Spatha

late Roman spatha The spatha was a type of straight and long sword, measuring between , with a handle length of between , in use in the territory of the Roman Empire during the 1st to 6th centuries AD. Later swords, from the 7th to 10th centuries, like the Viking swords, are recognizable derivatives and sometimes subsumed under the term spatha. , Germany. The Roman spatha was used in war and in gladiatorial fights. The spatha of literature appears in the Roman Empire in the 1st century AD as a weapon used by presumably Celtic auxiliaries and gradually became a standard heavy infantry weapon by the 3rd century AD, relegating the gladius to use as a light infantry weapon. The spatha apparently replaced the gladius in the front ranks, giving the infantry more reach when thrusting. While the infantry version had a long point, versions carried by the cavalry had a rounded tip that prevented accidental stabbing of the cavalryman's own foot or horse. Archaeologically many instances of the spatha have been found in Britain and Germany. It was used extensively by Germanic warriors. It is unclear whether it came from the gladius or the longer Celtic swords, or whether it served as a model for the various arming swords and Viking swords of Europe. The spatha remained popular throughout the Migration Period.…

late Roman spatha The spatha was a type of straight and long sword, measuring between , with a handle length of between , in use in the territory of the Roman Empire during the 1st to 6th centuries AD. Later swords, from the 7th to 10th centuries, like the Viking swords, are recognizable derivatives and sometimes subsumed under the term spatha. , Germany. The Roman spatha was used in war and in gladiatorial fights. The spatha of literature appears in the Roman Empire in the 1st century AD as a weapon used by presumably Celtic auxiliaries and gradually became a standard heavy infantry weapon by the 3rd century AD, relegating the gladius to use as a light infantry weapon. The spatha apparently replaced the gladius in the front ranks, giving the infantry more reach when thrusting. While the infantry version had a long point, versions carried by the cavalry had a rounded tip that prevented accidental stabbing of the cavalryman's own foot or horse. Archaeologically many instances of the spatha have been found in Britain and Germany. It was used extensively by Germanic warriors. It is unclear whether it came from the gladius or the longer Celtic swords, or whether it served as a model for the various arming swords and Viking swords of Europe. The spatha remained popular throughout the Migration Period. It evolved into the knightly sword of the High Middle Ages by the 12th century.

Etymology

The word comes from the Latin spatha, which derives from the Greek word (spáthē), meaning "any broad blade, of wood or metal" but also "broad blade of a sword". The Greek word was used in the middle archaic period for various types of Iron Age swords. The word does not appear in Homeric Greek, but it is mentioned in the works of Alcaeus of Mytilene (sixth century BC) and Theophrastus (fourth century BC). It is likely that spatha is the romanization of the Doric Greek word σπάθα (spáthā). The word survives in Modern Greek as and . The Latin word became the French épée, Catalan and Occitan espasa, Portuguese and Spanish espada, Italian spada, Romanian spadă and Albanian shpata, all meaning "sword". The English word spatula comes from Latin spat(h)ula, the diminutive of spatha. English spade, from Old English spadu or spædu, is the Germanic cognate, derived from a Common Germanic *spadō, ultimately from a Proto-Indo-European stem *sph 2 -dh-.

History

Roman Iron Age

spatha, on exhibit in the Museo civico archeologico in Bergamo The term "Roman Iron Age" refers approximately to the time of the Roman Empire in northern Europe, which was outside the jurisdiction of the empire, but, judging from the imported Roman artifacts, was influenced by Roman civilization. One source of artifacts from this period are the bogs of Schleswig, Holstein and Denmark. Objects were deliberately broken and thrown into the bogs in the belief that they could go with a deceased chief on his voyage to a better place. A cache of 90 swords was found at Nydam Mose in Denmark in 1858. They were in the form of the spatha and therefore have been classified as "Roman swords". They are dated to the 3rd to 4th centuries. Many connect the Nydam cache with the sword of Beowulf, who was supposed to be a contemporary.

Migration period

of Roman cavalrymen buried in Germany: Roman auxiliary, tombstone in Mainz; signifer of a turma, tombstone in Worms c spatha, 5th century When Germanic tribes began to invade the Roman Empire during the 3rd and 4th centuries they would come into contact with the spatha. Surviving examples of these Germanic Iron Age swords have blades measuring between in length and in width. These single-handed weapons of war sport a tang long and have very little taper in their blades. They usually end in a rounded tip.

Viking Age

Perhaps the most recognisable descendants of the spathae were the Viking Age blades. These swords took on a much more acute distal taper and point. They had deep fullers running their length, yet still had single-handed hilts which sported a uniquely shaped pommel, flat at the grip side and roughly triangular early on, with the flat curving to fit the hand later. While the pattern of hilt and blade design of this type might readily be called a "Viking sword", to do so would be to neglect the widespread popularity it enjoyed. All over continental Europe between the 8th and 10th centuries, this design and its variations could be found. Many of the best blades were of Frankish origin, given hilts in local centres. These blades had significantly better balance. During Norman times, the blade's length increased by around , and the hilt changed significantly. Instead of the Brazil-nut pommel, a thick disc-shaped pommel was attached "on-edge" to the bottom of the iron hilt. In addition the upper guard grew substantially from the near-absent design predating it. Also, the blades tended to taper slightly less than those found in the time of the Vikings. Jan Petersen, in De Norske Vikingsverd (The Norwegian Viking Swords, 1919), introduced the most widely used classification of swords of the Viking Age, describing 26 types labelled A–Z. In 1927, R. E. M. Wheeler condensed Petersen's typology into a simplified typology of nine groups, numbered I–IX.

Norman swords

The transition from the Viking Age spatha-inspired sword to the High Medieval knightly sword took place between the 10th and 11th centuries. The main development was the growth of the front handguard into a full cross-guard, and the reduction of the typical Viking Age lobated pommel into simpler brazil nut or disc shapes. The sword of Otto III, (total length 95.5 cm), preserved as a relic in Essen, is an example of the emerging arming sword, although it has been encrusted with decorations during the ensuing centuries.

See also

Pugio Viking Age arms and armour

References

Sources

Ewart Oakeshott, The Archaeology of Weapons, Barnes & Noble, 1994, . The book was copyrighted in 1960.

External links

Some Typological Features of Byzantine Spatha by Marko Aleksić (2010) THE NORWEGIAN VIKING SWORDS by JAN PETERSEN (1919) translated by Kristin Noer (1998) A RECORD OF EUROPEAN ARMOUR AND ARMS THROUGH SEVEN CENTURIES by Sir Guy Francis Laking (1919) Anatomy of the Sword (myArmoury.com article) A Sword from the Late Viking Age from the Higgins Museum (myArmoury.com article) VikingSword.com Sword Forum International

Text derived from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1375590314 under CC BY-SA 4.0; modifications have been made.