[Michael Ekelmann]

Hi everyone,
I'm hoping some one here can help me out. I'm looking for images of knives found in Britain during the time period of 450-600 AD in areas controlled by the Romano-British and the Britons. Possibley even Brittany because of the migration there in the face o the Anglo-Saxon invasion. I've found a bit on Late Roman and the Angles and Saxons, but little on the Britons themselves.

What I'm looking for is a knife a fighting man in Post-Roman Britain would carry. Would it be a saex, the namesake weapon of his enemies? Would it be a pugio or sica from Late Roman eras? Would it be some sort of proto-dirk? Would he carry a knife at all but rather a spear and sword only?

Any pointers to web articles or books or museums with finds related to the subject of knives and other personal equipment in Post Roman Britain would be greatly appreciated.

[Lafayette C Curtis]

Try checking with the people here:

http://www.mun.ca/mst/heroicage/

[Jeroen Zuiderwijk]

They probably only had small simple tanged knives, though don't know any specific examples from the UK. Saxes don't become really common until roughly 600AD, in the form of narrow saxes (the type frequently found with metal bolsters and pommels, but which are fairly rare in the UK), and later types.

[G Ezell]

It's a good question. I can see one of the early narrow sax being used, but as he said not very many of the early types are represented in the UK. A pugio is also possible, but double-edged blades seem to be scarce during this time, too (knife-sized ones, anyway...I do not know if UK was different than the continent in this respect).

What seems most likely to me would be something modeled on the Roman 'hunting knife', a fairly large single-edged blade, but with simple construction. I've only seen a few of these, and I do not know the dates they were in use. I'd think they'd be pretty handy on the edge of the empire, but I do not know if any have been found in the UK.

There may have been local types descended from the knives in use before the Romans, earlier, purely Celtic styles. Again, I do not know how long these styles persisted.