'Brazil nut' pommels

'BRAZIL NUT POMMEL' SWORDS: 300 years on the battlefields.

Brazil Nut is a modern term for the characteristic shape of sword pommels.
This huge group of medieval swords was produced widely across Europe from the 10th to the end of the 12th century, and some variants of these pommels we also found even in the late 13th century examples (I define the maximum time frame of the occurrence between the years 930 and 1270). This group includes swords with one-piece pommels, unlike the earlier, mostly complex ones of various types (typologies by Ian Petersen, Alfred Geibig). Brazil nut pommels were very rarely decorated. They were quite often hollow inside and mostly made with iron, less often from a copper alloy.
We know many types and subtypes of these pommels, as they were a very popular form throughout Europe. Ewart Oakeshott classified 6 or 8 types from this group, depending on our interpretation. Similarly, Alfred Geibig distinguishes about 6 to 10 subtypes, depending on our interpretation.

Taking into account the period of production of such heads, which in my opinion is an important factor in the classification, as well as their specific form inevitably related to the style of handling and tactic, I distinguished 10 clearly different types with their varieties. This gave a total of 43 subtypes. This is a lot, taking into account the important differences that distinguish each subtype. 
It is worth noting here that the term 'brazil nut pommel' often refers to a narrow group of pommels with a specific shape. However, it is certainly a much wider typological group. Many subtypes are shaped more like a mushroom head, crescent moon, or boat. You can see it in my classification where the type 'brazil nut' is number 2 from 10 types of only this group of pommels. The differences are very clear and the remaining pommels deserve a separate type, especially since they are not single finds, but whole groups of swords from different museums. In fact, it is a huge group of hundreds of swords that have many common features. At the same time, each of them is different and requires separate analysis, also in terms of the typology of each element.

This is a very important group of swords. It was these swords that replaced the Viking swords...
These swords appeared in the hands of the Normans, we see these swords on the Bayeaux fabric and dozens of manuscripts, these are the swords used during the Crusades. 
These swords were actually conquering whole Europe and Middle East ...