It is to this expedition that I attribute the two swords already
described, as indeed was suggested some years ago by Professor
Peet.[383] One is unquestionably of Type D, the type which has been
most commonly found in Greek lands, while the other seems, as far as
can be judged from its damaged hilt, to be also of the same type. The
latter is engraved with the name of Seti II., who reigned from 1209
to 1205 /B.C./, and so cannot be later than the latter date. It is
probable that it was a _souvenir_ of the raid of 1220 /B.C./, upon
which Seti placed his name some ten to fifteen years later.
Thus Type D was in use in 1220 /B.C./, and must have developed earlier,
for we must allow some years to have elapsed since the “Achæans” left
the Danube basin for Greek lands, a few more before many of them had
established themselves as kings, and a further interval before they
can have organised a piratical expedition on a sufficiently extensive
scale to threaten the safety of Egypt. Fifteen years would be the
shortest possible time for such a succession of events, thirty years
more likely. So we may consider that some of these intruders left
the Danube basin about 1250 /B.C./ Now it must have been about this
time, or rather earlier, that the Briges, from the north of Macedonia,
crossed the Hellespont into Asia Minor, where they became known as
Phrygians. This movement appears to have been one of a succession of
similar raids, which carried the Thraco-Phrygian people from the Danube
basin eastwards. It seems probable that our “Achæan” intruders were
part of this body, who, instead of moving on to the east, had passed
southwards in search of adventure.
Type G, as we have seen, has been found at the famous cemetery at
Hallstatt, in some of the older graves. This cemetery is believed to
date, at the earliest, from 900 /B.C./, but iron was found in most of
the graves, and the bronze swords were few in number, and from graves
in which no iron was found. We may safely conclude that these swords
belong to the very beginning of this period, and had been in use for
some time previously.
It is always a difficult matter to determine how long a given type of
implement or weapon remained in use. Besides this we must allow for
overlapping, that is to say for the period during which a type still
survived in use after its successor, which was doubtless in many ways
its superior, had been designed. I am inclined to believe that about
twenty-five years is sufficient to allow for this overlap, though
possibly on rare occasions an obsolete weapon may have been preserved
longer, especially as a trophy or memento.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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