Ancient Armour and Weapons in Europe: From the Iron Period of the Northern Nations to the End of the Thirteenth Century — John Shaqi
Ancient Armour and Weapons in Europe: From the Iron Period of the Northern Nations to the End of the Thirteenth CenturyHewitt, John
History
Ancient Armour and Weapons in Europe: From the Iron Period of the Northern Nations to the End of the Thirteenth Century
Hewitt, John
Armor; Weapons
The SPEARS seem to have been of two kinds: the longer spear in use
among the cavalry, or to be employed against them; and the shorter
kind, which, as we have seen, might serve either as a javelin, or
for the thrust at close quarters. In the accompanying groups of
spear-heads, found in graves in different parts of Europe, we have
collected the principal varieties of form[41]: the leaf-shaped,
the lozenge, the spike, the ogee, the barbed, and the four-edged.
These forms are infinitely varied in the monuments of the time, by
giving to the weapons more or less of breadth or of slenderness.
The blades are always of iron, and those found in England have a
longitudinal opening in the socket. Their length is various, but
they usually range from ten to fifteen inches. In the cemetery at
Little Wilbraham, Cambridgeshire, the smallest found was two and
a half inches, the longest eighteen inches[42]. In the Ozingell
cemetery (in Kent), they occur of twenty-one inches in length[43].
The spear-heads of this period found in Ireland differ but little
from the examples discovered in England and on the Continent. Those
from the Ballinderry find, observes Mr. Wakeman, "are singularly like
specimens found at Ozingell." In Anglo-Saxon interments, the spears
occur in much greater numbers than any of the other weapons. The
cemetery at Little Wilbraham produced thirty-five spears, but only
four swords; and the axes, in all similar explorations, are of still
greater rarity. These usual types of the spear-head found in Great
Britain closely resemble those discovered in the graves of France,
Germany, Denmark, and Switzerland. Numerous examples of them will
be found figured in the Abbé Cochet's work[44], in Lindenschmit's
Selzen Cemetery[45], in Worsaae's Copenhagen Museum[46], and in
Troyon's _Tombeaux de Bel-Air_.
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