Bronze Age Combat: An experimental approach

The Newcastle-led Bronze Age Combat project presents its results from innovative combat experiments with replica Bronze Age swords, spears and shields. The original experimental methodologies used authentic replica weapons in extensive rigorous field experiments, and actualistic combat based on historical manuscripts. These allowed for replicate combat-related wear marks as found on original Bronze Age specimens. Bronze Age Combat provides a full account of the methodologies, replicas, experiments and results in unprecedented detail. By bringing together a range of experimental techniques, materials and expertise, this book is designed as a starting point and reference collection for further studies into Bronze Age combat research, metalwork wear analysis and experimental archaeology.

Table of Contents:
List of Figures List of Tables Abstract 1 Introduction 1.1. The Bronze Age Combat Project 1.2. Researching Combat 1.3. Metalwork wear analysis 1.4. Experimental design 1.5. From experimental design to experimental reality 1.6. The book: an overview 2 Combat Experiments in Archaeology: A Critical Review 2.1. Introduction 2.2. Previous research 2.2.1. Sword experiments 2.2.2. Spears 2.2.3. Shields 2.2.4. Halberds 2.3. Achievements and limitations of previous research 3 Approach to the Experiment and Equipment Used 3.1. Designing combat experiments: a critical approach 3.2. The equipment 3.2.1. The swords 3.2.2. The spears 3.2.3. The shields 4 Controlled Weapon Tests 4.1. Introduction 4.2. Sword vs. sword tests 4.3. Sword vs. spear tests 4.4. Sword vs. shield tests 4.4.1. Sword vs. leather shield 4.4.2. Sword vs. bronze shield 4.4.3. Sword vs. wooden shield 4.5. Spear vs. spear tests 4.6. Spear vs. shield tests 4.6.1. Spear vs. leather shield 4.6.2. Spear vs. bronze shield 4.6.3. Spear vs. wooden shield 4.7. Summary of marks 4.8. Results 4.8.1. Swords 4.8.2. Spears 4.8.3. Shields 5 Actualistic Weapon Tests 5.1. Introduction 5.2. A brief history of Historical European Martial Arts 5.3. Actualistic Weapon Tests: Concept and Design 5.4. Actualistic Weapon Tests: Planning and Execution 5.4.1. First play 5.4.2. Second play 5.4.3. Third play 5.4.4. Fourth play 5.4.5. Fifth play 5.5. Summary of marks 5.6. Results and discussion 5.6.1. Holding a Bronze Age sword 5.6.2. Interpreting combat marks 5.6.3. Attacks, defences, and blade-on-blade contact 6 Scientific Analysis of the Replica Weapons 6.1. Scientific analysis: sampling and analytical techniques 6.2. Scientific analysis: results and discussion 6.2.1. Swords and spearheads 6.2.2. Bronze shield 7 Evaluation of the Experiments and Concluding Remarks 7.1. Introduction 7.2. Evaluating the experiments 7.3. Evaluating the weapons 7.4. Future directions for research Bibliography

About the Author :
Raphael Hermann is a research fellow at the Seminar für Ur- und Frühgeschichte in Göttingen, Germany, where he is part of the ERC consolidator project WEIGHTANDVALUE. His research interest are the European Bronze Age, prehistoric combat, experimental archaeology, weight metrology, statistical analysis and metalwork wear analysis of tools and weapons. Rachel J. Crellin is Lecturer in Later Prehistory at the University of Leicester. Her research interests include the Neolithic and Bronze Age of Britain and Ireland and archaeological theory, especially new materialist, feminist and post-humanist approaches. She is a metalwork wear-analyst specializing in the study of Bronze Age tools and weapons. Marion Uckelmann is a researcher in the European Bronze Age, specialising in weaponry, warfare, mobility, and metal working technologies. She undertook her PhD on shields at the Westfälische Wilhelms Universität Münster. She has also been an editor at Prähistorische Bronzefunde and a postdoctoral researcher at Exeter University. She is currently an honorary research fellow at the Department of Archaeology at Durham University, UK. Quanyu Wang is a professor at the Institute of Cultural Heritage at Shangdong University, China. She was previously a senior scientist at the British Museum. Andrea Dolfini is a Senior Lecturer in Later Prehistory at Newcastle University, specialising in early metallurgy and metalwork weare analysis.

Review :
'This is a groundbreaking study in the field of Bronze Age bronze weapon replica experiments.' Professor Kristian Kristiansen, University of Gothenburg 'Everybody interested in Bronze Age weaponry will want to read this study.' Dr Marianne Mödlinger, Università degli Studi di Genova