Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, "Armour Plates" to "Arundel, Earls of"
2. _Bronze Age._--It is impossible to assign any date as the beginning
1042 words | Chapter 3
of the Bronze Age; indeed, archaeology has shown that the adoption of
metal for weapons was very gradual. The stone weapon perseveres
alongside the bronze, and there exist stone axes which, by their shape,
suggest that they have been copied from metal axes. In the earliest
interments in which the weapons deposited with the dead are of other
materials than stone, a peculiar form of bronze dagger occurs. It
consists of a well-finished, thin, knife-like blade, usually about 6 in.
in length, broad at the hilt and tapering to the point, and attached to
the handle by massive rivets of bronze. It has been found associated
with stone celts; both of the roughly chipped and the highly polished
kind, showing that these had not been entirely disused when bronze
became available. A later type of bronze dagger is a broad, heavy,
curved weapon, usually from 9 to 15 in. in length, with massive rivets
for attachment to an equally massive handle. The leaf-shaped sword,
however, is the characteristic weapon of the Bronze Age. It is found all
over Europe, from Lapland to the Mediterranean. No warlike weapon of any
period is more graceful in form or more beautifully finished. The finish
seems to have been given in the mould without the aid of hammer or file,
the edge being formed by suddenly reducing the thickness of the metal,
so as to produce a narrow border of extreme thinness along both sides
of the blade from hilt to point. The handle-plate and blade were cast in
one piece, and the handle itself was formed by side plates of bone, horn
or wood, riveted through the handle-plates. There was no guard, and the
weapon, though short, was well balanced, but more fitted for stabbing
and thrusting than for cutting with the edge. The Scandinavian variety
is not so decidedly leaf-shaped, and is longer and heavier than the
common British form; and instead of a handle-plate, it was furnished
with a tang on which a round, flat-topped handle was fastened, like that
of the modern Highland dirk, sometimes surmounted by a crescent-like
ornament of bronze. A narrow, rapier-shaped variety, tapering from hilt
to point, was made without a handle-plate, and attached to the hilt by
rivets like the bronze daggers already mentioned. This form is more
common in the British Isles than in Scandinavia, and is most abundant in
Ireland. The spear-heads of the Bronze Age present a considerable
variety of form, though the leaf-shaped predominates, and barbed
examples are extremely rare. Some British weapons of this form
occasionally reach a length of 27 in. The larger varieties are often
beautifully designed, having segmental openings on both sides of the
central ridge of the blade, and elaborately ornamented with chevron
patterns of chased or inlaid work both on the socket and blade.
Arrow-points are much rarer in bronze than in flint. In all probability
the flint arrow-point (which was equally effective and much more easily
replaced when lost) continued to be used throughout the Bronze Age.
Shields of bronze, circular, with hammered-up bosses, concentric ridges
and rows of studs, were held in the hand by a central handle underneath
the boss. The transition period between the Bronze and Iron Ages in
central Europe is well defined by the occurrence of iron swords, which
are simple copies of the leaf-shaped weapon, sometimes with flat
handle-plate of bronze. These have been found associated with articles
assigned to the 3rd or 4th century B.C.
[Illustration: FIG. 3.--Bronze Spear-Head, length 19 inches.]
Hallstatt Weapons.
An important distinction between the characteristic bronze swords
peculiar to southern peoples and the swords both of iron and of bronze
found together in the Hallstatt cemeteries (in the Salzkammergut,
Austria, ancient Noricum) is that whereas the former invariably have
short handles (2-1/4 to 2-1/2 in.), the latter are provided with handles
from 3 to 3-1/2 in. long, terminating in a round or oval pommel; the
grip of one of the bronze swords even reaches a length of 4 in. The
hilts are decorated with ivory, amber, wood, bronze, horn, and the
decoration of blade and scabbard is often elaborate. The length of these
swords is sometimes as much as 30 to 33 in. Again at La Tene on Lake
Neuchatel iron swords have been found to the number of one hundred, with
handles of 4 to 7-1/2 in. long and a total length varying from 30 to 38
in. Similar remains have been found in France at Bibracte and Alesia,
and even in Ireland (cf. Munro, _The Lake-dwellings of Europe_, pp. 282,
383).
The occurrence at Hallstatt of bronze swords together with iron, having
the characteristic long handle, has led to the hypothesis that the
graves are those of an immigrant (probably Celtic) people of northern
extraction which had conquered and overlaid a smaller-framed Bronze Age
people, and had introduced the use of iron while continuing to use the
bronze of their predecessors with the necessary modifications. This
theory derived from tangible remains is corroborated by literary
evidence. Thus Polybius (ii. 33, iii. 114) describes the Celtic peoples
as fighting with a long pointless iron sword, which easily bent and was
in any case too large to be used easily in a melee.
The graves at Hallstatt yielded in addition to these important swords a
much larger number of spears. Of these two only were of bronze, the head
of the larger being 7-1/2 in. long. The much more numerous iron heads
range up to as much as 2 ft. in length, and are all fastened to the
shaft by rivets. All the arrow-heads found are of bronze, while of the
axes the great majority are of iron; a few have iron edges fitted in a
bed of bronze.
These examples are sufficient to show that the transition from bronze to
iron was very slow. The fact that they were found in a district which is
known to have been directly in the line of march pursued by invaders
from the north tends to confirm the theory that the introduction of iron
was the work of such invaders.
See Sir John Evans, _Ancient Stone Implements_ (2nd. ed., 1897),
_Bronze Implements_; W. Ridgeway, _Early Age of Greece_; and works
quoted under ARCHAEOLOGY.
Mycenaean and Homeric.
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