Hey Tooters (is that right?). My first post and I thought I'd show off this lovely iron La Tene sword I was lucky enough to examine
@mattyhari whoa that's awesome, how old is it? Was it used as status symbol or in combat?
@skanman I think it may have been a ritual object, some sort of offering perhaps. Many of these swords were found in the lake beds in Switzerland, and they were not used. About 2400 years old or so.
@mattyhari with the way iron oxidizes and it being in a lake bed, I'm amazed at the condition it's in.. something must be in the lake beds that stabilizes any reactions. Cold I know helps but 2400 years, I'm amazed the detail on the blade is preserved of those figures. I'm jealous of your job.
@skanman From memory, the water conditions were relatively anoxic. This would have helped the preservation condition enormously.
@mattyhari ok so this has been running in the back of my brain for a while. I'm gonna make some assumptions that these swords were placed on bodies as decorations similar to Nordic burial traditions where they put a body on a boat and set it ablaze as a funeral right. Presuming that, the sword wouldn't be alone and wouldn't get covered by sediment for approximately 300 years or so if we guess 2mm per year would layer 600mm of sediment build up. While I'm also assuming it's fresh water with low salt and other caustic elements, I'm willing to bet that other artifacts near that sword weren't found because they're gone. I'm not saying that we should copy these sedimentary compounds so a 2023 Honda Accord will survive 2500 years, I'm saying they were aware of the caustic affects weather had on iron work 500bce, and probably treated the sword before it was finished. If I'm right, metallurgy was slightly further along than we thought it was. I'm no history buff but I'm willing to bet that there's traces of zinc or nickel on that blade. If there is, you can update a couple history books. If I'm wrong, you can get samples of the sediment and send it to Dupont or 3M for synthesis and start making ship containers that decay like 300% slower using environmentally safe materials and poof your a millionaire.. win / win 👍 no more coffee for me today.
@skanman I enjoyed that!! :-) Trying to remember the details (it’s been a while and the La Tène iron is not my main area of research) there were literally hundreds of metal objects in the lakes. Swords, brooches, pins, chariot parts etc. Not all iron but mostly. But there’s no evidence these deposits were part of a specific burial custom, although some human and animal bones, as well as wood, woven material, (goes to show just how anoxic the deposit was!), pottery and glass were also found. I have read that the Celts saw water as the gateway to this world and the next and that these are offerings to their gods, along with human and animal sacrifice. Highly recommend if you’re ever in Neuchâtel in Switzerland you visit the wonderful Laténium Park and Museum. The museum in Biel that houses the Schwab collection (the sword in my photo is from there) is also good. And you can visit the submerged pile dwellings nearby. As to metallurgical analyses, rare to see them done on highly desirable museum objects. Even surface XRF requires abrasive prep. The only metalligraphic analysis I know of is that of Mihok and Kotyogoroshko in 2009, who destructively analysed several La Tène objects from the Malaya Kopan complex in Ukraine. They found a mixed bag of low-carbon heterogeneous steel but also edged weapons that had had their edges, or in one case one side, carburised. All were plain carbon steels. :-)
@skanman edit: metallographic.
