Harm's way: An approach to change and continuity in prehistoric combat

Abstract

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 ancient 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 2.08 Early Nordic Bronze Age spears and swords, and 15 Late Neolithic 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 different agents of warfare.