The present study represents a major new survey of the artefactual evidence, last comprehensively treated by Maxwell-Hyslop (1946, 1949), and based as far as possible on first hand examination of museum collections in Europe and the Middle East. An extensive range of new drawings and photographs provides the basis for a complete new corpus of material; a full catalogue of the basic data is provided in a series of Appendices. A review of existing studies is followed by discussion of the aims and methods of typology as practised in archaeology. The position taken here is outlined, and the methods employed, which include various statistical techniques, described. A range of types are defined for various artefacts (daggers, axes etc.), and their chronological and spatial patterning described. Formal typological study is combined with a consideration of the material in its archaeological (and hence cultural) context. A new body of metal analyses is presented and its implications discussed. It is shown that the weapons known from the archaeological record are connected to matters of prestige and status, and are not necessarily representative of current military hardware. The distribution of weapon forms can offer some indication of changing relationships between ruling groups. Hence, weapon typology provides valuable evidence which can be related to socio-political developments. The results of the above investigation are then considered in terms of the wider archaeological and historical perspective.