The excavators are pretty definate about the date, 2nd C AD, and confident that this and the bulk, if not all,of the blades were made in the North Western Roman Empire. Preservation in the Danish and Jutland bogs is very good for certain materials, and markedly poor for others, copper alloys in the display cases are bright. Wooden boards from shields and shafts from spears,and also some leatherwork, survive. The museum is a treasurehouse, as are the Nydamshalle in Schleswige and the National Museum in Copenhagen. For me, what makes this relevant to the "Ethnic" section is such an early appearance of a blade type we are familiar with in "Trade" blades, even to it's short tang, and the fact that it is in fact a "trade blade" itself, and probably made not that far away from Solingen.
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