Судан и Большой Ближний Восток

269 Alexander S. Matveev. A Case of Survival of an Early Medieval Straight Sword... with acute point (type XII) gradually developed their larger “hand- and-a-half” variant (type XIIa). 2. Invention by the end of the 13th C. of a new form designed primarily not to cut, but to thrust . It had heavily tapering to a very acute point and strongly reinforced diamond-shaped blade, able to penetrate through themail and reinforced armour, finding its way between plates, or even through them (type XV and its “hand-and-a-half” XVa variant). In the 2nd half of the 14th C. even more stiff hexagonal section blades emerged, always with a longer “hand-and-a-half” grip (type XVII). Besides, in the course of the 1st half of the 14th C., in some blades the cutting function was combined with the thrusting one. Traditional broadswords evolved into sharply pointed tapering swords, with a lower part of the blade (types XVI/XVIa), or most of the blade (type XVIII/ XVIIIa), being of a rigid flattened diamond sectionwith a strongmid-rib. The shorter, thus lighter variants of thrusting swords were easier to handle for the infantrymen, allowing a footman to produce a deadly upward thrust against his equestrian opponent. Thus, they became a very good complement to a long pike and halberd, also becoming particularly important in this period. On the other hand, there is another sequence of employing thrusting rather than cutting stroke: it is much faster and easier to accomplish on the battlefield, especially in a closely packed formation. The first powerful cutting stroke would be followed by a series of thrusting ones, which were easier to repeat, less energy-consuming and even more effective than cutting against a heavily armoured opponent. Finally, besides all the above, an increased use of the crossbow has its startingpoint at around the same time, a trendwhichwas later completedby inventing large detachments of much cheaper and faster English longbow archers who would dominate the battlefields of the Hundred Years’ War. C. Coming of the Mongols If one tries to study every single phenomenon mentioned above separately, he would certainly be able to find some more or less convincing explanations in every particular case. Indeed, a general trend of European warfare development in the 13th–14th C. went towards