An object pulled up by a plow in a field and used to prop open an office door has now been identified by archaeologists as an extremely rare and valuable Bronze Age ceremonial dagger, known as a dirk, one of only six found in the whole of Europe.
According to a news report in Norfolk Eastern Daily Press, the artifact was first dug up more than a decade ago by a landowner in East Rudham, Norfolk, but not realizing its significance, he used the relic as a door stop. It even came close to being tossed in the garbage.
The dirk weighs 4 pounds (1.9 kilograms) and is made from bronze, consisting of nine-tenths copper (most likely from Wales), and one-tenth tin (believed to be from Cornwall). The dagger had been deliberately bent when it was made, indicating that it was never intended to be used as a weapon but rather had a ceremonial role. Straightened out, it would be about 2 feet (68 centimeters) long.
Only five other Bronze Age dirks have been found in Europe, including the well-known Oxborough Dirk, found in 1988 and now on display in the British Museum.
Like the newly-identified Rudham Dirk, the Oxborough Dirk was an accidental find. “A man walking in woods near Oxborough literally stumbled across this dirk in 1988. It had been thrust vertically into soft, peaty ground nearly 3,500 years ago, but erosion had exposed the hilt-plate, which caught his toe,” writes the British Museum.
The Oxborough Dirk was similarly never intended for use as a weapon. “The edges of the blade are very neatly fashioned, but deliberately blunt and no rivet holes were ever provided at the butt for attaching a handle in the customary manner. The dirk was evidently never intended to be functional in any practical way. Instead, it was probably designed for ceremonial use, or as a means of storing wealth,” the British Museum adds.
The four other dirks were found in continental Europe—two from the Netherlands and two from France. All six Bronze Age dirks are so similar in their style and execution, that it is believed they were all made in the same workshop.
The newly identified Rudham Dirk has now been purchased by Norfolk Museum Services for £41,000 ($64,000), and is on display in Norwich Castle Museum. Sophie Cabot, president of the Norfolk and Norwich Archaeological Society, told the Norfolk Eastern Daily Press: “We’re really excited—it would have been a great shame if we'd have lost it.”
Republished with permission. Read the original at Ancient Origins.
Friends Read Free