And it so happened that in the process of exchanging views on the materials published in VO, the interest of a fairly significant part of the users of this site to … the weapons of the Bronze Age and, in particular, the weapons and armor of the legendary Trojan War, became clear. Well - the topic is really very interesting. In addition, almost everyone is familiar, even at the level of a school history textbook for the fifth grade. "Copper-sharp spears", "shining helmet Hector", "the famous shield of Achilles" - all this is from there. And besides, this historical event itself is unique. After all, people learned about him from a poem, a work of art. But it turned out that having learned about him, and having shown the corresponding interest, they gained knowledge about a culture unknown to them before.
Black-figured ceramic vessel from Corinth depicting characters from the Trojan War. (About 590 - 570 BC). (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)
Well, and you will need to start from the very beginning. Namely, that the myth of Troy besieged by the Greeks was not supported by convincing facts until the end of the nineteenth century. But here, for the happiness of all mankind, the romantic childhood dream of Heinrich Schliemann received powerful financial support (Schliemann got rich!) And he immediately went to Asia Minor in search of the legendary Troy. After 355 A. D. This name was not mentioned anywhere, then Schliemann decided that the description that Herodotus had one to one fits under the Hissarlik hill and began to dig there. And he dug there since 1871 for more than 20 years, until his death. At the same time, he was no archaeologist! He removed the finds from the excavation site without describing them, threw away everything that did not seem valuable to him and dug, dug, dug … Until he found "his" Troy!
Many scientists of that time doubted that this really was Troy, but the British Prime Minister William Gladstone began to patronize him, he got a professional archaeologist Wilhelm Dornfeld in his team, and gradually the secret of the ancient city began to be revealed! Their most amazing discovery was that they discovered as many as nine cultural layers, that is, each time a new Troy was built on the rubble of the previous one. The oldest, of course, was Troy I, and the "youngest" Troy IX of the Roman period. Today, even more such layers (and sublayers) have been found - 46, so it turned out to be quite difficult to study Troy!
Schliemann believed that the Troy he needed was Troy II, but in fact, the real Troy is number VII. It has been proven that the city perished in the flames of a fire, and the remains of people found in this layer eloquently indicate that they died a violent death. The year when this happened is considered to be 1250 BC.
Ruins of ancient Troy.
Interestingly, during the excavation of Troy, Heinrich Schliemann discovered a treasure of gold jewelry, silver cups, bronze weapons, and he took all this for "the treasure of King Priam." Later it became clear that the "Priam's treasure" refers to an earlier era, but this is not the point, but that Schliemann simply appropriated it. His wife Sophia, a like-minded person and assistant, who secretly took all these things from the excavations, helped him to do this imperceptibly. But officially this treasure was supposed to belong to Turkey, but she did not get it except for a few small things. They placed him in the Berlin Museum, and during the Second World War he disappeared, and until 1991 where he was and what no one knew about him. But in 1991 it became known that since 1945 the treasure, taken as a trophy, is in Moscow in the Pushkin Museum im. A. S. Pushkin and today it can be seen in the hall №3.
Large diadem from "Treasure A" 2400 - 2200. BC. (The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts)
However, even without finds from this treasure, we know a lot about that time today. The fact is that professional archaeologists perceived Schliemann's discovery as a challenge, but took into account his experience and began to dig in all the places mentioned in Homer's Iliad - in Mycenae, Pylos, Crete. They found the "golden mask of Agamemnon", a lot of other items of that era, and just a very large number of swords and daggers.
And the good news is that they were bronze, not iron, and therefore well preserved! So, here's what scientists historians from all over the world think about swords and daggers of the era of the Trojan War, including the "master of swords" Ewart Oakeshott, in, so to speak, concentrated form …
In their opinion, the early swords of the Aegean Bronze Age are among the most striking artifacts of that era in terms of craftsmanship and luxury. Moreover, these could be ritual products, and samples of weapons actually used in the war. Early swords developed from daggers. The form is derived from stone daggers. The stone, however, is very fragile, and therefore cannot be made out of a long sword. With the introduction of copper and bronze, daggers eventually evolved into swords.
Rapier sword type CI. Kudonia, Crete. Length 83 cm.
The handle to this sword.
The earliest Aegean swords were found in Anatolia, Turkey, and date back to around 3300 BC. NS. The evolution of melee weapons from bronze is as follows: from the dagger or knife in the Early Bronze Age, to swords (“rapiers”) optimized for thrusting (Middle Bronze Age), and then to the typical leaf-shaped swords of the Late Bronze Age.
One of the earliest swords of the Aegean world is the sword from Naxos (circa 2800-2300 BC). The length of this sword is 35.6 cm, that is, it looks more like a dagger. A copper sword was discovered in the Cyclades in Amorgos. The length of this sword is already 59 cm. Several Minoan bronze short swords were found in Heraklion and Siwa. Their general design clearly shows that they are also descended from early leaf-shaped daggers.
But one of the most interesting inventions of the Aegean Bronze Age was the great sword. This weapon, which appeared by the middle of the second millennium BC on the island of Crete and on the territory of mainland Greece, differs from all early samples.
The famous palace at Knossos. Modern look. Photo by A. Ponomarev.
The territory occupied by the palace was huge and what is not being excavated there. Photo by A. Ponomarev.
Analysis of some specimens shows that the material is an alloy of copper and tin, or arsenic. When the percentage of copper or tin is high, the blades can be distinguished even by their appearance, as they are reddish or silver in color, respectively. Whether this was done deliberately to mimic high-value metal items such as gold and silver, to make these swords or daggers look beautiful, or simply the result of incorrectly calculating the correct amount of alloy additives is unknown. For the typology of bronze swords found in Greece, the Sandars classification is used, according to which swords are located in eight main groups, under the letters from A to H, plus numerous subtypes, which in this case are not given due to their abundance.
Sandars classification. It clearly shows that the most ancient swords 500 years before the fall of Troy (and it is believed to have taken place in 1250 BC) were exceptionally piercing! Two hundred years before her, swords with V-shaped crosshairs and a high rib on the blade appeared. The handle was now also molded in one piece with the blade. For 1250, swords with an H-shaped handle are characteristic, with which, in principle, you can cut and stab. Its base was cast at the same time as the blade, after which wooden or bone "cheeks" were attached to it on rivets.
The connection between Minoan triangular small swords or daggers and long swords can be traced, for example, in a specimen found in Malia, Crete (about 1700 BC). It has characteristic rivet holes in the tail of the blade and a pronounced rib. That is, this sword, like the early daggers, did not have a handle. The handle was wooden and riveted with massive caps. It is clear that it was impossible to chop with such a sword, but to stab - as much as you like! Surprisingly luxurious was the finishing of its handle, which was covered with a gold engraved leaf, and a wonderful piece of rock crystal was used as the top.
Dagger ca 1500 BC Length 24.3 cm. Decorated with gold wire notch.
Longswords-rapiers were found in a palace in Crete in Mallia, in Mycenaean tombs, in the Cyclades, in the Ionian Islands and in Central Europe. Moreover, both in Bulgaria and in Denmark, in Sweden and in England. These swords sometimes reach a meter in length. All have a riveted handle, a high diamond-shaped rib, except for those cases when it has a complex decor.
The hilts of these swords were made of wood or ivory and sometimes decorated with gold overlays. The swords date back to 1600-1500. BC, and the most recent examples are around 1400 BC. The length ranges from 74 to 111 cm. They also find a scabbard, or rather their remains. Based on these findings, we can conclude that they were made of wood and often carried gold jewelry. Moreover, the preservation of metal and even wooden (!) Parts, which made it possible to carry out radiocarbon analysis of these items, makes it possible to completely reconstruct the swords and daggers of this period, which was done, in particular, on the instructions of the archaeological museum in Mycenae.
Swords were worn on richly decorated sashes, the decor of which has also come down to our time. Well, the confirmation that stabbing blows were inflicted with such swords are the images of soldiers who fight with them on rings and seals. At the same time, modern dating shows that a number of such swords were made during the 200 years of the Homeric Trojan War!
Reconstruction of the F2c sword by Peter Connolly.
In this regard, many historians note that such long stabbing swords were in service with the "peoples of the sea" and, in particular, the famous shardans, known in the same Egypt from the images on the walls of the temple in Medinet Abu in 1180 BC.
It is worth paying attention once again to the fact that the existing opinion that these swords are suitable for anything other than their immediate purpose is incorrect. Replicas of these swords were tested, and they demonstrated their high effectiveness precisely as a thrusting weapon designed to make deadly attacks in the battle of the most real swordsmen!
That is, today the finds of bronze swords and daggers in the Aegean region are so voluminous that they made it possible to develop their typology and also draw a number of interesting conclusions. It is clear that all of them simply cannot be directly attributed to the Trojan War. This is nonsense! But we can talk about the "Homeric time", the Cretan-Mycenaean civilization, the "Aegean region", etc.
Reconstruction of two Naue II swords with riveted wooden handles. This type of sword was typical of Central and Northern Europe around 1000 BC.
Moreover, the proliferation of such weapons in European countries tells us that perhaps trade relations at that time were much more developed than it is commonly believed, so that it is quite possible to speak of "European internationalization" and "integration" in the Bronze Age. Specifically, this can be expressed in the fact that there was a certain people of seafarers - the same "peoples of the sea" who carried out voyages around the whole of Europe and spread Mycenaean and Cretan types of weapons, and, in particular, swords throughout Europe.
The image of the warriors of the "peoples of the sea" (shardans) on the relief from Medinet Abu.
Somewhere they found a use, but where the tactics of war were different, these weapons were purchased as "overseas curiosities" and donated to the gods. In addition, one can draw a conclusion about tactics: there was a people whose warriors were a caste, moreover, a rather closed one. The warriors of this people learned to use their long thrusting swords from childhood. And just to take this sword in hand, and it was impossible to cut with them from the shoulder. But then this caste died out.
Type F swords depicted in a fresco from Pylos (circa 1300 BC)
It took "soldiers" for the "mass army", who had neither the time nor the energy to teach, and the thrusting swords very quickly replaced the cutting ones. After all, a chopping blow is intuitive and much easier to learn than a thrust. Moreover, with a sword of such a complex design.
Achilles and Agamemnon: a Roman mosaic from Naples and … a Roman sword on the thigh of Achilles!
Scheps A. Sheps
