Prehistory and antiquity[edit]

Bronze Age[edit]
Main article: Bronze Age sword
The first weapons that can be described as "swords" date to around 3300 BC. They have been
found in Arslantepe, Turkey, are made from arsenical bronze, and are about 60 cm (24 in)
long.[2] Some of them are inlaid with silver.

Apa-type swords, 17th-century BC.

The swords found together with the Nebra skydisk, c. 1600 BC.

The sword developed from the knife or dagger. A knife is unlike a dagger in that a knife has only one
cutting surface, while a dagger has two cutting surfaces.[citation needed] Construction of longer blades
became possible during the 3rd millennium BC in the Middle East, first in arsenic copper, then in tin-
bronze.
Blades longer than 60 cm (24 in) were rare and not practical until the late Bronze Age because
the Young's modulus (stiffness) of bronze is relatively low, and consequently longer blades would
bend easily. The development of the sword out of the dagger was gradual; the first weapons that can
be classified as swords without any ambiguity are those found in Minoan Crete, dated to about 1700
BC, reaching a total length of more than 100 cm (39 in). These are the "type A" swords of
the Aegean Bronze Age.
One of the most important, and longest-lasting, types swords of the European Bronze Age was
the Naue II type (named for Julius Naue who first described them), also known
as Griffzungenschwert (lit. "grip-tongue sword"). This type first appears in c. the 13th century BC
in Northern Italy (or a general Urnfield background), and survives well into the Iron Age, with a life-
span of about seven centuries. During its lifetime, metallurgy changed from bronze to iron, but not its
basic design.
Naue II swords were exported from Europe to the Aegean, and as far afield as Ugarit, beginning
about 1200 BC, i.e. just a few decades before the final collapse of the palace cultures in the Bronze
Age collapse.[3] Naue II swords could be as long as 85 cm, but most specimens fall into the 60 to
70 cm range. Robert Drews linked the Naue Type II Swords, which spread from Southern Europe
into the Mediterranean, with the Bronze Age collapse.[4] Naue II swords, along with Nordic full-hilted
swords, were made with functionality and aesthetics in mind.[5] The hilts of these swords were
beautifully crafted and often contained false rivets in order to make the sword more visually
appealing. Swords coming from northern Denmark and northern Germany usually contained three or
more fake rivets in the hilt.[6]
Sword production in China is attested from the Bronze Age Shang Dynasty.[7] The technology for
bronze swords reached its high point during the Warring States period and Qin Dynasty. Amongst
the Warring States period swords, some unique technologies were used, such as casting high tin
edges over softer, lower tin cores, or the application of diamond shaped patterns on the blade
(see sword of Goujian). Also unique for Chinese bronzes is the consistent use of high tin bronze
(17–21% tin) which is very hard and breaks if stressed too far, whereas other cultures preferred
lower tin bronze (usually 10%), which bends if stressed too far. Although iron swords were made
alongside bronze, it was not until the early Han period that iron completely replaced bronze.[8]
In the Indian subcontinent, earliest available Bronze age swords of copper were discovered in
the Indus Valley Civilization sites in the northwestern regions of South Asia. Swords have been
recovered in archaeological findings throughout the Ganges-Jamuna Doab region of Indian
subcontinent, consisting of bronze but more commonly copper.[9] Diverse specimens have been
discovered in Fatehgarh, where there are several varieties of hilt.[9] These swords have been
variously dated to times between 1700 and 1400 BC, but were probably used more in the opening
centuries of the 1st millennium BC.[9]
Iron Age[edit]
Main article: Iron Age sword

Hallstatt swords

Iron became increasingly common from the 13th century BC. Before that the use of swords was less
frequent. The iron was not quench-hardened although often containing sufficient carbon, but work-
hardened like bronze by hammering. This made them comparable or only slightly better in terms of
strength and hardness to bronze swords. They could still bend during use rather than spring back
into shape. But the easier production, and the better availability of the raw material for the first time
permitted the equipment of entire armies with metal weapons, though Bronze Age Egyptian armies
were sometimes fully equipped with bronze weapons.[10]
Ancient swords are often found at burial sites. The sword was often placed on the right side of the
corpse. Many times the sword was kept over the corpse. In many late Iron Age graves, the sword
and the scabbard were bent at 180 degrees. It was known as killing the sword. Thus they might have
considered swords as the most potent and powerful object.[11]
Indian antiquity[edit]
High-carbon steel for swords, which would later appear as Damascus steel, was likely introduced in
India around the mid‐1st millennium BCE.[12] The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea mentions swords of
Indian iron and steel being exported from ancient India to Greece.[13] Blades from the Indian
subcontinent made of Damascus steel also found their way into Persia.[13]
Greco-Roman antiquity[edit]
Further information: Migration Period sword
By the time of Classical Antiquity and the Parthian and Sassanid Empires in Iran, iron swords were
common. The Greek xiphos and the Roman gladius are typical examples of the type, measuring
some 60 to 70 cm (24 to 28 in).[14][15] The late Roman Empire introduced the longer spatha[16] (the term
for its wielder, spatharius, became a court rank in Constantinople), and from this time, the
term longsword is applied to swords comparatively long for their respective periods.[17]
Swords from the Parthian and Sassanian Empires were quite long, the blades on some late
Sassanian swords being just under a metre long.
Swords were also used to administer various physical punishments, such as non-
surgical amputation or capital punishment by decapitation. The use of a sword, an honourable
weapon, was regarded in Europe since Roman times as a privilege reserved for the nobility and the
upper classes.[18]
Persian antiquity[edit]
In the first millennium BC the Persian armies used a sword that was originally of Scythian design
called the akinaka (acinaces). However, the great conquests of the Persians made the sword more
famous as a Persian weapon, to the extent that the true nature of the weapon has been lost
somewhat as the name Akinaka has been used to refer to whichever form of sword the Persian army
favoured at the time.