Bronze Age Swordsmanship: New Insights from Experiments and Wear Analysis

Abstract

The article presents a new picture of sword fighting in Middle and Late Bronze Age Europe developed through the Bronze Age Combat Project. The project investigated the uses of Bronze Age swords, shields, and spears by combining integrated experimental archaeology and metalwork wear analysis. The research is grounded in an explicit and replicable methodology providing a blueprint for future experimentation with, and wear analysis of, prehistoric copper-alloy weapons. We present a four-step experimental methodology including both controlled and actualistic experiments. The experimental results informed the wear analysis of 110 Middle and Late Bronze Age swords from Britain and Italy. The research has generated new understandings of prehistoric combat, including diagnostic and undiagnostic combat marks and how to interpret them; how to hold and use a Bronze Age sword; the degree of skill and training required for proficient combat; the realities of Bronze Age swordplay including the frequency of blade-on-blade contact; the body parts and areas targeted by prehistoric sword fencers; and the evolution of fighting styles in Britain and Italy from the late 2nd to the early 1st millennia BC. All primary data discussed in the article are available as supplementary material (Appendix) so as to allow scrutiny and validation of the research results.

Bioarchaeological investigations of the princely grave at Helmsdorf attesting to the violent death of an Early Bronze Age leader

“…207–209). We can assume, however, that experienced fighters mainly targeted body parts that—despite the use of armour—offered access to important blood vessels or life-sustaining organs in a bid to induce maximum blood loss and rapid incapacitation 56 . The neck, shoulder and abdomen are such areas.…”

Warriors as a Challenge: Violence, Rock Art, and the Preservation of Social Cohesion During the Nordic Bronze Age

“…Kristiansen, 1984Kristiansen, , 2002Horn, 2013;Bunnefeld, 2016;Horn & Karck, 2019). This includes V-notches on cutting edges caused by other blades, or U-notches which could have been cause by being hit with axes, or by blows against handles, bones, or the rims of shields (Gentile & van Gijn, 2019;Hermann et al, 2020). Furthermore, evidence of repairs indicates that weapons were kept in a combat-ready state, suggesting frequent violent engagements.…”

Reconstruct the unknown, replicate the uncontrollable. Current issues in the experimental archaeology of combat

“…The tests were designed to reproduce a series of collisions which were deemed to be the most elementary units of combat possible to perform with such weapons, using historical fencing manuals as a conceptual biomechanical scaffolding but devoid of any school-specific precept (on the challenges of reconstructing Bronze Age combat techniques with the help of historical combat manuals see van Gijn 2019, andHermann et al 2020b). The routine was broken down into single, synchronous movements of attack and defences to ensure control over the action and enable documentation after each collision.…”