The army from Hjortspring

The army that is represented by the Hjortspring find included 10-12 officers with swords and possibly armour of chain mail. There were also about 80 ordinary soldiers with spears, lances and shields. No two swords or lances are alike. These were the warriors’ personal weapons. In Hjortspring we meet a large fighting unit – an army – for the first time. The Early Iron Age was a time with an increasing number of bloody conflicts. In and around the boat lay the army’s other equipment: swords, spear and lance heads, wooden shields, turned wooden containers, clubs, the tube of a bellows, wooden spoons, round wooden plates, axe helves and paddles of maple wood.