Saxon Sacrificed Iron Spatha with Bronze Chape

5TH-6TH CENTURY A.D.

30 3/4 in. (630 grams total, 78 cm long).

Double-edged long sword (spatha) of type Osterburken-Kemathen; the blade with squared shoulders, broken into two parts for sacrificial reasons, tapering towards the point; sturdy tang partially preserved; wooden traces of the scabbard and hilt still visible; accompanied by a bronze outer rim of a scabbard; restored. [3]

Provenance

From the private collection of a London gentleman, from his grandfather's collection formed before the early 1970s.

Literature

Cf. Herzog, R. & Koller, A., Die Alamannen, Stuttgart, 1997, items 162,166 (spathae von GroB-Karben und Wiesbaden), for type; for the chape see Strassmeir, A., Das Fränkische Heer der Merowingerzeit, Teil 2 : Schild und Schwert, Berlin, 2019, p.46 lett.A.

Footnotes

The deliberate fragmentation of a sword, often into three pieces, was a symbolic act of ‘killing’ the weapon, which was then placed as a grave good or offered in a ceremonial context. This was a Germanic custom already visible in the Vandal Przeworsk culture around the 3rd or 4th century A.D., which continued in Northern European areas until the 5th and the 6th centuries A.D.

CONDITION

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LOT 0268