List of premodern combat weapons

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This is a list of historical pre-modern weapons grouped according to their uses, with rough classes set aside for very similar weapons. Some weapons may fit more than one category (e.g. the spear may be used either as a polearm or as a projectile), and the earliest gunpowder weapons which fit within the period are also included.

Contents

Offensive weapons

Melee weapons

Hand or fist weapons and fans

Single-handed weapons not resembling a straight dagger blade, usually wielded without wrist action; often protects the forearm.

Edged and bladed weapons

Thrusting and cutting weapons for melee combat. Col. D.H. Gordon's classification has been used where applicable. [2] [3]

Swords

Long swords were classified by Gordon as longer than 28 inches/71 cm. [2]

Curved one-handed swords
Straight one-handed swords
Curved two-handed swords
Hand-and-a-half and two-handed greatswords
Shortswords

Delineated as 20-28 inches/51–71 cm total length. [2]

Curved shortswords

Straight shortswords

Axe-like swords

Generally, convex blades used for heavy chopping or slashing.

Other swords

Fighting knives and daggers

Sickles and sickle like knives

Generally short, concave blades used for heavy cutting.

  • Arit (Maduresian, Indonesian)
  • Karambit, kerambit, korambit (Minangkabauian, Indonesian)
  • Kujang (Sundanese, Indonesian)
  • Kukri (Indian)
  • Mandau (Malaysian, Indonesian, Bornean, Bruneian)
  • Pichangatti [1] (Indian)
  • Punyal (Philippinese, Southeast Asian)
  • Sickle (Improvised, worldwide)
  • Sudanese sickle knife [1] (African)

Picks and pickaxes

Axes

Truncheons and blunt weapons

Usually wielded with one or two hands at close quarters with striking motions, although some sharp-pointed truncheons like the sai were more often used for stabbing.

Polearms and spears

Wielded mainly with two hands. Primarily for melee with sweeping, thrusting, and or hooking motions.

Blunt staves

Spears

Throwing spears are listed under ranged weapons.

Polearms with axe-like blades

Polearms with spikes and hammers

Ranged weapons

Thrown

Throwing blades and darts

Throwing spears

All could be used as spears, but were designed and primarily used for throwing.

Throwing axes

Could also be used as axe weapons, but were specifically designed for throwing.

Throwing balls

  • Bolas, ayllo, liwi, qilumitautit (Central American, South American, Arctic)
  • Slungshot not to be confused with a slingshot (Improvised, Worldwide)
  • Stone, rock (Improvised, Worldwide)

Throwing sticks

  • Boomerang (Australian, Worldwide)
  • Knobkierrie, knopkierie, knobkerry, also a blunt weapon (African)
  • Rungu (East African)
  • Stick, branch (Improvised, Worldwide)

Gunpowder weapons

An illustration of an "eruptor", a proto cannon from the 14th century Ming Dynasty book Huolongjing. The cannon was capable of firing proto shells, cast iron bombs filled with gunpowder. Ming Dynasty eruptor proto-cannon.jpg
An illustration of an "eruptor", a proto cannon from the 14th century Ming Dynasty book Huolongjing . The cannon was capable of firing proto shells, cast iron bombs filled with gunpowder.

Composite projectile weapons

Having a built-in gun or other ranged weapon combined with some other type of melee weapon.

  • Ax match and wheellock [1] (European axe with five barrels under a removable blade)
  • Carbine axe [1] (European axe)
  • Halberd double barreled wheellock [1] (European halberd)
  • Mace wheellock [1] (European mace)
  • Matchlock axe dagger [1] (European axe, dagger, matchlock combination)
  • Pistol sword (European sword)
  • War hammer wheellock [1] (European pick hammer)

Firing mechanisms

Slings

Bows

Longbows
Recurved bows
Short bows and reflex bows
Crossbows

Blowguns

Projectile weapons

Flamethrowers

Flexible weapons

Whips

Used for whipping.

Sectional and composite

Having multiple handles or holdable sections.

Chains and ropes

Having a heavy object attached to a flexible chain or rope. Wielded by swinging, throwing, or projecting the end, as well as wrapping, striking, and blocking with the chain or rope, sometimes attached to another type of weapon.

Defensive weapons

Shields and body armour

Shields

Used not only to block strikes and missiles but also swung outwardly (or in quick upward motions) to strike an opponent. Also used to rush an opponent (known as shield bashing). Some shields had spikes, sharp edges, or other offensive designs.

Armour parts

See also

Swords

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Polearm</span> Pole-mounted close combat weapon

A polearm or pole weapon is a close combat weapon in which the main fighting part of the weapon is fitted to the end of a long shaft, typically of wood, extending the user's effective range and striking power. Polearms are predominantly melee weapons, with a subclass of spear-like designs fit for thrusting and/or throwing. Because many polearms were adapted from agricultural implements or other fairly abundant tools, and contained relatively little metal, they were cheap to make and readily available. When belligerents in warfare had a poorer class who could not pay for dedicated military weapons, they would often appropriate tools as cheap weapons. The cost of training was comparatively low, since these conscripted farmers had spent most of their lives using these "weapons" in the fields. This made polearms the favoured weapon of peasant levies and peasant rebellions the world over.

A spear is a polearm consisting of a shaft, usually of wood, with a pointed head. The head may be simply the sharpened end of the shaft itself, as is the case with fire hardened spears, or it may be made of a more durable material fastened to the shaft, such as bone, flint, obsidian, copper, bronze, iron, or steel. The most common design for hunting and/or warfare, since ancient times has incorporated a metal spearhead shaped like a triangle, diamond, or leaf. The heads of fishing spears usually feature multiple sharp points, with or without barbs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Halberd</span> Type of polearm with axe blade topped with a spike

A halberd is a two-handed polearm that came to prominent use from the 13th to 16th centuries. The halberd consists of an axe blade topped with a spike mounted on a long shaft. It can have a hook or thorn on the back side of the axe blade for grappling mounted combatants and protecting allied soldiers, typically musketeers. The halberd was usually 1.5 to 1.8 metres long.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Swordsmanship</span> Skills of a person versed in the art of the sword

Swordsmanship or sword fighting refers to the skills and techniques used in combat and training with any type of sword. The term is modern, and as such was mainly used to refer to smallsword fencing, but by extension it can also be applied to any martial art involving the use of a sword. The formation of the English word "swordsman" is parallel to the Latin word gladiator, a term for the professional fighters who fought against each other and a variety of other foes for the entertainment of spectators in the Roman Empire. The word gladiator itself comes from the Latin word gladius, which is a type of sword.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Swivel gun</span> Small cannon mounted on swivel for ease in aiming

A swivel gun is a small cannon mounted on a swiveling stand or fork which allows a very wide arc of movement. Another type of firearm referred to as a swivel gun was an early flintlock combination gun with two barrels that rotated along their axes to allow the shooter to switch between either the rifled or the smoothbore barrels.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Okinawan kobudō</span> Weapons systems of Okinawan martial arts

Okinawan kobudō (沖縄古武道), literally "old martial way of Okinawa", is the weapon systems of Okinawan martial arts.

Indian martial arts refers to the fighting systems of the Indian subcontinent. A variety of terms are used for the English phrases "Indian martial arts", deriving from ancient sources. While they may seem to imply specific disciplines, by Classical times they were used generically for all fighting systems.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eighteen Arms of Wushu</span> Main weapons in Chinese martial arts

The Eighteen Arms is a list of the eighteen main weapons of Chinese martial arts. The origin of the list is unclear and there have been disputes as to what the eighteen weapons actually are. However, all lists contain at least one or more of the following weapons:

The weapon dance employs weapons—or stylized versions of weapons—traditionally used in combat in order to simulate, recall, or reenact combat or the moves of combat in the form of dance, usually for some ceremonial purpose. Such dancing is quite common to folk ritual on many parts of the world. Weapon dancing is certainly ancient; among the earliest historical references we have are those that refer to the pyrrhichios, a weapon dance in ancient Sparta, in which the dance was used as a kind of ritual training for battle.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heavy infantry</span> Heavily armed and armoured soldiers

Heavy infantry consisted of heavily armed and armoured infantrymen who were trained to mount frontal assaults and/or anchor the defensive center of a battle line. This differentiated them from light infantry who were relatively mobile and lightly armoured skirmisher troops intended for screening, scouting, and other tactical roles unsuited to soldiers carrying heavier loads. Heavy infantry typically made use of dense battlefield formations, such as shield wall or phalanx, multiplying their effective weight of arms with force concentration.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of martial arts</span>

Although the earliest evidence of martial arts goes back millennia, the true roots are difficult to reconstruct. Inherent patterns of human aggression which inspire practice of mock combat and optimization of serious close combat as cultural universals are doubtlessly inherited from the pre-human stage and were made into an "art" from the earliest emergence of that concept. Indeed, many universals of martial art are fixed by the specifics of human physiology and not dependent on a specific tradition or era.

This martial arts timeline is designed to help describe the history of the martial arts in a linear fashion. Many of the articles for particular styles have discussions of their history. This article is designed to help visualize the development of these arts, to help better understand the progression of the separate styles and illustrate where they interrelate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of weapons</span>

Major innovations in the history of weapons have included the adoption of different materials – from stone and wood to different metals, and modern synthetic materials such as plastics – and the developments of different weapon styles either to fit the terrain or to support or counteract different battlefield tactics and defensive equipment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Weapons of pencak silat</span>

Listed here are the weapons of pencak silat. The most common are the machete, staff, kris, sickle, spear, and kerambit. Because Southeast Asian society was traditionally based around agriculture, many of these weapons were originally farming tools.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mughal weapons</span> Weaponry of the Mughal Empire

Mughal weapons significantly evolved during the ruling periods of its various rulers. During its conquests throughout the centuries, the military of the Mughal Empire used a variety of weapons including swords, bows and arrows, horses, camels, elephants, some of the world's largest cannons, muskets and flintlock blunderbusses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chinese polearm</span> Polearm traditionally used by Chinese armies

The three most common types of Chinese polearms are the ge (戈), qiang (槍), and ji (戟). They are translated into English as dagger-axe, spear, and halberd. Dagger-axes were originally a short slashing weapon with a 0.9–1.8 m long shaft, but around the 4th century BC a spearhead was added to the blade, and it became a halberd. The spear is also sometimes called a mao (矛), which is sometimes used to designate polearms with a wavy snake-like spearhead. There was another polearm weapon known as the pi (鈹), translated into English as either sword-staff or long lance, that was used from ancient times until the Han dynasty. It was essentially a short sword attached to a stick. From the Warring States period onward, the length of Chinese polearms varied from around 2.8 to 5.5 m ; however, there is no specific designation for a pike in the traditional Chinese lexicon. A very long spear is just called a long spear.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 Regan, Paula, ed. (2006). Weapon: A Visual History of Arms and Armor. New York: DK Publishing. ISBN   0-7566-2210-7.
  2. 1 2 3 Cope, Anne, ed. (1989). Swords and Hilt Weapons. New York: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. p. 8. ISBN   1-55584-290-9.
  3. ↑ Gordon, Col. D.H. (1953). "Swords, Rapiers and Horse riders". Antiquity. 27 (106). Antiquity Publications Ltd: 67–76. doi:10.1017/S0003598X00024595. S2CID   163326613.[ permanent dead link ]
  4. ↑ Levine, Bernard; Weland, Gerald. Knives, swords, & daggers. New York: Barnes & Noble. p. 66.
  5. ↑ Levine, Bernard; Weland, Gerald. Knives, swords, & daggers. New York: Barnes & Noble. p. 200.
  6. ↑ "Igorot Head Hunting Axe #2". Traditional Filipino Weapons.
  7. ↑ "Spear (Sang) Indian". The Met.
  8. ↑ "Northern spear".
  9. 1 2 Γεώργιος Ηλιόπουλος (Georgios Iliopoulos), "Η χαμένη πυραυλική τεχνολογία των αρχαίων Ελλήνων" (The lost missile technology of the ancient Greeks), Ιχώρ (Ihor), 27, page 12-13, Greece, 2002.
  10. ↑ Γεώργιος Ηλιόπουλος (Georgios Iliopoulos), "Η χαμένη πυραυλική τεχνολογία των αρχαίων Ελλήνων" (The lost missile technology of the ancient Greeks), Ιχώρ (Ihor), 27, page 13, Greece, 2002.
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