Celtic scissors

[George N. M.]

Here is a link to an article on a pair of Celtic sicssors from Munich (Muchen) plus a sword from circa 300 BC that are still shiney and could be picked up and used.

https://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/67142

"By hammer and hand all ares do atand."

[Shainarue]

Crazy how well some things manage to stay preserved! Very cool find.

[Frosty]

Thanks for the link George. Does the sword look like wrought iron to you? The oxidization scale looks like steel to me but it could easily be dissolved iron mineralized and accreted back or perhaps encapsulating the blade. If It's iron scale it supports being heated and bent rather than bent cols as one comment suggests.

Thanks again, I LOVE this stuff.

Frosty The Lucky.

[Daswulf]

Thanks for the link. wow is all I can say about how well they survived all those years. 

[George N. M.]

Frosty, without actual chemical analysis of the sword, sdissors or any other ferrous object I am applying Occam's Razor.  Actual steel was pretty rare in those days.  So, isteel for an object as large as a sword is improbable (unless, possibly, for a very high ranking individual).  Also, there are Roman accounts of conflicts with the Celts that the Celts would pause in the midst of a battle to straighten out their swords.  That sounds more like iron to me.

That said, I might suspect the scissors of being steel because of the spring and the necessary sharpness of scissor blades.

Remember, the practical reason for early medieval patteren welded blades, besides the look of the thing, was that steel was rare and expensive and was made to go further by welding it together in layers with iron.

Yes, the preservation of the scissors is amazing.  It must have been a very anerobic environment.

GNM

[Frosty]

Your logic is sound George but fighters were straightening their swords into the late 19th century. What I was missing was a fibrous nature to the corrosion. BC is early for steel to be sure but you can only refine wrought so many times before it starts becoming steel and it's been around a LOT longer than that. The Dane were world traders when they weren't Viking (raiding). They traded for steel amongst whatever else would bring a profit and were known for their blades.

A Celtic or Viking blade could well have been steel.

Frosty The Lucky.

Below is from Wiki.

History[edit]

Wootz steel originated in the mid-1st millennium BC in South India, in present-day Tiruchirappalli, Kodumanal, Erode, Tamil Nadu.^[1] There are several ancient Tamil, North Indian, Greek, Chinese and Roman literary references to high carbon Tamil steel.^{[citation needed]} In later times^[when?], wootz steel was also made in Golconda in Telangana, Karnataka and Sri Lanka.^[2][3][4][5] The steel was exported as cakes of steely iron that came to be known as "Wootz".^[6]

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

Thanks George for the article. The custom of killing the sword has always fascinated me. The scissors/shears are amazing and the design is still in use today in some communities.

 

I can't control the wind, all I can do is adjust my sails. ~ Semper Paratus

[Scott NC]

    Killing the sword IS facinating.   So is what is chosen to be sent into the grave with the dead.  I always thought a fibula was just a leg bone.  It is interesting to learn how words originate.  Thank you.