Bronze Age Swords

A remarkable find of Bronze Age metalwork, some 3000 years old, was made on Simonside in the nineteenth century. Two roughly contemporary accounts of the discovery are given below.

‘Two leaf-shaped swords and three bronze rings were found in 1868 lying under a rock on the side of the Simonside Hills. ‘One sword is 1ft 9ins long and is broken at the lower extremity. It has four rivet holes in the handle, in which three of the rivets remain. The other sword is 1ft 2.25ins long but the upper part of the blade and the handle plate are missing. The pommels of these swords are made of lead. The three bronze rings found with the swords were probably used for fastening swords to belts’ (Bruce 1880, 53).

Arkle (1876-8, 177) refers to an account that stated that “on digging (presumably very near to the location where the swords were found) an oblong stone was found, placed horizontally, with no other one of a similar size or shape near it, and that under this stone the articles, with the exception of the swords, were deposited.” The articles referred to were three rings, two circular articles, possibly the bosses of the swords (the lead pommels of authority 2), two other pieces of bronze, possibly the handle and blade of a knife and a piece of bone 3.5ins in length. The most perfect of the swords exceeded 20ins in length, including the hilt, and had a maximum width of 1.5ins. The objects were found in August 1868.

Sources

1 Bruce 1880, 53
2 Arkle 1876-8, 176-7