Posts: 204 Location: near Munich, Germany
Tue 07 Jun, 2011 12:39 am
@Christian: You probably know about the statistic Jørgen Ilkjaer did with
shields/shield-bosses, to show that there most likely was a chain of command in those troops?
My statistic from the decorations on the lance-heads corresponds nicely with that.
The majority of those lance show no, or very little, decoration. Despite that they were still wonderfully crafted. My guess is that this was done to safe some steel. A diamond shape is easier to forge, but needs much material. A thin lance like these needs very little, but needs that strong central ridge for support.
Some tests on those lances also show that they were build in forge welded construction. A rod of softer iron welded to a rod of steel. This package was then given the lance shape.
Some of the examined lances show, that those two materials didn't come out equally on both sides of the lance. Maybe the blacksmith couldn't tell anymore after the weld how they lay in the package. Sometimes even to a degree were one side of the blade was just steel and the other just iron. Maybe further proof for more than one person doing the work?
@Peter:
Lance-heads are meant to be wielded, spear-heads are thrown. This of course only a rough guideline, you can of course also throw a lance, but not as far due to the bigger/heavier head.
The lances/spears from the bog finds are defined by more technical means. Heads with a leaf shape blade, like the Vennolum above are referred to as lance heads. Heads with barbs are referred to as spears. There are of course smaller leaf blade heads, which were most likely meant to be thrown, but archaeologists like to sort their finds by strict rules ...
The Vennolum type is definitely a lance, by both definitions. ;)