Sizeable Bronze Age battle in northern Germany

[Robert Heiligers]

Interesting stuff. I don't know if you guys already had a chance to look at my article on the "Trojan War" in Slingshot 304.  At the top of page 19 it says something about the spread of "modern" bronze age swords.  "After 1300 BC elite Greeks warriors wielded a new type of Aegean sword, which was bronze and two and a half feet long. Much more efficient at inflicting slash-wounds than its predecessors, its blade also had roughly parallel edges for most of its length, rather than the tapered edges of a dagger, so that it was also good at cutting. With a single piece of metal for both blade and hilt, it was less like to break than old type of sword. This so-called Naue II or grip-tongue sword originated from central Europe (Northern Italy and the Balkans) and had spread to Scandinavia and the British Isles, before it began to appear in Greece, Crete, the Levant and Egypt between 1300 and 1200 BC."
In my view we too easily tend to assume that everyone outside the typical "classical civilisations" in the Mediterranean area, Near East and what have you, used to look and live like "barbarians" in those days. The fact that the Naue II sword apparently spread to Scandinavia and the British Isles, before it appeared in Greece etc. belies this popular assumption.
Yes, I do think that those northerners wore trousers, had bloody good swords and shields (probably in various shapes and sizes - also see my article) and perhaps even helmets.

[Duncan Head]

The Bocksten body's medieval, so doesn't help much. The closest bog bodies in date that I can find on a very quick search are Emmer-Erfscheidenveen man from the Netherlands and Trindhøj man from Denmark, who both have well-preserved clothing but no trousers:

http://www.mummytombs.com/bog/emmer.html
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/a4/09/c4/a409c447d5f25f087597a1091bfa9ff0.jpg

http://en.natmus.dk/historical-knowledge/denmark/prehistoric-period-until-1050-ad/the-bronze-age/men-and-woman-in-the-bronze-age/the-man-from-trindhoej/
http://earlyworks.weebly.com/clothing.html

[Erpingham]

Excellent links Duncan.  These are the guys I have in my head when I think preserved bronze age bodies.  They are also, I think the prototype for the Foundry Bronze Age guys (with added metal work from other finds).  No trousers. Otzi had leggings rather than trousers (i.e. separate hide tubes, not joined together) so they would be possible.  It used to be said trousers were a steppe fashion spreading from the East in the late Bronze/Early Iron Age (i.e. much later) but I've no idea what the modern view is.

On Robert's point, we know we have swords (from the bone damage) but none found so far on site (valuable loot?).  Helmets could have been present but how common, what type and what made from?  Shields I'd say yes - Roy has pulled up a copy of an Irish example but I suspect bigger shields ancestral to the oblong/rounded oblong type which turns up in this area in the iron age would be possible - maybe bossless?  Not sure on body armour - certainly around later in the Bronze Age.

Incidentally, while rumaging around on the look out for Bronze Age Northern Warfare I found this http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/21662282.2013.838832 Unless you are a bit of a weapon tech person, the abstract contains the useful bit for us

[Robert Heiligers]

Speaking of prehistoric finds (many of you may already know it): in 1991 the mummified body of a 40-year old guy sticking out of a melting glacier was found, 3210 m above sea level in the Ötztal Alps (South Tyrol, Italy). He must have died (shot by an arrow) over 5,000 years ago.
The guy is called Ötzi, after the area where he was found. He wore trouser-like leggings made of fur and was well equipped, a.o. with a simple but effective copper axe. I have attached a nice picture of a reconstruction of the guy.  More info (in English) on the following website: http://www.iceman.it/en/oetzi-the-iceman.

[Robert Heiligers]

OK, I now see that Anthony already refers to him.

[Andreas Johansson]

Also close in time is the Egtved girl. Not helpful for warrior attire, but I imagine the excuse to cast a (pre)historical figure in a miniskirt will be welcome to some.

Incidentally, isotope analysis suggests that she, too, was a long-range migrant, having grown up in the Black Forest region.

[Patrick Waterson]

In my view we too easily tend to assume that everyone outside the typical "classical civilisations" in the Mediterranean area, Near East and what have you, used to look and live like "barbarians" in those days. The fact that the Naue II sword apparently spread to Scandinavia and the British Isles, before it appeared in Greece etc. belies this popular assumption.
Yes, I do think that those northerners wore trousers, had bloody good swords and shields (probably in various shapes and sizes - also see my article) and perhaps even helmets.

The 'missing link' may be the culture the Greeks termed the Pelasgi, identifiable as the Frisian culture by readers of the Oera Linda Book - or at least by readers of a translation of the Oera Linda Book.

[Duncan Head]

Also close in time is the Egtved girl.

She's already imortalised in the Foundry range - http://www.wargamesfoundry.com/ancients/europeanbronzeage/, set BRNZ016.

[Jim Webster]

A fine selection of inappropriate females modelling an earlier form of the garb cam be seen here

http://cavegirlwargaming.blogspot.co.uk/2010/12/one-million-years-bc-miniatures.html

[Erpingham]

A fine selection of inappropriate females modelling an earlier form of the garb cam be seen here

http://cavegirlwargaming.blogspot.co.uk/2010/12/one-million-years-bc-miniatures.html

Trust you to lower the tone in a serious debate

Returning to Otzi for a moment,  this graphic is quite useful on the layers of Otzi's clothes

http://www.age-of-the-sage.org/archaeology/otzi_clothes.jpg

I suspect that something like this underpins the original "hairy" reconstructions.  However, Otzi was considerably earlier and the Scandinavian finds we have been discussing have woven woollen clothes.  We should certainly consider fur caps of some sort though, as both Otzi and the Scandinavians have them.

[eques]

Interesting stuff. I don't know if you guys already had a chance to look at my article on the "Trojan War" in Slingshot 304.  At the top of page 19 it says something about the spread of "modern" bronze age swords.  "After 1300 BC elite Greeks warriors wielded a new type of Aegean sword, which was bronze and two and a half feet long. Much more efficient at inflicting slash-wounds than its predecessors, its blade also had roughly parallel edges for most of its length, rather than the tapered edges of a dagger, so that it was also good at cutting. With a single piece of metal for both blade and hilt, it was less like to break than old type of sword. This so-called Naue II or grip-tongue sword originated from central Europe (Northern Italy and the Balkans) and had spread to Scandinavia and the British Isles, before it began to appear in Greece, Crete, the Levant and Egypt between 1300 and 1200 BC."
In my view we too easily tend to assume that everyone outside the typical "classical civilisations" in the Mediterranean area, Near East and what have you, used to look and live like "barbarians" in those days. The fact that the Naue II sword apparently spread to Scandinavia and the British Isles, before it appeared in Greece etc. belies this popular assumption.
Yes, I do think that those northerners wore trousers, had bloody good swords and shields (probably in various shapes and sizes - also see my article) and perhaps even helmets.

Superb article, by the way. Really enjoyed it.  Although on the downside it has made me very tempted to start yet another army I'll never finish!

[Jim Webster]

I know what you mean Harry. The perfect army for rules like Saga and similar 

[Erpingham]

I know what you mean Harry. The perfect army for rules like Saga and similar 

I only know the basics of Saga.  Would they make a good set for Bronze Age warfare, with a bit of imagination?

[Andreas Johansson]

I only know the basics of Saga.  Would they make a good set for Bronze Age warfare, with a bit of imagination?

That'll be down to what you think Bronze Age warfare was like!

That said, it's a skirmish set - the Tollense encounter was evidently a grander affair than what Saga aims to represent (a typical Saga battle being in the neighbourhood of fifty warriors a side).

[Erpingham]

I only know the basics of Saga.  Would they make a good set for Bronze Age warfare, with a bit of imagination?

That'll be down to what you think Bronze Age warfare was like!

Hence the imagination

What if we imagine it was like Homeric warfare? While that takes some speculation at least we have somewhere to start.