Open AccessHarm’s Way: An Approach to Change and Continuity in Prehistoric Combat
Author(s) -
Christian Horn
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
current swedish archaeology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.256
H-Index - 8
eISSN - 2002-3901
pISSN - 1102-7355
DOI - 10.37718/csa.2013.10
Subject(s) - harm , modern warfare , order (exchange) , prehistory , political science , history , criminology , sociology , law , archaeology , business , finance
Warfare has been recognized as an important factor in past societies, but the way it contributes to change is still not very well understood. When it comes to an- cient war, archaeology faces a problem: we are rarely able to address the intentions behind wars. This article seeks to take a look at the micro-scale of warfare and address what, and how, it contributed to change. To achieve this it was necessary to take a close-up look at combat, weapons and fighters as elementary parts of warfare. The use-wear analysis of 208 Early Nor- dic Bronze Age spears and swords, and 15 Late Neo- lithic halberds will be used as a case study to address several problems: 1. the (non-) functionality of early weaponry; 2. the conduct of combat; 3. the relation between weapons, fighters and combat. A hypothesis will be formulated in order to understand combat in terms of communication as a mediator between dif- ferent agents of warfare.