Sword

A Middle Bronze Age bronze Penard Rosnoën type sword dating 1350 to 1200 BCE. The blade is lead-shaped. The narrow hilt has four rivet holes arranged in pairs, with three rivets remaining.

In the Bronze Age swords were highly valuable and probably important markers of status and identity. They were difficult to cast and required a high level of skill from the craft-person who made them. Several Bronze Age swords have been discovered in the Thames. It is highly likely they were deliberately deposited in the river. This practice may have been linked to the importance of rivers both in a practical sense and a spiritual one. RIvers were special places, water was essential for life but could also be a threat to life. This blade was deliberately damaged before it was deposited into the river, perhaps 'killing' the blade to change it from its use as a weapon to its use as an offering.