DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1118#0507
SWORD TYPES ON TABLETS: LEAF-SHAPED FORM S57
The approach to the leaf-shaped form of blade, distinctly perceptible
in B I,1 itself suggests interesting comparisons. As applied to swords, the
leaf-shaped blade, with its outline expanding towards the centre of its
length, answers to a very late type and
t0 a date when the weapon was used
more for cutting' strokes than for the
thrusting action for which it was ap-
parently exclusively used in Minoan
times.2 The expansion of the central
section of the blade cannot therefore
be held as evidence either for the exis-
tence of swords of the leaf-shaped class
in Minoan Knossos, or a reason for
assigning an exceptionally late date for
It may be observed, however, in this connexion, that a dagger blade from
Grave 86 at Zafer Pa-
poura, Fig. 840,* is of
' leaf-shaped outline, and
from its fine fabric should
be naturally referred to
L. M. II, though the Chamber Tomb in which it occurred had been plun-
dered, and much ruined, and direct evidence of date was not forthcoming.
This leaf-shaped form is also known among Sicilian Bronze Age daggers.
Sword Types on Tablets.
the ' sword tablets ' themselves.3
Fig. 8-10. Leaf-shaped Dagger : Zafer Papoura.
Evidence of Weapons mainly supplied by Tombs: not affected by
Form of Burial.
Such stores of arms that may have rested within the Palace at the
moment of its final catastrophe were no doubt in the main extracted from the
ruins at an epoch when the record of them was fresh. Apart from the tablets,
our source of knowledge as to the weapons then in vogue is, as in the case of
much of the earlier material of the kind, practically confined to the tombs.
It is clear that, so far as concerns the forms of sepulture there, Minoan
Compare, especially, Fig. 838 i,c. of the Minoan Civilization '. Some of the tab-
" See my remarks, Preh. Tombs of Knossos, lets found in the ' Little Palace' were inscribed
!' PP- 5°2, 503.
'In Scrifila-Minoa, i, p. 55, I had been
inclined, chiefly on the ground of the leaf:
shaped form of some of the swords on these
™>lets, ' anticipating that or the Early Iron
ge', to assign them to a 'somewhat late phase
in a decadent or careless style, but there
seems to be no sufficient reason as suggested,
he. cit., to refer to the Re-occupation period.
4 Preh. TowbsofA'uossos/^pp.470,411,Tig.
90: 23 cm. long, the blade is grooved and the
handle has a curving flange and a rivet at base.
The approach to the leaf-shaped form of blade, distinctly perceptible
in B I,1 itself suggests interesting comparisons. As applied to swords, the
leaf-shaped blade, with its outline expanding towards the centre of its
length, answers to a very late type and
t0 a date when the weapon was used
more for cutting' strokes than for the
thrusting action for which it was ap-
parently exclusively used in Minoan
times.2 The expansion of the central
section of the blade cannot therefore
be held as evidence either for the exis-
tence of swords of the leaf-shaped class
in Minoan Knossos, or a reason for
assigning an exceptionally late date for
It may be observed, however, in this connexion, that a dagger blade from
Grave 86 at Zafer Pa-
poura, Fig. 840,* is of
' leaf-shaped outline, and
from its fine fabric should
be naturally referred to
L. M. II, though the Chamber Tomb in which it occurred had been plun-
dered, and much ruined, and direct evidence of date was not forthcoming.
This leaf-shaped form is also known among Sicilian Bronze Age daggers.
Sword Types on Tablets.
the ' sword tablets ' themselves.3
Fig. 8-10. Leaf-shaped Dagger : Zafer Papoura.
Evidence of Weapons mainly supplied by Tombs: not affected by
Form of Burial.
Such stores of arms that may have rested within the Palace at the
moment of its final catastrophe were no doubt in the main extracted from the
ruins at an epoch when the record of them was fresh. Apart from the tablets,
our source of knowledge as to the weapons then in vogue is, as in the case of
much of the earlier material of the kind, practically confined to the tombs.
It is clear that, so far as concerns the forms of sepulture there, Minoan
Compare, especially, Fig. 838 i,c. of the Minoan Civilization '. Some of the tab-
" See my remarks, Preh. Tombs of Knossos, lets found in the ' Little Palace' were inscribed
!' PP- 5°2, 503.
'In Scrifila-Minoa, i, p. 55, I had been
inclined, chiefly on the ground of the leaf:
shaped form of some of the swords on these
™>lets, ' anticipating that or the Early Iron
ge', to assign them to a 'somewhat late phase
in a decadent or careless style, but there
seems to be no sufficient reason as suggested,
he. cit., to refer to the Re-occupation period.
4 Preh. TowbsofA'uossos/^pp.470,411,Tig.
90: 23 cm. long, the blade is grooved and the
handle has a curving flange and a rivet at base.