The bronze age and the Celtic world - Universal History Library

WE have
Chapter VIII
THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE LEAF-SHAPED SWORDS.
seen how the leaf-shaped sword was evolved from the ogival dagger
in the plain of Hungary, and passed through a series of forms until it reached
the Hallstatt type, which gave way to the iron sword. We must now consider
the distribution of each type, which presents certain pecuUarities which are very
instructive, and then consider how it was that leaf-shaped swords, of one type
or other, became dispersed throughout the greater part of Europe, and reached, in some
cases, beyond the confines of that continent.
Let us first deal with Type A, the distribution of which was summarised in the
last chapter. A very fine example of this type is in the Museum of Archaeology and
Ethnology at Cambridge ; nothing is known, unfortunately, of its provenance beyond
the fact that it came from Hungary. Another, almost identical, is in the National
Museum at Buda-Pest, and has been figured more than once,' but the published
illustrations are not very accurate, and in Plate VII. I give one taken from a drawing
made from the original for this work. In this case, too, the exact site is unknown.
The third Hungarian specimen, a photograph of which is in existence, was sold in
London on 25th June, 189 1. It was the property of the late Dr. S. Egger, of Vienna,
and the catalogue states that it had been dredged from the Danube near Buda-Pest.*
These are the only examples which I have met with which have been found in Hungary,
and I have been unable so far to trace the present ownership of Dr. Egger's specimen.
Much more recently a very similar specimen, but with some slight differences in the
decoration, was found in the Friuli. It was dug up in 1909 by Antonio Tommassin,
near Castions di Strada, in the district of Palmanova, in the province of Udine, at a place
' Hampel (1886) PI. xx. 4, 6 ; Naue (1903) PI. ix. 3. ? Catalogue (1891) 8, PI. viii. 45.
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