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Post by Admin on Nov 5, 2019 18:25:23 GMT
Conclusions New evidence strongly suggests that the Great Orme Bronze Age copper mine had a ‘golden age’ of major production, c. 1600–1400 BC, constituting Britain's first mining boom. The mine probably dominated British copper supply, with some metal reaching continental Europe and Ireland. After 1400/1300 BC, the mine entered a twilight period of low production for many centuries, probably after the two richly mineralised areas were exhausted, leaving only narrow veins to work. There must have been considerable organisation and coordination of resources in order to achieve the predicted high levels of production at the mine's zenith and to engage in long-distance trade/exchange networks. Mining on such a large scale (and smelting, if done locally) probably required a full-time mining community, whose food and other resources could have been provided by communities in the adjacent, agriculturally richer area of north-east Wales. These latter communities may have had some degree of involvement, or even full control, of one or more of the stages of the copper production and, in particular, the trade/exchange activities, as they would have controlled access to the Severn Valley networks. Figure 10. Proposed emerging chronology of metal supply in Bronze Age Britain (lower scale: years BC; width of bars diagrammatic only) (figure by R.A. Williams). Now that the temporal position and importance of the Great Orme mine has been established, it can be fitted into an emerging chronology of metal supply in Bronze Age Britain (Figure 10). After the initial centuries of Irish supply from Ross Island, supplemented by some continental sources, there was input from several small British mines. By c. 1600 BC, these had all probably given way to the rich and easily worked ores of the Great Orme mine. What followed was up to 200 years of the Great Orme copper ‘bonanza’, when Britain was probably self-sufficient in copper for the first and only time in the Bronze Age (Northover 1982). This coincided with a time of major cultural changes in Britain. After the mine declined, there seems to have been a shift to reliance on copper coming from sources in mainland Europe, possibly the eastern Italian Alps (Melheim et al. 2018). The European distribution of Great Orme metal, from Brittany to the Baltic (the latter possibly linked to the amber trade), suggests that there were active, long-distance exchange networks in place. There is still much to be understood about how such networks were organised, who was doing the travelling and what else was being traded/exchanged (e.g. perishable goods). The later metalwork and tin/copper ingot cargoes from apparent shipwrecks at Salcombe and Landon Bay (Needham et al. 2013) also form part of the slowly emerging, complex picture of trade/exchange. Overall, the evidence from Great Orme metal suggests that Britain had a greater integration into European Bronze Age trade/exchange networks than had been previously suspected, particularly if Cornish/Devonian tin and possibly gold is also included. This also implies greater organisation and complexity of social interactions between the numerous small communities across Britain than previously thought. The interdisciplinary methodology developed here to analyse the output of the Great Orme mine provides a model that can be adapted for the investigation of other prehistoric mines across Europe and beyond, helping to deepen our understanding of the scale and complexity of early metal extraction and trade/exchange. Acknowledgements Analytical funding was received from Great Orme Mines, CADW/GAT, HMS and NERC. This study formed part of a PhD dissertation at the University of Liverpool. Thanks go to Matthew Ponting, Duncan Garrow, Rachel Pope, Ben Roberts, Jane Evans, Vanessa Pashley, Tony Hammond, Andy Lewis, Nick Jowett, Edric Roberts, David Wrenall, Peter Bray (OXSAM), Peter Northover, George Smith, Nick Marsh, Iain McDonald, Chris Somerfield, Dave Chapman, Simon Timberlake, Rob Ixer, Duncan Hook, Chris Green, Johan Ling, Gilberto Artioli, Stuart Needham, Helen Thomas and many others. Antiquity Volume 93 Issue 371
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Post by Admin on Apr 23, 2020 19:58:10 GMT
Now, researchers have tested these ancient weapons’ mettle by staging experimental fights with bronze swords and observing the types of wear and tear they might expect to see on battle-tested blades, reports Andrew Curry for Science magazine. The researchers’ findings, published last week in the Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory, suggest that swordplay was indeed a common and sophisticated facet of Bronze Age warfare. Unlike spears, arrows and axes, all of which have uses beyond combat, swords were “invented purely to kill someone,” Raphael Hermann, study lead author and an archaeologist at the University of Göttingen, tells Science. Bronze swords—forged by mixing copper and tin—first appeared around 1600 B.C. and remained in use until 600 A.D. Compared with later iron weapons, their metal is soft, easily damaged and hard to repair. The physical properties of these bronze blades would have dictated how they were used on the battlefield. “Use them in a clumsy way, and you’ll destroy them,” Barry Molloy, an archaeologist at University College Dublin who wasn’t involved in the study, tells Science. As a result, some historians speculated that warriors of the era avoided clanging sword against sword to minimize damage, or even that the weapons were more ceremonial than deadly. “The Bronze Age was the first time people used metal specifically to create weapons they could use against other people; in understanding how they used them, we will understand more about Bronze Age society,” said Andrea Dolfini, a historian at Newcastle University and a co-author of the new paper, in a 2013 statement detailing similar replica weapon testing. To better interpret the archaeological record of Bronze Age weapons, Hermann and his team commissioned seven bronze swords from a traditional bronzesmith. They then recorded the types of damage inflicted by various sword, shield and spear blows. Armed with improved knowledge of the marks left by such impacts, the researchers sought to better understand the Bronze Age fighting style that would have produced them. Recruiting members of a local club dedicated to medieval European combat, the team choreographed realistic sword fighting sequences. This second part of the study revealed the moves that produced particular types of damage on the weapons, as well as where that damage was likely to be reflected on the swords. Marks left by a medieval German technique called versetzen, or “displacement,” were identical to those found on swords from Bronze Age Europe, according to Science. In this mode of fighting, swordsmen locked blades in an attempt to “control and dominate an opponent’s weapon.” The researchers used the wear patterns left on the weapons after these experimental fights to interpret more than 2,500 dents and divots found on 110 ancient swords from Italy and Great Britain. The analysis revealed recognizable patterns of wear on swords from the same era and location; these patterns shifted in artifacts that came from other parts of Europe or from a different period within the Bronze Age. The dings were so consistent among swords from roughly the same time and place that it seems impossible the fighters were just swinging wildly, Hermann tells Science. “In order to fight the way the marks show,” he adds, “there has to be a lot of training involved.” These signature patterns of battle damage suggest trained warriors used codified regional fighting styles that were refined over centuries, according to the new research. The study and its experiments offer an empirical mode of inquiry into a topic once dominated by speculation, Christian Horn, an archaeologist at the University of Gothenburg who was not involved in the research, tells Science. Molloy echoes Horn’s enthusiasm for the new work: “This is a turning point—it lets us study what kind of actions were avoided and what risks you could take with a bronze sword,” he tells Science. “This shows that yes, they were used, and they were used skillfully.”
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Post by Admin on Apr 24, 2020 20:48:57 GMT
Bronze Age Swordsmanship: New Insights from Experiments and Wear Analysis Raphael Hermann, Andrea Dolfini, Rachel J. Crellin, Quanyu Wang & Marion Uckelmann Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory (2020)
Abstract The article presents a new picture of sword fighting in Middle and Late Bronze Age Europe developed through the Bronze Age Combat Project. The project investigated the uses of Bronze Age swords, shields, and spears by combining integrated experimental archaeology and metalwork wear analysis. The research is grounded in an explicit and replicable methodology providing a blueprint for future experimentation with, and wear analysis of, prehistoric copper-alloy weapons. We present a four-step experimental methodology including both controlled and actualistic experiments. The experimental results informed the wear analysis of 110 Middle and Late Bronze Age swords from Britain and Italy. The research has generated new understandings of prehistoric combat, including diagnostic and undiagnostic combat marks and how to interpret them; how to hold and use a Bronze Age sword; the degree of skill and training required for proficient combat; the realities of Bronze Age swordplay including the frequency of blade-on-blade contact; the body parts and areas targeted by prehistoric sword fencers; and the evolution of fighting styles in Britain and Italy from the late 2nd to the early 1st millennia BC.
All primary data discussed in the article are available as supplementary material (Appendix) so as to allow scrutiny and validation of the research results.
Introduction The last two decades have witnessed a substantial change in the study of interpersonal violence in prehistoric and preliterate societies. Spearheaded by Keeley’s seminal monograph War before Civilization (1996), and aided by the new cultural and political milieu that followed the end of the Cold War, archaeologists and anthropologists have increasingly turned their attention to the nature and social significance of sanctioned aggression and warfare (Fry 2013; Otterbein 1997, 2004). In the field of European Bronze Age studies, this novel disciplinary interest has intersected longstanding research strands investigating warrior burials, hoarding practices, fortified settlements, martial imagery on rock art, osteological markers of injury, and weapon studies (Dolfini et al.2018; Horn and Kristiansen 2018; Kristiansen 2018; Kristiansen and Larsson 2005; Kristiansen and Suchowska-Ducke 2015; Molloy 2017; Vandkilde 2013). The latter had long focused on one of the most iconic inventions of the Bronze Age world: the sword.
The new awareness that intergroup violence may have played a major role in the social transformations of Bronze Age Europe has had an invigorating effect on the discipline, spurring an array of specialist studies that investigated early metal weapons and armour by integrated archaeological and scientific analysis. In continuity with previous developments, the sword has enjoyed pride of place within this fast-developing research strand, somewhat overshadowing similar lines of enquiry into Bronze Age halberds, spears, and shields (Anderson 2011; Horn 2013, 2014, 2017; Lull et al.2017; Molloy 2009; O’Flaherty 2007, O’Flaherty et al. 2011; Uckelmann 2011, 2012). Two principal methods have been employed, jointly or otherwise, to research how swords might have been used in prehistory: experimental archaeology and metalwork wear analysis.
Sword experiments are normally carried out with bespoke bronze replicas of the objects to be tested. They fall into two overarching categories: laboratory tests and field tests. Laboratory tests, such as those conducted by Bridgford (1997, 2000), offer the distinctive advantage of being more controllable and easier to record than those carried out in the field. They normally make use of drop testers or other mechanical devices, which allow excellent control of variables and good understanding of wear formation processes (Crellin et al.2018). However, they offer limited scope for reproducing the complexity of human gesture. The problem is especially acute for swordsmanship, which is predicated upon the human body and the weapon working together, powered by fine motor skills and experiential knowledge (Molloy 2008).
Field experiments may appear to overcome this weakness. In experiential tests such as those conducted by Molloy (2006, 2007, 2008) and Gentile and van Gijn (2019), the human body is placed at the centre of the experiment. By allowing combatants to enact complex and ‘realistic’ fighting sequences, such tests provide an opportunity to correlate the mechanical properties of the weapons with the biomechanical properties of their bearers (Molloy 2008: 118). However, this is achieved at the expense of control over the experiment’s many variables including wear formation (Gentile and van Gijn 2019: 131; Schenck 2011: 87–88). A further limitation of experiential tests is that they need to be grounded in a predetermined body of knowledge, which is normally provided by medieval and post-medieval fencing manuals. These, however, often contain cryptic or partial information, whose interpretation is far from straightforward (Forgeng and Kiermayer 2007; Molloy 2008). Moreover, European fencing manuals arose out of specific historical contexts determining the correct way (or indeed ways) in which swords had to be used, by whom, and in which encounters and settings. As Melheim and Horn (2014) perceptively argued, drawing on Mauss’ (1973) notion of les techniques du corps, learning to use a weapon involves the incorporation of socially specific bodily techniques. We cannot presume that Bronze Age bodies and medieval/Renaissance bodies would act in the same ways while fighting because fighting is a socially constituted activity, which is predicated upon a corpus of embodied knowledge unique to each society (Crellin et al.2018). Finally, one must note that bronze and steel greatly differ in their material properties. This consideration provides a further obstacle to interpreting prehistoric swordsmanship in light of historic fencing styles.
To some extent, the shortcomings of both laboratory and field tests can be tempered by investigating the combat marks visible on prehistoric swords through metalwork wear analysis (MWA). This analytical method centres upon the microscopic observation of the manufacturing and use marks visible on ancient copper-alloy artefacts (Dolfini and Crellin 2016; Gutiérrez Sáez and Martín Lerma, 2015). Despite its limited time depth, MWA has had a significant impact on Bronze Age weapon studies. For instance, it has overturned undemonstrated assumptions about the purely symbolic value of early weapons and has generated terrific new insights into their uses (e.g. Horn 2013, 2014, 2017; O’Flaherty et al.2011). Despite its centrality to weapon studies, however, MWA relies on experimentation to elucidate prehistoric wear formation. This brings us back to the need to codify meaningful yet formalised tests with replica weapons and to cross-reference experimental and archaeological combat marks to generate credible interpretations (Crellin et al.2018: 291).
With these problems in mind, in 2013, we launched the Bronze Age Combat Project, coordinated by one of the authors (AD). The project sought to investigate uses of Bronze Age swords, shields, and spears based on integrated MWA and replica weapon tests. The aim of the project was to understand how prehistoric bronze weapons were used, in what kinds of combat situations, and with what weapon strikes and bodily engagements. One of the project’s main objectives was to explore the possibility of linking distinctive combat marks with specific uses of the weapons including strikes, parries, stabs, and throws. At a broader level, we wanted to gain a firm foothold into Bronze Age fighting practices including issues of weapon training, skill, and spatial/temporal variation in combat practices. A related objective was to develop a reflexive research methodology allowing new knowledge to arise from the critical nexus between controlled weapon experiments, experiential combat tests and the wear analysis of archaeological and experimental weapons.
In this paper, we present results of our sword tests and wear analysis. ‘Materials and Methods’ investigates the material properties of the experimental and archaeological swords and discusses the research methodology including weapon testing and MWA. ‘Data Analysis’ presents the wear marks generated during the sword tests vis-à-vis those observed on Bronze Age swords from Britain and Italy. ‘Discussion’ discusses the new knowledge generated by weapon testing and MWA including how to hold a Bronze Age sword, how to fight with it and how swordsmanship changed from the 2nd to the early 1st millennium BC. Finally, ‘Conclusion’ summarises the research results and suggests further avenues for enquiry.
The article is solely concerned with our sword tests and wear analysis. Further data and reflections concerning the Bronze Age Combat Project are published (or will be published) elsewhere. In particular, Hermann et al. (2019) outline project aims and structure; Crellin et al. (2018) critique the experimental methodology; and Hermann et al. (2020) provide an unabridged account of all weapon experiments. The spear and shield tests (and related MWA) will be discussed in Crellin et al. (in preparation) and Uckelmann et al. (in preparation).
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Post by Admin on Apr 25, 2020 19:05:32 GMT
The Replica Swords: Archaeology and Manufacturing Process All swords and spears used in our project, as well as the bronze and leather shields, were made by Neil Burridge, a traditional bronzesmith (www.bronze-age-craft.com). Jake Newport, a skilled amateur woodcarver, made the wooden shield using purpose-made bronze tools. Burridge cast and prepared seven swords based on the following British and continental templates: one Middle Bronze Age Group IV rapier, c. 1300–1150 BC; one European continental Vollgriffschwert classified under Kemenczei’s type S, c. 1200–1000 BC; one type Wilburton sword, c. 1150–975 BC; one Carp’s Tongue sword, c. 950–800 BC; and three Ewart Park swords, c. 925–800 BC (Burgess and Colquhoun 1988; Kemenczei 1991). All swords were made from 12% tin bronze alloy; they were subjected to a single cycle of work-hardening and were mechanically sharpened. Finally, oak hilt plates and pommels were added to all swords except the Vollgriffschwert specimen, which had the hilt and pommel cast in solid bronze (Fig. 1). We thought it useful to select a variety of sword types displaying significant differences in weight, balance, blade length, and blade geometry, for this would enable us to test the combat capabilities of different weapons, as well as their limitations. Fig. 1 Replicating these objects involved in-depth research into the manufacturing technology, alloy composition, and post-casting treatment of Bronze Age swords. The last two factors were judged to be of particular consequence because, even within a self-contained area and period, prehistoric swords show a wide variety of alloy compositions and post-casting treatments (see below). To reduce the variability inherent in the archaeological record, our sword replication process entailed several informed decisions, which we discussed with Neil Burridge. First, we decided to have all swords cast using 12% tin bronze. This alloy sits near the higher end of the spectrum documented for Bronze Age swords in Northern and Central Europe and Britain (see Bunnefeld 2016; Mödlinger 2011a, b; Northover 1988) but is also common in Italian swords, particularly those from Olmo di Nogara, which make up over 50% of the Italian specimens analysed for this project (Angelini et al.2003). The alloy was selected as it improved the quality of the cast and reduced the risk of potentially dangerous defects developing within the objects. It is also the alloy with which Burridge is most familiar. All swords were cast with the same alloy composition to avoid introducing further variables into the experiment (Dolfini and Collins 2018). We deliberately chose not to add any lead to the replica swords, although lead is sometimes found in British and European continental swords from the Late Bronze Age (Mödlinger 2011b; Northover 1988). Lead is insoluble in copper and usually concentrates between the grains in copper alloys. As such, its presence effectively weakens the weapons. Gentile and van Gijn’s study has shown that a small quantity of lead in copper alloys has no drastic influence on the formation of wear marks (2019: 139). Secondly, we relied on a smithing technique of Burridge’s own design to work-harden the blade edges. This involved a single cycle of expert edge hammering using a bronze hammer and anvil, followed by mechanical sharpening to a razor finish. All swords were worked and finished in the same way. Whereas the swords made by Burridge looked like excellent replicas of Bronze Age weapons, we needed to know if they were such in terms of microstructure and edge hardness, as these parameters may affect functionality and wear formation (Soriano-Llopis and Gutiérrez-Sáez 2009). Hence, upon completing the sword tests and MWA, we took cross-sections from the cutting edge to the centre of the blade of four replica swords for compositional, microstructural, and microhardness testing (sample size 1 × 2 cm). The samples (named SW1-4) were mounted in epoxy resin, ground, and polished using diamond paste to a finish of 1 μm. They were examined with a Zeiss AXIOVERT 100A microscope for the metallographic study, and a Hitachi S-3700N variable pressure scanning electron microscope (SEM) equipped with energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometry (EDX) for compositional analysis. The SEM-EDX analyses were run at an accelerating voltage of 20 kV at low vacuum of 50 Pa and working distance of 10 mm. The samples were found to have a tin content of 12.9–14.2%, higher than that in the original charge. Faoláin and Northover (1998) have reported slightly exaggerated tin contents in experimentally cast swords, measured by XRF analysis, compared to the original charges. Wang and Ottaway (2004), on the other hand, measured the tin contents of their experimental casts by ICP-OES, with results close to the nominal bronze composition. It is presently unclear if higher-than-expected tin content in our casts had resulted from a weighing error in the original charge or is a function of the SEM-EDX analysis. The samples were subjected to microhardness testing using an Indentec ZHVμ-M tester. For each specimen, five points were tested from the cutting edge to the centre of the blade, with 150–300 μm intervals. The mean value and standard deviation for each sample are listed in Table 1. Overall, there is no clear increase in hardness values from blade centre to the cutting edge, although there are noticeable variations in the five points tested on each specimen. Subsequently, the samples were etched using alcoholic ferric chloride to reveal their metallographic structures. All samples were found to have dendritic structures with little distortion: SW1 features a normal structure of (α + δ) eutectoids, while (α + δ) eutectoids in SW2-4 appear to be unusually concentrated on the boundaries of the α phase. This indicates that SW2-4 cooled at a faster rate than SW1 (Avner, 1974; Scott 1991). Samples from SW1-2 are very porous but otherwise differ in terms of pore size (much larger in SW1 than SW2), while samples from SW3-4 are dense (Fig. 2). Overall, all swords examined had undergone some 10% thickness reduction by cold-working. Fig. 2 Most British Bronze Age swords analysed to date contain 7–14% Sn, with added lead in some of them. Their hardness values lie between 100 and 200 HV on the Vickers scale, and their microstructures include as-cast, cold-worked, partly recrystallised, fully recrystallised, and recrystallised and cold-worked objects. Thickness reduction ranges from none to over 50% (Allen et al.1970; Bridgford 2000; Brown and Blin-Stoyle 1959; Faoláin and Northover 1998; Northover 1988; Northover and Bridgford 2002). Such extreme diversity in alloy composition, microstructure, and hardness values is also found in swords from continental Europe (Bunnefeld 2016; Koui et al.2006; Mödlinger 2011a, b; Molloy 2018). This strongly suggests that Bronze Age sword production did not follow a standardised manufacturing process, not even within a single region and period. It appears that swords, as much as other bronze tools and weapons, were manufactured based on the smith’s technical skill and experience, in relationship to the material properties of the metal and cultural notions of what a finished sword should be like (Kuijpers 2018a, 2018b). The compositional, microstructural, and microhardness analyses demonstrate that our replica swords fall within the technical parameters of Middle and Late Bronze Age swords from the Britain and compare well with continental European specimens, too. The high degree of variation witnessed in prehistoric bronze weapons suggests that any meaningful replication process must be predicated upon informed choices concerning the alloy composition, edge hardening, and thickness reduction of the original cast blanks. As a result, the replicas will compare well with certain Bronze Age swords and less well with others. This is a function of the diverse archaeological record. While further research is needed to understand how differences in alloy composition and edge hardening may affect sword performance in combat experiments (building on Soriano-Llopis and Gutiérrez-Sáez 2009), we are satisfied that our replicas provide a good match for the archaeological swords, thus validating the test results and MWA discussed below.
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Post by Admin on Apr 26, 2020 7:10:20 GMT
Controlled Weapon Tests The controlled weapon tests (CWTs) were designed to recreate prehistoric one-on-one combat. Presuming that different kinds of weapons would have encountered one another in prehistoric armed clashes, we tested the swords not only against other swords but also against spearheads, spearshafts and replica wood, leather, and bronze shields. To allow for chronological consistency, all tests were carried out with weapons that would have existed contemporaneously (e.g. Ewart Park and Carp’s Tongue swords). We chose not to mount the weapons on testing rigs as this would severely limit the range of actions we could replicate. Instead, we opted for rigorous field tests carried out by experienced sword fencers. Depending on their nature, and also for health and safety reasons, certain tests were carried out by two combatants, while others (e.g. full-force sword thrusts) were aimed at static shield targets. During person-on-person tests, the combatants wore full body protection comprising knee-length padded gambesons, metal gauntlets, and fencing masks. Overall, the CWTs involved 148 individual tests unfolding over 6 days. They were carried out at two open-air facilities in the North-East of England: Bede’s World Museum (now Jarrow Hall) and the Durham University Botanic Garden. The guiding principle in our CWT design was to break down ‘real-life’ combat sequences into their elemental components (e.g. a single strike or parry). This strategy ensured full control of wear formation processes as well as test consistency and repeatability. Working strike by strike and parry by parry, each action was individually filmed and photographed, and all marks thus generated were recorded photographically, with the location and shape of each mark being also noted and labelled. This allowed us to build direct links between specific combat moves and specific marks. Repeats of every experiment were built into the protocol so that we could investigate the reliability of our results. The CWT experimental protocol is described in Table 2. All CWTs comprised static, kinetic, and dynamic sword parries. Our dynamic parries most closely mirrored live combat situations, in which both fighters would place force and speed behind the weapons, as one would in a real fight. Static parries, on the other hand, involved holding the defensive weapon still to receive the attacking strike, while during kinetic parries, the defender met the attack with a controlled movement towards the incoming weapon (Fig. 3). The force and velocity of the strikes were controlled empirically. Consistency between similar tests was ensured by having the same combatants hold the attacking and defending swords. Separating out static, kinetic, and dynamic parries allowed us to examine the relationship between different marks and the conditions in which they were generated and to test the conclusions arrived at by other researchers in a non-laboratory environment. Moreover, certain tests (e.g. full-force blade-on-blade strikes) gave us insights into the ritual destruction of swords and how to differentiate combat marks from ‘sword-killing’ marks (Knight 2019). Fig. 3 This approach to sword testing has offered several advantages over either machine-run experiments or experiential fighting tests. Firstly, it has allowed us to connect specific combat actions with specific wear marks, generating a comprehensive reference collection that could be used for the wear analysis of archaeological swords. Secondly, it has given us insights into which part of the blade is affected the most during sword fighting and enabled us to discriminate between attack and defence marks. Thirdly, it has allowed us to move beyond some of the sword-centric work carried out in the past and let us consider how different weapons can be used in combination with one other (e.g. in a melee). Finally, it has provided an opportunity to investigate the grey area that exists between marks originating from use and those derived from acts of deliberate destruction (Crellin et al.2018: 296). However, the CWTs have also had several disadvantages. First and foremost, they provided poor proxies for the sophistication of a real sword fight, whose aim arguably is to hit the opponent in a vulnerable part of their body, not leave a mark on their weapons. Due to their nature and goals, our tests largely failed to capture the wear patterns that may arise from weapons hitting human bodies and armour (although the latter was partly achieved in our shield tests). As such, some of the marks created during our tests are best interpreted as instances of ‘failed combat’, in which unplanned strikes or parries are carried out and weapons clash against the will of the combatants, while other marks may be good proxies for the ritual decommissioning of swords prior to deposition (Knight 2019). Additional weaknesses of the CWTs encompass the following: limited control of strike force, velocity, and other variables affecting wear formation compared to laboratory experiments; the need to scale down the experimental protocol due to higher-than-expected rates of sword damage; unexpected variability arising from the use of several sword types featuring varying blade lengths, points of balance, weights, and geometries; and the vagaries of in-field recording, with all the problems one might expect to be caused by an open environment; and the lack of a fully equipped microscope laboratory (Crellin et al.2018: 296–9). In order to offset these problems, we designed a series of experiential (or ‘actualistic’) weapon tests based on radically different principles and experimental protocols.
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