Iron Weapons Research Articles

Arms and the King: The Insignia of Alexander the Great

ARMS AND ARMOUR ARE SYMBOLS of status a warring society. Macedonian soldiers of the King's Army-the Macedones proper-were inordinately proud of their arms and armour, and that pride was maintained the Indus valley by Alexander's provision of new panoplies inlaid gold and silver (Curt. 9.3.21) and by his naming of the Hypaspists after their silver shields.' It was a cause of distress to them when Alexander gave Macedonian pikes and lances to picked Asian troops (Arr. An. 7.6.1 and 5). When Macedonians fell battle, they were buried their arms, and a tumulus was raised over their ashes. Thus at Chaeronea a tumulus, 70 m. diameter and 7 m. high, marked the burial of the fallen 338 B.C. When excavated, it yielded many iron weapons, including the heads of pikes and double-edged swords.2 After the Battle of the Granicus 334 B.c. Alexander buried the Macedonian dead with their weapons and other accoutrements (Arr. An. 1.16.5), and 329 B.C. he raised a tumulus over the dead and sacrificed honour of the dead in accordance Macedonian custom (Curt. 7.9.21).3 The prestige conferred by arms and armour the homeland was such that they were portrayed paintings on the walls of the built-tomb of Lyson and Callicles (see Macedonia 150); and there was a painting of an armed cavalryman charging his lance practice on the wall of the Kinch Tomb.4

Catalogue of the Romano-British Iron Tools, Fittings and Weapons in the British Museum

Catalogue of the Romano-British Iron Tools, Fittings and Weapons in the British Museum

十字軍の東方に及ぼした影響

Shen-tsung, the 6th Emperor of Sung dynasty, received two ambassadors successively from so-called the Western Regions, one sent by the Sultanate of Seljukides, and the other by the East Roman Empire. These two countries confronted keenly each other and the antagonism was the cause of Crusade. The war devastated the Middle East, resulting in a great loss of population. The Seljukides had to recruit Turkish soldiers from Central Asia to reinforce the army. Thus the pressure of Turkish people toward the east became weaken and gave a chance to the neighbour tribes of Mongolia to rise to a new power. Moreover, the Mongol could arm themselves with abundant iron weapons learning the fabricating technique of the Chinese. Taking advantage of the exhaustion of the Turkish people, the Mongol conquered at last the whole Western Regions.

Metal-Working in Homer

In discussing the transition from bronze to iron in Anatolia, Dr. Stefan Przeworski incidentally identifies Homeric conditions with the stage in the historical development of metallurgy which he calls Chalcosideric. Professor Nilsson and Miss Lorimer have argued briefly but effectively that the poems contain elements from different periods; but belief in an historical ‘Homeric Society’ dies hard and justifies a more detailed examination of all the references to metals in the poems.Przeworski's transitional age began about 1300 B.C. in Anatolia and about a century later in Greece; in both it ended about 700 B.C. Before it began, bronze was the useful material for all industrial purposes, and the rare uses of iron were ornamental or magical. After it ended, iron was the normal industrial material, and the more malleable bronze was used for fine work or elaborate modelling. The characteristics of the intermediate period are: 1. Imitation of Late Bronze Age types in iron. 2. Simultaneous appearance of bronze and iron objects of the same purpose and type. 3. Inlay of bronze objects with iron. 4. Combination in the same weapon or tool of iron working and bronze ornamental parts. 5. Addition of iron working parts to bronze objects such as cult-wagons and utensils. 6. Use of bronze rivets on iron weapons and tools. 7. Repair of bronze objects with iron parts (Przeworski 175–6.) Most of these characteristics are so technical that they are unlikely to be reflected in poetry. Moreover, so many bronze objects were in common use at all periods, including the full Iron Age, that the most significant evidence may be taken to be the relative value of the metals, the relative frequency of bronze and iron weapons and tools, and the degree of familiarity shown with the methods of the forge as distinct from the foundry.

Radiological Evidence in Hæmatite Iron-ore Workers

The use of iron has existed for nearly 6000 years. The knowledge of some of its possibilities appears to have been appreciated in the East—China, Mesopotamia, and Egypt, since about 4000 b.c., some two thousand years before it reached South Eastern Europe. It was introduced to Greece down the valley of the Danube about the ninth Century and with its advent its there came the temporary downfall of Greece and the transition from the Bronze Age. Between 1000 b.c. and a.d. 100 the use of iron spread into Western Europe, Scandinavia and Ireland. Iron tools and weapons gradually replaced bronze, stone, and horn implements. That iron was mined or quarried, and its uses to some extent appreciated in Britain in pre-Roman days, we learn from Caesar. “Britanni utuntur aut aere aut talis ferreis, ad certum pondus examinatis, pro numo. Nascitur ibi in maritimis regionibus ferrum sed ejus exigua est copia” which being interpreted, for those who, like myself, have forgotten their Latin and possibly pronounce it different...

Scientific Serials

Bulletin de l'Académie Royale de Belgiqzee, June.—On the probiematic satellite of Venus, by Paul Stroobant. After a complete survey of the various appearances of tbis object between the years 1645 and 1768, the author discusses the different conjectures advanced by asronomers to expiain the phenomenon. The theory of a true satellite is rejected on the ground that no orbit could be made to correspond with all the recorded observations, while the elements calculated by Lambert from some of them wouid make the planet ten times larger than its actual size. In the same way are disposed of the olber suggestions that it might be the reflection of Venus on certain frozen particles in the atmospbere, or an inter-Mercurial planet, or a planet with a revolution slighly differing from that of Venus, or an asteroid, and the like. Several reasons are then advanced in support of the view that the pretended satellite is Io be referred to certain small fixed sars near which Venus was passing when the various observations were taken. This explanation is speciaily obvious in one instance, where the movemen attributed to the supposed satellite is precisely the proper motion, but in the opposite direction, of Venus al that moment in relation to the fixed stars.—On a specimen of crystaliine iron-glance formed on some old iron weapons, by W. Prinz. An examination of these crystals and of their physical properties, now for the first time detected on some ancient Frankish arms, shows that they are formed of specular iron, and their presence is compared with that of anhydrous ferric oxide in sedimentary deposits of all ages, produced, as on the arms in question, by the moist process at a low temperature.—On the origin of the curative effects of hypnotism, by J. Delbœuf. The author, who is one of the founders of the new branch of the medical art, based on the application of hypnotism to the cure of numerous maladies, here treats the subject as throwing light on the reciprocal action of mind on the body. He believes that there is a great future for hypnotism in the field of therapeutics, and describes in detail some of his own remarkable experiences and successful treatment of hypnotized patients.

On Celtic Sepulchral Remains at Tosson, near Rothbury, Northumberland

The author describes a site in Northumberland and several similarly situated local examples. The focus of the paper is the grave goods and human remains found in a barrow. He argues that this barrow belonged to a member of a Celtic border tribe around the time of the Roman invasion, based on recognisable design elements in the urns and the style of the iron weapons.