6533b839fe1ef96bd12a6c7a

RESEARCH PRODUCT

Déposer les armes : quelles modalités d’abandon pour les épées de l’âge du Bronze dans les sociétés atlantiques et nord-alpines ?

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Swords are amongst the most significant objects of the Bronze Age. Beyond their defensive function, they have a developed symbolic dimension, which seems of great importance in Bronze Age society. Swords represent rightly or wrongly, the warrior figure. Swords change and develop during the Bronze Age, with a greater variability and an increasing frequency. In this paper, we aim to examine the discovery contexts of these objects and to observe the rhythm and the patterns of their occurrences in the land hoards, as wet finds and as funerary deposits. Through this very symbolic object, we want to question the visibility of the warrior, which varies greatly through time and space: sometimes omnipresent, sometimes excluded from specific contexts or invisible. These variations and rhythms seems to be characteristic of each cultural group. The chronological dimension of the changes in deposition patterns will be considered, by comparing these two vast and very different cultural areas (the Atlantic and the so called “complexe nord-alpin” regions). This approach could help us to discern more clearly the role of swords, and thus, the warrior within the social, funerary and/or ritual practices.