So far, the majority of blades that have been presented have those of the Wohlde type. The Sögel blades have so far been more elusive but the latest visits to Verden, Bad-Bederkesa and Oldenburg have restored the balance as the most Northwestern area of Lower Saxony appeared to have several burials that contained Sögel blades. As a result, our dataset of Sögel blades got significantly expanded and is almost comparable to the number of Wohlde blades. Therefore, we can now make a good comparison between the two types to see whether they were made from the same raw materials.
We couldn’t have made this possible without the the collaboration of one of our cooperation partners – The Landesmuseum Natur und Mensch in Oldenburg; as well as the Museum Burg-Bederkesa and the Historisches Museum Domherrenhaus in Verden. We cannot stress enough how important the cooperation of the archaeological museums is and their help in gaining more insight into the earliest phases of the Nordic Bronze Age. It is also essential to be able to get a closer look at all these blades as their appearance is only registered in archaeological catalogues in the form of drawings. Each museum visit allows us to get a closer look with, sometimes, surprising results as so far more blades appear to be decorated than previously known. One example is the Sögel blade from a burial mound from Wulsbüttel-Heine, currently in the Museum Burg-Bederkesa which still had some faint traces of dotted line decorations. Beyond that the burial contained a typical flanged axe with nicked sides as well as flint arrowheads.