Object Details

Sword

width: 69.0 mm, length: 460.0 mm

South Shields, Tyne and Wear, England, UK

Roman sword. The blade is an early example of 'pattern-welding', when small iron bars are twisted together to make a pattern in the metal, although the double herring-bone pattern is now only visible under X-ray. It has also been inlaid with an eagle between military standards and a figure of Mars, the god of war. This would have been a very expensive sword, and seems to have been given as an offering to the gods (early third century, Arbeia Roman Fort).

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TWCMS:T2516  itao0301.mdf (Arbeia Roman Archaeology)

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