In today’s modern world of missiles and rifles, airstrikes and torpedoes, warfare has become somewhat “at a distance”. Combat can be prosecuted from over the horizon, and people’s lives taken with the press of a button.
Putting aside the horrors that such casual destruction has wrought on our world, it is easy to forget that it was not always such a detached affair. For much of human history warfare was much more up close and personal, fought tooth and nail in the bloody fields of battle where you faced your enemy 1 on 1.
For such fights the pre-eminent weapon was the sword, and it is easy to understand why. Attacking your foe with a stick which was sharp and nasty everywhere but where you held it seems like a logical thing to do, and everyone from the Egyptians and Greeks onwards seemed to agree.
At least, almost everyone. Here are six weapons from history that some preferred to wield.
1. Mace
2. Morning Star
3. Bo Staff
4. Macuahuitl
5. Kyoketsu-Shoge
6. Bagh Nakh
Top Image: A tiger claw hidden in the palm of the user. Source: Parasnis / Public Domain.
By Joseph Green