C1000 BC Bronze Age decorated sword blade fragment

ESS-15EBF5
Saint Nazaire sword from France
Late Penard Phase
Circa 1275BC - 1140BC

C1000 BC Bronze Age sword blade fragment

c1000 BC Bronze Age sword blase fragment

Medieval sword blade

18thC bayonet scabbard tip

Medieval knife pommels

Roman knife pommels

Roman knife/dagger quillions

Medieval knife/dagger/ quillions and mace

Kiev style Knobbed Mace - c. 12th - 13th century

This mace is of a form found across Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria and the former Yugoslavia. Known as the Kirpichnikov Type IV, it originated in Kievan metal foundries and was based on a local adaptation of the Khazar mace type shown above - the Kirpichnikov Type I. The four upper and four lower corners of the Type I’s cube have extended outwards forming smaller knobs giving the Type IV twelve knobs (four large and eight small). These maces were first produced, mostly in bronze, in Kiev and other southern Rus cities. Many existing Kievan bronze examples are highly decorated with rings, lines and dots. Bronze maces were first exported and later copied (in both bronze and iron) throughout much of Europe. Examples are known from the Baltics, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, the Western Balkans, Germany, Sweden and England.

These maces are heavy and deadly and would be effective against not only against unarmoured or lightly armoured foes but against any armour of the time (c. 1100-1300). The Turkic peoples of this time usually wore lamellar armour of leather, horn, bronze or iron.

This mace is 5.3 cm in diameter and 2.2 cm high. The hole is 17mm in diameter. It has 12 pyramidal knobs in three rows of four - four four-sided knobs and eight three-sided knobs (half knobs). It is hollow cast and is roughly 3mm thick at the edges. The knobs are solid. It is 0.235 kg ).

Monster sized chuck of worked bronze - Traces of iron in the hole

There is another reference to a knobbed mace found in Hungary below

Small Hungarian Knobbed Mace - c. 12th-13th century

This small mace head comes from Hungary or its environs. I have found no exact parallel to this style although it is obviously a variation of the Kievan style of knobbed mace head seen above. The bronze construction and high quality imply that it could be an import from the Kiev area.

This small mace is 6cm in diameter and 2.9cm high. The hole is 2.6cm in diameter. It has 12 pyramidal knobs in two rows of six. It is hollow cast and is roughly 3mm thick at the edges. The knobs are not hollow. It is only 0.16kg (0.35 lbs). It is made of bronze.

Medieval dagger quillion

A cast copper alloy dagger guard dating from the late Medieval

Quillon guards would have been mounted on a dagger in between the blade and the handle, helping to protect the hand from a blow and also preventing it slipping down the blade

15thC knife handle

18thC sword qullion

17thC knife quillions