Ceremonial sword (food)
The sword of the Essen Cathedral Treasury , often referred to as the execution sword of Saints Cosmas and Damian , was the ceremonial sword of the abbesses of the Essen Abbey . It is a one-off piece, both in terms of art history and forging technology, which is also significant for the city of Essen in terms of urban history.
That from the time of the Ottos originating sword which today in its gold-studded scabbard in the Essen Cathedral Treasury are on display, was a research project under the direction of then-Essen 1988 Domkapitulars Alfred Pothmann investigated multidisciplinary. Extensive knowledge about forging technology and the history of the sword was gained during these investigations.
history
The sword probably arrived in 993 as a gift from the later Emperor Otto III. to the Essen monastery. The visit of Otto III. According to recent research , the Essen monastery, headed by his relative Mathilde , was probably connected to the establishment of a memorial foundation for Otto II , which also included the no longer preserved golden shrine of St. Marsus . According to Essen tradition, the crown of the Golden Madonna also reached Essen during the visit . The circumstances of the donation and the origin of the sword seem to have been forgotten early on. There is no evidence of the use of the sword from the early days of the monastery history. The Essen Liber Ordinarius from the 14th century, which documents the sacred use of the objects of the Essen monastery treasure, does not mention the sword. From this it is concluded that it was not yet considered a relic at that time .
Towards the end of the 15th century the secular origin of the sword was forgotten, it was now believed that the sword was a relic, namely the execution sword of the pen patrons Cosmas and Damian, who were executed in the 3rd century . This results from the inscription Gladius cum quo decollati fuerunt nostri patroni (“The sword with which our patrons were beheaded”) and the figures of the two saints engraved on the late Gothic repairs to the scabbard mouthplate (the edging of the opening of the sword scabbard). The reliquary register of the Essen monastery from July 12, 1626 lists the sword under number 55 as Gladius sanctorum Cosmae et Damiani . As a relic, the sword was also carried in processions, the damage to the sword mainly comes from this time.
Already in the early Middle Ages, swords were considered to be symbols of power and authority based on a biblical passage ( Romans 13.4 EU ). It is possible that even in the high Middle Ages the abbesses had the sword carried forward as a symbol of power in a similar way to the emperors with the imperial sword , but there is no evidence of this. However, the sword came to Essen at a time when the abbess Mathilde, Sophia and Theophanu, relatives of the Ottonian imperial family, ruled the monastery . Theophanu in particular put a lot of energy into decorating the pen with magnificent objects such as the Theophanu Gospels and the introduction of corresponding rites. This should also include carrying the sword, which she presumably claimed as a sovereign insignia due to her imperial origins. Her successors, who were no longer associated with the imperial family, continued this custom. When this custom could no longer be connected with the legal status of the abbess, the meaning shifted from the legal symbol to the relic. Certainly the sword was carried before the princess as a symbol of rule in the late Middle Ages.This was reported by the Essen canon Wirich Hiltrop († 1617), who prepared a history of the Essen monastery and whose notes have been preserved. According to Hiltrop, who questioned the relic character of the sword, the custom of carrying the sword to the abbess was lost in the turmoil of the Reformation. In the 18th century the custom of carrying the sword for the abbess on festive occasions was resumed and continued until the abolition of the pen. At the festive entry of the last Essen abbess Maria Kunigunde of Saxony , the court marshal walked ahead with sword in hand.
The belief in the sword as a relic was deeply rooted in Essen. The sword was included on the letter seal of the city of Essen, first documented in 1473, as well as on the council bell cast in 1483. Despite the introduction of the Reformation by the City Council of Essen, the coat of arms with the sword was continued and was thus included in today's Essen city coat of arms.
With the dissolution of the monastery due to secularization in 1803, the sword, like the other sacred objects in the cathedral treasury, came to the parish, which had emerged from the parish of the members of the monastery. It remained in their care until the Diocese of Essen was founded in 1958.
The original weapon
An explanation of the technical terms used in weapons can be found under sword .
The sword
The sword classically consists of the blade , the pommel and the quillons . These components are made of metal; only the sword hilt was not made of metal, but probably made of wood. The handle has not been preserved; today's decoration is attached directly to the tang .
Forging technology
The most important component of the sword is the blade. It is made of steel that was forged using Damascus technology . This technique represents a refinement of the old forging technique of refining. The impure steel smelted in the racing furnace was cleaned by multiple folding, fire welding and stretching. Damascus steel is created when steels with different alloys are welded together in this way. After the blade has been sharpened, an etching process reveals the mostly numerous layers of steel that have been attacked to varying degrees by the etchant (often acids or aggressive substances). It is not primarily a question of combining so-called 'soft' and 'hard' steels, as is often wrongly assumed, but rather two or more easily hardenable steels are usually combined today.
Another technique, which was often used for sword blades in the early Middle Ages (e.g. by the Vikings), combined a decorative composite of non-hardenable or only slightly hardenable steel types (too low carbon content) in the middle of the blade with a readily hardenable steel in the area of the cutting edge. Such blade constructions had a good edge retention, but were nevertheless elastic enough to withstand the shock load of a hard hit on a solid object (shield, armor, etc.) without breaking. At the same time, such sword blades showed a decorative damask pattern (so-called worm-colored blades). These blades were technical masterpieces of blacksmithing and naturally of very high value.
The blade of the Essen sword was made using precisely this artful and technically complex technique. For this purpose, five bars of different types of steel with a square cross-section were welded together in such a way that a snake ornament with 29 crossover points results. The resulting block was welded to the sword blade with a hardenable cutting steel.
After the forging was done, the sword was fluted: in the middle of the blade below the damascus it is thinner than towards the two cutting edges. Due to the fuller (wrongly " blood channel "), the profile of the blade in the area resembles a flattened figure of eight.
Grinding technology
Following the forging, the sword was sharpened, in the lower part to its normal flat rhomboid shape, in the upper third near the quillons so deep in the groove that the pattern of the damask was recognizable. This pattern is particularly elaborate for the Essen sword: two of the five steel rods were given sheaths with the thinnest steel wire before they were welded . Neither during the forging nor during the subsequent grinding was it allowed to cut a single one of these thin wires in order not to disturb the pattern. Due to the loss of material due to burn-off during forging and grinding, the success of this project required outstanding skill and the experience of a master blacksmith. The special forging technique of the Damascus steel insert was recognizable by the grinding for the knowledgeable observer, who could identify the sword as particularly high quality, which underlined the status of the wearer.
After completion of the blade, it was provided with a grip sleeve, the appearance of which is unknown, since it was removed when the weapon was redesigned, and the pommel. The owner must have carried it in a scabbard, the present day scabbard is not the original.
Use of the sword
The finished sword was a functional, extremely usable and at the same time valuable weapon that was used by its owner according to its intended purpose and was certainly used frequently during weapon exercises and probably also in an emergency. The weapon was sharpened several times between its manufacture and its incorporation into the pen treasure, which suggests its intensive use. Due to a lack of sources, it is not known who the owner and probably also the client of the blade was and where the blade was used. The inclusion in the monastery treasury suggests that the owner was socially high and the weapon was used in important historical conflicts. Since Essen was an Ottonian house monastery , Otto the Great , Otto II or the brother of the Abbess Mathilde, Duke Otto of Swabia, come into consideration. The most popular speculation is that the sword of Otto I was wielded in the battle on the Lechfeld . However, Otto II is more likely as the user, since the sword came to Essen in connection with a memorial foundation for him.
The rededication to a work of art
Technique of ornamentation
When the weapon was rededicated as a work of art, a master of goldsmithing was at work who, typical of the early medieval artist, is unknown. The original sword hilt and quillons have been removed. Then precious stones were placed on the pommel of the sword in simple box frames, between which gold filigree, partly in the form of hemispheres or spirally rolled cones, is attached. The hilt - actually the tang of the sword - as well as the top and bottom of a new quillons were also covered with gold filigree. The sides of the quillons were also decorated with gold filigree and precious stones with enamel tablets made using the cell melting process. These show star and palmette patterns in different colors.
The scabbard
The contents of the scabbard are made up of two arched boards made of fruit tree wood, probably cherry, with sharpened edges. This wooden inner scabbard is completely covered with embossed gold plates. The driving work is of high craftsmanship. Tendrils occupy most of the area, with carefully distributed leaves in fantastic shapes. The artist has scattered various fantastic animals between these tendrils. With the exception of certain four-footed animals, which the artist repeated twice on the front, all ornaments are used only once. It is noticeable that the tendrils on the reverse side have stronger windings, but fewer and thinner leaves. Stylistically, the fantastic leaf shapes point to Byzantine influence, tendrils and animal figures can be found similarly on the seven-armed chandelier of the Essen Minster .
The filigree jewelry of the scabbard has suffered over the centuries, and damage to the blade mouth and tip occurred as early as the Middle Ages. These frequently used areas were already protected in the 15th century by silver sheets, which stylistically can be assigned to the late Gothic . The village bears the image of Saints Cosmas and Damian on the front and a looped banner on the back. There are two metal eyelets on the back of the mouthpiece. These are too filigree to serve as a suspension for a sword hanger, they were probably used to fix the sword in the scabbard with a cord pulled through the eyelets and looped around the sword handle.
Restoration and research
Inspired by assumptions that the Essen sword was a predecessor of the Reich sword, the sword was examined and restored from 1989 in an interdisciplinary research project. In addition to art historians, archaeologists, paleobiologists, engineers as well as a blacksmith and blade expert were involved. Since in the past mainly art-historical investigations into the gold jewelry of the scabbard and the vessel had been carried out, the aim of the investigation was to gain knowledge about the blade and the origin of the sword in particular. The overriding principle in these investigations was not to reduce the substance of the sword and not to remove or destroy material anywhere. This was made possible by the support of Thyssen AG , which made its laboratories and employees available. The aim of these investigations was also to make a replica of this sword in order to gain further knowledge about the forging technique of the blade. The replica, forged by the blacksmith Manfred Sachse , is now also in the cathedral treasury.
Since the sword was never, like most surviving swords, a burial object or was found as an earth find on a historical battlefield, but was always a cultivated object of daily use or an object of sacred worship, it is exceptionally well preserved. The state of preservation allows a multitude of conclusions to be drawn about its production.
Dimensions
The sword is now about 94 cm long, of which 80.5 cm to the blade and 13.5 cm on the booklet omitted. The cross- guard has a length of 14 cm. The width of the blade on the guard is 5.5 cm, in the middle of the blade 4.5 cm. Approximately 10 cm from the location (the tip of the blade), the even tapering of the blade changes into a sharper point. The length of the sword scabbard is 82 cm, it is 7.5 cm wide at the mouthpiece , 6.5 cm in the middle and 5.5 cm wide at the fitting . The blade weighs 823.8 g, the pommel 238.7 g and the crossguard 254.5 g.
Metallurgical investigations
The sword was metallurgically examined in the laboratories of Thyssen AG , using all non-destructive examination methods according to the state of the art at the time (1988), such as
- Radiographic examination ( radiography ),
- Ultrasound testing ( sonography ),
- Magnetic leakage test
- Dye penetrant testing
- Spectrometric testing .
Furthermore, analyzes of the metallurgical components were carried out, which allowed an assignment of the metals used and processing and usage properties. The carbon content in the steel of the sword is 0.7% in the fishing area and 1.1% in the local area. This means that the steel of that time already had the quality of high-quality tool steel during manufacture . The chemical composition corresponds to the steel from Lorraine minette .
Quillons
The quillons showed corrosion and rough grinding and filing marks, which are far less carefully reworked than the blade. The octagonal recess for the fishing rod is filed. The quillons were fixed to the blade with punch blows to create a friction fit . Features for a possible use of a grip sleeve could not be found. The underside of the quillons shows wax layers that may have been applied when the gold layers were attached.
knob
The pommel shows corrosion comparable to the quillons. It is precisely perforated for the fishing rod. It has four filing notches on the underside of the knob for attaching the gold plating.
blade
The blade showed an old corrosion that was inactive, i.e. it shows rusted through. There were different light and dark areas. The light areas showed an intense shine from the polish. There were shades of color that look like marbling.
Several parts of the blade were deeply corroded; this has destroyed the original surface in these areas. The regularity of the corrosion patterns indicated different materials. The surface was carefully exposed by scraping. By following these investigations, it was found that the cause of corrosion regular pattern, a previously unknown damascene was the blade that was recognized again by the modern methods of investigation.
The sword has a grid pattern on the surface of the blade, which is caused by the damascene. This consists of five interwoven square metal rods, which were forged from three wires, each 1.5 mm in diameter, one wire as the core, wrapped around the other two. One wrapping wire is made of high carbon steel, the other is made of low carbon iron. These bars were braided and welded in a grid pattern. The result shows a pattern of diagonal crosses in which the individual lines that were formed by the bars appear alternately light and dark hatched by the different types of wire. The entire resulting ornamental block was then welded to the blade. The line-shaped weld seams are recognizable with imperfections, which show the limitations of the manufacturing technology at that time and which were also visible before the corrosion. The original effects of the wire windings could be made visible by magnetic particle tests. To produce this pattern and its forging in the blade, highly specialized knowledge and calculations of the forge burn-off must have been carried out. Care had to be taken not to damage any of the thin sheathing wires in order to avoid destroying the pattern, both when welding the rods and during the subsequent mirror grinding. The production of the reconstruction of the sword in its original condition resulted in an extremely high degree of forging problems with this part of the blade.
The sword blade has no attached cutting edges; with the exception of the inlay work, the blade is made of one piece of material. The blade material is Damascus steel, many times folded and forged. The number of folds could no longer be reconstructed; In the reproduction, the multiple dividing and reforging ultimately resulted in a number of layers of more than 300, and the properties of the reproduction show that the original sword contains a similar number of steel layers.
The shoulders of the blade (the transition from the wide blade to the tang) have an unusual, irregular shape. The loss of substance due to frequent resharpening was clearly recognizable by its width: a maximum 63 mm wide blade was measured, which is just under 2 cm below the shoulders only 55 mm wide. The shoulders of the blade are set 10 mm deep into the cross-guard, which is unusual because the much simpler cross-guard partially covers the ornaments of the blade. It is therefore likely that today's crossguard is not the original, since the ornamentation of the blade was an outward sign of its quality and the masterful work underlined the status of the wearer. The swordsmith who originally created the blade would certainly not have attached the quillons in this way.
The local part is also not found in its original form. It lacks length and the originally existing sword point. These were probably lost in the repeated resharpening that was necessary due to intensive use of the weapon before it was redesigned. Due to the strong tapering of the blade towards the place and the center of gravity of the blade, which was moved far towards the vessel, it was to be assumed that the Essen sword was no longer primarily a cutting weapon. It will therefore have a pronounced tip in its original state.
Condition of the scabbard and handle
The sword scabbard consists of two curved wooden scabbard boards, which are pinned together at the edge with a large number of metal pins. The outside of the divider boards are clad with two strips of decorated gold sheet, which are held in place by seven V-shaped kinked edge strips made of gold-plated silver sheet. These are attached by pins made of gold-plated silver and brass. The mouthpiece and locus are made of gold-plated silver.
The mouthpiece and the plaque were removed to examine the vaginal boards. The parting boards were weathered at the ends and severely repelled, especially on the spot. A weathered piece of wood was sent to the Institute for Prehistory and Protohistory at Kiel University for paleobiological investigation. This revealed that it is fruit tree wood, probably cherry. An inner lining of the sword scabbard made of strips of fur, which usually prevent the blade from sliding out, is missing.
At the upper end of the parting boards, stripes of varying discoloration of the wood due to weathering could be seen: Below the upper edge there was an approximately 1 cm wide, strongly discolored stripe, underneath a zone about two centimeters wide, which looks significantly fresher, the area begins below where the wood was permanently protected by the scabbard fittings. From this it is concluded that the golden scabbard fittings were originally longer and also protected the less distant area. The shortening was probably done in connection with the adjustment of the centerpiece and mouthpiece. The partitions are therefore older than these highly Gothic repairs. A more precise age determination by dendrochronology was not possible, for this a sufficient number of annual rings on the boards as well as comparison tables are missing . The radiocarbon dating also promised not succeed since stone fruits are very durable and this measurement method provides different results for wood from the tree center and bark close wood.
The reliefs of the scabbard fittings were chased. These are largely crushed because, during a contemporary repair, it was forgotten to put upholstery material, possibly felt or raw wool, behind the embossed gold sheet decorations. Evidence for this is cited that the V-shaped edge fittings that hold the gold sheets cover older nail holes in the gold sheets, which suggests that the scabbard originally had a larger circumference due to the lack of padding.
The drifting work in the area of the third tendril turn on the back and the third and fourth spiral tendrils on the front are particularly heavily crushed. These places are where the sword scabbard would rest on the forearm of a wearer, so they are presumably traces of use from the time when the sword was used as a ceremonial sword.
On the handle, the lower part of the tang is a later repair, which can be seen from the fact that the tendrils there are formed by twisted gold wire. On the upper part there are tendrils made of pearled gold wire, as on the knob. Of the precious stones attached to the pommel, all of the back and two of the front have been lost; three of the four enamel tablets are missing from the quillons, two at the front and one at the back.
Overall, the damage to the jewelry of the sword was caused by its use as a ceremonial sword; the damage profile coincides exactly with the reports on the use.
Form analysis
A large number of swords have been preserved from the 10th century, mostly as archaeological finds. The Essen sword could therefore be compared with other swords of its time. With the Essen sword, the edges and fullers are separated from each other, a common design technique in the High Middle Ages. The sword was clearly to be dated later than the Carolingian period. The blade cross-section has been changed several times: the blade is longitudinally oval in the area of the blade root, hexagonal in the decorated third of the blade, and there is a groove on both sides in the local area. There is no known older sword that has such a structure that later became the norm. This type of structure will have been developed at the time the sword was made. The blade dates from the second half of the 10th century, the chemical composition of the steel and the damascene make it likely that it was manufactured in the Franconian Empire.
Summary
In addition to the well-known importance of the sword as an object of art, the scientific investigation revealed that the Essen ceremonial sword has a previously unknown damascene. The solid technique of damask work is an isolated case. The use of wires to achieve damask effects is not known from other blades, the use of twisted damasks for inscriptions, brands and ornaments is rather an exception at this time, more common were layered damasks. The masterful forging of the Essen sword, with the sophisticated technique and the design of the subtle damask effects, represents a high point of European damascene.
literature
- Georg Humann : The works of art of the cathedral church to eat . Schwann, Düsseldorf 1904, pp. 96-114.
- Leonard Küppers, Paul Mikat : The Essen Minster Treasure . Fredebeul & Koenen, Essen 1966.
- Alfred Pothmann (ed.): The ceremonial sword of the Essen cathedral treasury . Aschendorff, Münster 1995, ISBN 3-402-06243-7 .
- Alfred Pothmann: The Essen church treasure from the early days of the monastery history . In: Reign, Education and Prayer. Foundation and beginnings of the Essen women's monastery . Klartext-Verlag, Essen 2000, ISBN 3-88474-907-2 .
Web links
- Essen sword on the sides of the Essen Cathedral Treasury
