The European Mercenaries of the Bronze Age Collapse

mercenaries are professional soldiers whose services can be procured by those able to pay for them there were mercenaries available throughout history for example the ancient greeks of classical antiquity were famous mercenaries serving in conflicts from the aegean to north africa and from italy to persia and india but the first mercenaries of europe emerged centuries earlier these men were part of a new highly mobile warrior class equipped with innovative weapons and armor they came from as far afield as scandinavia central europe italy and the balkans and they took service across europe but especially in mycenaean greece the eastern mediterranean and even beyond their emergence heralded a new militarism in europe which immediately preceded the devastation of the 12th century bc so who were these men what took them so far from their homelands and could these warriors be related in some way to the sea peoples and if so were they to blame for the bronze age collapse warfare was an integral aspect of daily life in bronze age europe farming and warfare were the two axes of male activity in society but military training was the main concern of the aristocratic men elite males were initiated at puberty to their role as warriors from then on they trained hunted guarded their people and settlements escorted trade caravans and protected the chief that they served and during seasons of war local retinues were mobilized by the chiefs for raiding and conquest war had been carried out in this way for centuries but changes were coming from the 13th century bc european societies became increasingly militarized bronze armor was developed helmets became thicker and stronger a wider bladed and heavier thrusting and slashing sword became the most popular kind of weapon we'll talk more about this later it is believed due in part to the increasing size of fortifications from this time that the size of armies grew too but still in this era regular raids authorized and organized by chiefs were part of the constant competition for power and honor those who are not your allies were potential targets of raiding to enrich your own economic base and to impose client relations this was not only legitimate behavior but it was also a necessity to feed the warriors and to fuel their ethos the nature of the violence of the era is seen on human remains throughout europe mycenaean shaft grave warrior chiefs have an average death age of 36 the bodies frequently showing skull damage and other types of wounds these men dying by violence in the prime of their lives were the rulers of their societies this culture of violence was not limited to greece of course an early nordic bronze age burial pit from western norway contained 25 to 30 individuals of both sexes and various ages it seems that a whole settlement was massacred here using swords and spears cuts on the arm bones of the adult males reveal attempts to defend themselves from attack several also had older heeled cuts on their right arms which suggests that they had been warriors in life so this way of life had been around for a long time but during the 13th century bc a new kind of warrior emerged its origins in terms of social structure and material culture especially weapons and armor maybe in central europe and associated most of all with the urnfield culture but they in turn had been influenced by the power prestige and technology of the myceneans they traded with so why did this warrior culture emerge in the first place it's hard to say for sure but there were technological developments in farming clothing and food preservation that increased the population of europe in the centuries preceding this era wealth and prosperity in central and northern europe also came from their inclusion in the international trade network perhaps a surplus of young aristocratic males led to demographic pressures in europe and this larger healthier population of warriors increased conflict which spurred the development of military technology and social innovations all the while they ensured the regular supplies to and from the mycenaean world continued to flow most people within these populations were born lived and died within their own homelands retaining distinct ethnic and cultural identities tied to specific places and yet the archaeological record shows the trade of raw materials and manufactured goods as well as the transmission of new ideas between the mediterranean the atlantic the baltic the steppe and the near east one way that archaeologists demonstrate the transmission of ideas rather than objects is when new manufacturing styles or techniques spread into new geographical areas in the form of pottery for example new forms or decorations can spread from one society to another examination of the fabric of a pot can show it was manufactured using local clays while the style deviating somewhat from the local tradition may be influenced by desirable imports from a foreign land pots made in a foreign land occurring somewhere else suggests a regular trade route between these societies and pots that are exactly like pottery made elsewhere yet manufactured using clays unique to the new area suggests potters themselves had moved here from their homeland and there are clues in other objects of material culture items worn on the person like cloak pins and the kinds of daggers carried for everyday use are taken to indicate the movement of people or in some cases the specific distribution patterns along with other evidence might suggest the interpersonal exchange of trinkets within a mobile population the most important items that inform us about the warriors of the late bronze age are their weapons and sometimes their armor although not as much bronze armor survives there are great numbers of bronze swords however often found in ritual deposits in wet places especially in northern and western europe there was a tradition of placing swords into rivers or bogs apparently to commemorate victories and possibly peace treaties sometimes these swords are deposited showing unrepaired damage on the blades from their last battle there was also a tradition in some societies of burying warriors with their weapons and even in conditions where the bones decompose over thousands of years the bronze remains for analysis of particular interest for the story of this era is an incredibly important variety of bronze sword classified today as the now two it was developed from earlier swords but the innovative form of this new sword type allowed for powerful thrusts and especially cuts perhaps even performing well against various types of organic and metal armor the now too was versatile and strong and once developed the essential form was long lasting its popularity is easy to understand swords and other weapons provide a special insight into the past because they represent a fighting style the specific geometry of the blade the balance length weight stiffness and so on helps to inform how the weapon was used taken together with the armor and examples in contemporary art we can build up a picture of the warriors who used this sword wearing a corselet ideally of bronze chest and back plates or leather or linen armor if not a bronze helmet with a plume of horse hair or feathers a long spear with a bronze head and a now two sword they wore a tunic perhaps with a feathered leather skirt to protect the groin and thighs bronze or linen greaves and a round shield made from a sheet of bronze or hardened leather around their shoulders they wore a woolen cloak fastened by a pin the bronze shields the slashing swords the bronze corselets all appear together at the start of the earnfield period in about 1300 bc a new kind of warrior had emerged these were not the chariot mounted individual heroes of earlier mycenaean history seen in the iliad in fact their technology fighting style and organization might have developed as a counter to chariot warfare and perhaps these warriors ultimately put an end to it these warriors fought on foot and they were highly versatile they fought as small units that could be joined together to create larger war bands and even whole armies if the logistics were possible now bronze swords had been around for centuries by this point early swords long thin weapons meant for thrusting spread from miceli in greece north into europe and then sword development continued for centuries as separate traditions in the carpathians and in greece when the now two style emerged it spread so quickly that it is difficult to say for sure exactly where it was first developed however considering its precedence it probably happened in the enormously productive metal working centers of the carpathians before spreading to scandinavia italy and mycenaean greece a more recent theory suggests the earliest varieties are to be found in italy and the form then spread throughout europe however the carpathians italy southern germany and scandinavia were closely linked in this period sharing many cultural traits and there were undoubtedly large migrations within this wider region from at least 1500 bc to 1200 bc one of the most intriguing aspects of this new weapon type is its appearance in the archaeological record in mycenaean greece because the greeks had their own ancient sword types and weaponsmiths with their own traditions so why does the new sword type appear is this evidence then of a huge migration of warriors from the north down into greece perhaps causing the great destruction of the mycenean world could this be evidence of the fabled dorian invasion well it's not quite so simple careful examination of these swords shows that some were indeed manufactured in italy or the carpathian region before being buried in warrior graves or in other contexts in greece but other now too type swords were made locally by mycenaean weaponsmiths inspired by the new sword types from the north all made to order by foreign warriors these local smiths drew inspiration from the older mycenean sword types they knew so well so we see the blending of these styles in the weapons they made so how do we interpret all of this material evidence what does it tell us about these warriors and their culture and behaviour and how does it all relate to the end of mycenaean greece and the wider bronze age collapse so late bronze age europe saw the emergence of a mobile warrior trader mercenary class it began in central europe and spread widely they swore service to a chief or king and served in his retinue carrying out raids on enemies and joining with allies for larger battles and campaigns these men also served to secure and guard valuable trade routes that brought furs and amber from the baltic into the mediterranean and tin from the atlantic across europe to the near east and beautiful worked gold and amber beads from mycenae and greece reached scandinavia and britain these warriors guarded the wagons and ships carrying vital goods and products and they also carried out the trade themselves trade was at least in part an aristocratic activity we see this in the odyssey where king menelaus recounts his trading voyages around the eastern mediterranean after the fall of troy interactions between these warriors is seen in personal items found far from their place of origin there are stray amber beads from the northern alps found in mycenaean contexts and a style of cloak pins from northern italy spreading into the balkans and the eastern mediterranean whether these items were carried by individual warriors or if they were part of trinket exchanges within this warrior elite population fines such as these demonstrate the existence of this class and its mobility we know there was trade and migration but the specific patterns of these and many other items suggest there were also regular cultural encounters between this mobile warrior class these aristocratic warriors were professionals whose business was warfare and they could offer their services to foreign lords a male cemetery in germany dated to this era held more than 50 bodies isotope analysis demonstrates that a third of the buried males had a foreign origin and they came from more than one foreign location and some came from far away these were warriors who had taken service at a foreign chiefly court because all the buried men shared the same healthy diet and were above the average height interestingly there were many double and even triple burials which suggests that they died in combat and were buried together locals and non-locals alike most of the males were between 25 and 40 years old a few younger and a few older there were three separate sword graves which may represent the war leaders for a retinue of three warrior groups with around 15 to 20 members in each and some of these men were therefore mercenaries of course this is well before coinage and they were not paid in money for their services but warriors would be fed and housed by their chiefs or kings and rewarded with gifts gold silver weapons armor land slaves women and so on and warriors of all kinds have always thought to enrich themselves through booty one on the battlefield what we see from the 13th to the 12th centuries bc in greece is the presence of these warriors many were likely mycenaean born and raised taking on this new expression of warriorhood but others were from the balkans and italy and probably also scandinavia and perhaps even beyond from iberia in the west to the steppe in the northeast but through generations of interaction in services of various foreign chiefs and kings and guarding trade routes on land and sea they began to form into something else they formed a somewhat multi-ethnic warrior class that was ever more separate from the lower classes of farmers herders and craftsmen in their respective homelands and perhaps they found themselves increasingly more powerful than the kings they served perhaps some warriors betrayed their oaths perhaps others found themselves masterless after a defeat or a palace coup no doubt some chose to make themselves chiefs and kings in their own right these were the men who guarded trade routes and yet they could also attack them these were the men who guarded ports and cities but they also had the power to sack them taking the wealth and burning the palaces to the ground without the stability provided by the ancient mycenaean palace system some of these warriors returned home to central europe or southern scandinavia we get hints of this in a bavarian sword grave with mycenaean pots and mycenaean ornaments such as the mussel-shaped pendant and mediterranean shells are found in burials in hungary this kind of evidence along with mycenaean weapons and armor found in central europe can be interpreted as warriors returning home but others went further beyond greece seeking plunder or employment perhaps in anatolia syria and egypt so was this european warrior class responsible for the bronze age collapse were great warbands and confederations ultimately recorded in far off egypt as the eques and wahesh and is it these warriors we know today as the sea peoples again it's not so simple the sea peoples certainly had many origins and some surely came from anatolia and elsewhere rather than europe but also it might be a mistake to imagine each of the named sea peoples in egyptian and hittite records represent a specific ethnic group and looking for a specific geographical origin for every one of them might never be fruitful and to what extent these warriors caused the calamities of this era rather than exploited the opportunities presented by the breakdown of order is unclear in fact looking for cause and effect in such a complex and rapid series of changes is unlikely to be rewarding but let's look for a moment at the egyptian records of the foreigners commonly called the sea peoples today now to what extent we can trust the egyptian narrative and how much is propaganda continues to be debated but supposedly foreign groups attacked northern egypt and they were then recruited as mercenaries paid perhaps in land in the levant and were later employed to fight for egypt against the hittite empire famously at the great battle of kadesh they also apparently served as military advisors coming up with strategy for the battle this is precisely the kind of behavior you would expect from itinerant raiders and mercenaries some points out that there is very little archaeological evidence for the sea peoples they say if there really was a series of waves of mass migration for years and decades where did they all go now we do see some italian style weapons and pottery reaching the coast of syria and the pelosette from the aegean became the historical philistines of canaan but other than that it's hard to track the sea peoples in material culture or history if we imagine these were massive sustained invasions and migrations but again we would expect this archaeological pattern if the raiding along the ancient trade routes was more of a periodic phenomenon some raiders might come for a season others for years before cycling back to bases in the aegean and deeper into europe while some would seek to stay in foreign lands to quote archaeologist barry malloy and as always links to the sources are in the video description quote these potential piratic groups were organized multi-ethnic confederations that were soluble transient archaeologically ephemeral but potentially sizable in both numbers and socio-political impact end quote this channel depends on your support if you enjoy my videos please join us on patreon for as little as three dollars a month and access the exclusive content there now please watch this video on the development of bronze age armor and what it tells us about the warfare warriors and society of this era thank you for watching

Channel: Dan Davis History

Views: 233,033

Keywords: bronze age history, history of europe, history documentaries, ancient history documentary, ancient civilizations, bronze age collapse, sea peoples, late bronze age, bronze age europe, mercenaries

Id: j7jAoOLMmFo

Length: 20min 43sec (1243 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 26 2022