Swords
The new militarism was displayed most conspicuously in swords. A schematic
graph drawn by Barry Molloy shows dramatically the quantity of swords recovered
from the Late Bronze Age Aegean.^89 Although the early sword was meant for
display, it could also serve as a defensive weapon for one or both of the chariot
crewmen: like the spear, it would have been useful against an opponent on the
ground who had come too close to be targeted with the bow. In the warrior grave
excavated at Thebes in 1982, a grave dating to the end of the MM III period, Greek
archaeologists found a single Type A rapier. It had a length of 86 cm, and its organic
hilt was attached to the blade by two rivets through the tang and two more through
the shoulders.^90 Slightly later was the Type A rapier found in a tholos at Kakovatos,
on the coast of Elis.^91 This too was an elegant weapon, with a length of 92 cm,
its hilt fastened to the blade with a single rivet in the very short tang and two
rivets through the shoulders. More impressive is a burial not far from Pylos that
Schofield describes:
At Routsi-Myrsinochorion an unrobbed tholos tomb was discovered with the
final burial in the tomb preserved intact. On the floor of the tomb lay a warrior
burial of a man, who had been placed on a red-and-blue rush mat or blanket.
He wore a necklace of amber beads and was accompanied by ten swords and
daggers.^92Most recently discovered is a Type A rapier in the stunningly rich grave (probably
from the LH II period) of the “Griffin Warrior” at Pylos.^93 That sword, again almost
1 m long, had a hilt of ivory covered with gold leaf, and lay atop a dagger with
an equally ostentatious hilt.
Impressive as they are, the finds along the west coast of the Peloponnesos pale
in comparison to the pile of swords found in the Shaft Graves at Mycenae.^94 In Circle
B Papadimitriou and Mylonas found at least fifteen swords, one of which was a
well-hilted Type B and one a slashing cleaver. All of the others were Type A rapiers.
In the early phase of burials in Circle B a sword was usually placed alongside the
man’s body. The ceremonious deposition of so costly and fearsome a grave good
must have deeply impressed the onlookers, as Katherine Harrell has imagined:
The earliest interments at Mycenae in Grave Circle B (Graves Zeta, Eta) each
contain either a sword or a dagger, without other martial accoutrements. These
are the oldest sword blades to be found at the site, and it is worth emphasizing
their novelty and beauty: the sword from Zeta is nearly 1 m in length and
hilted in gold and ivory. Their interment must have been quite a spectacle.^95As generations passed, more and more goods were deposited with each burial,
and a single sword was no longer a sufficient dedication at the funeral of a great
man. Grave VI, one of the later graves in Circle A, contained nine swords and
each of the still later Graves V and IV contained several dozen. Three men and two
Militarism in Greece 195