A striking maritime distribution-pattern

Abstract

The great family of Carp's-Tongue Swords clearly embraces a number of varieties. The anatomization of this considerable mass of material has not yet received the attention it deserves; but the subject is a slippery one, and it is not easy to isolate a starting-point for analysis.One assemblage, however, of mutually related, idiosyncratic, and uncommon forms can readily be identified, and their position examined. The material consists of two interlocking groups together comprising fourteen swords (or hilts) from ten finds; and a third, closely akin to the second group, represented by three daggers, distinguished alike by a highly specialized form and an uncommonly scattered distribution.All but one of the swords come from hoards, but I cannot detect that this material significantly differs from the general run of hoards in which Carp's-Tongue swords are commonly found all over Atlantic Europe. In broad terms they may on current views be assigned to Late Bronze 2 or 3; for the strikingly devolved forms found at Monte Sa Idda need be no more than provincialisms. So far as is known all the daggers are unassociated finds.