Warfare in Bronze Age Society

Warfare in Bronze Age Society takes a fresh look at warfare and its role in reshaping Bronze Age society. The Bronze Age represents the global emergence of a militarized society with a martial culture, materialized in a package of new efficient weapons that remained in use for millennia to come. Warfare became institutionalized and professionalized during the Bronze Age, and a new class of warriors made their appearance. Evidence for this development is reflected in the ostentatious display of weapons in burials and hoards, and in iconography, from rock art to palace frescoes. These new manifestations of martial culture constructed the warrior as a 'Hero' and warfare as 'Heroic'. The case studies, written by an international team of scholars, discuss these and other new aspects of Bronze Age warfare. Moreover, the essays show that warriors also facilitated mobility and innovation as new weapons would have quickly spread from the Mediterranean to northern Europe.

1. Introducing Bronze Age warfare Christian Horn and Kristian Kristiansen; 2. Bronze Age encounters – violent or peaceful? Anthony Harding; 3. Warfare and the political economy: Europe 1500–1100 BC Kristian Kristiansen; 4. Warfare vs exchange? – thoughts on an integrative approach Christian Horn; 5. Maritime warfare in Scandinavian rock art Johan Ling and Andreas Toreld; 6. Bronze weaponry and cultural mobility in Late Bronze Age Southeast Europe Barry Molloy; 7. The emergence of specialized combat weapons in the Levantine Bronze Age Florian Klimscha; 8. Beyond the grave – crafting identities in the Middle Bronze Age Southern Trans Urals Derek Pitman and Roger Doonan; 9. Carp's tongue swords and their use: functional, technological, and morphological aspects Marc Gener; 10. Warfare or sacrifice? Archaeological research on the Bronze Age site in the Tollense Valley, Northeast Germany Gundula Lidke, Ute Brinker, Detlef Jantzen, Anne Dombrowsky, Jana Dräger, Joachim Krüger and Thomas Terberger; 11. Violence and ritual in Late Bronze Age Britain: weapon depositions and their interpretation Tobias Mörtz; 12. 'Warrior graves' vs warrior graves in the Bronze Age Aegean Ioannis Georganas; 13. The Chief and his sword? Some thoughts on the swordbearer's rank in the Early Nordic Bronze Age Jan-Heinrich Bunnefeld; 14. Becoming the warrior: constructed identity or functional identity? Kate Anderson; 15. Body aesthetics, fraternity, and warfare in the long European Bronze Age – postscriptum Helle Vandkilde.

Christian Horn is a researcher and executive board member of the graduate school 'Human Development in Landscapes' at the Christian-Albrechts Universität zu Kiel, Germany. His scholarship focuses on Bronze Age weapons, their use and social implications. During his Ph.D. he carried out a European-wide study of halberds, published in a book titled Studien zu den europäischen Stabdolchen (2014), and later carried out similar studies of lances, spears, and swords in northern Europe during his participation in the EU Marie Curie project Forging Identities, from which he published in several articles. His recent project is entitled 'Materiality of violence' and focuses on Bronze Age rock art and metalwork collaborating with material scientists and conducting fieldwork at UNESCO world heritage site Tanum.
Kristian Kristiansen is Professor of Archaeology at the Göteborgs Universitet, Sweden. He is co-editor of the book Organizing Bronze Age Societies (Cambridge, 2010). He is the author of Europe before History (Cambridge, 2000) and co-author of The Rise of Bronze Age Society (Cambridge, 2006), which was awarded best scholarly book in 2007 by the Society of American Archaeology. He received the Prehistoric Society's Europa Prize in 2013, and the British Academy's Graham Clark Medal in 2016. His most recent work has been the European Research Council advanced grant The Rise. With a team of scientists it has been possible to document trade in woollen textiles, metals, as well as large-scale migrations in western Eurasia during the Bronze Age.