Hallstatt CArtefacts in Carp's Toungue Hoards ? A critical examination

The time when the last carp’s tongue hoards from Atlantic Late Bronze Age 3 (the Vénat horizon, Milcent, 2012) were buried has been a long debated issue… and still is: the assumption that the most recent hoards were abandoned at the beginning of the Early Iron Age only has been supported and remains so. The contemporaneity of Hallstatt flanged hilt-grip swords (traditionally called Gündlingen type) and these hoards has been assessed many a time, in particular because blade fragments from Gündlingen type swords as well as one Hallstatt razor were supposedly present.Relying on bibliographical sources, the author has carried out a critical review of the Early Iron Age bronze artefacts said to have been identified in some rare hoards from Atlantic Late Bronze Age 3. An overall negative result ensued.The fragments interpreted as pieces of blades from Hallstatt swords (Vénat, Granville-Sainte-Honorine, probably Chamery and some from the seemingly ambiguous discovery in Hourtin) display mere ridges underlining the edges, which cannot be taken for the fine ribs present on Gündlingen type swords. The pieces of blades come from a possibly later model of Ewart Park type swords. A few fragments from Hourtin seem to actually display embossed lines, in which case the question of pieces from Gündlingen type sword blades remains relevant. But in Western Gaul, one can nevertheless notice that embossed lines are documented on some rare swords from the end of the Bronze Age, either imported or produced locally (Mörigen type swords, including one dredged from the Garonne river near Bordeaux; a fragment of sword blade of undetermined type in Hourtin; a decorated sword blade from a variant of Vénat type carp’s tongue sword; Tarquinia type antenna-hilted swords from Amboise). A carp’s tongue sword blade from the Vénat hoard is richly decorated with incisions parallel to the midrib, simulating an actual pattern of embossed lines. The same pattern is to be found on the antenna-hilted sword blade coming from the same hoard. Potential prototypes for embossed lines decoration are thus definitely present in Western Europe. Hence, there is no need to necessarily invoke an imitation of Hallstatt swords in order to explain the genesis of western swords. Moreover, embossed lines may well be the mere stylistic evolution of the lateral angulations that exist on some blades.The razor from Guennoc Island does not come obviously from the hoard of the isle; it must be considered as an independe