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STUDIO PHOTOGRAPHS

SPEAR-HEADS (TYA 283: 24)

Type: Two spear-heads, iron

Use: Weapon.

Site: Raisio, Ihala, Siiri cremation cemetery I.

Period: Viking Age / Crusade Age / Early Middle Ages.

Dating: 800-1025 A.D.

Size:

• TYA 544: 204, length 22 cm, width 2.5 cm at the widest.
• TYA 494: 325, length 18 cm, width 1.9 cm, thickness 0.5-2.0 cm.

Photographer: Arto Korhonen.

The old Finnish name for a spear is ota. In common usage, ota also means 'prick, pike'. The modern keihäs 'spear, javelin' is a Proto-Germanic loan word which was adopted into the Finnish language.

In the Iron Age, the spear was a common weapon in war and in hunting. The spear-head had a socket into which the wooden shaft was thrusted and attached with a nail. In the other head of this picture , the socket is preserved well and the is still in its place. The point of the spear-head is broken.

Both these spear-heads belong to the so called type E which was a common type in the beginning of the Viking Age in the Northern Europe. In Finland it was in use at least during the 9th and 10th centuries. Probably the E-type heads were also manufactured there.

Sources:

• Kivikoski 1965
• Lehtosalo-Hilander 1982: 29-30.
• Lehtosalo-Hilander 1985.
• Solberg 1984.
• Taavitsainen 1990: 187-188.

Archive number of itmes:

• TYA 544: 204
• TYA 494: 352.

Other related topics:

• Hunting
• Iron
• Weapons.

Coordinates:

• TYA 544: 204: x=110, y=190, z=17,90, r=38/48, 2nd layer
• TYA 494: 325: x=150, y=100, z=18,03, r=40/44, 3rd layer.

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