New Study of Balearic Island Bronze Age Swords Reveals Complex Origins

A recent study revealed many new details about the manufacture, material composition, and cultural importance of Late Bronze Age swords recovered during various 20th century excavations on Spain’s Balearic Islands in the western Mediterranean. This cache of weapons includes artifacts that are approximately 3,000 years old, with the collection as a whole dating to the years 1000 through 800 BC.

In the new study, which was just published in the journal Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, a team of researchers from the University of the Balearic Islands, led by archaeologist Laura Perelló Mateo, explain the results of their scientific analysis of these unique artifacts. They carefully examined these objects to determine the manufacturing techniques used to make them, while also measuring the chemical and isotopic compositions of their metals to determine their sources.

Interestingly, the Balearic swords they looked at exhibited signs of local manufacturing traditions mixed with ideas that originated elsewhere. 

“These swords incorporate the use of production techniques that were brought over from Iberia throughout the Middle and Late Bronze Ages,” the study authors wrote in their journal article. They mention lost-wax casting, the use of complex bronze alloys (made from copper, tin and lead), and the creation of compound objects as representations of imported manufacturing and design innovations.

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Sketch of details of swords found in the Balearic Islands. (L. Perelló Mateo et al./Archaeol Anthropol Sci)

Sword Making with a New and Unique Style

Between the 14th and 13th centuries BC, trading and cultural exchange in the western Mediterranean region began to pick up steam. Sitting 160 miles (260 kilometers) off the coast of the Iberian Peninsula, the Balearic Islands were easily visited by seagoing vessels traveling from Europe and Africa, which put the people of the islands in prime position to take advantage of these developments.

As calculated by Perelló Mateo and her team, the total weight of metal objects recovered from the islands of Mallorca, Ibiza, and Formentera rose from just 4.7 lbs. (2.15 kg) during excavations at Early Bronze Age sites to 117 lbs. (53 kg) during digs that explored Middle and Late Bronze Age sites. This reflected an increase of metals obtained through trade, which had a significant impact on the eventual development of a sword-making industry.

“The objects [swords] are made with foreign raw materials,” the study authors wrote. “Since there are no deposits of tin in the Balearic archipelago, obtaining this metal is always related to foreign relations. With regard to the copper, isotopic analyses suggest that no Mallorcan outcrops were used and, in many cases, the materials were sourced from abroad of the archipelago, with a notable use of copper from Linare [mainland Spain].”

Even though they were manufactured locally, the Balearic swords themselves can be directly linked to the increase in economic and cultural interactions that began in the western Mediterranean on the late second millennium BC.

“The formal idea of the “sword” should be understood as a foreign archetype that was incorporated by island communities,” the study authors explained. “Before swords, no similar objects were found on the Balearic Islands, with the possible exception of the machete from Lloseta.”

Interestingly, though, once the concept of the sword was embraced, the sword makers of the Balearic Islands put their own unique spin on their manufacture. The style and designs of their swords included some features that could be found nowhere else in the greater region in the early first millennium BC. There was a resemblance between these creations and swords found in Italy and Central Europe dating to the same era, but the differences were even more obvious.

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Image of the sword from Ses Salines and a close-up of the blade made to look like a sheath cast as one single piece. (L. Perelló Mateo et al./Archaeol Anthropol Sci)

In total 18 Late Bronze Age swords were examined, most of which came from the islands of Mallorca and Menorca. The distinctive features of these weapons including solid grips, in place of the disc-or diamond-shaped pommels found on models made elsewhere, and thinner-than-usual blades that attached to the grips through direct casting techniques or via three rivets arranged in a triangular pattern.

One of the major revelations from this study likely explains some of the differences in sword design that have been observed.

“Though they [the artifacts] take on the formal concept of swords, their role and function would have been completely different to the more generalized use they received on the mainland,” the study authors wrote. “Documented evidence allows us to conclude that, largely, these swords were not envisaged or produced for use in combat. Rather, they were created as symbolic objects to be put on display.”

The fact that the people of the Balearic Islands weren’t using swords in battle suggests their manufacture might have been commissioned by elites who could afford to have the materials imported to make them.

Image of the machete from Lloseta (Archeology Museum of Catalonia). Drawing by Delibes and Fernández-Miranda 1988. (L. Perelló Mateo et al./Archaeol Anthropol Sci)

Excavating the Lost World of the Mysterious Talaiotic Culture

Most of the recovered swords in the Balearic Islands have been linked to the Talaiotic culture that inhabited the islands for much of the second and first millenniums BC. These mysterious people, who originated from parts unknown, got their name from their apparently obsessive construction of talaiots, which is the name given to elaborate stone structures they built in many locations in the Balearic Island chain.

These structures are believed to have functioned as ceremonial centers, or possibly as community gathering spots. The swords were excavated in Talaiotic villages and fortified settlements, and it is thought they may have been used in various rituals or put on display at community events, which presumably would have taken place inside talaiots.

More than anything, what the discovery of these unique swords shows is that the people of the Balearic Islands had become integrated into the regional culture of the western Mediterranean by the early first millennium BC. The Balearic swords with their innovative designs were one result of this integration, and as archaeological explorations continue archaeologists are hoping to find more evidence that reveals the true nature of the islanders’ interactions with the outside world.

Top image: Image of the sword from Lloseta and detail of the burrs on the edge of the blade.  Source: Archaeology Museum of Catalonia/Archaeol Anthropol Sci

By Nathan Falde