THE PAST UNDER

THE MICROSCOPE
Scientific Analyses in Museums
Editor of the English edition: Gašper Oitzl
Editor-in-chief: Alenka Miškec

Ljubljana 2018
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Contents

Mateja Kos
9 Research Work, History, and the Museum

Žiga Šmit
11 The Past through the Eyes of a Natural Scientist

Saša Rudolf and Zora Žbontar

19 At the Dawn of Archaeometry

Nataša Nemeček and Eva Menart

29 Copper, Bronze or Brass – That is the Question.
History of Scientific Research in the National
Museum of Slovenia

Katja Mahnič
51 Interpreting the Capitoline She-Wolf.
The Conflict between the Sciences and
the Humanities

Matija Turk
63 The Beginnings of Music: The Neanderthal Flute
from the Divje babe I Cave

Daša Pavlovič
71 Gems from Faraway India

Anton Velušček and Tjaša Tolar

77 A Superb Product of a Spinning Spindle

Mateja Kos and Žiga Šmit

83 Tableware in the English Fashion

Tomaž Lazar
89 The Oldest Preserved Guns in Slovenia

Tomaž Lazar
97 Late Medieval Messer – A Commoner’s Sword
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Tomaž Lazar
103 A Steel Skin Hammered out by Master Armourers

Urša Pajk and Eva Menart

109 The Magic and the Singularity of the Most Reliable Record Carrier

Peter Turk and Žiga Šmit

115 From Bronze to Brass

Mateja Kos and Žiga Šmit

121 Prestigious Venetian Glass or a Domestic Product?

Alenka Miškec
127 A View of the Hidden Interior of a Roman Vessel

Tomislav Kajfež and Miran Pflaum

133 A Herald from the Land of the Dead

Tomaž Lazar
139 The True Face of the Last Count of Celje

Mihael Budja and Nives Ogrinc

145 Archaeology of Lipids – Discovering Organic Food Residues
in Prehistoric Vessels

Eva Menart, Nataša Nemeček, Saša Rudolf, Žiga Šmit, Zora Žbontar
155 A Short Overview of Selected Scientific Methods

Tomaž Lazar
Late Medieval
Messer – A
Commoner’s
Sword
O
f all the types of weapons developed so far, there
is probably none that can surpass the symbolic
meaning of the sword. For good or bad, the
sword has been our companion for almost 4,000 years.
It seems, however, to have vanished irrevocably from the
battlefields of our time; since the end of the Second World
War one would be hard-pressed to find it among the
standard military equipment; today, it is a mere ceremonial
adornment. However, even though the sword has long
since been overshadowed by more advanced and more
lethal weapons, we should not forget that for a long time it
represented an outstanding technical achievement.
For early metallurgists, making an effective cut-and-
thrust weapon represented a great challenge. Swords were
initially made of bronze, until in the 1st millennium BC
Late Medieval Messer – A Commoner’s Sword 97
iron, or more precisely, steel superseded the copper alloy
used in this niche military technology. This development
was not just a leap from one material to the other, but also
brought about entirely different manufacturing processes
and technological solutions.
The primary product of early iron smelting furnaces was
the bloom, a lumpy heterogeneous mass of metal with a
high content of undesirable additions, especially slag. The
bloom had first to be forged into more compact semi-
products. During the process, the material was also refined,
as blacksmiths were able to squeeze out the most of the
slag by beating on the material with a hammer. The metal
produced in a bloomery furnace generally contained only a
marginal fraction of carbon. This was wrought, technically
pure iron, a tough metal that could be simply shaped
98

Fig. 1a, b – The long double-edged sword is undoubtedly the most iconic melee weapon of the European Middle
Ages. The photo shows one of the most beautiful examples held in the collection of the National Museum of Slovenia,
dated to the beginning of the 15th century (kept by the National Museum of Slovenia, photo: T. Lauko, Albion Ltd.).

by forging. At the same time, it was surprisingly soft,
considerably softer than quality tin bronze, and therefore
not suitable for the production of quality cutting tools or
weapons. In contrast, much better technical characteristics
are provided by steel with sufficient carbon content to allow
its characteristics to be improved with heat treatment.1
profession, and the blacksmith’s work was often perceived
as almost magical. However, this was, after all, the logical
consequence of a lack of theoretical knowledge in metallurgy
because of which blacksmiths and metalworkers of the
preindustrial era were left to rely on their own experience,
intuition, and often also on superstition and legends.

Over time, experienced metallurgists developed different
procedures to carburise iron and obtain steel. But because
the reduction process, which took place in a simple smelting
furnace, was hard to control, quality steel remained an
expensive and relatively rare commodity up until the Late
Middle Ages. That is why blacksmiths were constantly
searching for new solutions, and even resorted to such exotic
materials as meteorite iron, which was used by Indonesian
masters in the 19th century to make highly valued blades for
krisses, daggers with wavy blades.2 It is not surprising, then,
that in many cultures blacksmithing was a highly respected
Due to the high demand for quality raw materials, iron-
making became one of the leading industries at a very early
date. Among the most important customers of metallurgical
workshops were weapons manufacturers, whose demands
were the main driver of technological progress. The first
zenith of the steel sword in Europe came about during the
La Tène Period (5th–1st century BC). Through the work of
innovative Celtic smiths, it became a weapon par excellence
and managed to retain this position for the next 2,000 years
until it was overtaken by gunpowder, which ultimately
ended the era of melee weapons.3

1 Williams, 2012, pp. 3–45; Lamut, 2015, pp. 262–269.

2 Nečemer, et al., 2013. 3 Pleiner, 1993; Williams, 2012, pp. 49–51.

Fig. 2 – Single-edged sword or Messer (kept by the
National Museum of Slovenia, photo: T. Lauko, T. Lazar).
To understand why this happened, one only has to delve
into the technological construction of a sword. The origins
of most other types of melee weapons, from dagger to
spear, axe, or mace, go far back into the past, all the way to
prehistoric hand axes and clubs. In contrast, the sword has
no Stone-Age ancestor; it was only able to be developed
in an environment which mastered the working of metals
at a relatively high level. To produce an effective cut-and-
thrust weapon with a long blade, a number of seemingly
contradictory requirements have to be met. A good sword
has to be resilient enough to be able to withstand heavy
stress during combat, but not so heavy that it would be
impossible to wield it skilfully. Its blade must be hard
enough to allow sharpening and to be able to retain the
edge during use. On severe impact, the blade must not
break and possibly also not bend permanently – an ideal
blade is so elastic that it returns to its previous shape after
having been bent.4 (Fig. 1a, b)
In the Late Middle Ages, European sword masters had
long been familiar with such dilemmas. Sword-making was
considered a respected and highly specialised craft, and
not many smiths and workshops engaged in it. They were
concentrated mainly in the Rhineland, in southern Germany,
4 Cf. Burton, 1884, especially pp. 123–142. Of course, in practice, even such
damage could not be avoided completely. Methods of repairing broken
sword blades varied considerably, from welding to a combination of rivet-
ing and brazing. See Lazar and Nečemer, 2017.
Late Medieval Messer – A Commoner’s Sword 99
3a
3b
1a
1b
2a 2b
in northern Italy, and in the French region of Bordeaux. The
cities of Passau, Solingen, Milan, Brescia, and also Toledo
in Spain, were among the most important internationally
recognised centres of the sword-making trade. There was no
such strong sword-making tradition in Slovenia; there were,
however, sword-making workshops established in the 16th
century in neighbouring Austria, notably in Upper Styria and
in Lower Austria, where predominantly serial production of
military melee weapons took place.5
Towards the end of the Middle Ages, the most prestigious
sword-making product was undoubtedly the double-edged
“knightly” sword. Originally, it was a one-handed weapon
with an overall length that usually did not exceed one
meter. In the mid-13th century, with the advancement of
more effective plate armour, the hand-and-a-half sword
came into being, and later also the full two-handed sword.
Due to their symbolic value, such weapons undoubtedly
featured most prominently among the cut-and-thrust
weapons of the Middle Ages, which is why they received so
much attention from later researchers, producing a large
number of expert publications, typological studies and also
scientific analyses.6 (Fig. 2)
5 Cf. Oakeshott, 1996; Lazar, 2009, pp. 386–394.
6 E.g. Oakeshott, 1996; Oakeshott, 1997; Oakeshott, 2015; Geibig, 1991;
Peirce, 2002; Williams, 2012. The most comprehensive studies of
medieval swords in the Slovenian language so far are the master’s and
doctoral thesis by Tomaž Nabergoj: Nabergoj, 2001; Nabergoj, 2015.
100
Fig. 3 – The Messer is one of the weapons depicted in Hans
Talhoffer‘s fighting manual from 1459 (source: Det Kongelike
Bibliotek København, Thott 290 2°, fol. 122r).
Consequently, it is often overlooked that in medieval Europe
the double-edged sword had a few comparable counterparts
that were seemingly less prestigious, but nonetheless
very widespread in everyday use. Among those, the most
important was probably the Messer, a sword with a straight
or more often slightly curved single-edged blade, typical
of Central Europe during the 15th and the 16th century. At
first sight, it could be compared to a sabre, but it differs
from it by the unique construction of its grip. Rather than
extending into a pointed tang, the blade ends in a slab tang
with grip plates riveted onto it. The Messer was usually fitted
with a short straight cross-guard, and an additional hand
guard jutting out from the right side of the hilt. Unlike the
classical double-edged sword, it had no massive pommel to
counterbalance the weight of the blade. It was most probably
derived from the Germanic single-edged Sax, the bladed
weapon which gave rise to similar, often slightly curved
weapons used practically throughout Europe in the High
and Late Middle Ages in different forms and under different
names (e.g. French fauchon and English falchion).7 (Fig. 3)
The Central European Messer enjoyed great popularity
during the 15th and 16th centuries. In everyday life and
often also on the battlefield it represented an equivalent
substitute to the double-edged sword. Fencing masters
considered it to be in a special category, and in everyday
language the Messer became almost the synonym for the
7 Seitz, 1965, pp. 183–197, 217–220; Oakeshott, 1996, pp. 235–238.
sword in general.8 In addition to the one-handed version,
which was common predominantly amongst civilians
as a self-defence weapon, there was also the two-handed
version, which was developed in the second half of the 15th
century and had a length comparable to the longsword
(langes Messer, Kriegsmesser). This version was popular, in
particular, amongst lightly armed mercenary foot soldiers.9
Even though the Messer occupied a significant position
in the European arsenal for nearly 200 years, it remains
largely overlooked by contemporary historiography. This
situation seems to be mostly driven by prejudice: as a cheap,
simplified version of the “true” sword, and intended for the
lower classes, the Messer seems a less important subject to
study from the viewpoint of historiography.
Such evaluations presuppose that the Messer was a
technologically inferior product made of inferior materials,
especially because it was usually not made by specialised
swordsmiths but by craftsmen belonging to the knife-
makers’ guild. This reflects an interesting segmentation of
melee weapons according to the medieval understanding:
the double-edged sword was considered a military weapon
intended solely for the elite and professional soldiers, while
single-edged swords were accessible to everyone, even to the
lowest of classes. However, this in itself does not constitute
sufficient proof that at the time the Messer truly was a second-
rate weapon. Several metallographic analyses of examples of
such weapons have been performed in the recent years; for
the most part, they attested to quality workmanship in line
with all the expected standards of the time.10
The collection of the National Museum of Slovenia keeps
several late medieval single-edged swords, most of which
are older archaeological finds. For the most part, the
artefacts have not been systematically investigated. One of
the swords, catalogued under inventory number N 32526,
was chosen to be the subject of systematic analyses, with
the aim of establishing the manner of its construction.
Acquired by the museum around 1908, the artefact is a
chance find from Spodnje Bitnje near Kranj and dates back
to the second half of the 15th century. The blade is broken
approximately in the middle, with the remaining part
measures 37.2 cm in length.11 The grip plates are missing,
8 E.g. Rector, 2002; Żabiński and Walczak, 2002.
9 Thomas and Gamber, 1976, pp. 89–91.
10 Hošek, 2003, pp. 8, 85–86, 228–229; Žákovský, 2008, pp. 461–472.
11 A very similar sword with a broken blade and of nearly identical length
was discovered during excavations in Celje. Guštin, 2001, pp. 241, 251,
cat. no. 173.

Fig. 4 – Collecting samples of the broken blade (photo: T. Lazar).
but the artefact is otherwise quite well preserved. At the
beginning of the blade, a maker’s mark shaped like a cross
is clearly visible. From the straight cross-guard with a side
prong riveted onto it, the blade runs into a slab tang which
is pierced with three holes. A detailed inspection of the
artefact reveals that it was manufactured by an experienced
master with a keen eye for balanced design and close
tolerance margins, as both the blade and the cross-guard
are very carefully forged. (Fig. 4)
Working in collaboration with the Jožef Stefan Institute,
we first analysed the artefact with EDXRF measurements.
The fragmentary nature of the sword proved to be of
particular importance for subsequent analyses. Because
the blade had already been broken in half and the missing
part irretrievably lost, we have been able, without excessive
intervention into the artefact, to obtain six miniature
samples: two each from the back, the core and the edge
of the sword. Such an approach is necessary with swords
and other similar melee weapons which usually do not
Late Medieval Messer – A Commoner’s Sword 101
have a uniform structural section along the entire width
of the blade. A team of experts from the Department of
Materials and Metallurgy at the Faculty of Natural Sciences
and Engineering then proceeded to investigate the samples
with optical microscopy and SEM-EDS analyses, diffe­
rential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and micro-hardness
measurements. With these procedures, it was possi­ble to
accurately determine the composition and the structure of
the steel used and its non-metallic inclusions, as well as to
reconstruct how the blade was made.12
Initially, the smith producing this sword made the blade from
a single wrought iron billet which was then skilfully forged
into its final form. To improve the blade’s properties, the
smith increased the hardness of the edge by heating the blade
on a hearth for a long time, surrounded by organic materials
containing carbon. This procedure was documented as
early as the 12th century and was widely used for making
cut-and-thrust weapons in the High and Late Middle
Ages.13 Once the blade had been carburised sufficiently, it
was not quenched in water or in oil, but rather air-cooled,
probably for fear of possible bending or fracturing the blade
during the tempering. Despite that, the final product was
quite satisfactory according to the criteria of late medieval
metallurgy. The blacksmith succeeded in making a blade
with a very resilient ferritic core and back, and a considerably
harder pearlitic edge (around 354 HV) which could easily be
sharpened into a useable weapon. (Fig. 5)
Fig. 5 – Mainly pearlitic microstructure of the sample taken from
the edge of the blade (source: Department of Materials and Metallurgy
at the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Engineering, Ljubljana).
12 Fajfar, et al., 2013.
13 Williams, 2012, pp. 230–233, 261–269.
102

The combination of the soft back and the hard edge repre­
sented the optimum technical solution for the design of a
single-edged blade. A similar method of manufacture was
used by medieval smiths to make various cutting tools and
weapons, and the same principle was also used by Japanese
smiths whose sword-making tradition remains preserved
to this day.14 The unknown smith, who more than 500
years ago made the Messer from the National Museum of
Slovenia, did not achieve his aim by combining different
materials, such as welding a steel edge onto an iron core
but made the blade from wrought iron and then skilfully
enhanced the hardness of the edge by carburisation. He
thus succeeded in making a relatively plain, inexpensive,
and effective weapon. In the technological sense, it may not
have ranked amongst the best products of its time, but was
perfectly comparable to the vast majority of weapons used
by professional soldiers at the time, and even by members
of the upper classes.

14 Bottomley and Hopson, 1988, pp. 15–20, 60–62; Kapp, Kapp and Yoshi-
hara, 1990, pp. 20–32, 53–84; Yumoto, 2002, pp. 94–95; Williams, 2012,
pp. 41–45.

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