Archaeologists have enlisted the help of the army to X-ray a
sword unearthed at the cemetery at Barrow Clump. “The sword was too
large for our in-house X-ray facilities,” Laura Joyner of Wessex
Archaeology told
Culture 24.
The X-ray showed that the corroded sixth-century sword, hidden by its
wood and leather scabbard, had been made by a process called pattern
welding, where several bands of metal are beaten together to create a
single, strengthened blade. “In this case, three twisted rods of wrought
iron with steel surfaces were used, showing as a distinctive pattern on
the X-ray image. The blade itself was also edged in steel. This is
probably because steel can be sharpened to a much finer edge than iron.
It is possible to tell the difference between metals on an X-ray image
as they corrode in different ways,” Joyner explained. Other grave goods
recovered from the cemetery were also X-rayed. They included a spearhead
that had been produced from a single piece of iron, and a shield boss
with decorative studs to attach it to a wooden shield. To read more
about Anglo-Saxons, see "
The Kings of Kent."
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