Swords of the Early Iron Age

Swords of the Early Iron Age

Swords of the early Iron Age, particularly of the La Téne period, are often time very misunderstood and often thought of as poorly balanced and clumsy. However, this is far from the truth. This is a result of the general mindset of people trying to apply what they know about much later period swords to these early period swords as well. People often think that the organic hilts can’t possibly balance a blade and that there is no way a sword with a point of balance five or six inches down the blade to work. With these swords, mass distribution is of the utmost importance and is the determining factor of how the sword will finally balance. The organic hilts are then just the final part and have a lesser role in the balancing of the sword.

Fans of Migration era and Viking Age swords will of course realize that swords having a point of balance five or six inches down the blade doesn’t make for a clumsy or poorly balanced sword either. In reality, many La Téne period swords would probably have had a good bit in common with Viking Age swords in the way that they handle. There were, however, very different ways of achieving this. Most Viking Age swords we find have a wide thin blade, wide shallow fuller, little in the way of distal taper, and weigh around two to three pounds. Swords of the La Téne period do have a bit wider weight range that would probably start at around a pound and go up to about three. The La Téne also has much more variety in blade shapes and styles then swords of the Viking Age. All of the varieties utilize differences in cross section, thickness, profile taper, and distal taper to affect the overall mass distribution to create a blade that handles very well, does its intended purpose, and doesn’t need metal hilt fittings to balance the sword. Of course all good sword designs begin the balancing process in the blade alone. The swords of the La Téne period just relied on this much more.

Looking more specifically at the swords found on the European continent during the La Téne, we can see the changes these swords went through and the varieties of blade styles that evolved. This gives a better understanding of the different types of blades, how they used different blade properties. From this we can begin to understand how those things would have impacted the handling and performance of these swords.

Starting off at the La Téne I phase, we find an average blade length of about 22-24” with a strong point in the last quarter of the blade. These are very thick blades that feature either a high medial ridgeline or a hollow ground cross section. These cross sections allow for a thick spine that provides stiffness, but a blade that is nowhere near as heavy as other cross sections would be at this thickness. We also start to see trends of a more aggressive taper to the point that starts in the last quarter or third of the blade. Most blades have shoulders and/or guard plates with a shallow ogee curve, although shallow single curved examples are know. These single curved examples may be signs of a design carry over from the previous period.

During the La Téne II phase, average blade length increases to probably about 28” long. The largest single find site of blades of this period is of course from the site of La Téne from which the period gets its name. In the first part of this period we start a transition from blades with the medial ridges and hollow ground cross section to more flat diamond and lenticular cross sections. With this change in cross section we also see a relative thinning of the blade as the thickness is no longer needed for the cross section. The trend of the more aggressive point taper becomes even more common and a recognizable feature on many swords of the period. There are also two dominate types of lenticular blades which emerge; a shorter wide blade and a narrow long blade. With the shorter wide blade type, we see a thinner flat cross section, often times with the more profile taper in the tip area. The longer lenticular blades are thicker and have a narrow, but fat cross section. With these two types we see a contrast in how these blades would best be used. The shorter lenticular blade would excel at cutting and thrusting into soft targets. On the other hand, the long lenticular blade would be better at dealing with shields and armour, probably smashing its way though. Blades of this period continue to have shoulders and/or guard plates with a somewhat deeper ogee design than the previous period, although shallower examples do still remain.

By the La Téne III phase, we have an average length around 32-34” and an explosion of new blade types. In this period the largest single find site for blades is that of the Port find, and all of the examples that follow have been found there. The long style lenticular blade of phase II carries over and is in some cases even longer now. One of the most common of the new types is a double fullered blade. These fullers flank the medial ridge and remove a large amount of material from the main blade bevels. We see a great deal of variety of type shapes for this type of blade from long pointed, medium pointed tips, spatulate, and even ogee shaped tips. Another new type of blade utilizes a very wide slightly hollow ground cross section. This type has some of the widest blades found, with almost no profile taper and virtually no point at all. This would have been a highly specialized type that would have had devastating cutting ability against soft targets. One of the final types we see looks almost out of place and more like something we would expect to see 1500 years later in a cutting and thrusting type of sword. It is a long slightly hollow ground cross sectioned blade with a very large amount of profile taper. Some might hypothesize that it would be a choice for more than just a single-hand sword, however the tangs are very short making for even a very small single hand hilt. The blade shoulders and guard plates of this period are also varied with ogee designs from shallow to very deep and even straight shoulders.

From this little overview we see a wide variety of blades. This is clearly not all blades of the La Téne period and additional exotic examples abound. Each sword balances different properties to make for a blade whose mass distribution creates a sword that behaves in a specific way and yet has organic dominated hilts. This is in no way meant to be a final or absolute statement about these swords. There is still way too much to learn about these swords. We are constantly researching and translating to find out as much as we can about them. So I will continue to add to and build from this initial writing.