Length: 70.900 cm Weight: 2.368 kg P&EE 1994 10-3 1 Room 51:
Europe 10,000-800 BC Download this video to watch in your
favourite media player, or to view this video online please
install the Flash player Ceremonial bronze dirk Bronze Age,
1450-1300 BC From Oxborough, Norfolk, England Stumbling upon
antiquity 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. The 'weapon'
respects the basic style of early Middle Bronze Age dirks, but
it is ridiculously large and unwieldy, 70.9 cm long and 2.37 kg
in weight. 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. Althou