Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rdxmf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-30T19:38:37.789Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Going to Pieces: Investigating the Deliberate Destruction of Late Bronze Age Swords and Spearheads

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 June 2019

Matthew G. Knight
Matthew G. Knight*
Affiliation:
National Museum of Scotland, Chambers Street, Edinburgh EH1 1JF
*
Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The deliberate destruction of Late Bronze Age swords and spearheads has been widely recognised across Europe. This observation has typically relied on the obvious nature of the destruction, such as the bending of blades or the crushing of sockets, and the association of multiple broken pieces. These obvious acts have been used to interpret the material in sacred or profane terms without due consideration of how the objects were destroyed. This paper presents experimental research exploring how swords and spearheads may have been intentionally damaged in the Bronze Age. The results of these experiments are compared with artefacts from across Britain, making it possible to better identify and analyse deliberately destroyed objects. A series of implications for how one may more accurately interpret the wider archaeological record is presented.

Résumé

RÉSUMÉ

Tomber en morceaux: investigation de la destruction délibérée d’épées et de pointes de lance de l’âge du bronze tardif, de Matthew G. Knight

La destruction délibérée d’épées et de pointes de lance de l’âge du bronze tardif a été largement reconnue à travers l’Europe. Typiquement,cette observation reposait sur la nature évidente de la destruction, telle que des lames tordues et des manchons écrasés et l’association avec de multiples morceaux brisés. Ces actes évidents ont été utilisés pour interpréter le matériel en termes de sacré et de profane sans avoir prêté l’attention qui lui était due à la manière dont le matériel avait été détruit. Cet article présente des recherches expérimentales qui explorent comment des épées et des pointes de lance ont pu être délibérément endommagées à l’âge du bronze. Nous comparons les résultats de ces expériences avec des artifacts de l’ensemble la Grande-Bretagne ce qui permet de mieux identifier et analyser les artifacts détruits délibérément. Nous présentons une série d’implications pour comment on pourrait interpréter plus précisément l’ensemble plus étendu des vestiges archéologiques

Zussamenfassung

ZUSSAMENFASSUNG

In die Brüche gehen: Die Untersuchung absichtlicher Zerstörungen spätbronzezeitlicher Schwerter und Speerspitzen, von Matthew G. Knight

Die absichtliche Zerstörung von Schwertern und Speerspitzen in der Spätbronzezeit ist in ganz Europa bekannt. Diese Beobachtung beruht üblicherweise auf offensichtlichen Spuren der Zerstörung, zum Beispiel dem Biegen von Klingen oder dem Zerschlagen von Tüllen, aber auch der Vergesellschaftung mehrerer zerbrochener Stücke. Mit Hilfe dieser offensichtlichen Handlungen wurden die Funde als sakral oder profan interpretiert, jedoch ohne angemessene Überlegungen darüber, wie die Gegenstände tatsächlich zerstört wurden. In diesem Beitrag werden experimentelle Untersuchungen vorgestellt, in denen erforscht wurde, wie Schwerter und Speerspitzen in der Bronzezeit absichtlich beschädigt worden sein können. Die Ergebnisse dieser Experimente werden mit Artefakten aus ganz Großbritannien verglichen, was eine bessere Identifikation und Analyse absichtlich zerstörter Artefakte ermöglicht. Darüber hinaus wird eine Reihe von Schlussfolgerungen gezogen, wie der weitere archäologische Kontext exakter interpretiert werden kann.

Resumen

RESUMEN

Going to Pieces: investigando la destrucción deliberada de espadas y puntas de lanza de la Edad del Bronce Final, por Matthew G. Knight

La destrucción deliberada de espadas y puntas de lanza de la Edad del Bronce ha sido ampliamente documentada en toda Europa. Esta observación se ha basado obviamente en la caracterización de la destrucción, como la acción de curvar los cuchillos o el aplastamiento de la zona de agarre, así como su asociación con múltiples piezas rotas. Estas acciones se han empleado para interpretar el material en términos sagrados o profanos sin la debida consideración de cómo se produjo la destrucción del material. Este artículo presenta un protocolo de investigación experimental en el que se explora cómo las espadas y las puntas de lanza podrían haber sido dañadas deliberadamente durante la Edad de Bronce. Los resultados de estos experimentos se comparan con artefactos procedentes de Gran Bretaña, haciendo posible identificar y analizar mejor los artefactos destruidos deliberadamente. Se presenta toda una serie de implicaciones sobre cómo se puede interpretar con mayor precisión un registro arqueológico más amplio.

Keywords

Fragmentationexperimental archaeologyBronze Age metalworkswordsspearheads
Type
Research Article
Information
Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society , Volume 85 , December 2019 , pp. 251 - 272
Copyright
© The Prehistoric Society, 2019 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Adams, S. 2016. The contents and context of the Boughton Malherbe Late Bronze Age hoard. Archaeologia Cantiana 138, 37–64 Google Scholar
Allen, I.M., Britton, D. & Coghlan, H.H. 1970. Metallurgical Reports on British and Irish Bronze Age Implements and Weapons in the Pitt Rivers Museum. Oxford: Occasional Papers on Technology 10 Google Scholar
Anderson, K. 2011. Slashing and thrusting with Late Bronze Age spears: Analysis and experiment. Antiquity 85, 599–612 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anderson, K. 2012. The Weapons, Warriors and Warfare of Northern Britain, c. 1250 BC–850 AD. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Edinburgh Google Scholar
Barrett, J.C. & Needham, S.P. 1988. Production, circulation and exchange: Problems in the interpretation of Bronze Age bronzework. In Barrett, J.C. & Kinnes, I. (eds), The Archaeology of Context in the Neolithic and Bronze Age: Recent trends, 127–40. Sheffield: Department of Prehistory and Archaeology, University of Sheffield Google Scholar
Bradley, R. 1998. The Passage of Arms: An archaeological analysis of prehistoric hoard and votive deposits. 2nd edition. Oxford: Oxbow Books Google Scholar
Bradley, R. 2005. Ritual and Domestic Life in Prehistoric Europe. Abingdon: Routledge Google Scholar
Bradley, R. 2013. Hoards and the deposition of metalwork. In Fokkens, H. & Harding, A. (eds), The Oxford Handbook of the European Bronze Age, 121–39. Oxford: Oxford University Press Google Scholar
Bridgford, S.D. 1997. Mightier than the pen? (An edgewise look at Irish Bronze Age swords). In Carman, J. (ed.), Material Harm. Archaeological Studies of War and Violence, 95–115. Glasgow: Cruithne Press Google Scholar
Bridgford, S.D. 2000. Weapons, Warfare and Society in Britain 1250–750 BC, Volume 1. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Sheffield Google Scholar
Brück, J. 2015. Gifts or commodities? Reconfiguring Bronze Age exchange in Northwest Europe. In Suchowska-Ducke, P., Reiter, S.S. & Vandkilde, H. (eds), Forging Identities. The Mobility of Culture in Bronze Age Europe, Volume 1, 47–56. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports S2771 Google Scholar
Burgess, C. 1968. The Later Bronze Age in the British Isles and north-western France. Archaeological Journal 125 (1), 1–45 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burgess, C. 1980. The Age of Stonehenge. London: Dent Google Scholar
Burgess, C., Coombs, D. & Davies, D.G. 1972. The Broadward complex and barbed spearheads. In Lynch, F.M. & Burgess, C. (eds), Prehistoric Man in Wales and the West; Essays in honour of Lily F. Chitty, 211–83. Bath: Adams & Dart Google Scholar
Callander, J.G. 1922. Three Bronze Age hoards recently added to the National Collection, with notes on the hoard from Duddingston Loch. Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 1921–22 56, 351–64Google Scholar
Chapman, J. 2000. Fragmentation in Archaeology: People, places and broken objects in the prehistory of South Eastern Europe. London: Routledge Google Scholar
Čivilytė, A. 2009. Wahl der Waffen. Studien zur Deutung der bronzezeitlichen Waffendeponierungen im nördlichen Mitteleuropa. Bonn: UPA 167 Google Scholar
Colquhoun, I. & Burgess, C. 1988. The Swords of Britain. Munich: Prähistorische Bronzefunde 4.5 Google Scholar
Copper Development Association Inc. 2017. Copper Tin. Available at: https://www.copper.org/resources/properties/microstructure/cu_tin.html [Accessed: 1 July 2018]Google Scholar
Craddock, P. 1991. The composition of Iberian Bronze Age metalwork in the British Museum. In Oddy, W.A (ed.), Aspects of Early Metallurgy, 51–62. London: British Museum Occasional Paper 17 Google Scholar
Crellin, R.J., Dolfini, A., Uckelmann, M. & Hermann, R. 2018. An experimental approach to prehistoric violence and warfare? In Dolfini, A., Crellin, R.J., Horn, C. & Uckelmann, M. (eds), Prehistoric Warfare and Violence: Quantative and qualitative approaches, 279–305. Cham: Springer International Publishing CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davis, R. 2015. The Late Bronze Age Spearheads of Britain. Stuttgart: Prähistorische Bronzefunde 5.7 Google Scholar
Dodwell, N. 2012. Early Bronze Age Busta in Cambridgeshire? On-site experiments to investigate the effects of fires and pyres on pits. In Mitchell, P.D. & Buckberry, J. (eds), Proceedings of the Twelfth Annual Conference of the British Association for Biological Anthropology and Osteoarchaeology Department of Archaeology and Anthropology University of Cambridge 2010, 141–9. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports S2380 Google Scholar
Fontijn, D.R. 2002. Sacrificial landscapes: Cultural biographies of persons, objects and “natural” places in the Bronze Age of the Southern Netherlands, c. 2300–600 BC. Leiden: Analecta Praehistorica Leidensia 33/34 Google Scholar
Fontijn, D., Theunissen, L., van Os, B. & Amkreutz, L. 2012. Decorated and ‘killed’? The bronze sword of Werkhoven. In Bakels, C. & Kamermans, H. (eds), The End of our Fifth Decade, 205–13. Leiden: Analecta Praehistorica Leidensia 43/44 Google Scholar
Giardino, C. & Verly, G. 2013. Experimental tests on sword bending. In Bietti Sestieri, A.M., Salzani, L., Giardino, C. & Verly, G., Ritual treatment of weapons as a correlate of structural change in the Italian Late Bronze Age communities: The bronze hoard of Pila del Brancon (Nogara, Verona), 167–9. Rivista di Scienze Preistoriche LXIII, 155–69Google Scholar
Gosden, C. 2008. Social ontologies. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 363, 2003–10CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gosden, C. & Marshall, Y. 1999. The cultural biography of objects. World Archaeology 31(2), 169–78CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hardman, J. 2016. An Investigation into the Fragmentation of Archaeological Tin-bronze. Unpublished undergraduate thesis, Cardiff University Google Scholar
Hoffman, C.R. 1999. Intentional damage as technological agency: Breaking metals in late prehistoric Spain. In Dobres, M-A. & Hoffman, C.R. (eds), The Social Dynamics of Technology: Practice, politics, and world view, 103–23. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press Google Scholar
Horn, C. & von Holstein, I.C.C. 2017. Dents in our confidence: The interaction of damage and material properties in interpreting use-wear on copper-alloy weaponry. Journal of Archaeological Science 81, 90–100 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Knight, M.G. 2015. A Song of Metal and Fire: Games of Stones (Part 2). Available at: https://alifeinfragments.wordpress.com/2015/06/12/a-song-of-metal-and-fire-games-of-stones-part-2/ [Accessed 2 July 2018]Google Scholar
Knight, M.G. 2018. The Intentional Destruction and Deposition of Bronze Age Metalwork in South West England. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Exeter Google Scholar
Knight, M.G. 2019. The deliberate destruction of Late Bronze Age socketed axeheads in Cornwall. Cornish Archaeology 56, 203–24Google Scholar
Kuijpers, M.H.G. 2014. Early Bronze Age metalworking craftsmanship: An inquiry into metalworking skill and craft based on axes in the North-Alpine region. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Cambridge Google Scholar
Marshall, A. 2011. Experimental Archaeology: 1. Early Bronze Age cremation pyres 2. Iron Age grain storage. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports 530 Google Scholar
McNeil, R. 1973. A report on the Bronze Age hoard from Wick Park, Stogursey, Somerset. Proceedings of the Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society 117, 47–64 Google Scholar
Melheim, L. & Horn, C. 2014. Tales of hoards and swordfighters in Early Bronze Age Scandinavia: The brand new and the broken. Norwegian Archaeological Review 47(1), 18–41 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Molloy, B. 2006. The Role of Combat Weaponry in Bronze Age Societies: The cases of the Aegean and Ireland in the Middle and Late Bronze Age. Unpublished PhD thesis, University College Dublin Google Scholar
Molloy, B. 2007. What’s the Bloody Point?: Bronze Age swordsmanship in Ireland and Britain. In Molloy, B. (ed.), The Cutting Edge: Studies in ancient and medieval combat, 90–111. Stroud: Tempus Google Scholar
Molloy, B. 2011. Use-wear analysis and use-patterns of Bronze Age swords. In Uckelmann, M. & Mödlinger, M. (eds), Bronze Age Warfare: Manufacture and Use of Weaponry, 67–84. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports S2255 Google Scholar
Mörtz, T. 2018. Violence and ritual in Late Bronze Age Britain: Weapon depositions and their interpretation. In Horn, C. & Kristiansen, K. (eds), Warfare in Bronze Age Society, 168–88. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nebelsick, L. 2000. Rent asunder: Ritual violence in Late Bronze Age Hoards. In Pare, C.F.E. (ed.), Metals Make the World Go Round: The supply and circulation of metals in Bronze Age Europe, 160–75. Oxford: Oxbow Books Google Scholar
Needham, S.P. 2001. When expediency broaches ritual intention: The flow of metal between systemic and buried domains. The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 7(2), 275–98CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Northover, P. 1980. Appendix: The analysis of Welsh Bronze Age metalwork. In Savory, H.N., Guide Catalogue of the Bronze Age Collections, 229–43. Cardiff: National Museum of Wales Google Scholar
O’Flaherty, R., Gilchrist, M.D. & Cowie, T. 2011. Ceremonial or deadly serious? New insight into the function of Irish Early Bronze Age halberds. In Uckelmann, M. & Mödlinger, M. (eds), Bronze Age Warfare: Manufacture and Use of Weaponry, 39–52. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports S2255 Google Scholar
Rezi, B. 2011. Voluntary destruction and fragmentation in Late Bronze Age hoards from Central Transylvania. In Berecki, S., Németh, R.E. & Rezi, B. (eds), Bronze Age Rites and Rituals in the Carparthian Basin, 303–34. Târgu Mureş: MEGA Google Scholar
Sáez, C.G. & Lerma, I.M. 2015. Traceology on metal: Use-wear marks on copper-based tools and weapons. In Marreiros, J.M., Gibaja Bao, J.F. & Bicho, N.F. (eds), Use-wear and Residue Analysis in Archaeology, 171–88. Cham: Springer International Publishing CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scott, D.A. 2012. Ancient Metals: Microstructures and Metallurgy Volume 1. 2nd edition. Los Angeles: Conservation Science Press Google Scholar
Skallagrim. 2014. Bronze to the limit: Destructive testing of a Ewart Park sword. Youtube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngjMtzJ6xgQ&list=PL2I5JfRzK7EpP21qPieB4WKGL7rZxsEUe [Accessed: 1 July 2018]Google Scholar
Snoeck, C. & Schulting, R.E. 2013. Fire and Bone: An experimental study of cremation. EXARC Journal 2013/2. Available at: https://exarc.net/issue-2013-2 [Accessed 3 July 2018]Google Scholar
Staniaszek, B.E.P. & Northover, J.P. 1983. The properties of leaded bronze alloys. In Aspinall, A. & Warren, S.E. (eds), The Proceedings of the 22nd Symposium on Archaeometry held at the University of Bradford, Bradford, U.K. 30th March–3rd April 1982, 262–72. Bradford: Schools of Physics and Archaeological Sciences, University of Bradford Google Scholar
Tucker, C. 1867. Notices of antiquities of bronze found in Devonshire. Archaeological Journal 24(1), 110–22CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Turner, L. 2010a. A Re-Interpretation of the Late Bronze Age Metalwork Hoards of Essex and Kent Volume 1. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports 507 Google Scholar
Turner, L. 2010b. A Re-Interpretation of the Late Bronze Age Metalwork Hoards of Essex and Kent Volume 2. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports 507 Google Scholar
Wiseman, R. 2018. Random accumulation and breaking: The formation of Bronze Age scrap hoards in England and Wales. Journal of Archaeological Science 90, 39–49 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
York, J. 2002. The life cycle of Bronze Age metalwork from the Thames. Oxford Journal of Archaeology 21(1), 77–92 CrossRefGoogle Scholar