Spearheads

These items were once incorrectly called swords, but they are more properly identified as spearheads. Distinctive for their long tangs (the small portion that was fitted into the handle), with a turned end to hold it in place, they were used in daily life and also were gifts for the dead. Sets of weapons and tools - a spear, dagger/knife, a whetstone, and sometimes an awl - occur regularly though not frequently in Early and Middle Bronze Age tomb groups, suggesting that they may be status symbols of an elite class of warriors or head men. There is one example in the bottom of this case in which a spearhead was deliberately broken before being placed in the tomb, to prevent it from being taken and reused.