Sword blade (detail)

Add to album

This is a detail of a bronze sword blade with preserved textile adhering to the blade. The blade was found in 1990 in a hoard of late Bronze Age material at St Andrews in Fife. The hoard contained over 200 tools, weapons and ornaments as well as seven amber beads and three cannel coal bangles. It was buried between 950 and 750 BC.

The preservation of textiles, plant fibres, binding and hair remains on some objects within the St Andrews hoard is one of the most exciting features of the discovery. Usually these organic remains have rotted away. In the hoard they were preserved as actual fragments adhering to objects or as traces preserved in the corrosion products of the metalwork.

Record details

To search on related items, click any underlined text below.

• Online ID: 000-180-000-805-C
• Image Rights Holder: National Museums Scotland
• Project: National Museums Scotland Part 2
  Project description   View all records in project
• Ref: National Museums Scotland  
• Date: Between 950 and 750 BC
  
• Material:
• Dimensions:
• What:
• Subject:
• Who:
• Where:
• Event:
• Description:
• References:
  • Cowie, Trevor, O'Connor, Brendan and Proudfoot, Edwina. A Late Bronze Age hoard from St Andrews, Fife, Scotland: a preliminary report. In: Chevillot, C. and Coffin, A (eds). Le Bronze Atlantique, Actes du premier colloque, Beynac 1990, Beynac, 1991, pp 49 
• Translations:
• Related Records: