Bronze Age Questions

SableWyvern · Sep 2, 2002

Well, sort of Bronze Age...

The campaign world I'm developing at the moment is a limited Iron Age world - the reclusive, nordic dwarves use iron/steel. Most of the world makes predominant use of bronze however. The ways of iron, and more especially, of true steels, are kept hidden by the highly secretive Iron Smiths.

Thus, unless you can afford to pay much higher prices, you get your metal tools in bronze.

Just looking for some info on the major effects this is going to have on the game world, especially the things that aren't necessarilly obvious.

This thread was inspired as I was contemplating which regions of my world used horses. That got me thinking, what was the go with horse shoes in the Bronze Age? Were horses unshod back then?

An answer to that question, and any others that I haven't thought of yet, would be most appreciated.

Mark · Sep 2, 2002

Check this out-

http://www.horseshoes.com/advice/invtshoe/winvhrs.htm

You may want to take that bibliography to your local library for more research. I'd also suggest that you look into whether or not you wish to include stirrups in your world, and at what level of agriculture you might have without iron plowshares. On a related note, the development of plow/cart harnesses lept forward after the introduction of iron plowshares, so that might require some consideration for your research.

Hope that helps!

kengar · Sep 2, 2002

Take a look at Runequest (2nd ed. Chaosium, not Avalon Hill's). It's a bit game world-specific. But in Glorantha, common weapons/armor=bronze & magic/holy/high-quality=iron.

Pollaxe · Sep 2, 2002

What comes to my mind instantly when thinking of Bronze Age-style campaign are bendy/brittle weapons.. I recall seeing a demonstration of a bronze sword being used to cut a roll of matting and the weapon bent around it like a roll of wet newspaper

As kengar wrote, RuneQuest was set in a world where bronze was the major metal used in weapons and it was interesting to have to worry whether your sword was going to bend or snap when you were fighting

I don't know enough about horses to suggest anything about shoeing and tack but having done historical re-enactment I can suggest a few things which may help add a little 'flavour' to your world.. iron & steel were often used sparingly (and were protected) even quite late into the Medieval period: things like shovels were often made entirely of wood but had a thin strip of iron fixed to the 'digging' edge.. barrels were bound with withies (willow) instead of iron hoops... domestic things like utensils and containers will be most likely to be made of wood or pottery.. pins and needles will be of bone or bronze... things like shears or scissors if they're made of iron are likely to have their own box or container to protect them... weapons often had a softer iron core with a harder steel edge pattern-welded to the outside..

Something else you may like to think about would be the presence of worked-flint weapons/tools - they persisted a long way into the 'real' Bronze Age and are frighteningly sharp (though brittle of course). An archaeologist friend of mine once told me they used flint for surgery into the early part of the 20th century because they couldn't get steel as sharp...

Good luck with your campaign world - it sounds very interesting

SableWyvern · Sep 3, 2002

Thanks heaps guys. Definitely some useful stuff there.

jgbrowning · Sep 3, 2002

broze age

bronze wouldnt matter much to a crushing weapon, which is what most swords eventually became anyway.

stick with bludgeoning and yer better off, but cool weapons like the roman pilum, took advantage of their material weakness.

thrown spear, bends after it conects.. cant be re-thrown!

joe b.

mmadsen · Sep 3, 2002

bronze wouldnt matter much to a crushing weapon, which is what most swords eventually became anyway.

That's an old myth, that medieval swords were effectively blunt crushing weapons.

stick with bludgeoning and yer better off, but cool weapons like the roman pilum, took advantage of their material weakness. thrown spear, bends after it conects.. cant be re-thrown!

The Roman pilum had a soft iron neck.