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Details
LOT 1086
Viking Age Iron Socketted Spearhead
10-11TH CENTURY A.D.
16 in. (313 grams, 40.7 cm).
Type M with rhomboid blade with straight edges, ending in squared angles at the base and narrowing as it merges into the round cross-section socket.
Provenance
Ex private collection of Mr M.B., Mainz, Germany, since the 1980s.
Acquired from the above, 2004.
Literature
Cf. D'Amato, R., 'The Betrayal: military iconography and archaeology in the Byzantine paintings of XI-XV centuries AD representing the arrest of Our Lord' in Acts of the International conference ‘Weapons bring peace? Warfare in Medieval and Early Modern Europe’, Wroclaw, 2-4 December 2010, Wroclaw, 2012, pp.69-95, fig.18; Hjardar, K. and Vike, V., Vikings at war, Oxford-Philadelphia, 2016, pp.175-180.
Footnotes
This type of spears account for half of the found Viking spears, together with types I,K,G,F. Differently from the previous types of Viking spearheads, side wings do not feature commonly in these typologies. A Viking spear of M type, dated at end of 11th century A.D., was found on the Drastar battlefield, showing a cross intermediary between the blade and the shaft.
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