10th Century Slavic Sword from Starigard

[@swordandshield]

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[@luisromanlegionaire]

Gorgeous sword makes sense with the fortifications in areas where there were not many stones laying around but there were lots of trees.

[@antoninaheath3671]

That's an absolutely awesome finding. It works so much on my imagination, how it actually looked like, when it was new. Thanks.

[@bakters]

Speaking about Western Slavs, are you aware that warzęcha has a meaning in Polish? Currently it's primarily used as a name of a spoon bill bird, but originally it meant a wooden spoon or ladle. There is a google translate pronunciation available, but Polish is not as hard to pronounce when you know which sounds correspond to which letters. The "rz" sound (two letters - *one* sound) is pronounced as "j" in French "bonjour", while "ę" is pronounced as a nasal e, like "en" in "tres bien". "Ch" is pronounced just like German ch, or fairly close to that at least. So it would be va(j)(en)cha.

[@Spiritof48]

I think it looks awesome ! A beast of a sword .

[@bretalvarez3097]

That pommel is huge, the guy who owned this sword originally must’ve been a massive individual.

[@swordandshield]

Not necessarily. The design is very ergonomic and works just fine with regular hands: www.patreon.com/posts/28623786

[@swordandshield]

Why Russians?

[@historyismetal2187]

This is such a good channel

[@tristane3444]

Ayy I live there, awesome find!

[@VaGaBeer]

Thanks for your video. Do you have the x-ray results? It's very interesting how the outer part of pommel fix in the main part.

[@swordandshield]

X-rays had been commissioned by Dr Alfred Geibig in the 1990s. We are currently trying to track them down, yet many archives are less well organised than one might wish.

[@VaGaBeer]

@@swordandshield wish you luck in your search. :) Waiting for the results.

[@roderickballance6960]

Has anyone determined whether the pommel cap was filled with wood or pitch ? (I am suspecting pith saturated wood)

[@alexfoster9900]

Hi where do you order your swords please

[@jeffreyquinn3820]

What's the conservation material it's coated with? I've used wax and lacquer, but none of my antiques are as old or corroded.

[@swordandshield]

I cannot tell you. There definitely is some resin that was used to replace corroded parts. Personally, I am not very happy with this kind of conservational creativity.

[@jeffreyquinn3820]

Don't look into how they conserve wooden religious icons, then . . . (I looked up some academic presentations on those to help with a 19th-century painted wood scabbard (& sword) I just acquired.) Some of them end up with more microcrystalline wax and overpainted acrylic gesso than original material. I guess the church wants them to look incorrupt or something. A lot of museums like this technique once all the sciencey stuff is finished and it's time for show and tell, especially if they can't guarantee future handling and storage. I'll probably resort to something similar on a few parts of my scabbards for the sake of durability. They're swords, so at some point some idiot is bound to get all ninja viking on them.

[@richstone2627]

Nice. Thank you

[@CreativeUsernameHere-r1k]

Okay, I love that pommel.

[@petar.dj98]

How come the pommel and guard are not as corroded as the rest?

[@thrownswordpommel7393]

Different material imo.

[@swordandshield]

The blade was covered by a scabbard and corrosion products blended with decayed organic scabbard material so that it could not be conserved in the same fashion as the hilt.

[@jeffreypurcell4681]

Was or is it common for that area to bury swords as graves goods ?

[@swordandshield]

This is the only sword found at Starigard. Furnished graves became popular again when Slavic rule in this region was in steep decline at the end of the 12th century. Times of transition often stir a return to traditional values and local identity. We see this happen today, too, and there are other examples from history. For instance, Thor's hammers (and pendant crosses, too) suddenly occurred in Scandinavia at the very end of the so-called Viking Age (and curiously, in female graves only!), likewise, burial mounds came back in fashion in the 10th century, even though the elite was predominantly Christian at that point.

[@kitjonok]

It is not common to bury people with swords, as far as it is possible to judge by now. Actually there is only a surprisingly small number of graves known from that area and period. So our view about that might change in the future

[@greyareaRK1]

Very interesting. Big prince?

[@rolandsarins7151]

Looks like baltic to me

[@user-di5rm9ee1p]

Abodrajts! 😂

[@arsenijestupar8765]

It is a Serbian surname, Bodrichi-Бодрићи, when pronounced in the plural.