Temporary exhibitions

INTERNATIONAL MUSEUM DAY 2021

PRESENTATION OF THE SWORD OF SOBREFOZ (PONGA) AT THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUM OF ASTURIAS

At the end of 2019 the collections of the Archaeological Museum of Asturias were enriched with the entry of an exceptional piece that, although well known in the archaeological literature, had never been available to the public. The generous donation of Mrs. Victoria Blanco del Dago to the memory of her brother Mr. Maximino Blanco del Dago, has allowed us to celebrate this edition of Museum Day, with the official presentation of the piece known in the specialized literature as the "Pistiliform Sword of Sobrefoz".

To illustrate its historical importance and cultural context, the Archaeological Museum of Asturias has counted with the collaboration of Professor Emeritus of the University of Oviedo, Dr. Miguel Ángel de Blas Cortina, until 2019 Professor of Prehistory and leading specialist in the regional Bronze Age.

Bronze sword from Sobrefoz

Sword discovered in 1878 in Sobrefoz (Ponga). It belonged to the antiquities collector Sebastián de Soto Cortés, from Labra (Cangas de Onís). In his diary he records that the piece appeared by chance in a "cuerria" in Sobrefoz. In 1940, the prehistorian Martín Almagro Basch made it known based on reports and photographs taken by Manuel Gómez-Moreno. It was missing for more than seventy years and rediscovered in 1998 by Maximino Blanco del Dago de Cangas de Onís.

The piece is identified as belonging to the family of swords with tripartite reed and within them to the group of the so-called Atlantic pistiliformes. Its most notable features, in addition to the characteristic blade, lie in the hilt with the guard determined by convex edges (U-type) and grooved fretwork instead of nails, which also occurs in the short hilt with slightly convex edges ending in a horned heel.

In general, its chronology is estimated to be around 1,100 BC and its Atlantic character has been repeatedly highlighted with parallels in Galicia, western France and the British Isles.

The Sobrefoz sword is a unique object in the archaeological repertoire of Asturias. It illustrates a period of which there are very few testimonies in our region and none of the entity that represents this magnificent piece. Due to the quality of its technical workmanship and the excellent preservation of its metallic body, it cannot be ruled out that it comes from a votive or funerary deposit, undoubtedly related to an important personage of the time.

The generous donation of the Sobrefoz sword enriches the already extraordinary collection of the Archaeological Museum of Asturias but, although it is a fundamental milestone in its biography, it is only the beginning of another stage in its own history, a new time in which, through the typological and metallographic study, researchers can reveal hitherto unknown aspects. With its entry into the Museum, it opens the possibility of deepening our knowledge of the metallurgical techniques practiced during the Bronze Age in Asturias and of verifying if, perhaps, the armorers who smelted and forged it used the copper that for centuries provided the mines of El Aramo or El Milagro to our prehistoric artisans.