Naue II Sword

Origins

The first swords of the European and Aegean Bronze Age were long, narrow rapiers made for thrusting, with blades riveted to separate hilts at a weak joint that often broke under a sideways blow. Around 1300 BC a new design appeared in central Europe and northern Italy that solved the problem: the blade and the grip tang were cast as a single piece of bronze. The German archaeologist Julius Naue classified the prehistoric swords of Europe in 1903, and the type he numbered II has kept his name. Archaeologists also call it the Griffzungenschwert, the "flange-hilted" or "tongue-grip" sword. It spread quickly, carried by trade and by warriors, and by the twelfth century BC it was found from Scandinavia and Britain to Greece, Cyprus and Egypt.

Design & Construction

A Naue II sword was cast in a two-piece mold in tin bronze, then hammered and ground to shape and to harden its edges. The blade is usually between about 20 and 26 inches long, often slightly leaf-shaped — narrowing below the hilt and swelling toward the point — which moves the balance forward for cutting. The grip is a flat tang with raised flanges along its edges; plates of bone, horn or wood were set between the flanges and fixed with bronze rivets, so the grip and blade formed one strong unit. There is no crossguard in the later sense; the shoulders of the blade flare to meet the grip. The design was robust enough to cut and to parry, and many surviving blades show nicks and repairs from use.

Combat Use

The Naue II marks a change in the way Bronze Age warriors fought, from thrusting duels to fighting with cut and thrust, probably in close combat with a shield on the other arm. Wear on surviving blades, and modern tests with replicas, show that these swords were used in real combat and not only as symbols of rank. In the eastern Mediterranean they appear in the turbulent twelfth century BC, the period of the collapse of the Late Bronze Age palace states and the raids of the so-called Sea Peoples; Mycenaean Greeks adopted the type, and examples reached Egypt. The sword belongs to the world of the chariot and the Battle of Kadesh, though the armies there relied more on bows and spears than on swords.

Legacy

The Naue II is one of the most successful weapon designs of prehistory: its basic form, a full-tang, cut-and-thrust sword with a leaf-shaped blade, was carried over into the first iron swords of the Hallstatt culture and so into the line that leads to the Celtic La Tène Sword and, eventually, to the Roman and medieval swords that followed. Many Bronze Age swords were deposited in rivers and bogs as offerings, and those deposits are why so many survive in European museums today.