By the La Tène period, iron had replaced bronze as the primary metal for blades — but bronze retained enormous prestige as a casting material for hilts, fittings and decorative elements. The combination of an iron or steel blade with a cast bronze anthropomorphic hilt represents one of the most accomplished expressions of Celtic craftsmanship — the two metals each doing what they did best, the iron providing edge and rigidity, the bronze providing the intricate cast detail that the anthropomorphic hilt required.

The anthropomorphic tradition in Celtic hilts — where the grip terminates in a human figure with legs forming the guard and raised arms and head creating the pommel — appears across the Celtic world from approximately the 4th century BC onward. These talismanic hilts were believed to invest the blade with the power and protection of the represented figure, connecting the warrior to something beyond the purely physical.

This larger version — bridging dagger and short sword in scale — makes the anthropomorphic hilt proportions particularly striking, the human figure larger and more clearly articulated than in a purely dagger-scale piece. The cast bronze hilt, steel blade and leather sheath complete a piece of considerable visual presence for Celtic re-enactment and display.