East Riding Museums

Find RF17, an iron sword within a copper alloy scabbard. Campanulate hilt guard and straight scabbard mouth. The front of the scabbard is decorated with curvilinear repousse work, as well as settings for glass mounts (four red and two dark blue remain, seven others are missing). There is a cast chape of "lipped" form. The tip has been bent by plough damage. The back plate has a long applied ridge, with a belt loop in the centre - decorated with ring and dot motifs, echoing the glass mounts. The loop is attached by copper alloy studs. 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.