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Weapons of 1st century Germans - Czear12 - 05-07-2018
Hi, doing some German weapon recreations and was hoping if any of you guys have any information on the metal weapons they had like swords and war knives. Especially around the ambush of the Teoteburg forest.
RE: Weapons of 1st century Germans - Currahee Chris - 05-18-2018
I was at Teutoburg this past December. They have finds there of an Iron pilum head and a lance point. Both are iron. No swords however. I believe the battlefield was picked clean afterwards so hard to say exactly but I believe there are other inferences from other 1st Century Germanic sites. Perhaps some day something will be discovered.
RE: Weapons of 1st century Germans - authun - 05-26-2020
(05-07-2018, 08:18 AM)Czear12 Wrote: Hi, doing some German weapon recreations and was hoping if any of you guys have any information on the metal weapons they had like swords and war knives. Especially around the ambush of the Teoteburg forest.
Tacitus is still the authority on 1st century germania and I'm not aware of any finds which add other weapons to his text.
"Neither in truth do they abound in iron, as from the fashion of their weapons may be gathered. Swords they rarely use, or the larger spear. They carry javelins or, in their own language, framms, pointed with a piece of iron short and narrow, but so sharp and manageable, that with the same weapon they can fight at a distance or hand to hand, just as need requires. Nay, the horsemen also are content with a shield and a javelin."
RE: Weapons of 1st century Germans - Simplex - 05-27-2020
Hi,
....not exactly "Kalkriese" but interesting to read:
https://www.tf.uni-kiel.de/matwis/amat/iss/kap_b/advanced/tb_3_3b.html
https://www.tf.uni-kiel.de/matwis/amat/iss/kap_b/illustr/ib_3_4.html
https://www.tf.uni-kiel.de/matwis/amat/iss/kap_1/illustr/s1_1_2.html#_dum_142
https://www.tf.uni-kiel.de/matwis/amat/iss/kap_b/illustr/sb_3_1.html#_dum_8
As a side note:
....most of the germanic fighters at that time were NOT in the (financial) position to own a "chunk" of iron bigger than a small dagger or a spears' tip, agricultural equipment
nonwithstanding.
....the (smaller ?) rest most likely ( especially here at Kalkriese ) was equipped "roman-style" hardly to be differentiated from the usual equipment of "loyal" roman fighters.
It has , however, spuriously been argued that some roman auxilliaries might have switched sides in the course of the battle.
Greez
Siggi