Why were polearms so few in variety in ancient/classical world

>what are advances in metallurgy that allow for more complex designs to be made with good quality and at low expense in massive amounts

Are you one of those people who thinks that technology had no real advancement between the end of the Western Roman Empire and the beginning of the Italian Renaissance?

>>34175539
I forget that...sorry.

>>34175518
You need advanced materials and forging techniques to build quality pole arms. At the classic period, real steel was much less available and forging and heat treatment was yet not well understood. So it is way cheaper an reliable to make a spear head or a javelin, or a lance blade if you want to aim big.
To complete that picture, you don't see fancy pole arms either in the migration period nor in the high medieval, they develop in the late medieval when there where substantial technical advances in metallurgy.
Now compare that to Indo-Persia where they had far better metallurgy, you'll find all sort of crazy looking weapons with elaborate forms.

>>34175564
In the migration period we have dane axes which are sorta polearms, as well as the winged spears.

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People got better at working with hard metals (iron) and so a greater variety of shapes became practical to construct that weren't before.

Also, armour became more sophisticated and proliferated which made more pole-arm types desirable that weren't really necessary before. When someone has no or poor quality armour, stabbing them is all that's really desired. Equip everyone in the front rows with head to toe plate armour, and suddenly the ability to restrain an opponent, hook and pull them off balance, or drive a spike into them once they have fallen, all become desirable traits in a pole-arm.

Having very little capability other than just stabbing people with early pole-arms makes sense because that will always be the primary if not sole capability of a pole-arm. Look at any super fancy guisarme or halberd from the renaissance and you'll notice, the point is still by and large the biggest and most prominent part of the weapon.

>>34175574
Winged spears are likely older than migration period and they have beautiful lance blades. They where used for hunting and warfare from horseback and can be seen as one of the most advanced weapons of the time, they often used high quality refined steel and put a lot of work into it.
Axes are not that complicated in comparison.

When you look at the late medieval they had tons of different axes, hammers, picks, combinations, long lances, pikes and whatever.

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>>34175612
Pic related is a Partisan from the collection of the Swiss National Museum.

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>>34175619
This is a Fuss-Streitaxt (battle axe for foot) from around 1585.
Check the elaborate shaft construction, the axe head is on a steel shaft, which in turn is attached tot he wooden shaft by a spout and long iron bands.
Reason for this? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4Umh-pa7FA and ff to 06:25.

>>34175675
Nice to see the dane axe survived.

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>>34175679
Theres about half a dozen typical forms just for the south German/Swiss style battle axe or Mordaxt.
besides the danish looking ones (real danes didn't have a hammer poll, but whatever) you have slim ones like pic related

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>>34175699
this distinct shaped cut and thrust axe blades with the spike on the back

>>34175518
Greater role of mounted warfare in the medieval period,

>>34175518
Plate armor was no longer used, and as a result, the weapons best used (bills, pollaxes, glaives, halberds, etc) for defeating plate wearers were not needed. However, light calvalry still existed, so spears and pikes remained to hamper their charges.

>>34175699
>>34175675
How are these used in warfare btw?

In formation? Mixed with other forms of polearms and swords?

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>>34175708
same thing in cubism

>>34175717
Spear is pretty much dead after medieval era. Pike replaced it fully until pike too is out.

The closest you get to spear is musket + bayonet or spontoon.

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>>34175722
more cubism

>>34175730
Okay, thanks. Was the rest of my post accurate?

>>34175717
Also I hope you know by classical era, I meant the era the Greco-roman era, and not Renaissance/early modern.

>>34175737
Are you OP?

>>34175737
That era is actually typically referred to as Antiquity, rather than 'the classical era'

>>34175735
I would say it is. Pike is the longest surviving polearm, if we do not count the rifle + bayonet combo.
>>34175750
I am.
>>34175754
Duly noted.

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>>34175518
>In classic era, we got spears and pikes

>what are chinese ge?

>>34175770
It's interesting, I guess I only counted Europe.

>>34175770
Those where usually made from bronze or cast iron. they where made because they are cheap and and can be manufactured by the thousand.
Don't mistake this with a steel weapon.

>>34175518
There were quite a few examples of them.

Case in point:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1pgDFqJTlE
(Lindybeige bullshitting aside, just look at the way it looks from all angles

>>34175807
also if you can survive his autism a little bit longer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bb7xYfdBqIo

There's quite a lot more, I just remembered those two videos.

>>34175807
>>34175815
I vividly remember the Lindy flic on medieval halberds. not was most what he said plain wrong, no he also did hold his halberd the wrong way during the entire vid.

Seriously, please go search on the wide internet for pics of said bronze halberds, but spare us Lindy.

>>34175822
Thank you, anon.

>>34175796
It is still a polearm, OP don't say it have to be a forged weapon. In the battlefied it does its job as a polearm well, albeit of course its not as durable as later forged weapons.

>>34175518
literally metllurgucal knowledge, and societal specialization both just weren't far enough advanced in the western world yet

Besides the points already said, the major thing to remember is that a spear and a pike are... Well, they're pretty much perfect right out of the box. Pointy thing on top of long pole, the end, and you can train a shitload of peasants simple drill with them too.

That was the major thing, if you look at who was using them you'll see why nobody bothered to experiment. Peasants were expected to stand in formation, point sticks, not die. For most of the warfare during the medieval period this was pretty much how you fought, war was a seasonal affair and at a certain point your soldiers will need to return home.

Who wants to bother with some fancy fighting style when the guy holding it is likely just going to be there in that particular battle and that's it? It's a waste of time and effort until the style of warfare changes.

>>34178181
What the fuck are you talking about m8?

Fancy halberds and shit were used in medieval era, the fucking bill was a peasant weapon.

It's only the classical/antiquity era that halberds weren't used much.

>>34175579
Source of that .gif ?

>>34175822
How inaccurate is Lindy? I'm not well versed in his field but I have watched a good amount of his vids, though I'm not sure whether or not he's correct 100% of the time.

>>34175539
Are you one of those barbarians who think bending metal in a different fashion and making better longswords is comparable to the greatest empire the world has even seen?

LONG LIVE THE REPUBLIC

>>34179941
>>34175579

Is that a real game?

>>34181526
He's a LARPer so no.

Watch scholagladiatoria.