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Early Iron Age iron sword
Fragments of a sword (now restored) of the upper part of a moulded blade with ricasso, and part of the grip with handle plates of bone remaining. The surface of the iron sword originally had a bronze green coating, probably deriving from the associated copper alloy objects of the hoard.
This sword was made about 2,700 years ago, at the very beginning of the Iron Age. It was found in peat at the bottom of Llyn Fawr, a lake near Hirwaun, south Wales. The maker was still experimenting with the new technology. He laboriously hammered the iron to make the object look as if it had been cast in bronze.
SC5.3
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Site Name: Llyn Fawr, Rhigos
Notes: "found a little later" than and "near and in similar circumstances" to the main collection of the hoard under accession number 12.11, during the drainage of the lake for the construction of the reservoir (quotations taken from letters by George Stow to the Museum in 1936 and 1938, now in the accession file)