Encounters with Iron: An Archaeometallurgical Reassessment of Early Anglo-Saxon Spearheads and Knives

Studies of early medieval weapon burials make surprisingly little mention of the material properties of the deposited weapons. How did these artefacts’ metallurgical properties, and people’s experiences making and shaping the materials from which they were made, relate to the social and ‘magical’ potential these weapons were ascribed? This article reassesses metallurgical data from fifty-two early Anglo-Saxon spearheads discovered in cemetery contexts, and 118 knives from cemeteries and settlements, and reinterprets their technological properties as a glimpse into the social experiences of their makers and users. The choices smiths made when forging these blades are visible in their surviving metallurgy, and reveal their makers’ desired outcomes — and their mixed results. The difficulties smiths negotiated while forging iron shaped the social biographies that blades accumulated after leaving the workshop. By studying the materials from which these artefacts were made, and the practices of the makers who struggled to shape and control them, we may better appreciate the social agency and value ascribed to material objects in the early medieval period.