ANCIENT BRONZE HOPLITE SWORD ON STAND

c. 800-600 BC, Greek Hoplite Period, A beautiful hoplite sword with a tapering, bevelled blade, a slightly raised midrib, a deep, decorative fuller or “blood groove” with a flaring base, and a short tang. This item is mounted on a stand and has a fantastic green patina. Bronze weaponry production flourished in western Asia, the Aegean, and Mainland Greece from the 2nd millennium BC to about 700 BC, when it was gradually replaced by iron. Weapons such as this sword powerful reminders that authority rested in the hands of those who could earn it, especially the Hoplites. Hoplites were the citizen-soldiers of Ancient Greece, where each city state was fiercely independent and could only be sustained through the military power of its male inhabitants. Hoplites primarily fought using the closed phalanx formation. For more information on Greek hoplite warfare, see Donald Kagan and Gregory F. Viggiano (eds., 2013). Men of Bronze: Hoplite Warfare in Ancient Greece, Princeton University Press. Superb condition. Size: L:322mm / W:55mm ; 229g. Provenance: Property of a North London professional; previously acquire on the UK/European art market in the 1980s;