Thousands of years of human history means thousands of years of war. Given the sheer volume of people who were armed for war, I keep coming back to one simple question: What happened to all the swords?

by otterbitch

We're not left over with hundreds of thousands of blades scattered around the place. What did we do with our weapons when they were no longer needed?

Obviously I'm not just talking about swords. Spears, axes, maces, halberds, whatever. I know we have large collections of ancient weapons all around the world, but where are the rest? Were they repurposed? Lost? Broken? Discarded?

DanKensington

More can always be said on the topic (personally I think the slant of your question details is ground so far untread on the sub); in the meantime, here's a previous answer from u/WARitter on a similarly-phrased question. His last paragraph deals with the stuff that didn't survive.