamdd scabbard, and they have copied the engraving above- up to and including the shading as lines on the scabbard mouth piece.

The German in Miks reads "Mundblech : Fundpl: Kastell oder Hill Fort (Hod Hill): Bronze: bandformig mit sich ruckseitig uberlappenden Enden: Mittlebereich der Schauseite mit bogenformiger Unterkante sowie Kreisaugen- und Gravurdecor."

Before we say definitively that there should be no lines, could someone help me translate the German ?

Thanks!!

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

Well, they would not be the first to make that error.

[Tiberius Clodius Corvinus]

Help- translation needed! I've just had the pictures of the Al Hamdd scabbard, and they have copied the engraving above- up to and including the shading as lines on the scabbard mouth piece.

The German in Miks reads "Mundblech : Fundpl: Kastell oder Hill Fort (Hod Hill): Bronze: bandformig mit sich ruckseitig uberlappenden Enden: Mittlebereich der Schauseite mit bogenformiger Unterkante sowie Kreisaugen- und Gravurdecor."

Mouthpiece (of scabbard) : Find location: Castellum or Hill Fort (Hod Hill): Bronze: stripe-shaped; endings overlap at the backside : Middle section of the frontside (Schauseite) has a bow-shaped lower edge; decorated with round-eyes and gravures.

hope this helps a bit...

best,
Carsten

[jvrjenivs]

bandformig mit sich ruckseitig uberlappenden Enden: Mittlebereich der Schauseite mit bogenformiger Unterkante sowie Kreisaugen- und Gravurdecor."

strip shape with overlapping on the back: Middle of the frontscene with curved lower edge and circle-eyes- and rotogravuredecor.