Bronze Age sword discovered by divers at Salcombe A rare Bronze Age sword has been discovered by divers Becky Gill and Catherine Gill from the South West Maritime Archaeological Group (SWMAG) while investigating the Salcombe Cannon and Moor Sand protected…
Bronze Age hoards tend to be found in watery locations – rivers, lochs, bogs – where they are routinely interpreted as ritual votive deposits. Two recently published examples, however, discovered 150 miles apart in Scotland, came from contemporary Bronze Age settlements. Rachel Buckley explains what micro-excavation of their strikingly different contents has revealed about why these collections may have been buried 3,000 years ago.
The burial was found to contain a pair of scissors, a folded sword, the remains of a shield and a spearhead, a razor, and a fibula (clasp).
![Right The sword belonging to General Everard Bouverie, pictured [far right] in 1860. Some 45 years earlier, he had used it during the Battle of Waterloo.](https://i0.wp.com/the-past.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/post-1_image0-6.jpg?fit=768%2C818&ssl=1)
The weapon belonged to General Everard Bouverie, of the Royal Horse Guards.
Most of the later burials were found outside the ring ditch, but inside the prehistoric enclosure the archaeologists found the c.AD 550 grave of a warrior.
Over the decades, archaeologists have interpreted the Suontaka grave as either a double burial of a male and a female, or as evidence of early medieval female leaders or warriors