Robert Drews - The End of the Bronze Age: Changes in Warfare and the Catastrophe Ca. 1200 B.C.

THE END OF THE BRONZE AGE

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS
PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY

Copyright 1993 by Princeton University Press

Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street,

Princeton, New Jersey 08540

In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, Chichester, West Sussex

All Rights Reserved

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Drews, Robert.

The end of the Bronze Age: Changes in warfare and the catastrophe

ca. 1200 B.C. / Robert Drews.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 0-691-04811-8 ISBN 0-691-02591-6 (pbk.)

1. Bronze ageMediterranean Region. 2. Warfare, Prehistoric

Mediterranean Region. 3. Chariot warfareMediterranean Region.

4. Weapons, PrehistoricMediterranean Region. 5. Mediterranean

RegionAntiquities. I. Title.

GN778.3.A1D74 1993 930.09822dc20 92-46511 CIP

ISBN-13: 978-0-691-02591-9 (pbk.)

ISBN-10: 0-691-02591-6 (pbk.)

eISBN: 978-0-691-20997-5

R0

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xi

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29

a. RS 80/99, from Catastrophe destruction level at Ugarit; 7 cm.; after Yon et al., Organisation, figure 28

b. RS 80/270, from Catastrophe destruction level at Ugarit; 8.5 cm.; after Yon et al., Organisation,, figure 27

c. J 1 3; from El Khadr, Israel; 9.2 cm.; after Cross and Milik, Typological Study, figure 2

d. From Mycenae; 13.7 cm.; after Avila, Lanzenspitzen, Tafel 28, no. 769

e. From Hazor; head, 8.5 cm., shoe, 4 cm.; after Yadin et al., Hazor, vols. 34, plate 347, nos. 3 and 6

a. Sickle sword from tomb of Tutankhamun; 40 cm.; after Yadin, Art of Warfare, vol. 1, 207

b. LH II rapier from Plovdiv, Bulgaria; 76 cm.; after Sandars, Later Aegean Bronze Swords, plate 22, no. 7

c. Anatolian rapier found near Boghazky; 79 cm. including killed tang; after nal et al., Hittite Sword, 47

a. Naue Type II sword from Aranyos, Hungary; ca. 65 cm.; after Cowen, Flange-Hilted Cutting Sword, fig. 2, no. 4

b. Merneptah Sword from Ugarit; 74 cm.; after Schaeffer, Bronze Sword from Ugarit, 227.

c. Longest of the four swords from la maison du Grandprtre dUgarit; 73 cm.; after Schaeffer, Ugaritica, vol. 3, fig. 223

d. Naue Type II sword from Mycenae; 60 cm.; after Cowen, Flange-Hilted Cutting Sword, fig. 2, no. 6

F OR PHOTOGRAPHS and permission to publish them in this book I am grateful to the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago and to Princeton University Press. At the Oriental Institute my requests were very kindly expedited by John Larson and Lisa Snider. The photograph of the reconstructed Battle Scene fresco at Pylos was made for me by Tucker Blackburn, Research Associate in the Department of Classics at the University of Cincinnati. For the illustrations of Shardana warriors I am indebted to Vronwy Hankey, who promptly and graciously responded to my request for her matchless photographs of the Abydos reliefs of the Battle of Kadesh. The Warrior Vase illustration came from Marburg/ Art Resource, of New York. For the drawing of I thank Meg Coode Shannon.

Drs. Joanna Scurlock and Richard Beal provided me with much constructive criticism at a crucial stage of this manuscript. I thank them for saving me from errors large and small and exonerate them entirely from those that remain. I am also indebted, for various kindnesses and communications, to Professors Leonard Alberstadt, Frank Cross, Stuart Piggott, Anthony Snodgrass, and Stuart Wheeler. The editors at Princeton University Press have again been very helpful: for their good work and judgment I thank Lauren Osborne, Colin Barr, and especially Lauren Oppenheim.

For biblical passages, unless otherwise specified, I have used the RSV translation. The translations of occasional lines from Homer and other Greek authors are my own.