weaponry and armor: Europe Spear thrower carved in the shape of a mammoth, Late Magdalenian (about 12,500 years old), from the rock shelter of Montastruc, Tarn-etGaronne, France (© The Trustees of the British Museum) in the Early Iron Age (beginning in 1000 b.c.e.) While some elaborately decorated daggers were apparently intended only for ceremonial use, most daggers were employed for fighting at close quarters Unlike the bow and arrow, daggers probably were meant only for human fighting rather than hunting It is possible, however, that they were used to deliver a coup de grace to wounded animals and people and, in the absence of other implements identifiable as knives, daggers also might have been used to butcher prey Daggers typically had rounded pommels Two types of weapons emerged early in the Bronze Age that would have a substantial impact on warfare for many centuries The sword and the spear were critical elements in combat The spear developed out of a daggerlike blade with a long tang (attaching the blade to the handle) that might have been mounted on a long shaft rather than held close to the body By 1800 b.c.e the socketed version, fitting over the shaft, was in use in central Europe With only small differences, this is the form that existed throughout the ancient era Depictions of spears not clearly indicate whether they were typically held or thrown In Europe small and large spearheads were used, as were those of intermediate sizes It is most likely that small spearheads were intended for light javelins that could be thrown over long distances Large spearheads were probably used for heavy spears that were held firm by a warrior or group of warriors under closequarters thrust at an opponent Collective fi nds of spears in Scandinavia indicate that spear owners acted and fought in collaboration, with some throwing their spears and then taking cover behind others, who advanced holding their spears At the moment of encounter the throwers could then have emerged to use cutting or thrusting weapons (daggers, rapiers, swords) in hand-to-hand combat While spears were obviously important, they were not usually decorated or given the appearance of prestige weapons, unlike swords Early versions of the sword were in ex- 1167 istence by 1800 b.c.e The cut-and-thrust sword developed several centuries later In combat, swords were usually accompanied by daggers or knives and sometimes by spears Not everyone relied on a sword—a few relied on spears or daggers Still, swords were the commonest weapon To fend off arrowheads and the blows of blades, ancient Europeans devised various types of armor Most of the earliest examples of body armor in Europe date to the 13th century b.c.e Leather and wood were the most popular materials for protection Wooden shields were produced in Ireland around 1800 b.c.e Leather, always in use, had more flexibility than bronze, and it was considerably cheaper and easier to produce Few warriors were protected entirely by bronze, but hammered sheet bronze is so thin that it would have been relatively useless as protection against a spear or sword Pelts were also used as a sort of armor that offered not only the physical protection of the animal’s fur and hide but also the psychological reinforcement brought about by taking on the animal’s fighting skills Warriors wore the pelts of wolves, bears, and other fierce animals when going into battle The head of the animal sat on the warrior’s head like a helmet The animal’s front legs ran down the warrior’s arms, protecting them from sword blows, while its hind legs were attached to the warrior’s legs In this way the warrior inhabited the animal and took on its spirit, often in an intensely ecstatic state that made him relatively impervious to wounds and to fear and, consequently, very hard to stop There was another kind of ecstatic warrior that fought wearing no armor—indeed, no clothes at all A representation of such a naked warrior has been found carved into a stone slab left by the Kemi-Oba culture at Kernosovka in Ukraine It is the oldest-known image of a European warrior and dates from 4000 to 3000 b.c.e The warrior is dressed in nothing but a belt, but he is heavily armed with a club, a knife or spear, and three axes His hair is long, his arms are held tightly to his chest with his shoulders pulled up, and his penis is erect, all indicating a heightened state of passion and alertness The same representations of tightly held arms, tense shoulders, and erect penis are also found on a Celtic statue of a “berserk” warrior The Celts adorned their nakedness with golden neckbands, which served the double purpose of accenting their white skins and taunting their enemies to come and take the bands off their necks if they dared They wore their naked paleness with similar bravado, as a kind of psychological armor that showed off the red blood of their wounds Without the burden of armor, they were also faster than ordinary soldiers At the battle of Cannae in 216 b.c.e the Romans ran in terror from the troops of bare-chested Gauls that Hannibal had assembled In these cases, the most effective armor was no armor Berserks scared their opponents into fleeing the field of battle When men did fight, wooden shields and leather coverings offered little protection against arrowheads and swords In ancient Europe weaponry advanced more quickly than personal defenses against it