In 1902, workmen digging an ornamental pond on the Highfields Estate in Nottingham made a surprising discovery: an ancient sword, its once-gleaming bronze blade dulled by the passage of thousands of years. Swords pulled from lakes might sound like the stuff of Arthurian legend, but such tales echo much earlier practices. Bronze Age weapons, tools, and other metal artefacts have been recovered from a number of rivers across Europe – do these objects represent accidental losses or deliberate deposits, perhaps votive offerings in these liminal, watery places? A ritual motivation was favoured by Walter Torbrügge in his influential 1972 work on the phenomenon, and by Richard Bradley in his exploration of specifically British finds (see ‘Further information’ below) – and one of the main waterways highlighted by Torbrügge was the Trent, on whose floodplain the Highfields sword was found.
The Trent has produced one of the largest prehistoric metalwork assemblages in Europe, with around 200 bronzes recovered from along its course, mainly during dredging or quarrying works. The Highfields sword (now known to be a Late Bronze Age Ewart Park type, dating to c.975-800 BC) is currently on display in the University of Nottingham Museum, which overlooks the lake whose creation sparked its discovery. It forms part of an exhibition showcasing over a quarter of the Trent’s Bronze Age metal finds, drawing on the collections of the University of Nottingham Museum and external loans. Dr Clare Pickersgill, Keeper of the Museum, said: ‘This has been a wonderful opportunity to bring together 55 objects and display them together for the first time. We are extremely grateful to Nottingham City Museums and Galleries and Derby Museums for allowing us to display their collections and for being so supportive of the exhibition.’
The themes explored in Bronze Age Offerings in the River Trent are inspired by analysis of the Trent assemblage by Mark Pearce (Professor of Mediterranean Prehistory at the University of Nottingham, and the exhibition’s co- curator) and a project formed from a number of undergraduate dissertations that he supervised, including that of Dr Richard Davis, who went on to undertake his PhD on a related theme, and who is the other co-curator.
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