3: Mannheim and surroundings

In the meantime, sampling continues at several museums closer to Mannheim such as at the Hessisches Landesmuseum in Darmstadt, Badischses Landesmuseum in Karlsruhe and the Historisches Museum der Pfalz in Speyer.

Badisches Landesmuseum, Karlsruhe

Most of the blades sampled here are more similar to daggers than the longer blades of the Sögel and Wohlde type. However, each blade had distinctive features such as trapezoid hilt plates and a hilt cut-out. As such they may have played an influential role in this border region between the Sögel-Wohlde district and the northern Alps.

A blade from a burial mound at Ziegenberg however clearly stood out (currently in the prehistoric exhibition of the Hessisches Landesmuseum, Darmstadt). This blade is one of the most southern Sögel blades that has been found in a burial mound, whereas other blades this far south tend to be deposited in rivers. It will be very interesting to see whether its chemical composition or isotopic signatures match the more northern Sögel blades

Sögel blade from Ziegenberg