Human beings have presumably always carried weapons, and developed varieties of spears, bows and arrows, axes, daggers and flails very early in our history. Swords, which are essentially daggers with lengthened blades, are relatively late arrivals in the arsenal. They were first manufactured during the Bronze Age, when techniques were developed to make sufficiently strong blades out of bronze with a 10% tin content. Other improvements included the addition of extra longitudinal ribbing for greater rigidity of the blade and the addition of "horns" to protect the hand of the swordsman. The earliest known uses of swords occur among the Assyrians, Gauls, and Greeks. Swords may be divided into weapons designed for thrusting and those designed for cutting. Both varieties have been found among the ancient Greeks, although they seem to have favored the thrusting sword. Swords of both varieties were developed in Western Europe, while all over Asia...