Bronze Weaponry and Cultural Mobility in Late Bronze Age Southeast Europe

Molloy, Barry

doi:10.1017/9781316884522.007

Cited by 4 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…Wear from use is common on these swords (For example, NMI W107, 3D model of blade section: ), though evidence for blade-on-blade impacts is frequently in the form of shallow knocks and nicks, occasionally deeper nicks and notches (Molloy, 2011: 75–76; Molloy, 2006: 4–5 for terminology) (Figure 3), and in exceptional cases blades are cut through or fractured entirely. There is no identifiable distribution pattern for instances of wear along blades that could indicate specific trends in fighting practice (Molloy, 2006: 19–57). A similar irregularity of damage is noted by York (2002) for contemporary swords from the Thames, and by Matthews (2011) for Middle–Late Bronze Age Chelsea and Ballintober swords in Britain.…”

Section: The Middle Bronze Agementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Experiments were conducted by the author using a long Group II and a short Group IV blade (Molloy, 2006 and 2007). The Group II sword had a thin cross-section and well-defined cutting edges whereas the Group IV example was very narrow with a central rib and poorly-defined/shallow cutting edges.…”

Section: The Middle Bronze Agementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Spearheads as an umbrella term include objects almost small enough to be arrowheads and others that are larger than contemporary swords (Figure 4). Ehrenberg's (1977) ‘rapier-headed’ spearheads are particularly striking because they look like contemporary swords, and for the Irish material they are included in what I have loosely called a Fiarlann group of side-looped spearheads comprising particularly long and fine side-looped pieces (Molloy, 2006: 100; see also Ramsey's 1989 types Gara, and Derrygill and Davis's 2012 Types 6D and 7E). These are quite large in comparison to other side-loop varieties, in the region of 28 cm in length, and have more acutely pointed blades.…”

Section: The Middle Bronze Agementioning

confidence: 99%

“…The spear had come to no longer be a weapon intended to injure through penetration/stabbing attacks alone, but could now be used for a wide variety of attacking trajectories. This exponentially increases the utility and martial techniques of spearmanship (Molloy, 2006; Anderson, 2011; Horn, 2013c).…”

Section: The Middle Bronze Agementioning

confidence: 99%

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Hunting Warriors: The Transformation of Weapons, Combat Practices and Society during the Bronze Age in Ireland

Molloy

2017

Eur. j. archaeol.

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Warfare is increasingly considered to have been a major field of social activity in prehistoric societies, in terms of the infrastructures supporting its conduct, the effects of its occurrence, and its role in symbolic systems. In the Bronze Age many of the weapon forms that were to dominate battlefields for millennia to come were first invented—shields and swords in particular. Using the case study of Ireland, developments in Bronze Age warfare are traced from the Early to the Late Bronze Age. It is argued that during this period there was a move from warfare that made use of projectiles and impact weapons to warfare that used both defensive and cutting weapons. This formed the basis for a fundamental reorganization in combat systems. This in turn stimulated change in the social organization of warfare, including investment in material and training resources for warriors and the development of new bodily techniques reflecting fundamental changes in martial art traditions. Metalwork analysis of bronze weapons and experimental archaeology using replicas of these are used to support this position. The article explores how developments in fighting techniques transformed the sociality of violence and peer-relations among warriors and proposes that these warriors be regarded as a category of craft specialist exerting significant social influence by the Late Bronze Age.

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Section: The Middle Bronze Agementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Middle Bronze Agementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Middle Bronze Agementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Middle Bronze Agementioning

confidence: 99%

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Hunting Warriors: The Transformation of Weapons, Combat Practices and Society during the Bronze Age in Ireland

Molloy

2017

Eur. j. archaeol.

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“…25; Connolly 1998, 232). Alongside these, Type Gi swords evolved that could make deeper and more deadly cuts than their Type C predecessors (Molloy 2006; 2010). The non-midribbed daggers and short swords of Late Minoan II–III were more stocky and robust than their long and thin predecessors and thus capable of making stronger, percussive, cutting attacks.…”

Section: Weaponry In Corporementioning

confidence: 99%

Martial Minoans? War as Social Process, Practice and Event in Bronze Age Crete

Molloy

2012

Annu. Br. Sch. Athens

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Together with politics, economics and religion, war is one of the fundamental factors that can shape a society and group identities. In the prehistoric world, the sources for the study of war are disparate and their interpretation can be inconsistent and problematic. In the case of Crete in the Bronze Age, a systematic analysis of the evidence will be undertaken for the first time in this paper, and this opportunity is used to critically evaluate the most effective ways of employing the widely agreed sets of physical correlates for ancient war in the archaeological record. A further objective in exploring the diachronic roles of war in these societies is to move the discussion from a niche field to a more integrated, and systematic, social analysis. The existence and character of a warrior identity is examined, and it is proposed that it often constituted a conspicuous element of male identity. The varying scales and time spans through which war can influence a society are discussed, and a broad framework for understanding war in social process, practices and events is proposed.

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Bronze Weaponry and Cultural Mobility in Late Bronze Age Southeast Europe

Cited by 4 publications

References 15 publications

Hunting Warriors: The Transformation of Weapons, Combat Practices and Society during the Bronze Age in Ireland

Hunting Warriors: The Transformation of Weapons, Combat Practices and Society during the Bronze Age in Ireland

Martial Minoans? War as Social Process, Practice and Event in Bronze Age Crete

An experimental investigation of cutmark analysis of sharp force trauma in the Bronze Age

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