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Description: | Cast copper alloy mount, possibly a ninth century sword pommel cap. The mount is pyramidical in shape, being lozenge shaped in plan and triangular in section. It is made with thin walls and is hollow. It is plain except for a pair of parallel incised lines that run vertically to the centre of either side of the object to the blunt point. Otherwise it has a brown patina with small patches of green corrosion product to the edge and points of abrasion. The rear of the pommel shows a whitish material encrusted in at the pointed end, currently unidentified without further testing. The pommel cap is damaged with a significant ?rip? or jagged split to one end. It is 44.18mm long, 20.38mm wide, 13mm high and weighs 13.16g. Break edges are not fresh, suggesting the damage occurred in antiquity.
Ninth century swords of Petersen type H are known to have small pyramidical pommels as part of their upper hilt configurations. These are formed from iron and are riveted to the upper guard of the hilt. Both hilts and pommels were sometimes covered with thin silver or bronze. The metal is connected to the iron [base] by forming close-set horizontal furrows and thereafter hammering the other [covering] metal into these. However, the object recorded here does not bear any marks of this method of attachment and the solder-like material also makes this method seem unlikely.
Peirce in Swords of the Viking Age (2002, The Boyden Press, Woodbridge) illustrates a selection of type H swords where the resemblance between the upper pommel and object recorded here is striking (See page 48, 51 & 58). Peirce also illustrates another ninth century sword of Petersen type C with a boat shape pommel that shows similar use of parallel incised lines for decoration (page 37).
The object was shown to Dr Kevin Leahy, finds advisor to the PAS and to Dr Andy Halpin of the National Museum of Dublin. Both agree that the object is very small in comparison to known pommels and that being a bronze ?cap? is not without its doubts. However, it has been tentatively suggested that if it is a pommel cap, it may have come from a local copy of a Viking sword. It also cannot be ruled out that it is perhaps a mount with a more domestic use than that of being attached to a sword. | Format: | text/html | License: | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ | Publisher: | The Portable Antiquities Scheme | Rights holder: | The Portable Antiquities Scheme | Subjects: | archaeology | Temporal: | 800
900 | Source: | Portable Antiquities | Creator: | Caroline McDonald | Identifier: | http://www.finds.org.uk/database/artefac... | Language: | en-GB | Format: | text/html | Go to resource |
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