- Chapter Four -
use of the materials at their disposal, iron and wood primarily. Such work can be
illustrated in typological study of belt-chains and shield fittings for example (Rapin
1987). Armourers used a hot welding process that ensured that the blade was strong
but retained a degree of elasticity; the forged blades were surmounted with a hilt of
organic material, probably with additional embellishments; in some cases armourers
stamped their weapons with an individual mark. The decoration on sword scabbards
falls beyond the essentially practical scope of this chapter, but the fine detail shows
that the artistic skills that were employed for the weapons of the elite, on helmets for
example, found a more widespread expression on the bronze scabbards of a greater
number of warriors (de Navarro 1972; Megaw and Megaw 1989:126-35). Sword
scabbards from Britain were also on occasion individually decorated in insular styles
(Piggott 1950), and superb examples from Little Wittenham in Oxfordshire, and
Isleham in Cambridgeshire, among others, have added to the artistic range in more
recent years (Stead 1991b: 64-74). In both Britain and on the Continent a distinct
accessory weapon, a short sword with an anthropoid handle, has been found; at
North Grimston, in Yorkshire, a burial found in 1902 was accompanied by a long
slashing sword and a short sword with an anthropoid hilt, perhaps a stabbing
weapon.
Classical authors found the length of the Celtic sword remarkable: 'Instead of the
short sword they carry long swords held by a chain of iron or bronze and hanging
along their right flank,' recorded Diodorus Siculus (History v.30.3). The Celtic
sword can be used only for cutting and not for thrusting: the Celts raise their arms
to slash; this is the stroke peculiar to them, as their swords have no point (Polybius,
Histories II.33). Polybius also implies that after the first slash the edges became
blunted and the blades so bent that, unless the warrior had time to straighten
the blade with his foot, the second blow had no effect. The Celtiberians excel in the
making of swords, for their point is strong and effective and they can cut with both
edges (Polybius, Histories III. 114; Fragment 22.4). Tacitus describes the Caledonian
swords as unwieldy and unsuited to fighting at close quarters (Agricola 36). The
Gauls had very long slashing swords, says Dionysius of Halicarnassus. They raised
their arms aloft and smote, throwing the whole weight of their bodies into the blows
as if they intended to cut the bodies of their opponents into pieces (History of Rome
XIV.IO).
Celtic shields used several different materials in their manufacture: wood for the
shield itself and for the midrib or spine, which formed a boss over the horizontal
hand grip (birch and lime may have been favoured for lightness, oak for strength);
leather as an overall covering; and in some cases iron as a binding round the edge, as
part of the hand-grip and as additional protection to the central spine. The wooden
midrib was an important part of the shield for it bore the brunt of the pressure from
any charge, and the midrib was often strengthened by iron cladding, ultimately in
the form of a horizontal strip boss with a single rivet on either flank. Additional
decoration might include rosettes of bronze or painted motifs. In many burial
deposits, only the metal parts now survive, and the shape and make-up of the shield
has to be inferred from the disposition of the shield's constituent metal parts in the
grave. The proportions of the shield offered protection to between half and two-
thirds of the height of the buried warrior. A small number of metal fittings is known