Why are swords found in the river beds?

InvisibleWar asked:

Over the yrs, archeologists have found numerous swords in river beds. Why is this?

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This entry was posted on Thursday, September 25th, 2008 at 7:20 pm and is filed under History. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

6 Responses to “Why are swords found in the river beds?”

Cherokee Says:
September 27th, 2008 at 7:55 pm
BECAUSE when the boats or ships sank during battle, down went the men and their swords.

Furthermore, many lived near water to have drinking water, water for cleaning, cooking, etc.

By residing near water, this also allowed them to clean the blood off the swords (by washing the blood off the sword it kept diseases away). So, swords stayed near water.

I hope this short summary helps.
Erik Van Thienen Says:
September 30th, 2008 at 7:25 am
If you mean in Europe, many of them are sacrifices by the Iron Age Celts to the gods of the underworld/Otherworld/land of the Dead. The same reasons “bog mummies” are found in bogs. Water in streams, lakes, wells, pools and swamps, were seen by the Celts as gates to the underworld. Many Iron Age Celtic sites near water have produced thousands of these valuable “water gifts”. Just look up “votive pool”.

That’s the reason Excalibur, King Arthur’s sword, came from the Lady of the Lake, and had to be returned to her. That’s why King Gunther orders Hagen to throw the Nibelungen Treasure he took from Siegfried in the Rhine (“Rhine Gold”).

“The early people of the European continent venerated water as did the Celts who followed. The mutability of water manifested its supernatural nature. Mediating between sky, earth and underworld, water carried the communications of the Otherworld. Places from which water came forth from the earth and the courses upon which it ran were areas of life, sanctity and divine spirit.”

“Surrounded by water, it is not surprising that inhabitants of Ireland, Britain, Scotland and Wales considered water a boundary between this world and that. To go “beyond the seventh wave” was to disappear entirely. Throughout these lands from the Neolithic period forward, rivers, lakes, springs and wells were the cult foci for receiving blessing from Otherworldly entities. Elementally, the nature spirits that inhabit water are called “undines,” from the Latin “unda” meaning “a wave”.”

“Some water sources, such as the Chalice Well with its iron rich water in Glastonbury, England were visited for their healing properties. Many other rivers, lakes and wells were sites for the ritual deposition of valuable goods into the water to propitiate resident deities.”

“The act of throwing costly and beautiful items into the water was both a sacrifice and an offering – a sacrifice from this world and an offering to the Otherworld. Oftentimes ritual damage was done to the offerings undoubtedly to overtly display the faults of man (humility) and to make the votive material less than desirable to would-be thieves.”

“At Flag Fen in Cambridgeshire, 300 weapons and votive objects dating from 1200 to 200 BC were found in the river. At Llyn Cerrig Bach, on the druidic stronghold island of Anglesey, England, a cache of swords, weapons, bronze cauldrons and vehicles of clear pre-Roman origin were discovered in 1942. At the shrine to the indigenous British water goddess Sulis at Bath, more than 16,000 coins were recovered, many of them clipped to make them worthless in this world.”

“From the River Thames in England came weapons, body armour and the famous Battersea Shield and Waterloo Helmet all deposited during the Celtic era. The Waterloo Helmet is horned and the shield purely decorative, too thin for use and decorated with red glass.”

“From springs, wells, lakes and bogs comes a view of the submerged Celtic past – coins, jewelry, metalwork, cauldrons, votive figurines and human heads. The enigmatic Gundestrap Cauldron was discovered in a peat bog in Jutland, Denmark and the Lindow Man, a ritually sacrificed Celtic prince was recovered from Lindow Bog in England. Celtic and pre-Celtic treasure caches have been recovered from Lake Neuchatel at La Tene, Switzerland, Llyn Fawr in Wales, Walbrook Stream, London and Lough Gur in Ireland.”

“Veneration of Water Reflects Celtic Soul”, C. Austin, The Celtic Connection :
Alan Says:
November 10th, 2008 at 5:38 pm
I think that there is a simpler reason. Most battlefields throughout history were looted, so to speak. Because anything made of metal, whether that’s weapons or armor, was extremely valueable. The only place that people could not easily search in was rivers or other bodies of water.
alansamoron Says:
November 10th, 2008 at 11:37 pm
alan your a moron, your comment dosnt even make sense.. because of battles the easiest place to search was the water ? what the fuck are we aqua man ? we didnt fight every battle in the water you idiot. Erik is exacty spot on
Tony Steven Says:
January 2nd, 2010 at 1:56 pm
The accumulation of swords in rivers does not tell us why it happened. The many archaeological references to the subject rarely attempt to demonstrate a direct link. There is clearly a selective deposition of swords compared to other metalware, in the Thames during the iron age, and they are certainly high status objects, so fullfil Levy’s criteria (1982) for ritual objects. But there is no real information about the content, if any, of the ritual. It is all unproven supposition. See RICHARD HINGLEY The Deposition of Iron Objects in
Britain During the Later Prehistoric
and Roman Periods: Contextual
Analysis and the Significance of Iron. Britannia XXXVII (2006), 213-57
LULZ Says:
March 16th, 2010 at 11:28 pm
alansamoron Says:
November 10th, 2008 at 11:37 pm
alan your a moron, your comment dosnt even make sense.. because of battles the easiest place to search was the water ? what the fuck are we aqua man ? we didnt fight every battle in the water you idiot. Erik is exacty spot on
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Why are swords found in the river beds?

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