Ancient swords, delicate daggers and even early artillery-there are many interesting ancient weapons in 2020 that tell stories of violence in the past. These discoveries cover hundreds of thousands of years of human history from the Ice Age to the Middle Ages.
Ice age throwing stick
The first stop of the weapons tour will take us into the ice age, where is the now extinct human species Heidelberger Use hunting tools.This stick, about 25 inches (64.5 cm) long, was discovered in Germany and was first reported in the magazine in April. Natural ecology and evolution. Its history can be traced back 300,000 years, and it is said to have been used to injure or kill small prey such as rabbits, swans and ducks. University of Tubingen. Heidelberger Also used spears and spears for hunting. Most of these wooden weapons no longer exist, but the Schöningen site in Germany retains an outstanding example of this ancient hunting tradition.
A very old sword
In fact, a medieval sword believed to be sitting in a humble museum is actually One of the oldest swords ever.
Archaeologist Vittoria Dall’Armellina discovered this simple weapon in the San Lazzaro degli Armeni Monastery. Although the sword was marked as only a few hundred years old, Dall’Armellina realized that it looked more like a Bronze Age weapon than a medieval artifact. She and her colleagues analyzed the sword and found that it was indeed an early Bronze Age copper-arsenic alloy about 5,000 years ago. This sword comes from Anatolia, where the sword was first invented in eastern Turkey.
Beautiful handle
This spring, a mushroom hunter in the Czech Republic appeared in the woods, and he found more fungi at the time.
Protruding from the soil is a piece of metal.The mushroom hunter Roman Novák kicked it and realized it was Blade. He began to dig and found not only a sword but also a bronze axe.
The hilt and saddle of the sword are decorated with exquisite round and crescent carvings. Archaeologists inspected these artifacts with the nearby Silesian Museum and nailed them to the Bronze Age about 3,300 years ago. Although recent rain may have washed away enough soil to make it visible for the first time in thousands of years, it is not clear why the sword fell in the middle of the woods. The archaeologists plan to study the surrounding area further.
4. Major discovery
About 2500 years ago, in what is now Siberia, a man, two women and a baby were buried.There are many treasures hidden in their graves, including Bronze dagger, knife and axe.
The people buried in the tombs are part of the Taggar culture. These weapons are placed side by side with men and young women. It is not uncommon for Taggar women to be buried with weapons, although they usually have bows and arrows instead of the axe found in this tomb. Men and women died in the 30s or 40s. The bodies of women in their 60s were shrunk under their feet. Archaeologists scattered throughout the tomb and found the bones of a baby less than one month old, whose body may have been disturbed by rodents after the burial.
Bone weapon
The handle of a bone knife found on the Isle of Man near England reveals the creativity of ancient people in weaponry. Unearthed for the first time in 1970, this year finally analyzed the bone saddle and published a report in the magazine Ancient In October. The artifact was found in a tomb containing the cremation bones of four people, including at least a teenager and a baby. Archaeologists discovered that in addition to the partially burned bones were collected in two urns, they also found that they might be bone beads made from cow or horse bones and a bone knife saddle. Researchers report that the blade is gone, but the saddle will hold a knife the size of a modern dinner knife.
Perhaps more interesting than the weapons in this funeral are a series of other artifacts: the bones were processed into rectangular shapes, about an inch (30 mm) long, with rounded corners. Nothing like bone rectangles has been discovered before, and their purpose is not clear.
Beautifully decorated roman dagger
After nine months of cleaning and restoration, the less impressive-looking metal block was turned into a beautifully decorated Roman dagger.
The dagger is about 13 inches (35 cm) long and was found in the tomb of a Roman soldier in Haltern, the site of a Roman military base between 27 BC and 14 AD. The dagger was found in the cemetery of the base. One of the few weapons found on the scene.
The blade of the dagger is made of iron and the handle is inlaid with silver. Its skin is ornate, lined with wood, and decorated with red glass and enamel, silver and Niello (a black mixture, usually a black mixture of sulfur, copper, silver, and lead). Romans are not usually buried by weapons, so the existence of the dagger in the tomb is a bit mysterious. Archaeologist Bettina Tremmel told Live Science.
A “mirror afterlife” sword
When archaeologists discovered the tomb of a 1,100-year-old Viking warrior in Norway, they were not surprised to find a sword inside. Vikings are often buried by weapons. But what makes the grave strange is that the sword is on the left side of the warrior. The Viking sword is almost always found buried on the right side of the dead.
In life, a right-handed warrior will wear a sword on the left for easy drawing. The fact that the swords of the Viking warriors were buried on the right showed that they believed in the “mirror afterlife” and everything in it was confusing. The soldiers buried in Norwegian graves may be left-handed, His discoverers speculate, Which means that he will wear the sword all his life on the right. Therefore, his sword was placed on his left to prepare for the afterlife of the mirror.
Sword in the lake
At some point in the 16th century, the body of a medieval warrior settled at the bottom of a lake in Lithuania.It was discovered with soldiers’ weapons at the end of this year During bridge inspection.
It is not clear why the person ended up at the bottom of the lake. The sediment naturally settled on the body, burying him in silt 30 feet (9 meters) below the surface of the water. There are two wooden knives and an iron sword near the corpse, and they are in unexpectedly good condition.
Early artillery
At first glance, the artifacts found in Croatia’s Krka National Park look like a particularly heavy thermos-but it is actually a siege weapon dating back to the 17th or 18th century .
The device is mačkula, a type of mortar used when besieging a fortress or castle.according to Croatia Week, The bronze was discovered near the Nečven fortress, an archaeological site dating from the early 14th century. mačkula was found inside one of the fortress walls. According to park officials, it may be both ceremonial and defensive. Traditionally, pop music from mačkula is used to celebrate the winter festival and the victory of Sinjska alka, a traditional equestrian competition held every year in Sinj, Croatia.
Originally published in “Life Science”.
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