1884.24.124

Collection type

Object

Description

Early Iron Age falcata with curved, grooved blade.

Long description

Early Iron Age sword with curved, grooved blade. The tang is perforated for attachment to a horse-head hilt. A triangular fitting is riveted to the top of the blade. [LM 18/04/2007]

Geographical reference

Spain

Europe > Southern Europe > Spain

Person

Maker Unknown Maker

Field collector Unknown Collector

PRM source Augustus Henry Lane Fox Pitt Rivers founding collection

Date / Period

Archaeological period: Early Iron Age

Date collected

By 1874

Acquisition information

Donated: 1884

Materials and processes

Material Iron Metal, Process Grooved, Process Perforated, Process Riveted

Dimensions

Length: max 563 mm

Object numbers

Accession number: 1884.24.124

Research and responses

See El armamento ibérico: Estudio tipológico, geográfico, funcional, social y simbólico de las armas en la Cultura Ibérica (siglos VI-I a.C.) (Monographies Instrumentum, 3), by Fernando Quesada Sanz, Montagnac: Monique Mergoil (1997). [MdeA 19/2/1999; JC 21 7 2011]

An entry in the manuscript catalogue of Pitt-Rivers's second collection held by Cambridge University Library suggests that the four items from this site in the founding collection [1884.24.124, 1884.120.35, 1884.121.22, 1884.121.23] were obtained from Rollin and Feuardent. The entry for two iron spear-heads Pitt-Rivers acquired from Rollin & Feaurdent on 19 March 1891 is annotated 'Bought of Rollin & Feuardent (Mr Whelan) Bloomsbury Street W ... [1 of] Two iron spear-heads from Spain. They were found with the well known hoard of iron swords of early form and of which you possess an example acquired from us many years since' (see CUL MS Add.9455, Vol. 2, p. 672). [AP 18/1/2010; JC 21 7 2011]

The kopis is a weapon typically associated with Iron Age Greece, whereas the falcata is associated with the Iberian Peninsula (what is now Spain and Portugal). Although there were Greek colonies in Spain and the two weapons are likely strongly related, it is more accurate to refer to this example as a falcata. Greek hoplites (heavily armed foot soldiers) sometimes carried these instead of the xiphos, a double-edged, straight shortsword. This falcata is extremely well made and would have been a high status item. Comments provided by ancient weapons expert Matt Easton during a research visit in March 2025.

Associated publications

For an illustrated, descriptive account, supported by metallurgical analyses, of 1884.24.124 [i.e. this object] and 1884.121.22, see 'Etruscan and Spanish Swords of Iron', Sibrium, Vol. 3 (1956-7), pp. 167-74. [JC 21 7 2011] For an illustrated account of the collection history of the four items from this site in the founding collection [1884.24.124, 1884.120.35, 1884.121.22, 1884.121.23], see 'Armes Ibériques entre Almedinilla et Oxford, en passant par Paris: les dessins de Jean-Charles Geslin en 1870', by Fernando Quesada and Pierre Rouillard, Gladius, Vol. 22 (2000), pp. 119-129. All four pieces are illustrated in black and white in Figure 6 on page 128. (Copy in RDF for 1884.24.124.) [MdeA 20/2/2001; JC 21 7 2011]

Search terms: Weapon, Death, Religion, Sword, Grave Good