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Mystery Solved

The Mystery Object

 

The object above was found during renovation of a house in Ailsworth.  It's a copper -alloy object approx 5 cms high and 3cms wide. It's hollow with an aperture that runs right through it.  The outer surface is decorated with a grooved pattern and has  two small projections.

Did You Get it Right?

This is a late Medieval copper-alloy sword pommel.

 

The perforation through the middle would have been used to secure the pommel onto the shaft of the sword handle . It looks like a variant of the ‘cat’s head’ pommels used on Italian basket-hilted swords known as ‘schiavona’ introduced by Slavonic mercenaries, that date from AD1500-1750.

 

How it got to be buried under the floor of a house in  the village of Ailsworth is another mystery!

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