Bronze age swords

Now, I have an Urnfield riveted-handled sword in one hand, and in the other I have a Wilburton sword, which is a little bit shorter, but hardly significantly, but quite a bit lighter. This one came out as a panel quarter, it was. And I have to say, this feels amazing in my hand. This really wants to do this movement very, very quickly, and it's got a smooth blade. And these swords have all been made by casting in a mould, but then the edges have been hammered. That has two effects. One, it gets them ready for sharpening, but also it makes them harder, but unfortunately also a little bit brittler. So even though bronze age swords were cast, the characteristic of the metal is not uniform all the way through. Much like later swords you have the harder, brittler edge, which keeps its sharpness, and the softer core. So these are not metallurgically primitive. Notice that this weapon is tanged. Yes, they finally got round to putting tangs on these swords, and it has a ricasso, and with my finger up on the guard there, for one thing, that I've got more room for my hand, because I need to put three fingers on the rest of the hilt, because they're quite small hilts. But another thing, I've just got that little bit more control over the blade. And naturally, rather than sitting at that angle in my hand, it sits pointing forwards at my foe. This is a style developed in Britain, so far as we know, and this was more common on the continent. And it seems that the later ones may have started their development in Ireland, and then moved from west to east throughout Europe, and north to south. Now, if you talk to Greek archaeologists and classicists, they will tell you that pretty much everything came from Greece, and then went outward from there to the rest of the world, and the rest of the world was presumably tremendously grateful. Actually, archaeological evidence points the other way, and that a lot of advanced swords are turning up in the north and west, and gradually make their way to Greece. So that's one in the eye for the classicists. This later sword, it's quite a bit longer, and we're back up to two pounds again. So still not a very heavy sword, and yeah, it feels good. Now I have, this is a replica of course, all these are replicas, I have handled real Bronze Age swords, which are still sharp, thousands of years after they were made. And I'm disappointed to report that when you pick one up, there isn't a sort of moment, you don't feel the sort of, it is old and magic, it feels like a lump of metal, I'm afraid. And these replicas have been made with an eye to getting the alloys just right, so they should behave pretty much like their ancient, well Bronze Age predecessors. So this one is the Ewart Park sword, and I'll be showing you, well I'm going to show you now. This one is the, I'm going to get this wrong, Gunderlingen sword, was that right Nick? Gunderlingen, yes. I'm just not familiar with saying that word, I've probably seen it written down, but I don't think it's ever actually passed my lips. This one as you see hasn't got its handle on it yet, and it's flipping uncomfortable to hold. As the name suggests, it was named after a site in Germany, but these possibly also originated in the British Isles and moved from west to east. Again, a little bit longer, smooth blade, and the balance of it at the moment is definitely a little bit more towards the tip, so I'm getting more of a cutty feel from this, but still, you wouldn't want to be on the wrong end of the pointy bit. Later again, we have this fellow, and you'll notice that the leaf blade shape has started to disappear now, and we have pretty much parallel edges, and this may remind you, also because of this shape of the pommel, of a Roman Spartha, and we have every reason to believe that this is the ancestor of that sword. The Romans didn't invent the Spartha, they nicked it off various other people, like the Celts and Iberians. So there you go, Bronze Age swords, they're brilliant! Now that's lovely, that's gorgeous!