Newcastle, River Tyne, bronze rapier

HER Number:
1416

District:
Newcastle

Site Name:
Newcastle, River Tyne, bronze rapier

Place:
Newcastle

Map Sheet:
NZ26SW

Class:
Armour and Weapons

Site Type: Broad:
Weapon

Site Type: Specific:
Rapier

General Period:
Prehistoric

Specific Period:
Bronze Age

Form of Evidence:
Find

Description:
Said to have been recovered from the Tyne at Newcastle before 1887, but there is no evidence for a precise findspot. The object, 495 mm long, is described as follows: "Rapier with notched butt, probably cut down from a butt with two rivet holes. Blade has well-marked central ridge and flat lozenge-shaped section; edges are bevelled". It has been suggested that this was one of the three daggers which had been in R. Blair's possession before they passed into the Greenwell Collection, and so to the British Museum.

Easting:
24

Northing:
63

Grid Reference:
NZ2463

Lats/Lons:

Sources:
<< HER 1416 >> W. Greenwell, 1889, Ancient British Implements of Bronze, etc.Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle, 2, III (for 1887-88), 309 W. Greenwell in W. Page, ed. 1905, Early Man, Victoria County History, Durham, I, 207 P. Brewis, 1907, Exhibited, Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle, 3, II (for 1905-06), opp. 194, no. 8 B.A.V. Trump, 1962, The Origin and Development of British Middle Bronze Age Rapiers,Proceedings Prehistoric Society, New Series, XXVIIII, p. 98 C.B. Burgess, 1968, Bronze Age Dirks and Rapiers... Transactions Architectectural & Archaeological Society of Durham and Northumberland, 2, I, p. 5 fig. 2.5 M.H. Dodds, 1930, Prehistoric Period, Northumberland County History, XIII, pp. 20, 22, no. 17 R. Miket, 1984, The Prehistory of Tyne and Wear, p. 40, and fig. 12, p. 42, no. 16