Just like copper marked a revolution in tool production, so too did the discovery of bronze mean a great leap forward in the craft of metallurgy and the creation of blades, tools and weapons.
Bronze alloy is a mixture of two metals; copper and tin. The percentage of tin used in the forging of bronze artifacts varied depending on the type and purpose, but it usually revolved around 9 parts copper and 1 part tin. While tin was purposely added to enhance the alloy, other impurities were also present in the ancient bronze objects.
Bronze is a harder metal than copper, making bronze weapons better suited for sharper blades. However, a lot of early bronze weapons in Europe were more suited for thrusting motions due to their design. Additionally, bronze blades could be made thinner and longer than their shorter, copper predecessors .
Bronze items and the knowledge of bronze working gradually moved from Mesopotamia to the Mediterranean, and the Balkans into central Europe and beyond.
Weapons from Early and Middle Bronze Ages are relatively rare finds. Most are uniquely made daggers and swords with elaborate decorations of incised lines and geometric patterns, probably made for the leading men of contemporary societies. These prestigious weapons were rarely found in European graves, but more often in watery sites, indicating they were some kind of votive offerings.
Axes also went through an interesting evolution. Different designs were used, first axe with flanges, then winged axes with medial wings and winged axes with butt wings. Socketed axes were also used.
The bronze winged axes of the eastern alps often bear incised markings. While it would be easy to assume these are the first examples of a written language in the area, opinions of archeologists differ. Some scholars believe them to be workshop marks, while others that they could be royal inscriptions, like those in the eastern Mediterranean, or votive inscriptions of the axes offered in sanctuaries. The context of such a writing system therefore remains open.
The rarer, solid-hilted swords probably maintained their prestigious significance even into the Late Bronze Age, when they were outnumbered by the newer flange-hilted swords.
Flange-hilted swords were the most common type in the middle and late bronze age. They enabled quicker and more serial production - a large contrast to the previous uniquely-designed swords of the early Bronze Age. An organic, most probably wooden grip would be attached with rivets to the flanged hilt and handguard plate.
However, it is not swords that are the most common weapon finds of the late bronze age, but spearheads. These would be found in the hoard deposits, as well as stray finds near watery bodies. There are even examples of being found stuck within a human skeleton. Such bog bodies were found across Europe, especially in Scandinavia and British Isles. Perhaps the person died in battle, but more probable is the assumption that these were either punished criminals or individuals sacrificed to divine forces.
Sets of armor and shields too were becoming more and more prominent. The armor could be made of organic material, like bones, teeth and tusks, metal, or combination of the two. Like the weapons, armor also served as a symbol of prestige.
Throughout the era, a Bronze Age warrior had the use of swords, daggers, axes, halberds, spears, warpicks and arrows and more...
During the 10th and 9th century BC, the first iron weapons reached inland Europe, imported from the Aegean. The beginning of the Iron age in Central Europe is settled at around 800 BC, which would last until the Roman Expansion over a large part of the continent in the 1st century BC.
Sources: docs.google.com/document/d/1m...
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