FIG. 12.
TANG, WITH FLANGED EDGES,
SHAPED TO FIT THE HAND.
Leaf-shaped swords may be divided into two sub-groups: those with bronze hilts or pommels, and those without. Owing to the beauty of their decoration, the types with bronze hilts have hitherto received the greatest amount of attention, and several archæologists have devoted pages to describing them and tracing out their evolution.[268] They are not, however, very common outside Hungary, and in all cases are much rarer than the other types. The details of their form lead us to believe that they are contemporary with some, in fact with most of the other types, and the elaborate decoration present in most cases shows us that they were an expensive and ornate form, used probably by the greater chieftains, while the other types were the cheap and plain weapons used either by the lesser nobles or by the rank and file.
The simpler type of sword has no bronze hilt, but in its place a long tang, usually but not invariably with flanged edges, and shaped to fit the hand. This tang is pierced by several rivet holes, in which the rivets are sometimes found adhering, and these rivets were used to secure on either side of the tang pieces of wood, bone or horn, which with it formed the hilt. In some cases such swords have been found with wood or horn still attached. These are obviously a cheaper form of hilt, and it is not surprising that such swords are more commonly found and more widely distributed than those with bronze hilts or pommels, notwithstanding that the latter have been more eagerly sought after by collectors.
It is partly because these types, which are all included in the Type II. of Naue,[269] are commoner and more widely distributed that I have selected them for special study in preference to the more ornate forms, but also for another reason. It has hitherto been usual to classify swords mainly by the shapes of their blades or their sections; for reasons which will become apparent as I proceed, I am proposing a new classification, based upon the shape of the butt of the blade, the portion, that is to say, which immediately adjoins the handle-shaped tang.
FIG. 13.—CONVEX AND CONCAVE BUTTS.
Now if we examine a large number of swords of these types, we shall find that these butts vary in form, some being convex and others concave. In Plate VI. I have placed them in a series of seven, and it would, perhaps, be possible to sub-divide them more minutely, and to give several variants of most of the types. For reasons, which will, I think, be apparent to anyone consulting the Plate, and which I give more fully below, I believe Type A to be the earliest of the series; Type G, on the other hand, occurs in the famous cemetery at Hallstatt, in the Salzkammergut, and as iron swords and implements were found in most of the graves there, we may consider these bronze swords as belonging to the very last phase of the bronze age in Central Europe. As the butts of the blades show a gradual transition from the form usual in the daggers with riveted handles shown in Plate IV. to the Hallstatt type, we may, I think, feel satisfied that we have placed our series in strict chronological sequence.
