Stone DaggersArrowheads

[Doctor]
Nice to see you again! As you can see, the items in front of us are daggers and arrowheads made from stone. During the Bronze Age, these weapons were made with great care in order to ensure the survival and protection of the clans.

[Tourist]
They are really well made and very sharp. It is difficult to believe that they are made of stone. It must have been extremely time-consuming to grind stone into anything resembling a knife.

[Doctor]
That’s true. It probably also required a lot of skill. I think there must have been a particular group of experts who were responsible for crafting the stone daggers. You must have needed to know the characteristics of various types of stones and the exact way to grind each individual stone would also have varied. The people of the Bronze Age must have known much more about stones than we do today.

[Tourist]
But how come only arrowheads are displayed here? Where are the arrows?

[Doctor]
The arrows were made from wood, so they decayed completely, leaving only the arrowheads. Arrows and arrowheads were invented following the invention of rope. If rope made from twisted plant fibers hadn’t been invented, arrows wouldn’t have been invented either. The bow and arrow was the first weapon that could be used repeatedly and from a distance. This made it a truly powerful weapon.

[Tourist]
I assume that if the tools we saw before were used for agricultural purposes, then these tools must have been weapons of war.

[Doctor]
Yes, although they were obviously used for hunting as well. Conflicts were frequent during the Bronze Age, which was probably the motivation for the development of more sophisticated weaponry. During the Bronze Age, numerous wars were fought to gain possession of arable land or to secure sufficient slaves for farming. We can gain a greater understanding of what life was like during the Bronze Age by examining the fragments of weapons excavated from the burnt remains of housing sites and tombs.

[Tourist]
So they used stone swords during the Bronze Age? Wouldn't it have made more sense to use bronze swords during the Bronze Age?

[Doctor]
I will explain the answer to your question while we look at the next artifact. Please follow me.