The Combat Archaeology of the Fifth-Century BC Kopis: Hoplite Swordsmanship in the Archaic and Classical Periods

Abstract

‘Traditionalist’ scholars of historical Greek warfare assert that hoplites formed a close-order formation that moved slowly and deliberately to overwhelm its enemies. Opposing them the ‘revisionists’, claim that hoplites fought in an ‘open-order’ formation resembling Homeric combat well into the Archaic and even early Classical periods. Existing studies of the physical remains of Greek arms and armour, iconographic representations of hoplites in combat, and literary descriptions of Greek warfare are not decisive. Combat archaeology, i.e. the reconstruction and testing of arms and armour, remains a largely untapped source of evidence. This article presents the results of an experimental archaeological reconstruction of the kopis, a curved sword used in Greek combat from the mid-sixth to fourth centuries BC. A more complete understanding of the use of the kopis sheds light on the realities of hoplite combat and offers strong support for the traditionalist position.