[Ryan S.]

What about it looks unusual to you?
It looks a bit like this one to me.

According to this octoganial hilted Nordic swords is an established type.

[A Aron]

Quite a few years ago, the leading Japanese archaeologist was caught planting ancient Chinese pottery in Japanese tombs to "prove" a pet theory. Other than a fraudulent plant, how can anyone explain the almost total lack of blue/green patina on the German bronze sword? The Mycenaean bronze swords found by Heinrich Schliemann in the royal pit graves in the citadel at Mycenae (on display in the Athens, Greece museum) were severely patinated and damaged when excavated. They are several centuries newer than the German sword. There are many bronze Corinthian helmets dug up from Olympia and other sites, all from 600BC to 300BC, centuries newer than the supposedly 1300-1400BC German sword. All such buried bronze armor is heavily crusted with patina. Is this German sword magic? Is it made by space alien technology? Why is there so little patination?

[Anthony Clipsom]

[Pieter B.]

Copper alloy patina formation follows a set pattern.

Initially the alloy is quite bright though much depends on the initial composition and or polishing. Exposure first causes a dark-brown cuprite(Cu2O) patina to form, this is a very thin layer closest to the piece. On top of this layer a second layer will form. This layer of brochantite, antlerite or some other copper compound. It's this layer that gives aged copper its charactaristic blue-green hue. The formation rate and composition of this second layer is subject to atmospheric and/or soil conditions. Atmospheres high in sulfur for example can promote the formation of antlerite while low sulfur atmosphere lead more to brochantite.

The sword they dug up in Bavaria obviously displays this second blue-green layer quite well. However unlike many other examples the layer is either thin or very reflective. Apart from having a flat surface the one thing which could explain the high brightness is the layer being of relatively even thickness. A mirror or a blade is polished to make it reflective by evening out the surface. If the patina on he blade is also of even thickness that could explain why it's still so bright. Other metals that form a (protective) patina would be aluminium or stainless steel and both of these can be bright regardless.

[Dan Kary]

Totally amateur question here, but the patterns on those bronze swords is due to...? Just cuts/file work where the patina is a different (lighter) colour? Surely it can't be inlays...

[Dan D'Silva]

To me it just looks like the grooves have accumulated more green gunk than the raised surfaces. I imagine the size and layout of the grooves would be easiest to make by casting them in. If the hilt's wax cast, then they were probably on the wax positive before the mold was made.

[Glen A Cleeton]

Tight grain wood to carve masters, then making a mould in halves from clay, then bind the mould

[Mart Shearer]

An early handgonne find.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-66042064?fbclid=IwAR007TV8W74LmhpRNhRxjoulSCU17jUMuSIZrM9vqWJJmhtmD07-WXQ6NaE

[Craig Johnson]

Not the kind of thing I find in my backyard sadly :-)

Viking Sword in grave in back yard

[Craig Johnson]

Here is an article about 4 roman era swords found in a cave recently.

Roman Swords

CNN version of story

[Glen A Cleeton]

[Anthony Clipsom]

A scramasax from Sweden dated 700-900. Very nice carved hilt on this one. Report (in Swedish) here :

https://arkeologerna.com/bloggar/gardar-och-gravfalt-utanfor-vasteras/kortsvard-fran-jarnaldern-hittat-i-skalby/

[Chad Arnow]

I love the grip on that one. It reinforces that knotwork carving has had a long life.

[Craig Johnson]

Here are a couple of Spatha recently found on the other side of the empire from the ones found in Israel. So to the Cotswolds!

Roman Swords

[Craig Johnson]

This is cool, it always strikes me how modern sounding the nicknames they applied long ago sound. Its that human thing we do were we apply a nickname to the objects that are used most often or the focus of our attention. Same as it ever was.
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/jan/22/engraving-on-2000-year-old-knife-thought-to-be-oldest-runes-in-denmark 2000 year old runes on knife blade
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[Craig Johnson]

I had seen bits of this before but the conservation and display on the new exhibit really lets you see how well it was put together and looked.

Roman Armor Arm



Best
Craig

[Craig Johnson]

Here are some corroded pieces found recently in Poland. It will be a bit of work to conserve and study these but cool find.

Polish Iron Objects

[Anthony Clipsom]

I noticed this when I was away from the forum for a period. I don't know if it was discussed?

https://www.medievalists.net/2024/01/medieval-gauntlet-discovered-in-switzerland/

This looks to me like a work-a-day example, rather than the top-of-the-range types that are often preserved, so doubly interesting.

[Craig Johnson]

Here is a nice piece they are dating to 1000 yrs old though I would like to see more info before I would agree. It does look like a nice piece and would be an excellent one to stufy.

1000 year old grave find from Spain