Hochdorf: Bronze and Gold Dagger

Dagger with iron blade, bronze scabbard and "antenna" hilt, with gold foil covering (two views)
42 cm L.
100 grams of gold

The dagger was found lying on the right side of the "chieftain's" pelvis, overlapping the gold belt cover. The position does not necessarily mean that he was left-handed -- the gold shoe ornaments and the gold bracelet were also reversed from their usual positions. Veit suggests a possible cultic explanation for these reversals. If the other world is seen as a mirror image of this one, then it would be logical to equip the chieftain in a way appropriate for his next home (1988).

The bronze dagger is provided with a solid-cast wheel at the base of the scabbard, and a finely striated antenna-shaped finial on the hilt. The scabbard itself is not elaborately decorated, featuring simple linear patterns incised into the surface. It was apparently felt that this simple weapon was not sufficiently opulent for the "chieftain's" burial, and the entire side of the dagger that was found facing upward was covered with intricately patterned gold foil. The invidual foil pieces were not fastened to the bronze, but rather shaped precisely to the contours of the dagger beneath and folded over onto the back side. The patterns include raised dots, S-shapes, lines and carets -- many of the same elements used on the other stamped gold foil items in the tomb, and similar to the textile patterns.

after Biel 1985, fig 160

Stuttgart: Württembergisches Landesmuseum.