There seems to have been an arrest of development.[863] The early steps are taken, but at a certain point stagnation sets in; there is no further attempt to improve or advance; the artists are content to repeat themselves, and reproduce the patterns of the past.  Perhaps there was no demand for ceramic art of a higher order.  At any rate, progress ceases, and while Greece was rising to her grandest efforts, Cyprus, and Phoenicia generally, were content to remain stationary.

Besides their ornamental metallurgy, which has been treated of in a former chapter, the Phoenicians largely employed several metals, especially bronze and copper, in the fabrication of vessels for ordinary use, of implements, arms, toilet articles, furniture, &c.  The vessels include paterae, bowls, jugs, amphorae, and cups;[864] the implements, hatchets, adzes, knives, and sickles;[865] the arms, spearheads, arrowheads, daggers, battle-axes, helmets, and shields;[866] the toilet articles, mirrors, hand-bells, buckles, candlesticks, &c.;[867] the furniture, tall candelabra, tripods, and thrones.[868] The bronze is of an excellent quality, having generally about nine parts of copper to one of tin; and there is reason to believe that by the skilful tempering of the Phoenician metallurgists, it attained a hardness which was not often given it by others.  The Cyprian shields were remarkable.  They were of a round shape, slightly convex, and instead of the ordinary boss, had a long projecting cone in the centre.  An actual shield, with the cone perfect, was found by General Di Cesnola at Amathus,[869] and a projection of the same kind is seen in several of the Sardinian bronze and terra-cotta statuettes.[870] Shields were sometimes elaborately embossed, in part with patterning, in part with animal and vegetable forms.[871] Helmets were also embossed with care, and sometimes inscribed with the name of the maker or the owner.[872]

Some remains of swords, probably Phoenician, have been found in Sardinia.  They vary from two feet seven inches to four feet two inches in length.[873] The blade is commonly straight, and very thick in the centre, but tapers off on both sides to a sharp edge.  The point is blunt, so that the intention cannot have been to use the weapon both for cutting and thrusting, but only for the former.  It would scarcely make such a clean cut as a modern broadsword, but would no doubt be equally effectual for killing or disabling.  Another weapon, found in Sardinia, and sometimes called a sword, is more properly a knife or dagger.  In length it does not exceed seven or eight inches, and of this length more than a third is occupied by the handle.[874] Below the handle the blade broadens for about an inch or an inch and a half; after this it contracts, and tapers gently to a sharp point.  Such a weapon appears sometimes in the hand of a statuette.[875]