The latest visit took us to Lower Saxony again, this time to the so-called Elbe-Weser-Triangle which encompasses the region between Bremen, Hamburg and Cuxhaven. Here, I was able to spend time at the Archaeological Museum Hamburg, the Bachmann Museum in Bremervörde and the Focke Museum in Bremen. Mostly, Type Wohlde and Harburg blades were present here as well as some interesting Sögel blades.
One of the highlights was a hoard from Rickling, which is currently on display at the archaeological museum in Hamburg. This hoard contains a Wohlde blade, two belt plates as well as three unfinished palstave axes as they still have casting seams. Hoards such as these are always archaeologically significant contexts as multiple objects have been buried together. Why these objects were deposited is always a difficult question to answer but what we can tell is that the axes were unused as they still have their casting seams. Normally, these would have been removed and the cutting edge of the axes would have been sharpened. However, since the axes were unused, they were potentially buried shortly after they were cast. Both the blade and the axes have been sampled and it would be interesting to find out if we can tell whether they have been made from the same material or in a single workshop.