EL TEMPS DE LA MEMÒRIA

In summer 1947, when excavating a well near the old Camallera pond (Saus, Camallera i Llampaies, Alt Empordà), what appeared to be the badly damaged remains of cremation graves were found. Others were found when the engine housing was built, including one that contained bronze and iron weapons. Also collected were a few sherds of hand-made pottery decorated with grooves, an intentionally broken and coiled antennae sword, a spear ferrule, a knife fragment and some other iron fragments, a spearhead and a bronze arrowhead. If, as it seems, all these elements were part of the same tomb, we may be looking at what is known in the archaeological bibliography as a “warrior’s tomb”. The chronology of the collection is placed in the First Iron Age or Iron I, between the 7^th and 6^th centuries c. BC.

The most remarkable object is the antennae sword. Antenna swords and daggers are so called because of the unusual shape of the end of the hilt: a metal bar, iron in this case, bent in the shape of a crescent. The Camallera sword has a double-edged blade, 85 cm long and 4 cm wide.

When the sword’s owner died and was cremated, his distinctive weapon was removed from circulation, either by bending it in the forge as at Camallera, or by heating it and piercing it with a nail, so that it could not be reused. It was placed in his grave, along with the other weapons and objects that accompanied him in death.

The Camallera antennae sword is not unique in our region. We have other specimens from the necropolis of Pla de Gibrella (Capsec, Vall de Bianya, La Garrotxa) and Empúries, while in the Peralada castle necropolis (Alt Empordà) two antennae daggers were found.