A late Iron Age army in Jutland

[Erpingham]

An interesting article on the Iron Age weapon deposits at Ejsbøl in Jutland.  The language is a bit strange (a warband with NCOs?) but interpretations on size, structure and equipment of the defeated forces may be of interest thinking of skirmishes in the period or the types of forces that may have been appropriate to the area at the time.

[Imperial Dave]

great article although for a split second I was worried it wasnt in English 

[Duncan Head]

Interesting, thanks.

The big weakness in studies like this, it seems to me, is the assumption that the weaponry of an entire "army" (or warband, or whatever) is represented. Did no-one get away? Is it not possible that these are simply the weapons of the casualties left by a force that might have been significantly larger?

I also have trouble with the use of "lance" and "spear" to mean different infantry weapons - the distinction between the two words in English is not clear or consistent.

[Erpingham]

great article although for a split second I was worried it wasnt in English 

Well, if you prefer the German version

https://www.academia.edu/11770261/Ejsb%C3%B8l_Mose_Chapter_11_Die_Kriegsbeuteopfer_im_Moor_von_Ejsb%C3%B8l_aus_dem_sp%C3%A4ten_1_Jh_v_Chr_bis_zum_fr%C3%BChen_5_Jh_n_Chr_Jysk_Ark%C3%A6ologisk_Selskabs_Skrifter_611_pages_

German readers like Duncan and Andreas will find more detail in this .  For example, here is a detailed breakdown of the weapons of Ejsbøl 2.

144 Lanzen (sechs Typen), - 96-103 Speere (vier Typen), - ca. 55 Schildbuckel (drei bis vier Typen), - 60-70 Schwerter (vier Typen), - 14 Ortbänder, - sieben bootsförmige Schwertknäufe, - drei zylindrische Schwertgriffe bzw. Griffteile - fünf Schwertscheidenbeschläge, - 626 Pfeile (elf Typen), - 69-70 Messer (vier Typen) elf Kopfzeuge von Pferden (zwei Typen), darunter neun Sätze mit bronzenen Zügeln, - Teile von elf Sätteln, - neun Paare von Sporen, - 14 Offiziersgürtel, darunter 3 rekonstruierte, - 68 gewöhnliche Gürtel- oder Riemenschnallen, darunter vermutlich 14 für Offiziere, - zwei Äxte, - 31-32 Feuersteine, - 17 Feuerstähle, - eine Fibel, - vier seltene Münzen, darunter eine aus Gold, zwei aus Bronze sowie eine Imitation eines Silberde-nars, - 576,32 g Bruchgold- 958 Bootsnägel, teils für ein Schiff und teils für ein kleineres Fahrzeug.

On Duncan's point about lances and spears, the excavators clearly had a definition in mind as they identified six types of lance and four types of spear.  More swords than I'd expect and rather less shields (only 55 bosses).  Plenty of arrows though (626 of eleven types).

[Duncan Head]

Ta. German archaeology tends to use "speer" for barbed spearheads, so I shall assume that's what's going on here. It's not a thrusting/throwing weapon distinction, since the English version speaks of both "lances" and "spears" being thrown.