Iron age Celtic swords, Must farm 1st century BC

[Caballo]

I somehow missed these finds- Iron age swords complete with wooden handles...



Article here http://www.exacteditions.com/exact/brows...ust%20farm

http://1501bc.com/page/MustFarm/2011_09_26/
http://1501bc.com/page/MustFarm/2011_09_27/

[Caballo]

Close up of the hilt http://www.swordforum.com/forums/attachm...1330552967




From British Archaeology
"Complete prehistoric swords excavated in Fens

Sometime in the first century BC two iron swords were cast into a river in what is now Cambridgeshire. Such events, with echoes of the mythical Arthur's sword Excalibur being thrown into an enchanted lake, must have been common: many prehistoric weapons have been found in old lakes and rivers. What is highly unusual is that in this case, the two swords were carefully excavated by archaeologists, and found to be almost complete, with their wooden handles and scabbards still intact.

The swords were recovered about 7m apart in the silted channel of the old river Nene at Must Farm, near Peterborough. Supported by Hanson Building Products, the Cambridge Archaeological Unit (CAU) has been investigating prehistoric riverside settlement at the farm since 2004, after significant discoveries in Hanson's quarry; News earlier reported a bronze age eel trap from the site (Jan/Feb 2011, 116).

The present excavation season began in July, and the tops of wooden stakes for fish weirs soon became visible. In the first ten days the two iron swords and three metal rings were found, as well as a bronze age sword made around 1300–1000BBC. The blade of one of the iron swords had been twisted back on itself, presumably a deliberate act, says Tim Malim of SLR Consulting, before it was consigned to the slow-moving waters at the edge of the Nene. The handle of the older sword has a delicate tin pommel, and its blade had also been broken in two.

Mark Knight of the CAU says that altogether nine swords have been found around the old river channel, including three in the late 1960s when the Must Farm quarry was first opened. Other prehistoric weapons have been retrieved from the area, most spectacularly a complete bronze age spear, with its long wooden shaft and metal tip. Disarticulated human bones are common at the same levels as the metalwork, though not in direct association.

The channel assemblage, says Knight, looks increasingly like the metalwork from the well known Flag Fen post-alignment, of similar age and also in the Cambridgeshire fens. The Must Farm channel was inside a "roddon", a ridge of hard silts from an earlier tidal creek, which seems to have been used as a causeway across the corner of the fen basin. People could have walked along the raised banks much as they crossed the basin using Flag Fen's artificial alignment or causeway, apparently making similar ceremonial or religious sacrifices."

[Vindex]

Wow - thank you for posting. I'd missed them too despite putting other photos of Must Farm up a while ago.

[Scipio_Africanus]

What a beautiful find !

Thank you Caballo for sharing it, and for the presentation too

[Folkert van Wijk]

Thanks for finding this.

You only mist this find:



An incredibly well preserved Celt in situ, with his coolus helmet backwards on his head.

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

Thank you for sharing! Those are unbelievably well preserved.
This peat and damp condition preservation phenomena is really fantatic!

[Joze Noriker]

Thank you for posting, too!
Where are the origins of this type of the handle? From Germany la Tenne III are the same hanlesin form
I---Iblade-----
handle

but they have different details and different scabbards.

Joze