East Riding Museums

Iron sword in copper alloy scabbard (find RF16). The hilt guard is of campanulate form and the scabbard mouth is straight. The front plate is decorated with two cast openwork panels and applied strips containing alternate rectangular inlays of red and white(?) enamel. The back of the scabbard has a long decorated rib, with a strap loop about halfway down. This is attached by copper alloy studs. Whale ivory hilt guard and pommel, possibly elephant ivory grip (only fragment remains). See also 2005.99.2 (the detached scabbard chape). Context 1003. Part of the South Cave Weapons Cache of 5 late Iron Age swords/scabbards and 33 iron spearheads, found by metal detectorists in September 2002. The site was subsequently excavated by Humber Field Archaeology and York Archaeological Trust. The cache was buried in a pit, dug into a pre-existing boundary ditch of a late Iron age/early Romano-British settlement. The finds date to about 70AD.