Fig. 342.
Battersea. ¼
The stature of several of the men interred in the Yorkshire barrows, examined by Canon Greenwell, was not less than five feet nine inches, and the bones of the hands were proportional to those of the bodies; but, unfortunately, no bronze swords accompanied them, though many of the interments were of the Bronze Age.
The usual form of sword to which the term “leaf-shaped” has been applied is that shown in Fig. 342. Their total length is generally about 24 inches, though sometimes not more than 16 inches, but they are occasionally as long as 30 inches, or even more. The blades are in most cases uniformly rounded, but with the part next the edge slightly drawn down so as to form a shallow fluting. In some instances, however, there is a more or less bold rounded central rib, or else projecting ridges running along the greater part of the blade near the edges. They differ considerably in the form of the plate for the hilt, and in the number and arrangement of the rivets by which the covering material was attached. This latter, as will subsequently be seen, usually consisted of plates of horn, bone, or wood, riveted on each side of the hilt-plate. In rare instances the outer part of the hilt was of bronze. Of the scabbards of such swords and the chapes attached to them I shall subsequently speak.
The sword shown in Fig. 342 was found about the year 1864 in the Thames, near Battersea Bridge, and is now in my own collection. Its length is 25¼ inches, and the blade is 2⅛ inches broad in its broadest part, though at the top of the hilt it is 2⅜ inches in breadth. Just above this point the edge of the blade has been removed so as to form two broad notches, the object being probably to save the hand of the warrior from being cut should the sword be drawn back in his hand, there being apparently no transverse guard. The hilt has been attached by rivets or pins passing through three longitudinal slots, which have been produced in the casting, and not subsequently drilled or made. The hilt-plate expands into a kind of fish-tail termination, which was probably enclosed in a pommel-like end formed by the plates of horn, or other material, of which the hilt was made. I have another sword, about 21 inches in length, which was found in the year 1851 near the circular encampment at Hawridge, on the south-eastern border of Buckinghamshire. The hilt-plate is of the same character as that of Fig. 342, but the lower slot is longer and the upper ones shorter. In the latter were found the bronze rivets for fastening on the hilt. This blade is figured on a small scale in the Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries.[1021]
Fig. 343.
Barrow. ¼
Another sword (22 inches) of the same character, with three pointed oval slots for the rivets, was found at Washingborough,[1022] Lincolnshire. Two other leaf-shaped swords were found near the same spot. Another (24 inches), found near Midsummer Norton,[1023] Somerset, has the central slot nearly rectangular.
The central slot is sometimes accompanied by two or more rivet-holes in the projecting wings of the hilt-plate. A sword (24 inches) with two rivets was found between Woodlands and Gussage St. Michael,[1024] Dorset. Another, broken, was found, with fragments of others, socketed celts, spear-heads, a sickle, and other objects, near the Pierre du Villain, Alderney.[1025]
One (24½ inches) from the Thames,[1026] at Battersea, and now in the Bateman Collection, has a long rectangular slot and four rivets. One of two (24 inches), found in broken condition, with a spear-head and two ferrules, on Fulbourn Common,[1027] near Cambridge, was of this type. Another, from Aldreth, Cambs. (23½ inches), is in the Museum of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society.