The differentiation of identity – a hierarchy of symbols. Initial thoughts on the information potential of the Nordic Bronze Age miniature swords. (original) (raw)
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Tales of Hoards and Swordfighters in Early Bronze Age Scandinavia: The Brand New and the Broken
Norwegian Archaeological Review 47 (1), 18-41., 2014
This article focuses on the complexity of Early Bronze Age weapon depositions. While some of the deposited weapons have been disabled by intentional breakage, others seem to be more or less unused. A plausible explanation for the variability is that the surrender of lethal weapons to land or water was a means of coping with their power or agency – their individuality. We suggest that weapons, in their capacity as extensions of warriors’ bodies, may have substituted for humans in ritual depositions. The metalworkers also come into play, due to their capacities in the processes of making weapons and shaping weapon technologies. Although we consider the three depositions that we discuss to relate to rituals on the occasion of warfare, we are not aiming for a uniform explanation. In the same way as the patterned human behaviour of a ritual is a means of subsuming individual events into a greater order, so a focus on general patterns may subsume the complexity of the past by ignoring the many different events leading to, e.g., the deposition of metalwork. Far from seeing these perspectives as contradictory, we try to use three well-documented individual cases to shed light on the variability within the pattern.
Crafting Swords. The emergence and production of full-hilted swords in the Early Nordic Bronze Age
Prähistorische Zeitschrift 91, 2016, 379-430., 2016
The swords of southern Scandinavia and northern Germany have so far been studied mainly from a typological perspective. Therefore, the Early Bronze Age full-hilted swords in Denmark and Schleswig-Holstein are examined in this article from a technical perspective combining macro- and microscopic examination, X-ray and trace element analyses as well as lead isotope analyses of the metal. In period I swords came as an innovation to southern Scandinavia through imports of swords of the Hajdúsámson-Apa group. Initially the Nordic craftsmen imitated these imports by using their traditional solid casting technique. Only late in period I did they adopt different casting techniques of Central European origin and use them to produce swords in the Hajdúsámson-Apa and Valsømagle traditions. By period II the characteristic Nordic full-hilted swords had emerged, which are highly individual in form, ornamentation and technique. They were most probably produced by many different workshops; in some cases it is even possible to attribute several swords to a common workshop tradition, individual workshop or even craftsman. In period III the Nordic full-hilted swords became much more standardised but were still unlikely to have been produced in a single workshop. The development of swords shows a tendency away from highly diverse forms, ornaments and techniques towards more standardised objects; this pattern is also visible among other finds. Altogether, the Nordic cultural area has a highly distinctive identity, with its own metalworking and sword producing tradition since the late period I and early period II. The diversity of period II and the uniformity of period III suggest that the communication and mobility of the craftsmen and sword-bearers was intensive. The importance of lineage and kinship for the organisation of the undoubtedly institutionalised metal craft is stressed, while the frequently assumed tight control over production by an elite is called into question. Despite different levels of skill and competence, there are no indications that the metalworkers had a significant identity as craftsmen in Early Nordic Bronze Age society.
Weapons, fighters and combat: spears and swords in Early Bronze Age Scandinavia
Danish Journal of Archaeology
This article deals with the use-wear analysis of 204 weapons of Period I of the Early Nordic Bronze Age. The analysed sample contained 154 spearheads and 50 swords and was made up of approximately one-third of the contemporaneous weapons in Southern Scandinavia. The use-wear analysis was undertaken with a source critical view on corrosion and other taphonomic processes. The information obtained was used to see how use-wear and taphonomic processes influence each other. Use-wear analysis was employed to evaluate statements regarding the functionality, or rather non-functionality, of Early Bronze Age weaponry. According to the results, spears and swords were not only functional but also very frequently used. Further deductions can be made from the material. Despite a difference in the scale of fighting, spears and swords show essentially the same kind of combat wear. It is argued that this relates to essentially similar styles of fighting that employ both cutting and stabbing movements and are perhaps most appropriately termed ‘fencing’. This style of fighting possibly emerged from frequent encounters of sword and spear fighters in the closely interconnected world of Southern Scandinavia during Period I of the Early Bronze Age. In these engagements, a partial homogenising effect of warfare and fighting becomes visible. Yet, it is not the only effect that accompanies combat and war. Diversification and homogenisation are not mutually exclusive or contradictive. Accordingly, they took place simultaneously and helped develop fighting styles and weapon technologies.
Personification and Life: The Ornamental and Spiritual Functions of Bronze Age Weapons in Europe
The violent uses of Bronze Age weapons are quite obvious, especially given the conditions many artifacts are often recovered in. However, could there be other purposes for such ornate and personalized weapons found in the Bronze Age? Notable artifacts recovered from temperate Europe suggest that weapons were used as more than tools; in fact, many may have been seen by Bronze Age humans as different living beings completely. This essay will argue that weapons often doubled as tools and symbolic objects that were a part of rituals, had biographies and were seen as historical items with an identity, and that some were even perceived to be their own living beings with a life cycle by the Europeans of the Bronze Age.
Weapon and tool use during the Nordic Bronze Age
Danish Journal of Archaeology, 2019
Wear analyses of 100 bladed objects including swords, spears, daggers, and knives dating to the Nordic Bronze Age was conducted focusing on Northern Germany. These analyses indicate changing patterns for tip and edge wear, the relationship of curvatures, fractures, and cracks, and for different traces of repairs. Comparing these results to published wear analyses suggests changing patterns across object forms and time. It can be hypothesized that there is a trend towards accommodating fighting style preferences with diverging object designs. This started at the end of the Late Neolithic with the change from halberds to swords/daggers and spears. The changing patterns were interpreted as indications of shifts in the use of swords, spears, and daggers following changes in the design of these objects. Swords and spears were used in increasingly more specialised motions over time, i.e. swords in slashing/cutting and spears more often for thrusting. Daggers may have shifted away from a role as combat weapons to multipurpose tools more in line with period III knives. This was interpreted as evidence for the existence of a technological network in which changes in design and use of bladed objects inform each other. The results provide the base for future research into object design, specialization, and social significance that can test the hypotheses put forward in this paper.
The tale of the sword–swords and swordfighters in Bronze Age Europe
Oxford journal of Archaeology, 2002
Summary. In this article1 it is demonstrated through empirical observation that Bronze Age swords were functional and efficient weapons. Their use in real combat is testified by recurring patterns of blade damage and resharpening. Furthermore, ritual depositions of swords with unrepaired scars on the blade demonstrate the prehistoric roots of the Celtic–Germanic–Greek ritual of sacrificing weapons after a victorious fight.
Fornvännen, 2013
A key feature of swords from the Migration and Merovingian Period is that they consist of many different parts, as recently highlighted by the discovery of the Staffordshire hoard. This paper seeks to order sword parts and their depositional contexts, by interpreting them as symbols of kleptocracy and animated by their object biographies in the Migration and Merovingian Period martial society. This is done by evaluating four important finds from Sweden: a stray find of an intact sword from Scania, the cremation grave from Heberg, Halland, the wetland deposit of Snösbäck, Västergötland, and the settlement of Uppåkra, Scania. The actual presence of the various different parts varies substantially in the different kinds of contexts. In particular, the Uppåkra settlement is missing hundreds of sword parts that ought to have been there given the professional excavations and systematic detecting over the years that have otherwise produced a vast number of finds. This allows for the interpretation of the Uppåkra sword parts as the remains of a battlefield where a substantial number of sword parts have been removed from the site already in the late 6th century or early 7th century.