Fun Fact Friday: Bronze Age Swords

In the beginning Bronze Age swords were designed to be primarily thrusting weapons. It doesn't take much thought and debate to realize that stabbing your opponent is a quicker and more efficient way of killing them in battle.

Thrusting a blade into another human body is easier said than done, however.

Not only does it take a fair degree of control, speed, and strength; it also demands a lot psychologically, all of which can break down very quickly in a battle. Studies on soldiers have shown that when a person's heart rate exceeds 150 bpm they rapidly lose fine motor control. Past 175 bpm almost all finesse and control is gone. At that point hacking and slashing is about the best thing one can hope for.

Psychologically is it difficult to stab another person because of how intimate the action is. You end up getting a whole lot closer to the individual and you are sure to get some of their blood and other insides on you as they die. You also no without a doubt that you are the one who killed the other person. When you hack and slash you may know you wounded or incapacitated someone but if you didn't decapitate them you can distance yourself from their demise.

With bronze, hacking and slashing is a tough thing to do. Bronze is quite a bit softer than iron and steel. The first, thin blades would often come back bent (see top image shown above) or broken at the shoulders from to much lateral force. As they realized soldiers weren't going to stick to the thrusting game plan, the swords evolved to be able to withstand cutting. Eventually they would develop into the thicker leaf bladed shapes (one of which is the bottom image shown above). This would allow the use of both cutting and thrusting while keeping the blade more intact.

Over time cutting and smashing became the dominant method for combat as the blade evolved into iron and steel varieties and as armor became harder to pierce. Then as armor started to decline because of gunpowder the thrust was "rediscovered" and blades started to return to their original thinness and eventually, because of stronger materials, beyond.

Greg