Bronze Age shipwreck loaded with jewellery is found off Devon

[emad]

The Independent
By David Keys, Archaeology Correspondent
09 March 2005


The site of a Bronze Age shipwreck, loaded with French-made weapons and jewellery, found off the coast of Devon, has been hailed as the most important prehistoric find of its kind for 30 years.

The discovery, half a mile out to sea near Salcombe, sheds new light on Britain's overseas trade 3,350 years ago.

A team of amateur marine archaeologists, the South West Maritime Archaeological Group, found at least two dozen French-made weapons, tools and pieces of gold and bronze jewellery beneath 18 metres of water.

Although the boat itself has long since rotted, the French imports survived extremely well. They include a solid gold neck ring, a gold bracelet, three bronze rapiers, three spear heads, three axe heads, several dagger blades, an arrow head and part of a bronze cauldron.
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/story.jsp?story=618133

[hatrack]

1. What's the Archaic Greek word for "bling"?

:hi:

[Squatch]

2. How can anything from the bronze age be "French-made"?

:shrug:

[Coventina]

3. I think what they mean is "modern-day France"

obviously, the modern nation we know as France did not exist in the Bronze age!
:-)

[Squatch]

6. It would be more accurate to refer to the provenance of the items

by the dominant culture of the area in which they were made.

[lazarus]

12. The Gaul of those people!

:hi:

[Coventina]

13. LOL! Good one!

:thumbsup:

[htuttle]

4. Bronze 'rapiers'?

Okay, are they using the wrong word for that sword, or do we need to completely rewrite the history of edged weapons? Rapiers were more of an early Renaissance weapon, last I'd heard.

[Fridays Child]

7. Another unauthorized use of Thesaurus, is my guess.

[pschoeb]

8. Rapier is the correct term

It applies to any thin bladed thrusting weapon larger than a dagger, rapiers were quite common in many Middle Bronze age cultures.

[htuttle]

10. I've never seen a Bronze rapier

See, the problem with bronze is that it's fairly soft. Bronze swords were generally quite thick to withstand the strain of hitting and cutting something.

It wasn't until the development of tempered steel until they were able to make 'rapier thin' blades that were useful for anything.

I guess I'd like to see a picture before I make anymore assumptions, but almost all the bronze-age swords I've seen had pretty thick blades.

[seriousstan]

14. Here are pictures and links.....

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=&imgrefurl=http://www.wessexarch.co.uk/press/testwood_bridge_29-11-03.html&h=158&w=240&sz=5&tbnid=lof2CVv_iygJ:&tbnh=68&tbnw=103&start=5&prev=/images%3Fq%3DBronze%2Brapier%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26rls%3DRNWE,RNWE:2004-38,RNWE:en%26sa%3DN


Middle Bronze Age- Early Bronze Swords (Rapiers)

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=&imgrefurl=http://www.vikingsword.com/smithy/seax.html&h=281&w=327&sz=5&tbnid=AKu75gaXNwwJ:&tbnh=97&tbnw=113&start=10&prev=/images%3Fq%3DBronze%2Brapier%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26rls%3DRNWE,RNWE:2004-38,RNWE:en%26sa%3DN

[htuttle]

15. Thanks for that link

From the second one, it explains the terminology choice:

It seems to be the general concensus, and it is a logical one, that the sword, in the form of the 'rapier' developed out of the dagger. This occurred when a better material than pure copper, namely bronze, came into use, and the length of such weapons could be increased. Thus, it can be said that the rapier evolved "by lengthening the dagger little by little, keeping step with the ever-growing command of metal and the ability to make longer castings..." . This is illustrated by the fact that typologies and classifications of rapiers, dirks , and daggers attempt to distinguish these forms form each other on the basis of length. The development of rapiers can also be connected to a cultural process, as well as a technological one. This was a change in the style of warfare, where longer blades were favoured for their effectiveness .

Ah. Now it's clear to me why they call them rapiers.

[Fridays Child]

5. Hey! That's where I left them!

They'd better give them back.

[SmokingJacket]

9. Man! I always wanted to be an archaeologist!

But my mother told me everything had already been found.

LIAR!!!

I can't believe how cool this is.

[GodlessBiker]

11. It's a Lacroix.