Is the Short Sword and Shield Overrated?

[rrgg]

A couple of peculiar ones but most seem to just have a sharp point (although its sort of difficult to be certain due to the wear).

As far as rounded points go the physics are still there, as long as it's sharpened a round tip will still penetrate much farther than a slash of the blade (I'll try to find it but at least one test suggested that it even penetrated just as far as a pointed blade against unarmored targets). Why they used rounded tips I don't know, maybe they lasted longer or provided less resistance when slashing, but the whole point of a sword is to be able to cut and thrust and as a general rule just about every blade will be able to do both quite well, otherwise you might as well just use an axe or short spear.