Tales of Hoards and Swordfighters in Early Bronze Age Scandinavia: The Brand New and the Broken

Melheim, Lene; Horn, Christian

doi:10.1080/00293652.2014.920907

Cited by 22 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…Arguably, mark patterns and clusters contain higher quality information about prehistoric fighting styles than individual marks. This is because they are generated by repetitive, normative actions grounded in prolonged engagement with the weapon, muscle memory, and the mental and physiological changes caused by martial training and practice (Malafouris 2008;Melheim and Horn 2014;Molloy 2008;Warnier 2011). Fighting styles, we posit, emerge from the historically contingent nexus of cultural, physical, and neurological transformations brought about by sustained weapon engagement.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…Moreover, European fencing manuals arose out of specific historical contexts determining the correct way (or indeed ways) in which swords had to be used, by whom, and in which encounters and settings. As Melheim and Horn (2014) perceptively argued, drawing on Mauss' (1973) notion of les techniques du corps, learning to use a weapon involves the incorporation of socially specific bodily techniques. We cannot presume that Bronze Age bodies and medieval/ Renaissance bodies would act in the same ways while fighting because fighting is a socially constituted activity, which is predicated upon a corpus of embodied knowledge unique to each society (Crellin et al 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Bronze Age Swordsmanship: New Insights from Experiments and Wear Analysis

Hermann

Dolfini

Crellin

et al. 2020

J Archaeol Method Theory

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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.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bronze Age Swordsmanship: New Insights from Experiments and Wear Analysis

Hermann

Dolfini

Crellin

et al. 2020

J Archaeol Method Theory

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“…These marks are outside of what one usually observes and either too numerous, too severe or two unusual to fit normal wear categories. These marks are most easily and commonly interpreted as examples of intentional damage (for a parallel discussion of intentional damage to halberds see Horn 2011, and for swords see Melheim and Horn, 2014).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Examining the British and Irish Early Bronze Age flat axes of the Greenwell Collection at the British Museum

Crellin

2018

Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports

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This paper presents the results of metalwork wear-analysis carried out on British and Irish Early Bronze Age copper and copper-alloy flat axes from the collection of Rev. Greenwell (1820-1918) held at the British Museum. Greenwell was a prolific and well-known British antiquarian; part of his collection was sold to John Pierpont Morgan who donated the axes to the museum in 1908. This paper focuses on the copper and copper-alloy flat axes from within this collection, which date to c. 2500-1700 cal BC and are the earliest form of metal axe in Britain and Ireland. The 38 axes are drawn from across Britain and Ireland, and whilst the contextual information associated with them is not complete this paper shows that there is still much we can learn from these objects using metalwork wear-analysis. In addition, some methodological insights are drawn from this analysis: in particular the paper advocates for more detailed recording of corrosion and specific recording of wear marks to the butts of axes. Highlights • This paper presents the results of metalwork wear-analysis carried out on copper and copper-alloy flat axes from Britain and Ireland held by the British Museum as part of the Greenwell Collection • It argues for the recording of additional data during metalwork wear-analysis regarding corrosion which can allow practitioners to interpret information regarding hafting. • At present, it is standard to observe wear on the blades of axes, however, this paper argues that analysis of the butt can also be informative • The paper demonstrates that the majority of axes deposited at this time were used but that the nature of that use was varied. Many axes were deposited whilst still suitable for use and some were even sharpened prior to deposition. • The paper also reveals some specific histories of different axes that were combined in hoards and indicates the potential for further research focused on hoarding in the Early Bronze Age.

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“…They focus "on three main topics, i.e., ships and shipping, agriculture and livestock, and weapons and duels" (Bibby 1960: 279) all of which being typical also of the Homeric world. Besides, "feuds, raiding and piracy were regular occurrences in the lives of the Nordic people," (Melheim 2014: 2) as they were in Homer. Moreover, "The variety of Germanic bronze objects was amazing: there were precious swords, valued ornaments, goldplated cult discs, clips, buckles, helmets, shields, chokers and even shaving, ear and manicure sets (…) 1500 years before the arrival of the Romans in the Nordic territories, there were already such very high standards of living and civilization, that they can only be compared to the Greek civilization of the same period" (Fischer-Fabian 1985: 90).…”

Section: The Nordic Bronze Age and "The Collapse Of The Traditional Fmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Nordic Origins of the Iliad and Odyssey: An Up-to-date Survey of the Theory

Vinci¹

2017

AJMS

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An up-to-date survey of the theory proposed in "The Baltic Origins of Homer's Epic Tales" is presented here. The real setting of the Iliad and Odyssey can be identified not as the Mediterranean Sea, where it proves to be undermined by many incongruities, but rather in the north of Europe. The oral sagas that originated the two poems came from the Baltic regions, where the Bronze Age flourished in the 2nd millennium BC and where many Homeric places, such as Troy and Ithaca, can still be identified today. The blond seafarers who founded the Mycenaean civilization in the Aegean in the 16th century BC brought these tales from Scandinavia to Greece after the end of the climatic optimum. These peoples then rebuilt their original worldwhere the Trojan War and many other mythological events had taken placefarther south in Mediterranean waters, transferring significant names from north to south. Through many generations, they preserved the memory of the heroic age and the feats performed by their ancestors in their lost Hyperborean homeland, until the oral tradition was put into written form around the 8th Century BC, when alphabetical writing was introduced in Greece. This new prospect can open new developments as to the European prehistory and the dawn of the Greek civilization.

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Tales of Hoards and Swordfighters in Early Bronze Age Scandinavia: The Brand New and the Broken

Cited by 22 publications

References 27 publications

Bronze Age Swordsmanship: New Insights from Experiments and Wear Analysis

Bronze Age Swordsmanship: New Insights from Experiments and Wear Analysis

Examining the British and Irish Early Bronze Age flat axes of the Greenwell Collection at the British Museum

The Nordic Origins of the Iliad and Odyssey: An Up-to-date Survey of the Theory

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