Sword from Pappilanmäki, Eura
Around 600–700 prehistoric swords have been found in Finland. The earliest swords are from the Bronze Age, but there is a particularly large number of known swords from the end of the Iron Age. Throughout its history, the sword has been the most prized of all weapons. Unlike spears or axes, the sword cannot be used for hunting or as a tool; it was developed for battle and harming another human being. An expensive item, it has been a symbol of the wealth and social status of its owner. The sword is also associated with beliefs about supernatural powers and qualities, even personality.
One of Finland’s most famous Iron Age swords is the ring-sword found in Pappilanmäki, Eura in 1939, dating back to the 7th century. The sword was found in the early spring of 1939, when a place for the boiler room was being excavated for the main building of the farm. The builders reported the discovery, and the sword was deposited in the National Museum’s collection on 29 March 1939 under the number KM11002:5. The large notch that appears in the middle of the scabbard is from a workman’s shovel.
The Eura sword is from a grave that was destroyed during construction work before archaeologists were able to examine it. Most of the items of the grave were probably recovered, but the placement of items in the grave, for example, could not be investigated in more detail. In addition to the sword, the items in the grave included a seax and the bronze rails of its sheath, a fragment of the tip of a spear, a fragment of the blade of a knife, a Permian belt with bronze ornaments, 30 pieces of leather and 13 pieces of birch bark from the belt and its charms, a belt buckle, a horse bit and its mounts, tweezers and an ornamental ring pin.
An attempt has been made to deduce the sex of the buried person on the basis of the items in the grave, as the bones of the deceased have not survived in the acidic soil of Finland. In 1940, Helmer Salmo interpreted the grave as belonging to a cavalryman from the Vendel Period. Weapons have usually been understood as belonging to a man’s grave. According to interpretations, the Permian belts in Finland and Scandinavia have also been found in men’s graves. In their native region, however, these belts are found mainly in women’s graves.
In the Iron Age, cremation was a common way of burying the dead, but in the Eura region, the dead were buried without cremation as early as the 6th century. As a result, objects and parts of clothing in graves have also been preserved for examination. Based on the findings, it can be concluded that the current Eura region was a prosperous area towards the end of the Iron Age, with good connections in many directions. The Pappilanmäki ring-sword is a prestigious object that may have been given as a gift to the owner. We cannot know for certain, because the objects found in the graves and their remains only give us a glimpse into the society and life of the Iron Age.
