Weapon or Weaving Swords and the Complexities of Gender Construction

Summary

The existence of weaving swords in the Bronze and Iron Age Levant is hinted at in both the textual and archaeological records. Furthermore, weaving swords as grave goods would fit the generally accepted pattern of weaving tools in association with female burials. Yet when swords have been found in graves with positively identified females, the deceased have been described as ‘warrior women’ or the burial reinterpreted so as to disassociate biological sex and gender. In recognizing the use of weaving swords in the Bronze and Iron Ages, we may find additional previously identified weapon swords whose form better fits a weaving function. In this paper I argue that our lack of understanding of weaving technologies combines with our hasty and often uncritical assignment of gender categories to see a martial quality in all depictions of ‘swords’.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage