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 Sheaths of the swords were commonly of wood covered with leather,
as we learn from the graves; and they were sometimes mounted in
bronze. Figure 2 of our fourth Plate shews an example from Wilbraham,
in which the locket and chape are of bronze; and the Livonian sword,
Plate V. fig. 10, has an ornamented bronze chape. In the British Museum
is an Anglo-Saxon blade found in a grave at Battle Edge, Oxfordshire,
which retains the bronze chape and locket of its scabbard. These
fitments were sometimes gilt, or even of gold. Mr. Worsaae, in his
"Primeval Antiquities of Denmark," page 50, has figured the gold locket
of a sword-sheath, adorned with the winding pattern so characteristic
of this period. Wood and leather were the ordinary materials used in
the Danish scabbards. Of the sheaths formed of these substances, which
have been partially preserved to our times, the most curious example
is that figured by Mr. Bateman in vol. vii. of the Journal of the
Archæological Association. It was found in a barrow in Derbyshire,
and is constructed of thin wood overlaid with leather, the surface
of the latter being covered with a pattern of alternate fillets and
lozenges. A scabbard found at Strood, in Kent, was formed externally of
a substance resembling shagreen. Dr. Bähr, in _Die Gräber der Liven_,
Plate XV., has engraved a dagger-sheath, which is entirely of bronze,
from Ascheraden; and in the _Abbildungen von Mainzer Altherthümern_ for
1852, is another bronze dagger-sheath, containing an iron dagger, which
was found near Treves. Several are in the British Museum. Mr. Roach
Smith has another, found in the Thames;--all of them probably belonging
to the period under consideration. There is also a curious type of
sword-scabbard, formed entirely of bronze, which further observation
may probably shew to be of Northern make. The example here engraved
was found on a moor near Flasby, in Yorkshire; it contains the blade
of an iron sword. Several similar ones have been discovered. One dug
up at Stanwick has been presented by the Duke of Northumberland to
the British Museum. Another is engraved in Dr. Wilson's "Annals of
Scotland," found near Edinburgh. A fourth, from the bed of the Isis,
is figured in the Archæological Journal, vol. x. p. 259. The Earl of
Londesborough has another, dredged from the Thames, which differs
from the rest in having been ornamented with enamelled studs. This is
engraved in vol. iii. of the _Collectanea Antiqua_. See also the Danish
example, figured in Worsaae's "Copenhagen Museum," p. 66. All these
bronze scabbards have contained iron blades.
[Illustration: No. 6.]
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