Were bronze swords reused through many battles?

by Cheesebodia

Were bronze swords ever reusable through many battles, and were they generally constructed (within organized militaries) to last for a full campaign?

Karvina

Bronze swords were certainly reusable: examples have been studied from Denmark, Croatia and Hungary which show signs of repair.^1 Whether they were deliberately constructed with campaigns in mind is a harder question to answer - and would depend on what a "campaign" would consist of. Given the high levels of edge damage that have been observed on some bronze swords^2 it seems likely that repairing swords would have been commonplace, and so could be carried out as needed.

My knowledge is mostly based on prehistoric Europe, where records that would allow us to know about how militaries constructed swords are generally absent. Written records from the Near East or NE Africa might have some information on the manufacture of swords - perhaps someone else here could comment on that?

^1 Kristiansen (1977) "The Circulation of Ornaments and Weapons in Bronze Age Denmark" Archaeologica Baltica 2; Kristiansen (1984) "Krieger und Häuptlinge in der Bronzezeit Dänemarks. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte des bronzezeitlichen Schwertes" Jahrbuch des Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseums Mainz 31; Harding (1995) Die Schwerter im ehemaligen jugoslawien p.34; Kristiansen (2002) "The Tale of the Sword – Swords and swordfighters in Bronze Age Europe" Oxford Journal of Archaeology 21.

^2 Bridgford (1997) "Mightier than the Pen? (An edgewise look at Irish Bronze Age swords)", in Material Harm: Archaeological studies of war and violence.