Prestige swords of the Bronze Age

ANCIENT WEAPONS. New Research Perspectives on Weapons and Warfare. Proceedings of the International Conference - Mainz, September 20th –21st 2019, 2021

2013

Marisia, 2020

As the archaeological excavations at Micia haven’t produced any Roman sword so far, the casual finding of two blade fragments and of one handguard plate is of some interest for the reconstruction of the equipment of the military units quartered in this large auxiliary fort. The narrow sword blade fragments dating from c. AD 170 to 270 were probably deposited in the last years of the fort c. 250/260. Having a close parallel at Hoghiz auxiliary fort, they seem to have belonged to cavalry equipment. The copper alloy handguard plate is of a type met between c. AD 180 and 260/280 on a very large area of the Roman Empire. With five examples known so far, the handle assemblages of wood including guards provided with copper alloy plates look like the most fashionable type of spatha-grip in Dacia after the Marcomannic Wars and until the abandonment of the province. Yet, in this period of time in Dacia, as in all the Roman Empire, bone and iron sword-grip assemblages were also used.

ActaMN 56,1, 2019

The present paper presents four pieces kept in the collections of the Gherla History Museum (Cluj County). These four objects were briefly mentioned in the archaeological literature from Romania, and one of them was discussed and analysed in detail almost a decade ago. Most likely, the pieces were part of a funerary inventory dated in the Late Iron Age period and discovered near the fortress of Piatra Craivii (Alba County). The main purpose of this paper is therefore to bring these objects to the attention of the researchers who have as subject of study the Northern Balkan area in the Late Iron Age period.

Thiasos, 2024

Anna Maria Bietti Sestieri, Luciano Salzani, Claudio Giardino, Georges Verly

Heritage, 2021

Two Venetian types of swords coming from the “Luigi Marzoli” Arms Museum in Brescia were characterized in this study, to understand their manufacturing process and to gather information about their provenance. Both the blades and the hilts components are analyzed using a multi-methodological approach, to describe possible differences in the metallurgical features that involved classical metallographic and spectroscopic techniques. Microstructural results indicate a complex process for the manufacturing of the blades, by hot-forging, confirmed by a sequence of different microstructures even on the same sample. Furthermore, an interesting and unusual manufacturing technique is used on one of the pommels, which consists of two hemispheres connected by copper joints. Hypothesis about the ironmaking and the provenience of raw materials are obtained by the features and composition of the inclusions. It is suggested that there is the use of both a direct and an indirect process on the swor...