Lately I've been feeling as if what I know about the arms and armor world is woefully insufficient, and part of it is because I cannot name very important finds like several of the members here can. In this sense, "find" can be anything from a specific weapon (like the Conyers falchion) to a site like Wisby or Sutton Hoo.

Any kind of direction would be welcome. College costing what it does, the big expensive books are pretty much out of my reach for the next decade. Particularly, I'm after why these finds are important. Conyers is important because it's a rare intact falchion, Wisby showed us the coat of plates en-mas; Sutton Hoo was the largest Anglo Saxon find in a long time and had a variety of different artifacts.

Any kind of direction would be grand.

M.

You can add the Vendel/Valsgarde graves near Upsala to the list - the findings there are of equal importance to Sutton-Ho ship burial and some of the graves are contemporary to it.

The Germanic bog deposits should always be mentioned when speaking about weapons finds.
So add the following names to your list:

Nydam I-IV: swords, lance-heads, arrows, bows, axes, shields, not to forget the famous boat from Nydam.

Illerup Ådal: Pretty much the same, but far greater in numbers and even better preserved, but alas no boat.

Other important deposits matching this scheme are: Ejsbøl, Kragehul, Vimose and Thorsberg.

I certainly agree that Thorsberg is one very important find.
Just imagine if all those reenactors you know and love where to run around with no pants... :eek:

Joke aside, being lucky enough to live in Europe I always try to visit museums as I travel around. Nothing beats seeing stuff in real life, even behind protective casing. And lots of very interesting pieces have ended up in collections as "loose finds" and therefore not as known as for example the Sutton Hoo or Valsgärde stuff.

For (medieval) arms and armour I find Churches and Cathedrals to be great sources. Effigies, sculptures and paintings can be found in many places.

Those big, expensive, out-of-print books are as close as your college library. Ask them about inter-library loan. They can get pretty much ANYTHING as long as it's in a US library, including the Library of Congress.

Key articles about the Illerup find are online in English translation, including one about the site's amazing arms! Follow the link and download the ones marked with the English flag. Great photos on the site, too.

http://www.illerup.dk/deepweb.php?top=30&language=0