An antenna sword

This completely preserved double-edged sword was cast in bronze almost three thousand years ago. The handle and the blade were made separately, which allowed for replacing a damaged element, cracked or chipped during battle. Due to a pair of decorative spiral discs mounted on the top of the profiled hilt, this specimen belongs to the so-called antennae swords. It is one of the most impressive products, characteristic of the Late Bronze Age. At least 34 such swords are known within present-day Poland, out of which as many as 26 come from Pomerania. What is essential, most of them were made in local workshops. It is generally believed that swords, like axes, cudgel, daggers and knives, were not a warrior's essential weapon in the Bronze Age. The primary role was probably played by the more straightforward and cheaper to make a spear. Swords served as stabbing and cutting weapons, longer pieces were probably suitable for mounted combat, and infantrymen used shorter ones. The sword from Wołkowo, dated to the 5th period of the Bronze Age (approx. 900-750 BC), was part of a hoard of three bronze swords. The deposit, discovered in a swamp probably in the first half of the 19th century, found its way to the Society of History and Antiquities of Pomerania (Towarzystwo Historii i Starożytności Pomorza) in Szczecin. In 1944, faced with the threat of the approaching front, the antenna sword was evacuated deep into Germany, and the other two were hidden on the spot. The relic returned to Szczecin only in 2009 under the Polish-German exchange of old archaeological collections.

Dorota Kozłowska