[N Cioran]

Hello all,

Just signed up and coming back from a tour through Revolutionary war re-enacting, and having a look at the early 15th century again. I've run across a few familiar names lurking about the last few weeks, and so here's a hello, and an interesting historical anomaly I ran across recently, the Grotsetter sword from the bronze age found in a bog in 1957.

Here's a link to an article:

http://ads.ahds.ac.uk/catalogue/adsdata/PSAS_...91_193.pdf

Have fun!
Nicholas (Cole) Cioran

[Paul Hansen]

Interesting article and welcome to the forum.

I wonder whether it could not have been a model of a sword to make a clay mould of after all. Bronze shrinks quite a bit, so the mould has to be made larger than the bronze sword. But I don't know how much shrinkage one would allow for, normally.

[N Cioran]

Paul,

That's Neil Burridge's theory, although the differential wear on the wooden sword is of some interest. Apparently the blade is virtually unworn, while the handle and pommel are worn and damaged.

Food for thought.

Cole

[Jeroen Zuiderwijk]

It's definately not a model used for mould making, as it's much too thick and bulky for that (counting in the shrikage of the mould). A model for mould making also wouldn't include a full hilt. The extra thickness and weight were probably to give it more weight, so it handles more like the real thing, as well as making it more durable. It seems very much like this is a practice sword. That they had them does not surprise me. I would expect that the swordsmen during the bronze age were highly trained. Considering how incredibly refined and optimized the weapons were, I'd expect no less of their wielders.

However, while practice sword is a likely purpose, it may have had another purpose as well. Iron age wooden swords have been found un Ireland that clearly weren't practice swords (which include a wooden extension from the face of the blade, probably used to mount it to something else).