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Rousay, Wasbister, Flanders Moss
Dagger (Bronze)(Period Unassigned)
Site Name Rousay, Wasbister, Flanders Moss
Classification Dagger (Bronze)(Period Unassigned)
Canmore ID 2187
Site Number HY32NE 35
NGR HY 392 290
NGR Description HY c. 392 290
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/2187
- Council Orkney Islands
- Parish Rousay And Egilsay
- Former Region Orkney Islands Area
- Former District Orkney
- Former County Orkney
HY32NE 35 c. 392 290
In November 1907, James W. Cursiter, Kirkwall, acquired a bronze dagger with horn handle, from Frederick Inkster, tenent of Innister Farm. It was found by him during peat-cutting, in the spring of 1905, in Flander's Moss, Wasbister. It consists of a thin, flat, triangular blade, 0.6in. long inserted into a horn haft and held by three bronze rivets. In Hunterian Museum Glasgow (Accession no. B1914.317).
(A S Henshall 1968).
J W Cursiter 1908.
Flander's Moss is centred at HY 392 290, otherwise no further information.
Visited by OS (AA) 16 October 1972.
(Bronze dagger of Masterton type). Flat dagger with horn hilt still attached: X-ray revealed that heel is rounded and has a central rivet-notch; two rivet-holes; three rivets still attach blade to hilt; W-shaped hilt-mark; bevelled edges; hilt is made from a single piece of horn split from base for half its length for insertion of a blade; the upper part of hilt is in form of a tang to which the pommel, which has not survived, must have been attached; tang has two rivet-holes, one of which still retains a wooden peg. Length (blade) c. 15.5cm, length (with hilt) 20.2cm, width 6.1cm.
S Gerloff 1975.
Note (1982)
Flanders Moss, Wasbister HY 392 290 HY32NE 35
Bronze dagger with horn handle found during peat cutting in 1905. Hunterian Museum, University of Glasgoyv, B.1914.317.
RCAHMS 1982
(Cursiter 1908, 74-7; Henshall 1968, 192)
Orkney Smr Note
Dagger found by Mr F Inkster, Innister, Rousay, while peat-
cutting in the spring of 1905, in Flanders Moss. It consists, in
its present condition, of a thin flat blade of bronze, about 6in
long inserted into a horn haft. It is attached to the haft by
three bronze rivets, which are through the butt of the blade where
it is broadest, measuring 2.25in across. The blade tapers to a
sharp point, it is about one sixteenth of an inch thick, and
sharpened on both faces for about an eighth of an inch from the
edge.
The haft is one piece of ox horn, and is shaped in the form
of the letter Y. It measures three and a quarter inches long x
two and three-eighth inches broad and half an inch thick.
[R1]
The surface of the dagger blade has a slightly uneven
hammered appearance, and the bevelled edges are slightly
concave. Three rivets hold the hilt in place.
The hilt is made of one piece of horn. The total length of
the dagger was 20.5cm. [R2]
Information from Orkney SMR [n.d.]
