a

In France the discoveries of this nature have been numerous, especially among the great Gaulish cemeteries of the Marne, and several examples from them are deposited in the Museum at St. Germain.

One of the most interesting of these discoveries, for the associated relics, was made in a tomb at La Gorge-Meillet, Somme-Tourbe (Marne). The tomb contained the remains of two skeletons with swords of this kind. The lower skeleton had been buried in or under a chariot, of which the wheels and some of the fittings remained; with them were also horse-trappings, a singular bronze helmet, similar in form to the remarkable specimen found at Berru (Marne), a bronze œnochoe of Etruscan form, a gold armlet, &c. Most of these objects belonged to the lower interment, and pits had been sunk on each side of the body to receive the wheels, which thus remained in their natural position.

In another tomb of the same kind, at Somme-Bionne (Marne), M. Morel “ discovered similar remains, including a bronze cenochoe of Etruscan form, accompanied by a sword without handle, length 3 feet. The sheath had a plate of bronze in front and of iron behind, united by edgings of iron; the termination and a cross bar near the top of bronze. One of the most interesting facts connected with this tomb was the discovery of a shallow painted Greek patera with a figure in red of an ephebe holding a ball, probably made about B.C. 300.

At Montfercaut, commune of Marson (Marne), M. Morel discovered a skeleton with an iron sword in its sheath on the right side, a spear-head, shieldboss, vase, &c. The sword was 2 ft. 7 in. long. In other tombs of the same cemetery he discovered five other iron swords of various lengths, from 3 feet to 21 inches. The smallest had attached to the upper end of the sheath a shieldshaped plate of bronze with three rude human faces in relief."

The same antiquary communicated in 1866 to the Revue Archéologique an account of a Gaulish cemetery at Somsois (Marne), where in one of the tombs he found an iron sword and sheath, bent nearly double. With it were discovered a fibula, a twisted chain, and a spear-head, all of iron.

a A list of these Gaulish cemeteries is given by M. Bertrand, Archéologie Celtique et Gauloise, p. 373. This solid ornament was penannular, with two expanding terminations, and closely resembled some of the Irish gold ornaments.

© Mazard, in Revue Archéologique, 1877, pp. 154, 217. Fourdrignier, Double Sépulture Gauloise de la Gorge-Meillet. Paris, 1878.

a Mazard, loc. cit. Morel, Album des Cimetières de la Marne, 2o liv. pl. 7-12. Chalons sur Marne,

1876.

е

Album, pl. i. fig. 2.

Ibid. pl. ii. figs. 9-13.

g Rev. Arch. xiv. p. 26.

Abbé Cochet has described a sword and sheath found in a cemetery at Le
Hallais, commune of Bouelles. Its length was 2 ft. 6 in., not including the
The edges of the sheath appear to
He has also published an account

tang of the handle, which was imperfect.
have been of bronze; the end was rounded."
of a similar sword found' folded either once or twice, and discovered in a tomb at
Eslettes. Its whole length was nearly 3 ft."

Other discoveries of a like kind are noticed by Abbé Cochet as having occurred
at Côte des Caillettes, near Saint Wandrille-Rançon, and at Moulineaux.
Another iron sword in its sheath, also bent up, is preserved in the muscum of
Clermont-Ferrand. It was found in a tumulus near Aurillac. Several other
examples are preserved in the same collection, two of them being also folded.

One of the most remarkable discoveries however of such swords took place in the excavations made by the Emperor Napoleon III. at Alise Sainte Reine, the much-disputed site of the Alesia of Cæsar. Several of these swords are represented in the Revue Archéologique for 1864, vol. x. pl. 22-23, and they evidently belong to the second class of swords described above."

e

In Switzerland a considerable number of these swords have been found, principally in the lake-dwellings, and chiefly at La Tene, near Marin, Lake of Neuchâtel, where about fifty have from time to time been brought to light. They have been described in various works on the Swiss Lake Dwellings, and have for the most part passed into the museum at Bienne, with the collection of Colonel Schwab. One well-preserved example has been presented to the British Museum by Professor E. Desor, of Neuchâtel. These swords vary in length from 3 feet 6 in. to 2 feet 9 in. including the tangs which passed through the handles. Of the handles themselves no portions have been preserved, but they are conjectured, on the authority of Colonel Schwab, to have been of wood.

From the conditions under which they were found these swords exhibit all the minute details and ornaments of the metal-work; the upper ends of the scabbards have embossed or engraved designs, and the sheaths are occasionally covered with punched diapers. In one instance the upper part of the sheath has on it

a Cochet, Sépultures Gauloises, &c. 1857, p. 406. Seine Inferieure, p. 327.

b Ib. p. 407. Seine Inferieure, p. 424.

See also Rev. Arch. xii. p. 81. Lindenschmit, Alterthümer, Band iii. Heft ii. Taf. 1, No. 14.

* See Dr. Ferdinand Keller's seven reports on the subject, published in the Transactions of the Antiquarian Society of Zurich; the two editions of the Lake Dwellings of Switzerland, translated from Dr. Keller, and arranged by J. E. Lee, F.S.A. 1866 and 1878; Troyon, Habitations Lacustres, 1860. VOL. XLV. 2 N

three animals, apparently fantastic figures of ibexes in low relief. This specimen is in the collection of Professor Desor." On some of the blades makers' stamps appear, but no letters; about thirteen varieties of these stamps are known, chiefly crescent forms, boars, &c.

A still larger quantity of such swords, but in a bad state of preservation, have been brought to light in the remarkable deposit at Tiefenau, near Berne, described by Baron Gustave de Bonstetten, Hon. F.S.A., in his memoir "Notice des Armes et Chariots de Guerre découverts à Tiefenau près de Berne en 1851." Two of them are in the British Museum. The other objects consisted of portions of chariot wheels, horse trappings, spears, daggers, fragments of helmets, and lumps of chain mail, all much oxidised. The most interesting fact was the discovery of a few coins of Massilia, the Sequani, Leuci, and Parisii, all pointing to a Gaulish period anterior to the Roman Empire.

Among isolated specimens found in Switzerland may be noticed one from Basadingen (Thurgau), preserved in the Zurich Museum, and another found in a tumulus at Romanel, near Lausanne, engraved in Troyon, Habitations Lacustres, pl. xiv. fig. 21.

с

In Germany discoveries of this nature have been more rare. Besides the two noticed above may be cited one found at the foot of the Swabian Alps, and preserved in the museum of the University of Tübingen, length 2 ft. 8 in. Thirteen were discovered by Wilhelmi in a cemetery at Sinsheim, Grand Duchy of Baden, one of which is engraved in his Beschreibung vierzehen alten Deutschen Todtenhügel, taf. iii. 13. I am aware that Dr. Keller does not consider this cemetery to be of the same age as the swords from the Swiss lakes, but in it were found other antiquities similar to those discovered with the swords under consideration in other parts of the world, especially iron fibulæ of a peculiar type.

In 1867 I obtained at Augsburg for the British Museum the upper part of a sword such as we are describing, and which was stated to have been found near that city. It bears a crescent-shaped maker's stamp" inclosing apparently a rude head in front view.

A sword of the same kind with a fragment of its iron sheath and the blade with the same stamp as that just described was found at Spires, and is engraved

a Engraved in Transactions of the Prehistoric Congress at Paris, p. 294.

↳ See also A. Jahn, in Jahrbücher des Vereins von Alterthumsfreunden im Rheinlande, 1854, p. 135.

с

Lindenschmit, Alterthümer unserer heidnischen Vorzeit, Heft i. Taf. 5, No. 4.

a Similar to the one engraved in Keller's Lake Dwellings, translated by Lee, 2nd ed. p. 413.

in Lindenschmit, Alterthümer, Band ii. Heft vii. Taf. 6, No. 3. It is preserved in the museum of Mayence, and its length is 2 ft. 11 in.

Another found in a grave near Heidesheim, length 2 ft. 7 in. is published in the same work and plate, No. 4. It has fragments of an ornamented iron sheath, is broken in two, and was found with a shield-boss, a fibula of the usual form, and other objects."

In the Berlin Museum is preserved a large sword and sheath, which have been folded backwards and forwards several times. It was found at Münsterwalde, near Marienweiler, together with a spear-head of iron, also doubled up. Another, imperfect and much bent and without a sheath, is in the same museum, and was found at Pietrowa, Kr. Schrimmer.

I must not omit to mention an iron sword in the museum at Mayence 2 ft. 8 in. long, found in the neighbourhood of Ingelheim; the upper part of the iron sheath has been preserved, on which are the letters C S or C S I. It is evidently a sword of this class, but the form of the loop betrays Roman influence; the letters are not however stamped like a maker's mark, and the letters may have been added by its Roman owner, though Roman letters were in use among the Celts, as shown by their coins."

Even in Hungary some finds of this kind have occurred; a plain specimen found in that country, but without precise locality, is in the museum at Vienna, and measures 3 feet in length. Another with remains of the iron sheath and ornamental termination belongs to the University of Buda-Pesth; its length is 2 ft. 7 in. A third, found in the county of Somogy, is in the possession of Count Szechenyi; its length is 2 ft. 9 in. A fourth, in the collection of Baron Nyary, has been in ancient times bent nearly double, sheath and all; length 2 ft. 8 in. In the National Museum at Buda-Pesth three are preserved, besides the one with a bronze handle noticed above. One of these was found in the Danube, at Czanad, co. Pesth. The sheath is lost and the end is imperfect. The second, with part of its iron sheath and a cross band of scrolls towards the upper part, was discovered at Bacska, co. Bako; its length is 3 ft. 4 in. The third is a remarkable specimen; on the tang are two circular plates of iron and a curved piece at the top, which form the framework of its handle, and closely resemble an Irish specimen described above. The blade, which is in all 2 ft. 10 in. in

a

Engravings of two other such swords from Germany are given in the same plate, Nos. 5, 6; another, from Heidesheim, without a sheath, in Band iii. Heft ii. Taf. 1, No. 2.

Lindenschmit, Alterthümer unserer heidnischen Vorzeit, Heft i. Taf. 5, Nos. 2, 3.

length, is thickly covered with small dents; the sheath has on the back, near the top, a richly ornamented loop, with a triple spiral pattern, and on the upper part of the front are engraved scrolls of a thoroughly Celtic character. This remarkable specimen was found in a tomb at Ipoly-szob. At the bottom of the pit lay several urns; above them was the sword, with an iron spear, part of a shieldboss, a twisted collar or chain, and three fibule of the type so often found with these swords." There is also in the same museum the end of a sword-sheath of the usual type, but remarkably well preserved, found at Palfa, co. Nograd.

It is not however only to the north of the Alps that the discovery of swords of this description is confined. The attention of archæologists has been long directed to the remarkable excavations which have been made in the ancient necropolis of Marzabotto in the Apennines, and they have been very fully illustrated in two works by Count Giovanni Gozzadini, Hon. F.S.A. published in 1865 and 1870.

b

On visiting these excavations, while attending the Prehistoric Congress at Bologna, M. Gabriel de Mortillet was much surprised to recognise, among the relics which had been excavated, some weapons, all found in the same tomb, identical in form with French arms considered to be unquestionably Gaulish. He published a note on this subject in the Revue Archéologique for 1871, vol. xxii. p. 288, illustrated with an engraving (pl. xxii), giving a sword and spear-head from Marzabotto with the same weapons from the cemeteries of the Marne.

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The identity is most striking, though Italian archæologists are not disposed to accept the possible mixture of a Gaulish element in this cemetery, as it would affect the early date to which they would wish to refer it, and to which no doubt some of the remains may belong. Among these remains are several portions of Greek painted vases with red figures of about the same date as the cup discovered by M. Morel at Somme-Bionne, and which, like it, may be referred to about B.C. 300-280.

This is exactly the period of the great wars between the Romans and the allied Gauls and Etruscans.

d

I may add that M. Alexandre Bertrand has expressed his perfect concurrence with the suggestions made by M. de Mortillet.

See Archæologiai Közlemenyek, Kepatlasz ii. pl. iv. v. 1861.

b Di una antica necropoli a Marzabotto nel Bolognese. Fol. Bologna, 1865. Ulteriori scoperte nell'antica necropoli a Marzabotto nel Bolognese. Fol. Bologna, 1870.

See Compte-rendu du Congrès Préhistorique de Bologne, p. 258.

d Archéologie Celtique et Gauloise, p. 359. Paris, 1876.