Zabawka czy oręż ćwiczebny? Przyczynek do badań nad problematyką drewnianych naśladownictw średniowiecznych mieczy
A toy or a fencing weapon? Suplement to study on wooden imitations of medieval swords

Summary/Abstract: During archeological excavations of medieval sites, on which existed convenient conditions for preserving wooden items, mostly occuring artefacts were made from this material’s imitation of weapon, mainly swords. These kind of artefacts are known on the whole territory of the northern part of Europe, worth interesting is fact that wooden swords occur in wide chronological period: from VIIIth to XVth century. Total number of known artefacts is 200. In the literature it’s commonly known that these tools were mainly used as children toys. However, in some written sources beginning of ancient period (e.g. Roman – rudis), wooden swords were treated as training weapon. An accurate analysis of available artefacts confirms that only some of them have size and weight adjusted to child’s hand. Massive, long blades and hilts which correspond with original iron specimens, clearly indicate that wooden swords were used in teaching fencing. The main role of interpretation of these artefacts, due to lack of greater number of preserved, intact specimens, perform lenght’s measurements of hilts of wooden swords and their comparison with iron specimens. The artefacts indicate that those, which lenght of hilts is 7.5 cm or longer, as well as their iron equivalents, could be used by adults. To support this thesis it’s necessary to conduct more analyses and specyfic studies. It’s also very important to make use of experiments which were perfomed on accurate copies of artefacts. Examining these factors, it will lead to find the endurance of wood and tell the differences during fights, between wooden and iron swords. This is the only way to understand why adepts of medieval art of war used wooden weapons instead of iron.

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