There are a great many different types of swords, having been
produced by just about every culture with metal smelting
technology. Some would even say that the Aztecs has a sort of a
sword with shards of obsidian up the edge of a wooden spine,
though I would class it as a specialist club The earliest
discovered swords are short, broad stabbing blades made of
bronze which were found in Turkey in 2003. With the spread of
steel technology, the additional strength offered by the
material offered more options for the smith and the combatant.
The paths of development followed by the sword in different
cultures was determined by available resources, technological
ability and social forces. In Europe, there were two main
ancient thrusts (forgive the pun) of sword develoment, the
"classical" and northern. The Romans adopted some ideas from the
Greeks but modified them very quickly to their own system of
warfare. The standared military gladius was a short thrusting
and cutting weapon designed for formation fighting and