See http://www.pasthorizonspr.com/index.php/archives/04/2013/la-tene-warriors-unearthed-in-france (http://www.pasthorizonspr.com/index.php/archives/04/2013/la-tene-warriors-unearthed-in-france), with some nice photos.
The sword seems nicely preserved - and not ritually bent. Were I a Greek author I would call this one a makhaira. ;)
Do I recall correctly that ritually bent swords are not deposited in graves but in sacred pools or groves where they are offerings of a defeated enemy's kit. The dead man's burial goods are for use in the afterlife so a bent sword would be a disadvantage?
Of course you can stick the appropriate count of perhaps and maybe into the above.
Roy
Quote from: aligern on Apr 19, 2013, 08:50 AM
Do I recall correctly that ritually bent swords are not deposited in graves but in sacred pools or groves where they are offerings of a defeated enemy's kit. The dead man's burial goods are for use in the afterlife so a bent sword would be a disadvantage?
Apparently not - but it may be regional? See http://balkancelts.wordpress.com/tag/bent-celtic-sword/ (http://balkancelts.wordpress.com/tag/bent-celtic-sword/) for bent swords in Balkan graves.
Quote from: Duncan Head on Apr 19, 2013, 09:29 AM
Apparently not - but it may be regional? See http://balkancelts.wordpress.com/tag/bent-celtic-sword/ (http://balkancelts.wordpress.com/tag/bent-celtic-sword/) for bent swords in Balkan graves.
Clearly not universal but see this article for the evolution of the practice in what is now Holland
http://www.academia.edu/1229644/The_emergence_of_Early_Iron_Age_chieftains_graves
So, looks like they DO put bent swords in graves!!
I wonder if the idea might have been that a dead man needed a "dead" sword.
There is certainly a theory that the afterlife was a mirror image of this one, in the sense what was whole here was broken there and vice versa. Another idea is that it was less dangerous than giving a ghost a functional weapon (though if you are afraid of armed ghosts, why put weapons in graves?). A third is that you broke a weapon to release its spirit, so that the grave dweller would have a spirit weapon for the spirit world. The first and third would tie in with broken weapons in ritual deposits - you want the gods to have something they can use. Or maybe it is for a reason like breaking the Pope's ring - that the weapon could only belong to one person and, when that person dies, it is symbolically put beyond use.
Alas, fascinating though it is, its all speculation.