European Bronze Age swords had high functional and symbolic value, and therefore they are an interesting case for approaching questions of provenance and trade in Bronze Age Europe. It is often ...assumed that there is a strong affinity between metal supplies and artefact type. However, this study demonstrates that metal supply and sword types are mostly unrelated. In this paper we present a comparative provenance study of 118 Bronze Age swords, which includes lead isotope and trace elemental data for swords from Scandinavia, Germany and Italy dated between 1600 and 1100 BCE. About 70% of the swords have been analysed and published before while about 30% have been sampled and analysed for this study. The chronology and geography of the deposited swords indicate that the different regions relied on different metal trade routes which changed during the course of the Bronze Age. The analytical data indicates that the largest variation of the origin of copper is in the period of 1600–1500 BCE, when copper ores from Wales, Austria and Slovakia constituted the major copper sources for the swords. There is a visible change around 1500 BCE, when copper mines in the Italian Alps become the main suppliers for Scandinavian and Italian swords, while swords from Germany were foremost based on copper from Slovakia and Austria. Further, in the period 1300–1100 BCE the sources in the Italian Alps became the dominant supplier of copper for the swords in all regions discussed here.
There are considerable studies have been carried out on the characteristics, typologies, and useful features of Bronze Age swords. However, a comprehensive evaluation of these findings has not been ...made in Troy, which is one of the most important Bronze Age centers in Western Anatolia. Especially the marble and ivory sword pommels, which were found in almost every period of the Troy excavations since Heinrich Schliemann’s excavations, were not evaluated as a whole, and also partially misinterpreted. Contrary to the previous examples, the pommel, found outside of the citadel during the 2019 Troy excavations indicates the widespread use of the aforementioned finds. From the 1871 Heinrich Schliemann excavations until the recent excavations, 21 sword pommels were found in Troy. Particularly, the semi-engraved pommel found in the excavations carried out by in 1988-2005 shows that one of the workshops where these swords were produced was probably in Troy. It seems unlikely that this semi-engraved sample, which stands out as a strong evidence of domestic production, was imported in its current form. The fact that this product is produced in Troy means that we have added a new one to the Mycenaean imitation products produced in Troy. Sword pommels were found quite a lot during excavations, existence of rich weapon production technology in Troy combined with the moat and strong walls shows that Troy could also have an important place in sword production. In this article, the hilt heads of the swords found in the Troy excavations were re-evaluated and interpreted.
The article analyzes reconstruction results of the mounted swordsmanship system developed by John Gaspard Le Marchant in his “Rules and Regulations for the Sword Exercise of the Cavalry“. The ...analysis is applied to the Pattern 1796 Light Cavalry sword which was presented in two original copies. Experiments, including performance of horse-riding techniques, established the aspects of adapting the Pattern 1796 Light Cavalry sword to the requirements of Regulations. The article reveals the peculiarities of sword techniques which either were not directly and clearly fixed in Regulations, or in principle could not be described in detail due to the abstract nature of the manual. This demonstrates the fact that the author of Regulations had some ideal view on mounted swordsmanship system. The article establishes the main reasons why the author of Regulations chooses cuts as a priority attacking action against equestrian opponents. Experiments allowed to determine critical moments for cutting which relate to an additional leverage effect of a handle inside a palm and a movement of a straight arm horizontally towards the impact. Analysis defines the reasons for complicating the system by introducing original ways of holding a sword for parries and thrusts, as well as the conditions for using the Pattern 1796 Light Cavalry sword in such cases. Other sources on mounted swordsmanship are also considered in the article which allows to additionally confirm a number of theses, as well as to reveal some technical nuances missed in Regulations themselves. A conclusion is made about the original nature of Le Marchant’s system.
The claim that the historical Jesus was a violent revolutionary has seen a revival in recent years with the work of Dale Martin and Fernando Bermejo-Rubio. Central to their case is the datum that ...Jesus’s disciples were armed at the time of his arrest in anticipation of their active participation in an end-time battle. However, whilst it can be established that it is likely that the disciples did carry bladed implements that could be used as weapons, when the literary and material-cultural evidence is scrutinised more closely, it is unreasonable to infer that these were intended to be used for apocalyptic ends or that the disciples or anyone else would see them as evidence of military intent.
The article attempts to reconstruct the sword wielding system of French heavy and line Cavalry (XI/XIII pattern) which actually established in 1803-1815. The necessity and importance of this ...reconstruction is explained by the following fact: it was only in 1829 when the first official regulations which specified the training of cavalrymen in detail, including the wielding of long-bladed cold arms, appeared in France. The system discussed in the article has not been formulated or described separately. However, it can be reconstructed relying on the draft manual “A New System of Swordsmanship in the Cavalry” (1818) by the British Cavalry officer Charles Edward Radclyffe. The manual can be referred to because the system it describes appears to be a borrowing of the sword wielding system (XI/XIII pattern) established during the Napoleonic Wars, which is also justified in the article. Descriptions of cavalrymen of the Napoleonic period were also used during the study. Reconstructing the system of sword wielding (XI/XIII pattern) confirms the thesis about priority use of thrusts. Among revealed characteristics are offensive and aggressive nature of the system, predominant use of active thrusts, wide use of thrusts in quarte position, and original combination of thrusts and parries in a one-tempo action called “counter thrust”. The latter technique is central to understanding the system and accounts for the rarity of mentioning separate parries in memoirs of French cavalrymen. The secondary importance of cuts was determined by blade configuration, specific balance of the thrusting weapon and its considerable mass.
Many late medieval documents, notably inventories of arms and armour, of Englishmen contain references to 'Scottish swords' and other weapons. What did the compilers of these documents mean when they ...described a weapon as 'Scottish'? How did such weapons come to be in the possession of these men? This article will attempt to explain this phenomenon drawing on primary documentary sources and surviving material culture from Glasgow Museums' collections and others, as well as artworks from the period.
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