Militarism and the Indo-Europeanizing of Europe

295 Pages·2017·6.77 MB·English

by  Robert Drews

Militarism and the Indo-
Europeanizing of Europe
This book argues that the Indo-Europeanizing of Europe essentially began shortly
before 1600 BC, when lands rich in natural resources were taken over by military
forces from the Eurasian steppe and from southern Caucasia. First were the
copper and silver mines (along with good harbors) in Greece, and the copper and
gold mines of the Carpathian basin. By ca. 1500 BCother military men had taken
over the amber coasts of Scandinavia and the metalworking district of the southern
Alps. These military takeovers offer the most likely explanations for the origins
of the Greek, Keltic, Germanic and Italic subgroups of the Indo-European language
family.
Battlefield warfare and militarism, Robert Drews contends, were novelties ca.
1600 BCand were a consequence of the military employment of chariots. Current
opinion is that militarism and battlefield warfare are as old as formal states, going
back before 3000 BC.
Another current opinion is that the Indo-Europeanizing of Europe happened long
before 1600 BC. The “Kurgan theory” of Marija Gimbutas and David Anthony
dates it from late in the fifth to early in the third millennium BC and explains it
as the result of horse-riding conquerors or raiders coming to Europe from the steppe.
Colin Renfrew’s Archaeology and Language dates the Indo-Europeanizing of
Europe to the seventh and sixth millennia BC, and explains it as a consequence
of the spread of agriculture in a “wave of advance” from Anatolia through Europe.
Pairing linguistic with archaeological evidence Drews concludes that in Greece
and Italy, at least, no Indo-European language could have arrived before the second
millennium BC.
Robert Drewsstudied ancient history—Near Eastern, Greek and Roman—at the
Johns Hopkins University and received his degree in 1960. For the next 45 years
he taught the full slate of ancient history at Vanderbilt University, and became
interested especially in the evolution of religion and of warfare. In the latter field
his publications include Coming of the Greeks (1988), The End of the Bronze
Age (1993) and Early Riders: The Beginnings of Mounted Warfare in Asia and
Europe(2004).

Militarism and the Indo-
Europeanizing of Europe
Robert Drews
First published 2017
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2017 Robert Drews
The right of Robert Drews to be identified as author of this work has been
asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification
and explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN: 978-1-138-28272-8 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-27055-5 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Florence Production Ltd, Stoodleigh, Devon, UK
Contents
List of illustrations vii
Acknowledgements ix
Abbreviations x
1 The origins and spread of Proto-Indo-European 1
2 The Kurgan theory and the taming of horses 28
3 Warfare in Western Eurasia in the third and early
second millennium BC 56
4 Chariot warfare, the beginning of militarism and its
Indo-European connection 109
5 The beginnings of militarism in temperate Europe 131
6 The beginning of militarism in Greece 176
7 The question of origins 217
Appendix: The chronological quandary 235
Bibliography of works cited 238
Index 275

Illustrations
1.1 The pre-Maikop (Map 1) and Maikop (Map 2) culture sites.
Maikop itself is number 11 on the lower map. From Ivanova
2007, p. 31. Courtesy Maria Ivanova and Aramazd: Armenian
Journal of Near Eastern Studies 15
2.1 Disk cheekpieces (Scheibenknebel) from Trakhtemyriv, on
middle Dnieper. From Hüttel 1981, nos. 14 and 15. Courtesy
Prähistorische Bronzefunde and C. H. Beck Verlag 44
3.1 Siege scene incised on a stone slab, from pre-Sargonic palace
at Mari. From Figure 1 in Yadin 1972 (after Parrot 1971,
plate XIV, no. 4). Courtesy Israel Exploration Journal 63
3.2 Weapons and armor from Sintashta-Petrovka sites. 1 mace. 2
axe. 5 socketed spearhead. 6 studded disk cheekpiece. 4, 7–16
and 18–23 arrowheads. 17 bone “armour parts.” From Bersenev,
Epimakhov and Zdanovich 2011, Figure 2. Courtesy of British
Archaeological Reportsand of Andrej Epimakhov 87
3.3 South Caucasian dirk and rapiers. 1) Saduga, Kurgan grave
no. 2. 2) Mravaltskali, Kurgan grave no. 12. 3) Lilo, Kurgan
grave no. 1. 4) Tetri Kvebi, Kurgan grave no. 1. 5) Ghatchaghan,
Kurgan grave no. 1. 6) Dzoraget. 7) Samtavro, Kurgan grave
no. 243. From Abramishvili 2001, Taf. 2. Courtesy of Mikheil
Abramishvili and the Marie Leidorf Verlag 93
5.1 Find-spots of disk cheekpieces (Boroffka’s Type A and Type B
Scheibenknebel). From Boroffka 1998, Abb. 17. Courtesy
Nikolaus Boroffka and the Deutsches Archäologisches
Institut, Eurasien-Abteilung 143
5.2 Antler cheekpieces (Stangenknebel) from the Hungarian plain.
From Hüttel 1981, Tafel 6, nos. 52 and 53. Courtesy of
C. H. Beck Verlag and the Prähistorische Bronzefundeseries 144
5.3a and 5.3b Swords found at Hajdúsámson and Apa. From
Kemenczei 1991, Tafel 1, no. 1, and from Bader 1991,
Tafel 5, no. 25. Courtesy Franz Steiner Verlag 149
5.4 Disk-butted axe found at Iorcani, eastern Romania. From
Tencariu et al. 2014, Figure 3. Courtesy Studia Antiqua et
Archaeologicaand Felix-Adrian Tencariu 151
viii Illustrations
5.5 Late Bronze Age spearheads and javelin heads from Bulgaria,
including (no. 1) the mold from Nova Zagora. From Leshtakov
2011, Figure 3. Courtesy Archaeologia Bulgaricaand Lyuben
Leshtakov 153
5.6 Four of the Apa swords found at Dystrup. Courtesy John Lee
and the National Museum of Denmark 157
5.7 Find-spots of Apa- Hajdúsámson swords. From Metzner-Nebelsick
2013, Abb. 1 (based on Bader 1991, Kemenczei 1991, Harding
1995 and other studies by R. Munteanu and G. Dumitroaia,
T. Kovács, H. Meller and B. Sicherl). Courtesy Landesmuseum
für Vorgeschichte, Halle and Carola Metzner-Nebelsick 158
6.1 Evolution of the sword, and chronological range of sword types,
in Mycenaean Greece. From Molloy 2010, Figure 2. Courtesy
American Journal of Archaeologyand Archaeological Institute
of America 197
7.1 Elevation map of southern Caucasia, from Smith 2006, p. 174,
Figure 1. Courtesy Brill Publishers and Adam Smith 219
7.2 Bronze chariot ornament found at Lori Berd, in Armenia. From
Pogrebova 2003, Figure 3. Courtesy John Wiley & Sons, and
Blackwell Publishing Ltd 222
Acknowledgements
I expect that this book will interest military historians who deal with the ancient
world, but it is addressed more directly to Indo-Europeanists, Assyriologists,
Egyptologists, Hittitologists, Mycenologists and Archaeologists who work in
widely separated lands. Because I am not expert in any of those disciplines I have
relied heavily on what specialists have written, as the bibliography will show.
Publications do not answer all questions, and many scholars with whom I
exchanged e-mails have given me personal and timely help. Let me here thank
Mikheil Abramishvili, Constantin Alamariu, David Anthony, Vassilis Aravantinos,
Richard Beal, Nikolaus Boroffka, Anne Chapin, Michele Cupitò, Andrej
Epimakhov, Andrew Garrett, Anthony Harding, Christian Horn, Maria Ivanova,
Mario Küssner, Lene Melheim, Carola Metzner-Nebelsick, Barry Molloy, Martin
O’Collins, Thomas Palaima, Mitchell Rothman, Karen Rubinson, Hakob
Simonyan, Adam Smith, Felix-Adrian Tencariu, Peter Tóth, Aleydis Van de
Moortel and Michael Witzel. Especially helpful were the three anonymous readers
who pointed out some of the errors and omissions in the original draft.
Thanks also to Jim Toplon and his Interlibrary Loan staff at the Vanderbilt library
for their persistence and ingenuity in locating exotic publications. Securing
suitable images for publication, along with permissions to publish them, is a
frustrating business. For assistance there I am grateful to the persons mentioned
in the captions, and also to Brigitte Badelt at the Franz Steiner Verlag, Lucretiu
Birliba (Studia Antiqua et Archaeologica), Brian Collins (Oxford Journal
of Archaeology),Rudolf Echt (Saarbrücker Beiträge zur Altertumskunde), Lone
Klint Jakobsen at the National Museum of Denmark, Albrecht Jockenhövel
(Prähistorische Bronzefunde) and Lyudmil Vagalinski (Archaeologia Bulgarica).
And thanks to Millie Fullmer, Director of Visual Resources at Vanderbilt
University, for scanning images from print.