Posted on 03/11/2023 7:06:33 AM PST by csvset
The 5,000-year-old swords found 43 years ago during the excavations in the old mud-brick palace structure in Malatya Arslantepe Mound are the oldest swords in the world.
Many archaeologists believed that the earliest swords only dated to around 1600 or 1500 BCE before the discovery of a cache of swords at the archaeological site of Arslantepe in Turkey.
The nine swords from the archaeological site of Arslantepe (Melid) attest to the use of this weapon for the first time in the world – at least a millennium before the already-known examples. They date back to the Early Bronze Age (c. 33rd to 31st centuries).
In the 1980s, Marcella Frangipane’s team at Rome University discovered a cache of nine swords and daggers dating all the way back to 3300 BCE. Frangipane declared the swords of Arslantepe the world’s oldest and first swords ever discovered.
They are made of an alloy of arsenic and copper. Three of the swords were exquisitely inlaid with silver. These weapons have a total length of 45 to 60 cm, which points to either a short sword or a long dagger classification.
This region is thought to be the birthplace of the sword as we see these blades begin to appear, made from this new technology and having the elements we think of as identifying a sword. They have a blade, guard, grip, and pommel like shape. Size wise they would be shorter than we think of today for most swords but in their time, they may well be the length that was achievable with the best technology of the day.
This advancement in metallurgy can be seen in many valuable objects found in high-status graves of the time, and these swords are among them.
There is a lot of debate about how these pieces work. Were they merely status symbols, or could they have served a practical purpose? Swords have been used for both purposes throughout history, and even if they appear unwieldy to our modern standards, they may have worked well enough in the hands of an antagonist in 3000 BCE to ruin your day.
The Aslantepe Mound in Malatya, where the first city-state was established, sheds light on history with its adobe palace, 5,500-year-old temple, swords, and spears. It is located on the western shore of the Euphrates, seven kilometers away from the city center.
Arslantepe Mound, which is on the UNESCO World Heritage List, was partially damaged after the Feb. 6 twin earthquakes in the country’s southern region.
With no damage to the permanent roof of the museum, the temporary roof suffered partial collapse but it did not cause harm to its archaeological texture.
GGG ping
Some work with steel wool and a file and they’d be good as new.
If the stab wound doesn’t kill them the rust and arsenic will.
What possessed man 5000 years ago to produce arsenic? And then why use it in forging swords.
Did someone say this stuff is deadly. Look what it did to Ugg. Let’s use it to make swords!!!
Those look like they’d be relatively painful
Advantages of arsenical bronze
While arsenic was most likely originally mixed with copper as a result of the ores already containing it, its use probably continued for a number of reasons. First, it acts as a deoxidizer, reacting with oxygen in the hot metal to form arsenous oxides which vaporize from the liquid metal. If a great deal of oxygen is dissolved in liquid copper, when the metal cools the copper oxide separates out at grain boundaries, and greatly reduces the ductility of the resulting object. However, its use can lead to a greater risk of porous castings, owing to the solution of hydrogen in the molten metal and its subsequent loss as a bubble (although any bubbles could be forge-welded and still leave the mass of the metal ready to be work-hardened).[1]
Second, the alloy is capable of greater work-hardening than is the case with pure copper, so that it performs better when used for cutting or chopping. An increase in work-hardening capability arises with an increasing percentage of arsenic, and the bronze can be work-hardened over a wide range of temperatures without fear of embrittlement.[1] Its improved properties over pure copper can be seen with as little as 0.5 to 2 wt% As, giving a 10-to-30% improvement in hardness and tensile strength.[7]
Third, in the correct percentages, it can contribute a silvery sheen to the article being manufactured. There is evidence of arsenical bronze daggers from the Caucasus and other artifacts from different locations having an arsenic-rich surface layer which may well have been produced deliberately by ancient craftsmen,[9] and Mexican bells were made of copper with sufficient arsenic to color them silver.[7]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arsenical_bronze
Da-da, da da da da da...
Mummm, mummm (drool)
Yep.
Swords, SWORDS IDIOT, now WORDS!
no S-words either, not allowed here
The really great thing is that those 5000 year old swords will kill you just as dead today.
Re arsenic: I would bet they were trying to create gold from other metals and came up with this alloy.
Do plowshares come before swords or is it the other way around?
Oldest Swords Found In Turkey (3,300BC)
Discovery Channel | 3-25-2003 | Rossella Lorenzi
Posted on 03/30/2003 4:37:06 PM PST by blam
https://freerepublic.com/focus/news/880260/posts
Excellent discussion. - thank you!
I soak my rusted garden tools in vinegar...and voila...like brand new.
And He shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. Isaiah 2:4
Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears; let the weakling say, “I am a warrior.” — Joel 3:10
Isaiah comes before Joel in the KJV
But are they made of a copper-arsenic alloy?
I’m guessing here, but I suspect them folks in charge at Aslantepe Mound, Malatya had laws limiting assault swords and who could own them. /S
That is how you hold power, doncha know.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
