Bronze Age sword
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Humans have manufactured and used metal bladed weapons from the Bronze Age onwards. The sword developed from the dagger when the construction of longer blades became possible, from the late 3rd millennium BC in the middle-east, first in arsenic copper, then in tin-bronze. The oldest sword-like weapons are found at Arslantepe, Turkey, and date to around 3300BC. It's however believed that these are longer daggers, and not the first ancestors of swords. The use of bronze swords spread through the Aegean into Europe, where it had reached most parts around 1700BC (in the form of Apa-type swords, or derived variants).
Swords longer than 90 cm were rare and not practical during the Bronze Age as this length exceeds the tensile strength of bronze, which means such long swords would bend easily. It was not until the development of stronger alloys such as steel that longswords became practical for combat.
The early swords, called "rapiers", typically had long and slender shaped blades intended for thrusting. Later swords were broader and were both cutting and thrusting weapons. A typical variant for European swords is the leafshaped blade, which was most common in North-West Europe at the end of the bronze age, in the UK and Ireland in particular. The carp's tongue sword is a type of bronze sword that was common to western Europe during the 8th century BC. The blade of the carp's tongue sword was wide and parallel for most of its length but the final third narrowed into a thinner end. The design was probably developed in north western France and combined the broad blade useful for slashing with a thinner, elongated tip suitable for stabbing. Its advantages saw its adoption across Atlantic Europe. In Britain, the metalwork in the south east derived its name from this sword: the Carp's Tongue complex.
The hilt, either from organic materials or bronze (the latter often highly decorated f.e. with spiral patterns), at first simply allowed a firm grip and prevented the hand from slipping onto the blade when executing a thrust or the blade flying out of the hand in a cut.
The Naue Type II Swords which spread from Southern Europe into the Mediterranean, have been linked by Robert Drews with the Late Bronze Age collapse.[1]
Sword production in China is attested from the Bronze Age Shang Dynasty. The technology for bronze swords reached it's highpoint during the Warring States period and Qin Dynasty. Amongst the Warring States period swords, some unique technologies were used, such as casting high tin edges over softer, lower tin cores, or the application of diamond shaped patterns on the blade (see the sword of Gou Jian). Also unique for Chinese bronzes is the consistant use of high tin bronze (17-21% tin) which is very hard and breaks if stressed too far, whereas other cultures prefered lower tin bronze (usually 10%), which bends if stressed too far. Although iron swords were made alongside bronze, it wasn't until the early Han Dynasty that iron completely replaced bronze, making China the last place were bronze was used in swords.
The history of Indian sword goes back to very early time as examplified by several sculptures, paintings and coins. However, the earliest available swords of copper discovered from the Harappan sites date back to 2300 B.C. Swords have been recovered in archaeological findings throughout the Ganges-Jamuna Doab region of India, consisting of bronze but more commonly copper.[2] Diverse specimen have been discovered in Fatehgarh, where there are several varieties of hilt.[3] These swords have been variously dated to periods between 1700-1400 BC, but were probably used more extensively during the opening centuries of the 1st millennium BCE.[4]
Not every culture that used bronze also developed swords. The steppe tribes f.e. prefered short daggers (the akinakes). In South America, bronze was used by the Incas, and although the concept of the sword was known in the form of wooden swords with stone edges (the macahuitl), they did not develope bronze swords.
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[edit] Notes
- ^ The Naue Type II Sword
- ^ F.R. Allchin, 111-112
- ^ F.R. Allchin, 111-112
- ^ F.R. Allchin, 114
[edit] References
- R.F. Tylecote, The early history of metallurgy in Europe (1987) [1]
- F.R. Allchin in South Asian Archaeology 1975: Papers from the Third International Conference of the Association of South Asian Archaeologists in Western Europe, Held in Paris (December 1979) edited by J.E.van Lohuizen-de Leeuw. Brill Academic Publishers, Incorporated. Pages 106-118. ISBN 9004059962.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- The Bronze Age Rapier by Dr Barry Molloy (2005)
- The Naue II Sword by Brock Hoagland
- Bronze age swords casting by Neil Burridge
- Reproduction bronze age swords using authentic materials and methods (bronze-age-craft.com)
- Reproductions of bronze age swords (1501bc.com)
- From Rapier to Langsax: Sword Structure in the British Isles in the Bronze and Iron Ages by Niko Silvester (1995)
