Publication details
Sword-fighting in Bronze Age Europe: assessing the use of bronze swords from Bohemia and Moravia
| Authors | |
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| Year of publication | 2022 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
| Citation | |
| Description | This poster presents the defined individual categories of combat marks on Bronze Age swords from Bohemia and Moravia and explores their function to grasp their practical use and significance. How the bronze swords were used is still a valid question in European traceology. We find various types of traces of use of which many are related to their functionality as weapons. As a distinctive category of artefact, the first swords appear during the Bronze Age, and this could suggest the change of the nature of violent conflict. Nevertheless, for a long time, there persisted an opinion that rebutted this interpretation and questioned the functionality of bronze swords, describing them rather as ceremonial objects. I have amassed the collection of more than 40 swords from different contexts, which were analyzed with the combination of various use-wear methods. I have identified and classified categories of combat marks, which are often found on Bronze Age swords. Based on the combat marks on ancient weapons and experimental reference marks from my experiments, I was able to identify the precise nature of various types of combat damage. Analyses of the combat marks revealed a multitude of clusters and patterns and main concentration on the one segment of the blade, so-called "pivot point". What is important is that traces that are most frequently identified are usually related to blade repairs. This could influence the way we interpret the sword-fighting techniques as well as how we should understand their evolution. |