Blades for the gods, blades for the dead: a Bronze Age rapier from Swaites Hill, South Lanarkshire

Abstract

The excavation in 2015 of a hilltop Bronze Age funerary cairn in South Lanarkshire resulted in the discovery of a Bronze Age rapier, found amongst displaced cairn material ( Gordon and McKinstry 2019 ). This paper discusses the wider context of the find, focussing on the differing strategies employed in rapier deposition, in contrast with those evident amongst finds of later Early Bronze Age daggers. It concludes with the observation that our assumptions regarding the deposition of Early and Middle Bronze Age daggers and rapiers cannot go unquestioned and that the strategies which underpin their deposition may be more complex than can sometimes be assumed.