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Sword of Mouruás

San Xoán de Río, Terra de Trives, Ourense

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Sword of Mouruás

Historical milestone · San Xoán de Río, Terra de Trives, Ourense

Image of San Xoán de Río, not of the place itself.

The Mouruás sword is a Bronze Age sword found in November 1967 in the Pena dos Castros quarry, in the valley of the river Navea, in the hamlet of Mouruás, in San Xoán de Río; it is now kept at the Museum of Ourense. It weighs 820 grams, measures 68.5 centimetres and is broken into two fragments; its double-edged blade and its openwork hilt were cast in a single piece using a two-part mould, a major technical innovation for the time. It is dated to between the 10th and 9th centuries BCE, and belongs to the pistilliform type, related to the Hemigkofen swords of the Rhine. Unlike other weapons found in riverbeds, its appearance among rocks is unusual, and some authors interpret it as a ritual object linked to the control of a strategic pass.

1967

Photo: xolopi (CC BY 3.0)

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