The Spears
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The find of spearheads shows a great variety. Of the 169 spearheads the 138 are made of iron and the remaining 31 is made of bones and antlers. The spears are a mixture of Celtic and Germanic forms.
The iron spearheads varies both in size and shape. The smallest are only about 5 cm (2 inches) long, but they have been reduced by repeated sharpening. The largest one is a magnificent piece of metal craftsmanship. It is 43.5 cm (17 inches) long with a rather slim shape. Along the middle of the blade is a ridge.
In general there are two different shapes of the spearheads – long slim blades or broad blades. Most of the blades are fitted with a marked ridge along the middle, but some of the blades are completely smooth.
Picture, courtesy of (1), fig. 17, p. 25.
click the picture to get a larger one (35 kb)In many of the spearheads there are still remains of the shaft held by rivets. The remains show signs of intentionally being snapped before they were sacrificed. Some of the spearheads also show signs of violence – they have been more or less bend on purpose.
Five spearheads were made of antler. They were made by cutting off the top of the antler and scrape it smooth. The length varies from 6.5 to 12.5 cm (2.5 to 5 inches)
26 spearheads were made of bones. They were made of hollow bones, mostly shinbone of sheep or goats with the upper and lower ends and the crest removed. The point was created by obliquely cutting the bone so the point was laying in one of the sides. The length varies from 9.5 to 13 cm (4 to 5 inches). One half of the bone spearheads have been mounted by use of rivets like the iron spearheads; the rest have been glued to the shaft.
The shafts of the spears were made of ash-wood. The longest piece refitted of 15 fragments measures 1.97 m (6.5 feet). One end of the shaft has been broken off by the sacrifice so the full length is over 2 m.
Besides the shafts some barked branches with long four-sided points were found. These branches are probably primitive spears used if the real spears were lost or broken.
