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1 results

  • Armies in the Early Bronze Age? An alternative interpretation of Únětice Culture axe hoards

  • Harald Meller
  • Journal:
    Antiquity / Volume 91 / Issue 360 / December 2017
    Published online by Cambridge University Press:
    06 December 2017, pp. 1529-1545
    Print publication:
    December 2017

  • The Early Bronze Age Únětice Culture in central Germany was a highly stratified society with a ruling class of ‘princes’, as evidenced by the famous burials at Leubingen and Helmsdorf, and the newly excavated burial mound Bornhöck near Dieskau. To investigate the notion of Únětice military organisation, this article presents a new interpretation of the numerous weapons hoards recovered from the region. Hoard deposition and composition from central Germany strongly suggests a shift from a Late Neolithic culture of ‘warrior heroes’ to the creation of organised standing armies of professional soldiers under the control of ruling elites.