Does anyone know if there is any evidence of two-handed swords during the La Tene period?

Nothing to suggest that there were as of yet. At one time there was a chance that one of the swords found at Port might be, but upon further research it turns out that it was simply a mistake with some of the numbers listed.

Shane

Hello all, I'm new here and rather a loan, too I guess.
I have a question: How does a 6th century AD Celtic sword look like. Are there any at all?

I'm doing this research for a painting I'm going to do. It would be great if someone could help me out. Thanks a lot!

Hmm...I'm tempted to say that the formerly Celtic regions of Europe would mostly have been heavily influenced by the Germanic peoples, so their swords would be very similar to the Romano-German spatha--say, a less ornate form of the replica reviewed here:

http://www.myArmoury.com/review_alb_mig.html

Of course, that might not apply to Britain or Ireland....

I found an interesting analogy related to Liebau sword. It is Drazice near Tabor, Czech Republic, scabbard, the same construction ( bronze front over back iron) and similar type of decoration (nr 3 on drawing). It is possible both swords were forged in the same place. The most interesting part is a big bronze (?) chape, early A type, missing in Liebau sword . By the way, there is a several places in La Tene culture range called "Liebau" : some in Czech, Germany, one in Poland. I still have no idea which one place is correct, Lubava, Czech Republic may be my favorite but maybe I'm wrong.

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I found in old Jan Filip's book some more pics of Drazice scabbard and grave goods as a context [ Linked Image ]

Is anyone aware of any metallograhic tests ever being conducted on the blade of the Kirkburn Sword? I am curious as to how the blade was constructed.

Thanks,
Allen

Little thread necromancy, but think it belongs here:

Celtic sword found during forest cutting near Beszowa in Poland:

[ Linked Image ]
More photos: http://kielce.gazeta.pl/kielce/51,35255,8665809.html?i=0
Link to original text (in polish)

Can anyone tell me the longest iron age, pre-viking sword found in Ireland to date?

@Lukasz

What a wonderful find. I do not read Polish unfortunately. Celtic swords are a love of mine and I wish this article was able to be translated into English. Thank you for bringing this back from the dead.

Thanks for this post. I have it in my favs so I can keep up with the updates. Looks like a great discovery and seems to have the ogee guard plate style. Pretty cool :cool:

Google translate is good stuff, although I couldn't help but snicker a bit at "rusty parts of vagina". :cool:

here's an interesting sword I've found with a pommel cap type I haven't seen yet

http://www.antiques.co.uk/antique/UNIQUE-C200...ARD---RETA

Resurrected this interesting discussion posting some pictures of details of swords visible on the triumphal Arch of Orange.

You can see different types of swords, among which I believe 3 different gladi in the first photo in the upper right.

The thing that I find most interesting is the presence of numerous swords with a particular handle, reminiscent of the bird's head, do you have any guess what these swords could be? They are all depicted in the midst of shields and other Celtic objects, so I doubt that they are gladi...

Also, if you look closely at the central shield at the top of the first image, you can see what looks like an antenna sword; of course it could also be a stylized anthropomorphic handle, but as soon as they were seen, the antenna swords immediately came to mind.

What do you think about it? It would be interesting to analyze all the swords present on the triumphal arches scattered in the Celtic areas.



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Another detail of the same Arch: here it can be seen that the gauls seem armed with a sort of gladius.

So as others already speculated, is it possible that the roosters at the time of the wars against the Romans had swords similar to theirs? After all the description of the gauls armed with long and esy-bent swords is dated to 3rd C B.C. Is there any evidence showing that gauls also used some sort of gladii? Could it be that they didn't just use the weapons they took from the enemy?

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First of all, never trust Romans! Just kidding, but their victory columns and arches are not safet to use as a source for the weapons of roman opponents. Just look at Trajan's column and Sarmatians on it.
Point 2, maybe these are celtiberian shortswords?

Asby Scar sword: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/H_1994-0204-1