An antenna sword

It is a fascinating specimen of a bronze antenna sword. It is characterised by a narrow blade, a bell-shaped cross-guard at the base of the hilt, which is topped with a pair of spiral disck, the so-called antennae. This specimen is distinguished from other antennae swords by an unusual cylindrical thickening in the middle part of the hilt. The preserved traces indicate that the blade was once intentionally broken into five parts. It might have been related to a kind of ritual. The sword was part of a rather large hoard dating to the 5th period of the Bronze Age (c. 900-750 BC), which contained whole and fragmented objects. Apart from the sword, the finds included a sword scabbard fitting, axes, punches, sickles, spearheads, various bracelets, different armlets, a plated fibula, tweezers, small rings, an ornamental disc, a double button, a horse harness cotter, a casting pivot and a fragment of a bronze vessel. The deposit was discovered in 1833 within an ashlar cemetery of Lusatian culture. The bronze objects were located in a clay vessel resting next to an erratic boulder. The artefacts were secured and later donated to the Society of History and Antiquities of Pomerania (Towarzystwo Historii i Starożytności Pomorza) Szczecin. In 1944, the sword and several other finds from the treasure were evacuated deep into Germany to protect them from war damage. They only returned to the collection of the National Museum in Szczecin in 2009 due to the Polish-German exchange of old archaeological finds. Antennae swords are characteristic of the Late Bronze Age period. About 180 examples of such weapons are known from the area of Europe. Its numerous occurrences cover vast territories from central Italy through southern Germany and Switzerland to northern Germany, Pomerania and southern Scandinavia and Sambia (historical land of Prussia, now in the Kaliningrad Oblast of the Russian Federation).

Dorota Kozłowska