The Armour Archive

Hello,

I'm looking for more information about the knife scabbard associated with the iron age female grave find near Eura (sp?), Finland.

Some web-searching tracked down pictures of modern reconstructions and I've been told that when found it was described by the archeologists as, "... a leather scabbard covered by a thin bronze layer that flaked off as it was being removed from the ground...."

I'm aware that that the find occured before modern photography and conservation methods were available, but I'm hoping for some more information about it. Especially:

(1)How thin was the bronze layer covering it? Is this bronze leaf or something thicker?
(2)How was the edging attached to it? Is this thicker bronze that's been crimped into a tube over the edges? Or a leather edge that was stitched on and covered with bronze leaf?
(3)What evidence is there of stitching or glue around the edges?
(4)What evidence is there that the scabbard had been wet-formed around the blade? Should it hold it's 3-d shape when the knife is removed?

Any websites or books, (I have access to a university library), you can suggest would be helpful.

Thanks,
John

I don't know f you have tried searching in Finnish, try this:
Eura Suomi rauta-aika

Chris,

Thanks for the suggestion, I don't know Finnish so hadn't thought of that.

The types of images I've been able to track down so far include:
[list=]http://www.kaspaikka.fi/savonlinna/muinaispuku/sivut/eura.htmn (Taken at the Finnish National Museum and has good close-ups of the sheath) and
.)http://cc.oulu.fi/~jek/turkupuku.jpg (Taken at the Turku Puku castle museum.[/list]
These reconstructions look like really thick bronze that wouldn't flake off the leather core as the artifacts were being found.

Maybe some other Finnish search terms would help track down more info. Google tells me "sheath" is "tuppi" and "grave find" is "hauta löytyy." Is this correct or is there a better translation?

Thanks,
John

Typed a response and it's not displaying. Don't know what's going on...

And then you typed a response and we don't know what you were going to say the first time.

Hello.
I didn´t find the information You were searching online easily.
You are looking for female grave 56 in Luistari burial ground in Eura.
Digs were led from 1969 onwardsby Pirkko-Liisa Lehtosalo-Hilander - who on 1970s reseached the finds and reconstruction of the female dress in grave 56.

Publications of her works are still available from >Finnish antiquarian society - and might be availabe thoygh Your library or ILL.

http://www.muinaismuistoyhdistys.fi/jul ... kirja.html

Aikakauskirja 82:1 82:1 Lehtosalo-Hilander, P.-L., Luistari. (Viikinkiajan yhteiskuntaa Suomessa kuvastava kalmisto.- A burial-ground reflecting the Finnish viking age society.) I. The graves. (Hautojen kuvaukset s. 49-291 suomeksi; Descriptions of graves p. 49-291 in Finnish. 1982. 10

Aikakauskirja 82:2 82:2 Lehtosalo-Hilander, P.-L., Luistari. (Viikinkiajan yhteiskuntaa Suomessa kuvastava kalmisto.- A burial-ground reflecting the Finnish viking age society.). II. The artefacts. 1982. 30

Aikakauskirja 82:3 82:3 Lehtosalo-Hilander, P.-L., Luistari. (Viikinkiajan yhteiskuntaa Suomessa kuvastava kalmisto.- A burial-ground reflecting the Finnish viking age society.). III. The Viking Age Society. 1982.

Chris,

Thanks, I don't know Finnish so hadn't tried that yet; I'll give it a shot.

Alcyoneus,

Yeah, I got frustrated and had to walk away from it for a little while.

Mikael,

Thanks. That's exactly the kind of pointers I was looking for. I'll see whether I can track those down when I'm on campus tomorrow.

-John

The best info I've found online so far is here http://www.kaspaikka.fi/savonlinna/muinaispuku/sivut/eura.htm. There's some construction details the pictures don't make clear though and it looks like this reconstruction is from thicker bronze than the way the sheath was descibed to me.

John S. wrote:Chris,

Thanks, I don't know Finnish so hadn't tried that yet; I'll give it a shot.


-John

http://translate.google.com/#fi|en| not a perfect translator, but better than nothing.