May
10
/ 2022
Excavations of Bronze Age “warrior graves” throughout Europe have nearly always led to the recovery of copper alloy Bronze Age daggers. However, their function has been poorly understood. It has long been speculated that they, in fact, didn’t serve any practical purpose and were symbols of status and identity. Now, a new study published in the journal Scientific Reports has suggested that they served a functional purpose and were used to butcher and carve animal carcasses. Bronze Age Daggers: Symbolic or Functional? Daggers first made their appearance in prehistoric Europe in the fourth millennium BC. They were made of either flint or copper alloy depending on the availability of raw material. From the second millennium BC, flint daggers had been
