More Bronze Age Battling

Dear fellow martial artists and archaeology enthusiasts,

In a recent newsletter, I told you about the 3,300-year-old bronze sword from the Tollense Valley, the site of a large-scale violent conflict that took place in the Late Bronze Age. Now, an extensive TV documentary tells the story of the discovery, excavations, and research results of what some archaeologists consider the world’s oldest known battlefield. In this newsletter, I will provide relevant links and resources.

Where to Find the Documentary

The European TV channel ARTE now offers this well-made 90-minute film online, available in German and in French. Originally, it was a British production titled World’s Oldest Battlefield, and it comes in two episodes, which can be found here, for example.

Various Weapons

The excavated victims were slain by a variety of weapons, such as spears, wooden clubs and bladed weapons. Many of them were shot by arrows with flint and bronze heads.

Leading experimental archaeologist Harm Paulsen tested replica arrows on a pig carcass for the State Department of Archaeology in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, and repeated some of these tests for the documentary.

Likewise, Dr. Raphael Hermann offers insight into his study of Bronze Age swords. Hermann was part of a team of researchers who published an influential paper on the subject in 2020. They compared damage and wear on original swords with marks inflicted during tests with replica swords. You can find the paper here.

For the project, Bob Brooks of the Hotspur School of Defence consulted on historical martial arts and conducted what the paper refers to as "actualistic tests." Bob discusses his involvement in the study in this episode of the Sword Guy podcast.

Of course, no direct sources on Bronze Age fighting survive, so the combat techniques were modelled on 15th-century sword-and-buckler plays by Andres Lignitzer. I noticed in the paper’s bibliography that an older video of Cornelius Berthold and me is cited as a reference. That video is still available on my YouTube channel. You can watch it here.

Our approach to sword and buckler is much more refined today, particularly in terms of timing and the corresponding footwork. A free video gives you an idea of our current methods, and how we have turned them into a training curriculum for our foundational sword and buckler online course.

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As you may know, ergonomics and fine motor skills in sword fighting are a focus of my research. I feel that the importance of such details is not yet fully appreciated by researchers or practitioners.

I am currently investigating the design of Bronze Age swords and was particularly impressed by the intricacies and minute details of the hilt of the sword from Wodarg in the Tollense Valley. Given that the hilt was modelled in an organic medium before being cast in bronze, it’s fair to assume that the shape we see today was carefully planned, as confirmed by Bronze Age expert Dr. Detlef Jantzen. You can watch a brief clip of the sword and see some photos in this post of mine.

I am indebted to Dr. Jantzen, who granted me access to this incredible artefact. He also appears in the TV documentary, though a film titled The World’s Oldest Battlefield would never mention Jantzen’s scepticism about whether this prehistoric conflict was truly a battle. He sees little evidence of a military encounter between two opposing armies. Instead, he believes a raid conducted by professional warriors while a trade caravan was crossing the river seems more plausible. You can find his respective paper attached to my public Patreon post.

There is consensus, however, that the location of the attack was strategically chosen. Archaeologists discovered a Bronze Age bridge across the River Tollense and the remains of a massive causeway that was already 500 years old at the time. This suggests that the long-distance trade route through the river valley was well established when the unknown warriors laid their ambush in 1300 BC.

Image credits: Save for my sword & buckler photos and drawings, all images in this post are taken from the TV documentary World's Oldest Battlefield.

So, that's it for today. Take care, and keep your blade well-honed.

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Yours,

Roland

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