Sheath

Leather knife sheath with very little decoration. The blade area on the front is outlined by an impressed line creating a blade-shaped panel that appears also to have been compressed. This means that the leather was pressed down on whilst wet and then allowed to dry creating a compressed, slightly darker area. There is a vertical impressed line along one side of the handle area. On the back there is a centre back seam with flesh/grain stitch holes; the thread impressions are visible in the leather.

This sheath is very like an example excavated from MIlk Street in the City of London (Pritchard, 1991, 211, fig 3.94, no. 269), dating to the 10th century. Similar sheaths with compressed decoration also have been found in 10th to early 11th century deposits in Dublin (Cameron 2007, 82, fig 30, nos DLS61 and DLS 63 )and at York (with wider mouths) dating to the 10th to 11th century (Mould et al 2003, 3378, fig 1700, 15638 and 15639).