ABSTRACT
The principal weapons were swords and daggers, spears and slings. In Britain swords have a long ancestry: fine examples were being manufactured in bronze in many parts of Britain, particularly the south-east, throughout the Late Bronze Age and as we have seen above (pp. 407 -11) the introduction of the Hallstatt C Giindlingen type in the seventh century was widely accepted by British swordsmiths who soon responded by developing variants of their own. How long these Hallstatt long swords continued in use it is impossible to say on the evidence from Britain alone. There is no reason to suppose that they were short-lived, but on the Continent, in late Hallstatt and early La Tene times (c. 600-450 Be), daggers and short swords were more frequently found accompanying warrior burials. Short swords are rare in Britain but daggers seem to have become popular among the aristocracy as the remarkable collection of high quality weapons recovered from various parts of the Thames amply demonstrates (pp. 470-3). It is possible, therefore, that fashions in Britain followed those of the Continent.
