The bronze long dagger and sword with a handguard plate from the River Ljubljanica have elegantly shaped blades that indicate their function as thrusting weapons – rapiers. Their handguard plates bear intricate geometric designs. Swords with handguard plates of this type were wide - spread from the western Pannonian fringes across central Slovenia to north-eastern Italy. In the 16th and 15th centuries BC, they represented the early phase in the development of Bronze Age swords. A century later, they predominantly had a flanged plate that formed the hilt together with grip plates (cf. Fig. 230).