=Mycenaean swords and daggers.=--The next period was the close of the Bronze Age in Greece, occupying the second millennium before Christ. It has been called, from its best-known centre at Mycenae, the Mycenaean Age. In this period, by improvement in metal-working, the short daggers were lengthened into swords, which, towards the end of the age, were made even a yard long, and very slender. Such weapons were used mainly for thrusting, for they would break with a direct blow. Homer records many such accidents on the battlefield. At the same time the spear-head was differentiated from the dagger-blade, being provided with a socket for the shaft. Mycenaean weapons are represented here by swords and spear-heads found mainly at Ialysos in Rhodes, and belonging to the end of the period. The swords are short and heavy, and are made in one piece with the hilt. The guard is straight in the earlier specimens, and the pommel of the hilt was a round knob, of which the tang remains (No. =245=; fig. 95_a_). This is the form of the well-known daggers from Mycenae, which have the blades inlaid with designs in coloured metals, the hilts and pommels embossed and chased in gold. Electrotype copies of the Mycenae daggers are exhibited in the Gold Ornament Room Passage. A closer parallel to these is a blade from Cameiros which has the rivets still in place (No. =246=). In other swords the raised flange on the edges of the hilt is continued to form a crescent-shaped pommel. The hollow space was filled with an ornamental material for the grip. The rivets are usually in place, and on a small dagger from Karpathos a great part of the ivory mount is preserved (No. =247=; fig. 95_b_). The last form of this hilt appears in a heavy sword, formerly in the Woodhouse Collection (No. =248=; fig. 95_c_). The projection of flanges and pommel is accentuated, and the ends of the guard are curled up like horns. This type survived into the Hellenic period. Another late Mycenaean form is seen in a long and slender sword with a broad base to the blade, which contracts again towards the hilt (No. =249=; fig. 96_a_). At the other end of the hilt are two divergent tongues of metal, which are better preserved in another example, of heavier fabric, from Enkomi, in Cyprus (No. =250=; fig. 96_b_). The type is that in which the earliest iron swords of Greece were made (No. =263=; fig. 101_b_), and which was the prototype of the common bronze sword of the rest of Europe. The lighter specimen (No. =249=) is from Scutari in Albania. [Illustration: FIG. 97.--BRONZE SPEARHEADS OF THE MYCENAEAN PERIOD (NO. 251). 1:4.]