No expert here but the dude on the hilt/that ‘is’ the hilt sure looks Greek/Roman in style. And the Romans liked short swords so I suppose it’s possible.
As to the actual arrival circumstance, I’d ‘guess’ loot from a Viking haul that arrived via said Vikings.
“As to the actual arrival circumstance, I’d ‘guess’ loot from a Viking haul that arrived via said Vikings.”
For more than fifty years now I have wondered why in the world anyone should be surprised to find there had been numerous pre-Columbian contacts between the Old World and New World cultures going back into the Paleolithic periods.
I like the story about the Carthaginian and Israeli sailors who voyaged from the Sinai, around the Cape of Good Hope, northwards through the Atlantic Ocean, and were shipwrecked in the Gulf of Mexico by a hurricane. Succeeding generations were integrated into an ancient tribe of Amerindians, who were compelled to migrate from Florida to Oklahoma, where 20th Century professors claimed to discover they were using an ancient form of Hebrew language and religious ceremony with an origin story describing their shipwreck.
Roman swords did not have hilts like that. They really didn’t have them at all.
Actually the hilt looks more like a Celtic style. Celts have a long sword that has that kind of hilt/pommel configuration from history. But I haven’t seen a short sword with one. Could be before they started making longer blades. It isn’t roman as they preferred a more half moon style hilt with rounded pommel. Greek maybe... Perhaps the “sea peoples”? Don’t know enough about their origins to guess honestly.