Finding a single Roman sword is a great rarity. But finding four at once can already be considered a miracle.
And that’s exactly how Israeli archaeologists felt when they discovered four perfectly preserved Roman swords in leather and wooden scabbards and the tip of a spear called a pilum in a cave high above the Dead Sea. According to the authors of the study published in New Studies in the Archeology of the Judean Desert: Collected Papers, the 1,900-year-old weapons were likely spoils of war taken from Roman soldiers by Jewish rebels.
Also read: Skeletons dating back thousands of years may reveal the authors of the Dead Sea Scrolls
Rebellion against Rome
The find was more than accidental. Originally in an inaccessible cave high on the cliffs, archaeologists were studying fragments of an inscription made in ink on one of the stalactites when they came across first a pilum and then pieces of worked wood from which scabbards had “dislodged”. Another search brought a sensation. In a difficult-to-access rock crevice, archaeologists discovered four exceptionally well-preserved swords along with pieces of leather, wood and metal. Three of them were 60-65 cm long, the fourth was 45 cm long.
The age of the swords helped approximately date the coins of Simon bar Kochba from the period 132-135 AD, when bar Kochba led the second Jewish uprising against Roman rule during the reign of Emperor Hadrian. The rebels were initially successful, taking control of Judea and managing to defeat an entire Roman legion. But after hard fighting, the Romans managed to push the rebels into the desert, disperse them and pacify Judea. The Jewish religion was banned and many Jews were taken into slavery.
You could be interested in: The mystery of the ancient Romans unraveled. It is already known why their buildings last longer than ours
Valuable swords and spears
Obtaining weapons from the Romans was an important goal of the rebels at the time of the rebellion. Roman swords, generally called gladius, were the basic weapon of Roman legionnaires and, together with a shield called scutum, were ideally used in close formation combat. The handle of the sword was finished with a massive ball head and provided with a hemispherical shield. You can see how the gladius was used here:
The pilum-type throwing spear was the real terror of all the enemies of the Roman Empire. It had either a conical or a pyramidal tip or was provided with return hooks, which in both cases (unlike a common spear) made it impossible to simply pull it out of the wound. The nib with the stem and the connecting part (all made of metal) was placed on a wooden stamp, which was provided with a distinctive angular head and ended with a spike.
2023-09-10 10:08:38
#GALLERY #rare #1900yearold #Roman #swords #amazing #archaeological #find
