Bamburgh Sword

The Bamburgh Sword is similar in size to a Roman spatha, and would have originally measured about 76 centimetres (30 in) in length. It is an Anglo-Saxon weapon which has been dated to the seventh century, and was likely to have been buried in either the tenth or eleventh centuries.[1] It has a pattern welded blade which historians have identified by x-rays as being unique to the time period[2] in that it uses six strands of iron to form the sword, when no other blades of that era were made of more than four strands.[1] It would have taken a blacksmith around two months to create the blade; archaeologist Paul Gething said that to "produce a weapon of this calibre required state-of-the-art technology of the time, those who witnessed the creation of this weapon would have thought it the equivalent of magic."[3]

The relative cost of the Bamburgh Sword during the era of its creation has led archaeologists to speculate that the original owner would have been either a king or a close associate,[1] such as one of the king's favoured warriors,[2] and may have possibly been the sword of King Oswald of Northumbria.[1] The weapon would have been passed down a family line until its burial some three to four hundred years later.[1]