any good displays/collections of merovingian/visigothic swords/lances/axes
 

im highly interested in the arms and armor of the merovingians/visigoths/vandals/lombards from the 400s - 800 AD but i havent yet been able to find good info/visuals on what type of swords/lances/armor, ect these peoples/dynasties employed. it seems the vast majority of books written about the "barbarian kingdoms" of the early middle ages teat the subject of the weapons/armor of the soldiery of these kingdoms in a very cursory, undetailed manner when they do so at all. has anyone here seen germanic weaponry from the early middle ages up close or perhaps even handled a peice or two?



on a semi-related note, are there also any good collections of weapons/armor used by the teutonic order at any museums in the US?

I presume that there will actually be some fine museum holdings in the U.S.; oddly, though, I am unaware of where, as these are usually displayed with other excavated items of the same culture rather than going into an arms and armour section. It would have been hard to avoid such items when I went into museums while stationed in Germany and I did not avoid them.

I would suggest you start with Ewart Oakeshott's Archaeology of Weapons which should be available at most public libraries or for less than $10 postpaid on the internet. More text than illustrations, but a nice lucidly written overview.

Also, I'll see if I can rustle up a few pictures for you.

Hi Pallas,

Although this is a collectors site, I'd suggest a good entry is to start searching for material from the British Dark Age re-enactors such as Regia Anglorum. They're pretty strict about factual accuracy in their garb and weapons, and they've learned a fair amount about how some of the weapons worked (like the francisca). I think the Germans may have similar groups.

Otherwise, most weapons from the period have deteriorated pretty badly, and that's why it's often handled in a fairly cursory way in the books. As an example, one re-enactor noted that spear-lengths were often deduced by the distance between the heavily rusted head and the heavily rusted butt, the shaft having long disappeared. He noted that was problematic, as whoever was digging the grave was more likely to break the spear to fit it in the grave than they were to dig the grave bigger to accomodate a long spear. As another example, there's a long tradition of "killing" (i.e. destroying) weapons and throwing them in water. Many of these have been retrieved, but it's a matter of unbending and or putting the pieces back together.

That's why the re-enactors are handy, because they can at least try out people's reconstructions of various weapons designs and see how (or if) they work.

Best,

F

For Migration period stuff you should be able to run down the Merovingian arms fairly easily, there has been a lot published on them and the museums of France and Germany should have findable items on line. I suspect you will have better luck finding artifacts by searching for site or tribe names, rather than generic period names, try Vendel or Valsgard f.e., or “illerup” for that bog site in Denmark that goes from Roman to 5th century IIRC. I’m attaching a figure of sword hilts from “Waffen und Gräber. Typologische und chronologische Studien zu Skandinavischen Waffengräbern 520/30 bis 900 n.Chr.” by Jorgenson (as with the later Viking period, there is considerable overlap in the Continental and Scandinavian material, especially in swords), most of the written material on your topic is not in English I’m sure! :)
The Cleveland Museum of Art has some Frankish stuff, here are a couple saxes:
http://www.clemusart.com/explore/magnify.asp?woID=9011

I’ve been studying Migration period spears, they seem mostly leaf shaped & socketed, and there are subtle and not-so-subtle variations in blade and socket proportions over time & amongst the various tribes; some areas got more angular and at least one tribe in the Baltic area picked up the tanged spear idea from somewhere, arrows commonly had tangs in N. Europe, spears had sockets (here is a ritually killed spear from them).