Roman Sword ??

[Martin Wallgren]

Nice stabber you got there man!

Well I have read the discussion and I´m still thinking of rehilted sword. Peter Johnsson has told me that lot´s of medieval and viking ageswords he has studied are rehilted many times. There is also lot´s of finds of seaxes and knifes and swords that he has studied that don´t get into referencebook because they are made by smiths of lesser skill. These blades are hiding in museumstorage and are plentiful at least here in Scandinavia.

I have myself been to the Armourys of both the Royal A. of Sweden and the Skokloster Armoury. In these collections you find thousends of blades of all ages´, from bronzeblades dating back 3500 years to 19th c. blades. Many strange variant are in the stores of these armouries. For example a pre-shogunate katana rehilted with a complex rapierstyled hilt at Skokloster.

I belive the sword to be a european sword. It looks like the blade is of at least roman inspiration. The blades in my opinion (based on the writings of E. Okeshott and Peter Johnsson) is the importent part to classify, because the furniture is often replased if damaged but you seldom do the other way around. Keep the furniture and reblade it. The blade is the swords essence. The furniture is cosmetics.

I also base this as a practsioner of Acient and Medeival Martial Arts. 75-90% of the handeling caracteristics of a sword is in the blade. This is what you try to feel when you grab the sword and think of how could or would I use this weapon.

I think this is something that has been less considered by many museum curators the past couple of hundred years. Too much staring att the "Blingbling" and not enough martial skill when making judgement on artefacts found in the ground.

Just my 2 cent....

[stevesarak]

I like to think the pommel was put on at a later time, but I have to take it at face falue. I’ve tried to get people to focus on the blade more and less on the pommel, since the pommel can be replaced. But some see the pommel and say either Viking or Celtic, but when I ask them to go through the books and place the blade to Viking or Celtic, that’s when they usually change their mind.

Its hard to pinpoint exactly what kind of oddity I have here. I agree, it was probably inspired on Roman design. The experts I’ve talked to say that based on the location of where it was found and the blade shape and size, which is a key factor, that that puts it around 4th – 6th century.

Now the problem is, who would have made a sword like that in that time period. Going from the books, no one, so is it a sword design that hasn’t survived the centuries until now, or is it a custom job. I’d like to believe it a rare design used a lot but never seen before, but it’s more likely a custom job.

So inspired by Rome but at the late Roman period makes it a migration sword. Who knows where it came from for sure, but you can see where it probably came from.

But either way, thinking about the time period it was from and what was going on in the area it was found, and that it was a sword actually used by some soldier makes it something worth having. When you hold it in your hand, you can tell its a solid stabbing sword. I wonder how many, if any, it took down.

When you think about how many generations the sword has been around and hopefully how many more. I’m just glad that its mine for a short time before it passes through time to a new owner.

And by the way Martin, those Armories you’ve been to are one of the reasons why we, overhear in the U.S. are so envious. The idea that someone could go to a place like that and see all those swords…well we’re just envious. If you have any pictures of the armory, I’m sure a lot of us would like to see them.

[Martin Wallgren]

And by the way Martin, those Armories you’ve been to are one of the reasons why we, overhear in the U.S. are so envious. The idea that someone could go to a place like that and see all those swords…well we’re just envious. If you have any pictures of the armory, I’m sure a lot of us would like to see them.

Hehe, I think it´s uniqe to Scandinavia (or Sweden) that the good side of living in a semi-socialist country is that the goverment/national Museum owns everything that get out of the ground here. So if I would get out into my garden and would find a Sword and would not report it to the athoritys and they finds it out I could get into prison for "stealing" goverment property. But yes it is great to have thise things here. And you would be amazed by the share numbers of blades there is in stores. I think the have heard the figure 8000 in just the stores of the Royal Armoury in Stockholm.

[Conal]

Check this site out

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl= ... f%26sa%3DX

[stevesarak]

Thanks for the link; it still amazes me that so many places like this have survived with their artifacts.

RAT needs a page categorized by race, with nothing but links to actual places and or museums showing artifacts like this. All of us have our own links but imagine if we put them together on one place.