Spear & Jackson - 34cm Cordless Rotary Lawnmower - 24V

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The spear-carrying phalanx, or massed formation of closely ranked men, was used by Sumerian armies as early as 3,000 bc. Sir James George Frazer in The Golden Bough [67] noted the phallic nature of the spear and suggested that in the Arthurian legends the spear or lance functioned as a symbol of male fertility, paired with the Grail (as a symbol of female fertility).

The other was the development of the sarissa, a two-handed pike 550cm (18ft) in length, by the Macedonians under Phillip of Macedon and Alexander the Great.The Tang dynasty divided the Qiang in four categories: "一曰漆枪， 二曰木枪， 三曰白杆枪， 四曰扑头枪。” Roughly translated the four categories are: Qi (a kind of wood) Spears, Wooden Spears, Bai Gan (A kind of wood) Spears and Pu Tou Qiang. Since a medieval spear required only a small amount of steel along the sharpened edges (most of the spear-tip was wrought iron), it was an economical weapon. Usually, the shaft of the spear was made with a wooden stick while the head of the spear was fashioned from arrowheads, pieces of metal such as copper, or a bone that had been sharpened. The pike phalanx, supported by peltasts and cavalry, became the dominant mode of warfare among the Greeks from the late 4th century onward [16] until Greek military systems were supplanted by the Roman legions. The yoke would consist of three spears, two upright with a third tied between them at a height which made the prisoners stoop.

Then the introduction of gunpowder weapons gradually rendered the pike, lance, halberd, and other pole-arms largely obsolete. Spears were used in conflicts and training by armed paramilitary units such as the razakars of Nizams of Hyderabad State as late as the second half of the 20th century. Where spears were retained they grew in length, eventually evolving into pikes, which would be a dominant infantry weapon in the 16th and 17th centuries. Among the types there are cavalry Qiang that were the length of one zhang (approximately 320cm or 10ft), Litte-Flower Spears (Xiao Hua Qiang 小花枪) that are the length of one person and their arm extended above his head, double hooked spears, single hooked spears, ringed spears and many more. The bar may be forged as part of the spearhead or may be more loosely tied by means of loops below the blade.Winter is a particularly challenging time for people sleeping rough, with cold temperatures causing ill-health and exacerbating existing health conditions. Pelian Spear, a spear that only Achilles could wield, inherited from his father Peleus, made by Chiron from an ash tree on Mount Pelion. The tepoztopilli was a polearm, and to judge from depictions in various Aztec codices, it was roughly the height of a man, with a broad wooden head about twice the length of the users' palm or shorter, edged with razor-sharp obsidian blades which were deeply set in grooves carved into the head, and cemented in place with bitumen or plant resin as an adhesive.

Rhongomyniad referred to simply as Ron ("spear") in Geoffrey of Monmouth's History of Britain, the spear of King Arthur.Quick to manufacture, and needing less smithing skill than a sword, it remained the main weapon of the common soldier. Spears were a preferred weapon by many since it was inexpensive to create, could more easily be taught to others, and could be made quickly and in large quantities. Shaka of the Zulu invented a shorter stabbing spear with a 30cm (1ft) shaft and a larger, broader blade one foot (0. The hoko spear was used in ancient Japan sometime between the Yayoi period and the Heian period, but it became unpopular as early samurai often acted as horseback archers. Notable types of early medieval spears include the angon, a throwing spear with a long head similar to the Roman pilum, used by the Franks and Anglo-Saxons, and the winged (or lugged) spear, which had two prominent wings at the base of the spearhead, either to prevent the spear penetrating too far into an enemy or to aid in spear fencing.