[Michael Curl]

While this is a spinoff of my CPI thread, that thread is obviously dead. So my question is thus,

Did swords become more common during the high and late middle ages?

What proof do we have of this?

How common did they become?

What caused this?

I have heard it here that swords became more common later on, but I haven't heard of any explanation or proof for this.




Regards.

[Benjamin H. Abbott]

Sixteenth-century military manuals assume every soldier will have a sword.

[Michael Curl]

But that is a little later than the period I am talking about.

However that still proves that at least by that time swords were more plentiful, the question remains, why, and when.

[Elling Polden]

Since pagan europeans had a tradition for burrying people with weapons, we have quite a lot of weapons from the pre-christian eras, as graves are relativelty easy to find. Medevial finds are limited to loose finds, and those stored/displayed somewhere until later ages.

There appears to have been a breathrough in sword manefacturing sometime during the 1100's. Most notably, swords where now made from a single piece of steel (so called monsteel swords), in contrast to the earlier, laminated blades. This would mean that making sword blades was now much easier.
This development when on as the middle ages progressed. Storey, in his PhD thesisTechnology and Military Policy , states that some items, like mail and helmets had a value drop of over 90% from 1200 to 1300.

[Michael Curl]

Omg, thank you so much for an original source.


p.s. your from Norway!!!!, what part?

I"m american but my family is from stavanger.

[Sean Manning]

Storey's thesis also suggests that expanding mining and smelting, increased trade, increased use of wind and waterpower, and the growth of towns and craft specialization were probably all involved in the huge drop in arms costs by 1300. By the late middle ages you could buy something swordlike for a day or two's pay for a country carpenter.

[Michael Curl]

My only complaint is that he doesn't define some of the things he is talking about. He talks about how much a helmet can range in price, but he never discusses how some of that is what kind, a conical helm costs much less than a great helm.

[Sean Manning]

[Michael Curl]

I understand that, but he should of discussed that in his paper as another reason that his numbers can't be taken at face value since they may be referring to different things (like his page on weights and such).