Sword
Espada
- Date
- c. 3300 BCE · confidence high
- Place
- Arslantepe (Malatya), eastern Anatolia, Turkey
- Credited to
- Arslantepe culture (late Chalcolithic Anatolia)
- Field
- Conflict
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
An arsenical bronze blade over 45 cm long, with a riveted hilt, found in the palace of Arslantepe (c. 3300 BCE). The first weapon designed exclusively to kill another human being, with no use in hunting or work.
The Arslantepe swords are the oldest known; the long sword as the dominant weapon only becomes widespread in the Middle Bronze Age (c. 1700 BCE) in the Aegean and Anatolia.
What it led to
- A warrior class and armed aristocracy as a distinct social group
- Armies with standardised weapons supplied by the palace
- An arms race: long tin-bronze swords, then iron ones, and armour in response
Built on
- Arsenical bronzec. 3600 BCE
- Tin bronzec. 3200 BCE
- Metal nail and rivetc. 3000 BCE
- Copper dagger
- Metal nail and rivet
Made possible
- Sickle-sword (khopesh)c. 2500 BCE
- Metal helmet and scale armourc. 1700 BCE
- Long iron sword (Hallstatt C type)c. 750 BCE
- Hoplite phalanx and hoplon shieldc. 700 BCE
- Hispanic sword (gladius hispaniensis)c. 218-200 BCE
- Iklwa (short stabbing spear) and the 'horns of the buffalo' tacticc. 1816-1820
- Mycenaean long-bladed sword (Naue II type)
- Helmet and scale armour
- Iron sword