On one of the rivets of a sword found in a bog near Cullen,[1116] Tipperary, was a thin piece of gold weighing upwards of 12 dwts. Another sword,[1117] found near the same place in 1751, had a plate of gold on one side which covered the hilt; at the end was a small object like a pommel of a sword, with three links of a chain hanging from it. The whole weighed 3 ozs. 3 dwts. 11 grs. In this bog about twenty bronze swords were found at intervals, besides about forty pieces of hilt-plates in which the rivets stood. In one sword[1118] there was a recess near the blade, ½ × ¼ × 1/6 inch, in which was “a piece of pewter which just fitted it, with four channels cut in it, in each of which was laid a thin bit of fine copper, so that they resembled four figures of 1.”
A fragment of a blade which Wilde[1119] considers to be that of a sword, is decorated with raised lines and circles in relief, which were cast with the blade. A portion of it is shown in Fig. 363. As the whole fragment is only 4¼ inches long, it may have formed part of a socketed knife or some other instrument, and not of a sword. A part of a spear-head, with a series of ring ornaments engraved on the blade, was in the hoard found at Haynes Hill, Kent.[1120]
There is considerable general resemblance between the bronze swords found in the British Islands and those of the continental countries of Europe. The similarities with those from France have already been pointed out. Several with ornamented hilts have been figured by Chantre[1121] and others. One has a hemispherical pommel and a varied design on the hilt.
The bronze swords from the Swiss Lake-dwellings[1122] have frequently bronze hilts, like those of the swords from the South of France. In some instances the hilt-plate has side flanges, with a central slot or line of rivets, and rivets in the wings. In others the broad tang forming the hilt has two or three rivet-holes. In some hilts cast in bronze there is a recess for receiving a piece of horn or wood. The blades have frequently delicate raised ribs, sometimes six on each face, running along them.
The bronze swords of Italy[1123] present several varieties not found in Britain. The sides of the blades are more nearly parallel, and many have a slender tang at the hilt, sometimes with two rivet-holes forming loops at the side of the tang, sometimes with one rivet-hole in its centre. In some the blade narrows somewhat for the tang, in each side of which are two semicircular notches for the rivets. In some Italian and French swords the blade is drawn out to a long tapering point, so that its edges present a somewhat ogival curve.
A fragment of a very remarkable Greek sword from Thera[1124] has a series of small broad-edged axes of gold, in shape like conventional battle-axes, inlaid along the middle of the blade between two slightly projecting ribs.
The double-edged bronze swords found by Dr. Schliemann[1125] at Mycenæ are tanged and often provided with pommels made of alabaster. The hilts and scabbards are in some cases decorated with gold. The blades are usually long and narrow, though some widen considerably at the hilt-end, so as to form a broad shoulder to the tang. Swords appear to have been much rarer on the presumed site of Troy.
There appear to be doubts whether the beautiful bronze sword in the Berlin Museum,[1126] reported to have been found at Pella, in Macedonia, does not belong to the valley of the Rhine.
Bronze swords have but rarely been found in Egypt. In my own collection, however, is one which was found at Great Kantara during the construction of the Suez Canal. The blade, about 17 inches long, is leaf-shaped, and much like that of Fig. 360, but more uniform in width. Instead of having a hilt-plate it is drawn down to a small tang about 3/16 inch square. This again expands into an octagonal bar, about ⅜ inch in diameter, which has been drawn down to a point, and then turned back to form a hook, probably for suspending the sword at the belt. At the base of the blade are two rivet-holes. The hilt must have been formed of two pieces which clasped the tang. The total length of the sword from the point to the top of the hook is 22⅜ inches. I have never seen another similar example, but a bronze sword blade, presumably from Lower Egypt, is in the museum at Berlin. It has an engraved line down each side of the blade, and its sides are more parallel than in mine from Kantara, already mentioned. The hilt is broken off. A German sword from the Magdeburg district, with a tang and two rivet-holes at the base of the blade, closely resembles mine from Egypt, except that it has no hook to the tang.
The bronze swords found in Denmark[1127] and Northern Germany[1128] have often side flanges to the hilt-plate, like Fig. 348, occasionally plated with gold; but the blades are generally more uniform in width, and have the edges straighter than those from the United Kingdom. Some blades have a simple tang. On a very large proportion the hilt formed of bronze (or of some more perishable material alternating with bronze plates) has been preserved. The pommels are usually formed of oval or rhomboidal plates with a central boss, and are generally ornamented below.