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Archaeological Collection

Flange-hilted swords

Flange-hilted swords
Item name:Flange-hilted swords
Dating:15th–12th century BC
Material:Bronze
On display:The Earliest Stories from the Crossroads

Description

Select bronze flange-hilted swords from the River Ljubljanica, Ig, Drnovo, the River Sava at Krško and Mihovo. Flange-hilted swords were the most common among the sword types of the Middle (three swords on the left, 15th–14th centuries BC) and Late Bronze Ages (two swords on the right, 13th–12th centuries BC). The flanged hilt and handguard plate have holes for rivets that fastened the now missing wooden grip plates. The swords came to light in watery contexts (the swords from the Ljubljanica and the Sava, the sword from Drnovo was found in an old riverbed of the Sava, the one from Mihovo next to a stream) or marshy ones (the sword from Dežman first pile-dwelling site near Ig was unearthed in peat half a metre above the Copper Age pile-dwellings).

Details

1. Sword, bronze, l. 28.5 cm, 15th–14th century BC, River Ljubljanica at Kamnik pod Krimom, Inv. No. V 320.
2. Sword, bronze, l. 36.7 cm, 15th–14th century BC, Ig, Inv. No. B 4792.
3. Sword, bronze, l. 48.3 cm, 15th–14th century BC, Drnovo, Inv. No. P 3333.
4. Sword, bronze, l. 59.7 cm, 13th–12th century BC, River Sava at Krško, Inv. No. P 6654.
5. Sword, bronze, l. 59 cm, 13th–12th century BC, Mihovo, Inv. No. P 4370.

Further reading

Turk, Peter and Turk, Matija, 2019: The Earliest Stories from the Crossroads, Ljubljana, Fig. 230, pp. 182–183, 248.

On display in the Permanent Exhibition