Late Bronze Age Swords with Leaded Hilts from Hungary

Abstract

Late Bronze Age swords are associated with several technological innovations, one of the lesser-known examples being the casting of lead on the hilt of bronze swords. There are many practical reasons for that, including changing the sword’s point of balance, repairing casting defects, and improving the fastening of metal hilts and hilt plates. Some theorise that the addition of lead may even have a ritual explanation. In this study, handheld XRF analyses of three Late Bronze Age (Br C–Br D) flange-hilted bronze swords from river and lake environments in Hungary, Komárom-Szőny-Oil Refinery-River Danube (Komárom-Esztergom County), Lake Balaton, and Gyomaendrőd (Békés County), were carried out. The results of the measurements were used to determine whether the thick, pale, grey residue on the handles of the swords could be identified as lead.

Socketed antler toggle harpoon head – a unique hunter­gatherer fishing implement in western Lithuania’s freshwater lake environment

“…Similar socketed antler harpoon heads were found in the Buchau Water Castle in southern Germany (Kimmig 1992) and near River Don, Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine, at the Strelča Skelia site (Telegin 1971;Nenrina 1991). They are also known at the Pietrele site in Romania's Lower Danube region (Benecke et al 2013) and in Hungary, where specimens made of bronze were discovered (Tarbay 2022).…”

“…Socketed toggle harpoons are perceived as hunting weapons used in aquatic environments, as supported by ethnographic parallels indicating their use for hunting large aquatic mammals in northern regions. However, in archaeological studies, their use extends to catching large freshwater fish (catfish, pikes), semiaquatic animals (beavers, otters) and marine mammals (seals) (Benecke et al 2013;Torke 1993;Tarbay 2022). According to the published studies, the hunt was most effective when these implements were used from a slow-moving log boat, with the sharp end of the harpoon kept on or slightly under the water surface (Torke 1993).…”