Late Bronze Age Sword ( 950BC-800BC )

Weight: 1278.2 grams

Length: 91 centimetres

Length: 77 centimetres (Blade)

Width: 4 centimetres (Blade max.)

Thickness: 0.92 centimetres

Research by Boulud-Gazo (2011, 146) revealed that"The sword classed as being of ‘unknown provenance’ at the Musée des Antiquités Nationales (MAN) in Saint-Germain-en-Laye (Acc.no. 24.748; Vuaillat 1969, fig. 2, 7) is in fact a copy of the sword from the Aliès hoard found at Menet...The possible identity of these two examples was first suggested by P. Abauzit whilst publishing the Aliès hoard. However, Abauzit thought that the original sword was housed at the MAN and the copy in the British Museum (Abauzit 1973, 281). The Tachlovice sword from the Aliès hoard, belonging to the Gréau collection, was exhibited at the Universal Exhibition in 1878, having been lent to the museum’s director by a collector in order to make a moulding at the MAN workshop. The exhibition was being used as an excuse to make copies of the more interesting archaeological finds. The museum’s archives mention that the sword was later sold in Paris in 1880 without mentioning the buyer or the sword’s future home. It is only ten years later that the sword finally arrives at the British Museum (1890). However, two other swords from the Aliès hoard, a Mörigen type sword and a Weltenburg type sword are missing and are not mentioned in the Musée des Antiquités Nationales archives in Saint-Germain-en-Laye and are not in the British Museum’s collections either.

Source: www.britishmuseum.org