THE EVOUTION OF THE MYCENAEAN ARMY 6NICOLAS GRGURlC is

an Austr.. l..... graduate

archaeolo9ist who wrote

his Honours thesis on the

Myce.... ean army. He ts.writing .. doctoral thesi s

on c ivi lian use of deteonsive

architectu.... In frontier

Aust ra l ia. Hts other interests

in clude w argaming, l iv in g

hi story and coll ect ing black

powder f ireM",S. He l ives

in So uth Au stn. li ll .

ANGUS McSRI DE Is one of

the wortd's most respected

hi st ori<:<ol lllustrat ors , and

ha s c o nt ri buted to more than

90 Osprey ti tles In t he past

t h...... decades. Born In 1931

of Hi ghlan d pa rents but

orphaned as a c hild , he was

ed ucated at Canterbury

Cathedr.. l Choi r School. He

worked In ad vertising agencies

from 1947, and aner na tion.. 1

servic e, " m i9nl ted t o South

Afric.. . He no w lives and

works in C..pe Town.

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION• Emerge nce of Mycenae• Mycenaean dominance• The evidenc e: I lomer , and the archaeologica l record

• Xeoli thic and Early Bronze Age• E.arl)' ~I)'cenaea n armies: heavy in fan try. ligh t in fantry

a nd chario ts

• Respo nse to new challenges fro m c.1300 BC - foruficaucn ,ami di spc-rsed deployment

• The destruct ion o f the palace-states

IDENTIFIABLE TROOP CATEGORIES• Heavy in fant ry: sh ields - spears - h elmets - tac tical

implica tions - swords - ch anges from <:. 1300 HC• Skirmishe rs and light in fan try: arc hers - light in fa ntry

swordsmen - tactical implicatio ns - j a\d inmen - changesfrom c.1300 BC

• Chariotrv: the Aegean chariot - box chariots - dualchario t.. - q uadra nt chariot.. - rail chariot.. - a rmamentand poss ible tact ics - the chario t 'charge' - the Dendraarmour - late r chariotrv

• Cavalry

MILITARY ORGANIZATION• Battle fie ld organizati on• Co mm and structure• I Iigher o rga niza tio n: the evidence and the arguments• Un it sizes• Issue s o f eq uipment

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

THE PLATES

INDEX

3

8

49

58

60

64

Elite · 130

The Mycenaeansc. 1650-1100 BC

O SPREYI-' U BLlS H IN G

N ico las Grguri c . Illu strat ed by Angus McBr ideConsultant editor Martin Windrow

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Acknowledgements

First and foremost the author would like to tha nk MichaelKum nick . without whose artis tic skil l the briefings tor AngusMcBride's striking col our plates would not have beenpossible. and to r putting up with my nit -p icking . Thanksalso go to Or Margaret O'Hea of me Un iversity of Ade laide,who SlJpported and supervised my research on this topic asan Hof1OurS student: to Prof Or Ha ns-GOntt1er Buchl'1oIz torgran t ing permission to use many of hiS own images; to theHellen ic M iniStry of Cutt lJre; and to my fam ily.

Art ist 's Note

Readers may care to note that the original paint ings fromwhich me cciocr plates in th is ococ were prepared areavailable to- pri vate sale. AIl repro d uct ion copyrightwhatsoever is retained by the Publ ishers. All enqumesshould be add ressed to:

Scorpio Galiery.PO Box 475,Hai/sham,E.SussexBN27 2SL,UK

The Publishers regret that they can ente r mto nocorrespondence upon this matter.

st eaere cup tl'om trMl Co-etan

palace of Hag ia Triada, 16th

ce nt ury BC, It show$ $OfT>e

............ts of C«'Ian military

equipment subsequent ly adopted

IIy the Mycenaeans. such as the

long t hn>sting sword and, just

visi b le a t the la ft, part of ill

'lower' shoeld. (Coul1e$y of

the Heracli on Museum)

THE MYCENAEANSc.1650-1180 BC

INTRODUCTION

The ~ Iycenaean civilization spanned a pe riod of 4OD-!'>OO years, fro mthe early lfith century BC un ul its declin e in the 12th centu ry BC.DlII iul; ,hi~ uun; it e vol ved From the role o f envio us admire r of

th e more adva ncec Minoan civilization based o n nearby Crete , in to acivilization whose power and influence eclipsed th at of th e Minoans anddom ina ted Orccce and the Aegean,

'The Myccnaeans' is not a d esigna tion th a t would h ave beenrecognized by the Classical autho rs. To the C reeks, their earliest an ces to rsWt-"IT re ferred to various ly as 'Acbaeans', ' Dana,ms ' and 'Argivcs'. These' R'Te terms th at ca me down to them through epic poetry and numerouslegend s, which were o ften rontradicrorv, Indeed , this pe riod remained inthe realm of lege nd un til the la te 19 th ce nt ury AD, when HeinrichSchl iema nn, in search of treas ure and physical proof of Homer 's Troj anWar, bega n excavating the site ot Myccnac . .....hich Homer says was the seatof King Agamem non.

JU:>l ill :> il1e rhe chadel 's ~dh;~ S";: ll ic Jll<1 11 11 unear t hed ~C'YC' r<l1 burialswhich. to judge by th eir wealth , be longed to the highest class of

Mycenacan society, These bur ia ls conta in ed awea lth of wave goods of gold , silver, bronze ,ivory and ceramic - with gold p redomina ting.Sch lie mann in te rp re te d these burials as themorta l re mains of the heroe s of Horner's ep ics. Inthis h e was mistaken ; what he did n ot kn ow at LIetime was that he had un eart hed the tombs of adynasty th a t re igned some ~OO yea rs before thesupposed date o f th e Trojan War (c. 1260-1250BC) ,' Alth ough Schlie man n's identifications werea t fau lt , he rightly claimed that he had discovereda new world for archaeology . Th rough Ins enter­p rise a forgo tten civilization was reborn , and rookits name fro m th is city,

La te r res ea rch and excavation showed tha t thiscivilization pervaded not only the Greek mainlandbut the Aegean islands and countries borderingon the cent ral and easte rn Mediterranean . Manymore sites were fo und in this region , disp la~ing

the same cultural characte ristics as Mvcenae ­similar a rchi tectural styles. art, pottery. language ,rel igio n, and weapons, Several of these were

3

4

100 M i le,

Centres of MycenH an

cl wllization. (George Mylonas,Mtcenat!' and the ~rnIe.an

Age, 0 1966 Princeton Un ive rs ityPre S$; reprinte d by pe rml105lon0' Prlnceton Unive rsity Press)

fou nd to h ave been great palace-based cities o n a scale riva lling ~1 }'c<.'nae

it-.elf, such as Tiryns and Pylas in the vtyce naean heartl and of thePelopo nnese, wh ich were es tablished around 1650 BC.

Em erg ence of Mvc ena eT he early history of toe Myccnacan p erio d is no table for its pench ant fo rall things Minoan. The Minoan civi lizatio n of Crete can be tra ce d as farba d as c.3000 BC; it th erefore h ad more time to dewlop its culture thanthe mainlanders, helped la a large ex tent by dose in te ractio n withsurrou nd ing civi lization s in the form of seabo rne trading. The Minoancharac ter of earl y ~I}cenaean an is so marked that it led some to believethat the southern part of Oreecc must have been a Cretan colo ny. It hassince beco me apparent that th is similari ty \',~A ~ .hl" resu lt of in fluencerather than coloniza tion . O ne distin ct area of Minoan influen ce a ll the:\Iyccnaeans was that o f warfare; indeed. most of the earl y weapo n anda rmou r t}pes th at are cha racteri stic of th e Mycen ac a ns ac tuallyo rigina ted on Minoan Crete. Onc no table ex cep tio n is th e c har io t,however, which appears to have been in troduced on 10 Crete by theMycen acans rath er than the other way around.

T he earlier Minoan culture was not Gree k, an d wro te using an as yetundecipbered syllabic sc-ript called Linear A. Th e Mycenaeans, however,were Greek, as was demonstrated by the d eci pherment of their scr iptknown as l-inear It T he language of th is script is an early fo rm of Greek,showing that the history' o f Mycen aean cu ltu re is both geograph icallyand ethn ically pan o f the history' o f Greece. T he I.inear B script comesto us in th e form o f small day tablets mostly fou nd in the rui ns of (hepalaces, (he most in form ative coming from Pylas and MvcenaeanKnossos. T he subj ect matte r of th ese table ts is not nar ra tive butbureau crat ic : that is, they' reco rd the daily business of the palace-basedsocie ty and econo my. So me o f th ese table ts record aspects of the milita ryorganizati on of the palace-sta te, an d h ave provi ded an im portan t sourceof information about the Mycen aean army.

Mycena ean domin ance

In arou nd 1400 BC the centre of Minoan power 0 :1 Crete, Knossos . wasdestroyed . probably by an eart hquake . It seems th at th e Mvcen aeans ofmainland Greece took advantage of this disaster to take over Crete ; theyrebuilt MOSSO,s as a Myccnacan palace, and Crete became a \ Iycenaean:a ngdom. \\'i th the remova l of its main rival, Myccnacan civilizationbecame the do minant cultural powe r in the Aegean . The Myccuacansused the ir regional dominance to expand their trading networks anddeveloped close contacts wi th surround ing civilizations. notably those ofthe Ne-ar East such as the lIittites, Syrians and Egvp rians. There is evenevidence that the Egyp tian and Mycenaean armies employed eachothe-r's troops as mercenaries . Although there is evidence that the\ Iyccnaeans sent all exped itionary force to the coast of Anatol ia(modem Turkey) to lig h t the Hini tes, th eir usual enemies were mostlikely co mpeting palace-sta tes, and 'barbarians' from th e less contro lledregio ns of Greece. At times ;\l~'cenaean palace-sta tes seem to haveformed confederations, as described in Homer 's I!iad.

The evidence: Homer, a n d the ;:n c h a e o l o g iea l r ecord

The wo rks of poetry att rib uted to Homer have always been closelyassocia ted with the study of Mycen aean history', an d their relationsh ipwith th e evidence that co mes down la u s from the Mycen aean periodsho uld be un derstood . Although Ho mer 's epic s are tenta tively set in theMycenaean period, it is generally be lieved that these sto ries originatedmuch late r, in aroun d the Bth centu ry RC, some 300 years afte r th e en dof the Mycenaean civilization an d durin g Ore ece's 'Dark Age' , whereaccura te referen ces to the Mycenaea» pe riod are found in Homer, thesemust he th e re sult of fol klo re p reserved via oral history. However, as anh istorical reco rd o f the Mvcenaean civiliza tion and of Mvcenaean. .wa rfare the great po et 's writin gs have limited value. This is becausethe accura tely rem embered elemen ts were combined with inventionsand po st-Myce naean ele me n ts, as well as much la ter inclusions andadaptations fro m th e Cla.ssica l pe riod and later.

What we know of the Mvccnacan army - a terra use d in th is text forbrevi ty, to mean all arm ies of that broad civi lizatio n, across th eir wholetimespan - co mes to us almost entirely through archaeo logy. The sourcesof such archaeologi cal evide n ce <CO we h ave include pictorial survivals, e.g.wall paintin~s; gravestones: precious obj ec ts: textual sources in th e form •

These limestone s lill9 stonesart e..id ence fo r eany Gr98k

w u ponry. Most such projK t iles

w ere mad e of unfired ( la y: these

particula r exam ples come fromTh. 8.... ly and date to the La te

Nf oli thic period , that is, be fore2500 BC. lCourt esy Profe s $Ot"

Or H.Q.Buchhok)

of the Linear B table ts: and finds of actual weapons and equipmentCo mpared (0 cont<-"IIlporary civi lizations such as the Egyp tians an dHittites, th is overal l body of evidence is '"Crr limited , the pictorialc...-idcnce is often highly sryli7ed and the textual evidence Iragmentarc.Xevcrt heless, i t is possible to reconstruct th e Mycena ean army insurprising detail fTOID the.' available evide nce . Onc of the reaso ns fo r th isis th at th e evidence wc.' d o have cove rs a ...-idc rar:gc of a~pccu ofMyccna can warri ors, from d res s and equipment, th rough fo rmations andtac tics, to higher organ ization and logistics.

There is a d istinct lack of secondary info rmation available fo r t1 11~

Myccnacan army. This is a consp icuous omission in th e study of ancientwarfa re, g-iven the very militaristic character of Mycenaean culture.As Lord Tavlou r says in his Thl' My t1'afa TU, ' It would almost seem as ifth t'} loved strife fo r its own sal e ' . Previ o us books on the \tycenaeancivi lization in genera l o fte n have 2. sma ll chapte r Oil warfare andweapo nry', but th is 15 usually ei ther little mo re th an a su mm ary of th etype. of weapons and annour known, o r he avi ly influenced by Ho mer'sheroic images of individual d uelling warriors. The characteristic items ofth e Mvrenacan war rior's equipment are always described - such as theboar's-tus k h el m e t, figure-of-eight shield, and th e 'Dendra Cuirasv' - bu tusually lit tle o r no a-tempt is mad e 10 d iscuss where :hcse item s finedin to th e ove rall functioning of the \ l yce llaea n army. Art icles inacademic journals d escrib in g Mvccnacan art efact forms, such as swords,are also plentiful, bur fail to co ntribute great ly to o ur understa ndin g ofwhat kind of sold iers used these swords and what their tactical role was.It is only when all of th e evide nc e is observed as a whole that a morecomp le te p ict ure eme rges. T hat picture is of a quite conventiona l La teBro nze Age army, yet with un iquely Mvccnaean ch aracteristics.

THE EVOLUTION OF THEMYCENAEAN ARMY

The earliest weapons kn own to ha ve been used by the mainl and Greekswere slings and bows, with bauleaxes and stone maces for hand-to-handcomba t. T he earliest examples come from the Neolithic and Ea rlyBronze Ages (befo re about 2150 BC). Th ese weapo ns sugge st a veIl'informal mode of warfare waged by tr ibal ho rdes rather th an byorganized armies. Slings an d bows con tinued to be use d through outthe Myccu aean period; but as armies became more orga nized andformalized during the Middle Bronze Age (between c.2150 and 1550BC), banl eaxes and clubs fcl l out of use. As bronze-working skills .....ere

•

developed these sto ne weapons were replaced byswords an d spears.

The earliest evidence for organized Mycenaeanarmies comes from the late 16 th century BC, andshows a strong: Miuoan influence which lastedthroughout the pe riod. TIle ea rly armv ofc.1600 to

1300 BC was com posed of a core of heavyspeannen supported by swordsmen. ligh t infantry,skirmis hcrs and heavy chariots. This type of armywas well suited to fighting se t-piece battle s againstsimilarly organized opponen ts such as riva l palace­states. The swordsmen and ligh t irf an try were alsosuited to fighting in rough terrain, :'>0 were usefu lto r ligh ting the ' barbarians' who bved III themountainous, semi-civilized regions outside Myce­naean control. Th is military organization , with.ts mixture of heavy speannen and chariots and.ightc r auxiliaries, proved effective for a longperiod during wh ich the o nly enemies it facedwe re of these t w-o type'> H owever; durin g the 13Thcentu ry BC the Mycenaean military systemunderwent a maj or change in equipment andtactics, me reason for whic h may have been a factorin rho even tual collapse of the civilizatio n.

This new type of army first appears in thearchaeologi cal reco rd in the artefacts from thepalace a t Pylos that a re dated to the nth centuryBC. 1'),105 lies in the region of Me sse nia on thewest coast of th e Pe lo ponnese . When the palacewas exc avated between 1939 and 1966 , it yielded alarge cache o f Linea r B table ts. an d frescoes witha milita ry th eme. T his eviden ce po rtr.tys a m uchlighte r a rmy wi th a focus on mobility, and sUHgestsmore di spersed mel ees. T his change in tactical doctrine may reflect anincrease in seaborne raids along the Mycenaean coast by fo re igne rs.Th is new th reat \\7\S possib ly caused by the d.splacem em of 'a rgenum bers of people due to an inc re ase in na tural dis asters and warthroughout the lands su rroun ding th e Mediterrane an a t th is time . Thel Sth cen tury BC was the time wh en many of the Mycenaean ce ntres,Mycenae included, erected h uge stone ram par ts around their citadels,such fort ifica tions cle arly reflecting: a fear of impend ing attack. It was atthis time th at the military leadership a t Pyla s issued orde rs for thcdeployment of bodies of troops alo n g its coastline to guard againstseaborne invaders.

What happened next is unclea r, except fo r the sign ificant fact tha tso o n a fter th e se orde rs ....e re trans cri b ed on to day ta b le ts Pylos wasd es troyed , in about 1200 BC. Xearly a ll of the other Mycenacan centreswere also destroyed a t a ro und this time. The causes of this pe riod ofdestructio n a re still a to pic of d eba te amo ngs t scholars. Some possibleexplanations are tha t it was ca used by warfa re . n atural d isasters, socia lrevolu tion or a com bi na tion of these factors. Some of the cities wererebui lt and reocc upied , b ut the Mvcenaean civilization as it had

Ivory p laque from Del os depicting

an early pt' r iod spe arman.

Thi$ el ear~ shows the three

eha racteristl c elements of this

t roop type: th e figure-of-eightsh ie ld, boar's-tusk helmet, and

$pear. (After Taylour, 1972)

7

8

'-Y ..."., d itiun .., . r¥'....

ot..eight shiekl . Th is pteee

nleaSlJres 14.3cm l( 9.5cm and

"."y have been 8tt&ched to• p iece of fumit..... Of" used

as a door handl• • Such ivory

mi n iat ures are the only three_

d imens iona l reprel>entationsot these s hield s t hat VIe have.

Thi s pi ece da t es fro m the

13th century BC, when t he

fi~ure-ol-eight $hle ld "'ad l alletl

'fOft'I actual u se but sllnrived115 a religioys or decorative

moti f. (Co urtesy NationalArc:haeoIogical Museum, Athens)

previously been known was gone. Greece de scended into a dark age, hereventua l eme rgence fro m which is n ow kn own as the Classical p er iod .

IDENTIFIABLE CATEGORIES OF TROOPSHEAVY INFANTRYThe backbone of a Mvccn aean armv was its heavy in fan try. In the ea rlyperiod (c. I650-1300 BC) they were armed with a long spear (rnkhos) astheir m a in Wf'apon , and a swo rd . Clo th in g was min im al, co n sisti n g onlyof a cloth kilt or lo incloth . and wa rri o rs went barefoot; however, th is lackof body armour was compensated for by a lar g-e shield ( Jalw.~) whichcovered th e body from neck to shi ns, as well as a helm et.

The iden tifica tion of th is t)p e of warrio r as a heavy infantrymancomes fro m an analysis of the p ractical imp lica tions of h is armour and

weaponry. T his type of so ld ie r fo ugh t in the typ ical heavy infantrym anner, wh ose fundam ental characte ristics a re that he fi gh ts 'sho ulderto shoulder' in co m pact, m asse d fo rm ation s. Tha t these Mvcenaean'warrio rs fough t in su ch fo rmatio ns is st ro ng ly sugg este d by theireq uipmen t as well as by depictions.

Shields

One of the m ost diagnostic sig ns o f a heaw infantrym an is his shield .Th is, in bo th of its patte rns (i.e. 'figure-of-eigh t ' and 'tower ' sh ields) ,pro te cts the body fr om n ec k to foo t. Th ese sh iel ds app ea r to have beenmad e of wickerwork upo n a wooden fra m e; they we re faced with o ne orm ore layers of hide , as can be seen in sever al colo u red d epi ctions ofthem from frescoes. Th ey we re carrie d by m eans of a teiamorc. a stra pwhich passed over the left sh oulder d iagonally. Thus supported, theshiel d left both h ands fre e . Such a lar ge sh ield tell s u s sp eci fic thingsabou t its fu n ct ion . T he wa rrio r would have been very we ll p ro tectedfro m all m ann er of spear and sword thrusts. j ave lins. arrows, sling-sho ts,

•

A sel ection of socketed

spearheads from the Mycenaean

world. Three are of t he slit­

socketed ty pe, which w ere

e as ier to ...ake than the fully

deve loped so c k et ed type.

(Cou rt esy P ro fesso r

HG.Buchholz, and the BritishMuseum)

Drawing of a 's hoe-soc ket ed '

spearhead, with recesses e it he r

,; id" ur Ih" bl"d" inlo which"

s plit shaft waS fixed. This wa s

the predec essor of the socketed

s pearhead proper. (After Taylour,

1972)

9

10

The 'Sea Battle ' fntsc.o fro ....Abo ti ri on the Aegean i$landofThet"i1, 1500 BC. Th l$ ls _ of

t1... very few surviving ~pletion$

of a n actual lonnation ofM:tcenaean heavy infantry. Eacho f the to wer shie ld s i$ eo.-.edwith a different eolourfll ~

pa"emed h ide, fepnl6eflted ....

black., brown. grey a nd ye lk)w.

(Courtesy Prehistoric N ,,"umof Thera)

e re. H owever, he paid for this protection with a serious re striction of hismobility. O ne could im agine that if a warrior tried to run with such ash ield while still h oldin g h is spear with both h an ds . the fo rmer wo uldbounce around YCf}' awkwardly, banging against his ann, lower face and,particu larly, his sh ins. It is impossible [0 know whe n the lower shield wasfirst in troduced into m e Aegean: no archaeological remains of suchsh ields have been fo und (d o u b tles s d ue to the fact that they were madeo f pe rishable ma terials), b u t the earliest de pic tio ns of the m oc cur a t\ Iyce nae and are da ted to around 1600 BC.

A boss is a co mmon fea ture of a heavy infa ntrym an 's shie ld th ro ughoutth e a nc ient pe riod; it all ows th e shield to be used o ffe nsive ly. Thisfea tu re , a lo ng with the curve ofthe surface. would have made the figure­of-eigh t sh ie ld especially good fOT p rising a pa rt e nemy shield-walls a ndbreaking into a d e nsely pack ed fo rm ati on . In th is respe ct it wo u ld havebee n far supe rio r to the tower shield. The figure-of-eigh t shield is mo retechnically d eve loped than th e towe r shield, and is th erefore likely to bea somewhat la te r in novation . As far as is kn own, the earli es t p ictu res ofth ese shields date fro m around 1600-1 550 BC a t Myccn ae , hut they arefo und in the sa me conte xt as th e towe r shi el ds. The figure -o f-eigh tshield is no t flat in oroflle as some tower shields appe ar 10 be , bu t isconcave; it would the reby afTo rd a d eflective abilit y th a t wo uld greatlyincrease its stren g th . In ad d ition it had an elongated 'boss' , in th e fo rmof a raised ridge of wood or to ugh lea th er. Th is a nd the chara cteristic'waisted' sh ape, we re delibe rate e lements wh ich m us t have been deve­loped fo r p ractical reasons.

The fu nction of the wais t cu t-outs is someth ing of a m ys te ry, as therea re nu actu al d epi ctions showing th em be in g p ut to any di rect us e . If aline ofso ldiers fo rmed up in close orde r with figu re-of-eight sh ield s, th ecut-o uts wo uld fo rm a series of rough ly diamond-shaped ho les. It ispossible th a t th ese we re useful when th e heavy speann an used hisseconda ry weapon, the th rusting sword . Eac h soldier wo uld have une ofthese ho les to hi s right fron t, and could th rust a t hi s ene my th ro ugh itwhile still re ta in in g th e full -body p rotec tion of h is shield. This possib ilityis fu rt her supported by th e fa n that the xtycenaean sword in use at th istime was indeed better suited to thrusting tha n slashing.

It is also conceivable th a t the series of holes presen ted in th e shield­wall m ight have accom modated the 5pear, but th is seems unlikely fo r tworelated reaso ns. Firstly, th e depictions do not show the spea r bein g usedthis way; they show it bein g wielded wi th both hands, normally atshou ld er level and wi th the sh ield worn around th e back. Secondly. thespears used by th ese troops would have been both heavy and u nwie ldyfor the war rior to grip in hi s right hand a lon e, as he would bnve to if hewere ming it to thrust th rough the sh ie ld cu t-out; and if he held it nearits central point of balance he would both waste half of iLS length , anddisru pt th e ran ks beh ind hi m,

A questi o n re mains as to how th e figure-of-eight shi e ld wa sdistributed amo ngs t th e heavy infan try, It appears to haw been used atthe same tim e as the to we r shield, but it is u nclear whether it wasreser'ved for ~parate units. or mi xed in wi th tower shi elds to give theformation a 'biting edge ' . Perhaps perso nal p reference or wealth car-no tbe ruled out,

One of the m ost s pect acu lar

fi nds rel ating t o the Mycenaean

m ili tary is t hi s 16th c entury BC

b ronze dagg er w ith a minia ture

figh t ing scene inla id into itsb lade , It sh;>W$ both the t ower

and fJgunHIf-eight shields., t he

way they _re worn by means of

• re'amon, and l he way the spear

was wlekted, It a lso 5hows an

archei' woriJng in conjunction

with the heavy in fant ry. lGeorge

My401\llS, Mycenae and the

~Ag&, C 1966

Prine e t on U~ity Preoss;

"pri"'ed by penn~ion of

Prince t on Univer.lity Press)

Boar's-I\lsk I>e"meL Th e p+e<:es

o f I\lsk we", found in a

Mycenaean tomb and t he helmet

was reco<'lStrucled ba sed on

depictions found on plaques

and patlony. This one dates to

the 10,.... M.,.ocnoca" peri Dd ;n

the 13th c en t ury BC, l Courtesy

Nat ional Archaeological Museum,

Athens)

Spears

The early Myccnacan ~pcar cons isted of a longwooden sh aft about 12ft lo ng ....ith a so cke t c cl

spearhead m ad e of bro nze , Th e earliest style ofspearhead was of unusual fo rm and is sparselyrepresen ted : the blade had a shoe-socket cast o n

onc or both sides of it. into which the spl it end ofth e wooden shaft W,L'i inserted. Examples havebeen found at Sesklo , Lcu kas, Asinc and Mycenae,and th is style of spearhead seems to be of m ainlandon gm, H oweve r, the m ore com m on typ e ofspe arh ead , in use th rough ou t th e whole of theMvcenaean period, was a narrow leaf-shaped blade....i th a strong m id-rib and a socketed base , This wassecu red to th e shaft by a metal co llar at th e base ofth e soc ke t, as well M by holes through th e soc ketfor pins . The origin of thi s type seems to be Cretan .Several tong, heavy spea rs of th is kind were buriedin the Shah Gra..-es a t ~Iyeenae . and depictionsshow it in use by heavy in fan uv. Most of thespearheads fou nd dale to th e early :\Iycenaeanpe riod; not man y examples ha ve survived fro m th e 11

13th c:ent ury BC ivory ......y

depic:ting a warrior _ .. ring

.. bQ.ar's- tusk helmet , from

Mycenae. This was probatKy one

of many used to d ecorat e 8 c hest

or pi ec:e of fumiture. " ot e the

ch eek g uards f ound on 1.0 11'''

exa mples . (Co urtesy National

Arehaeologic a l Mu" eum , Athe" ,,)

later penod, although it continues to a ppea ron later depictio ns. The reason fo r this co uldbe th e lack of rich gr.1ves from the later period .

There were two "'ays in wh ich the socketedspea rhead could be made. They could eit herbe cas t wi th the so cket com ple te . o r more-~ i lllrly mad e with the soc-ket slit an d fla t; rh isW·.1S then curved around to form a soc ke t, , ...·it:tthe slit runn ing la terally a lon g th e socketwhere the two ends were j oined . T he le ngtaof th e spearh eads fro m tip to base or soc ketno rmally ranged betwe e n Bin an d l z!n.al tho ugh some are mor e than 16in long.

So m e early de picuous sh ow the spearbe ing" , ...-iclded a t the level of th e shoul de rswi th both hand s, while others sccm to be heldill the rig-h t h a nd on ly. H owever, the metho dof holding the spea r wi th both hands ,hnrizon tal at th e level of the shoulder, is onlyceeu when th e shi e-ld i.. sh mg around 10 thespean uau 's back. Wh en th e ....a rrior is wieldingth e spear in any ot he r way, he is sho ....-n wi6the sh id d worn in front of his body.

The boar's-tus k helmetT hi s type of warrior d id no t need to wearbody armo ur because of the full -bodypro tec tio n affo rded by the large sh ield.1I0 ....'eve r; it was no rmal fo r them 10 wear aboar's-tus k hel met. fo r the obvious reaso nth at the hea d was nut protected by the shield..-\. series of boar's tusk-s, neatly cut lengthwavs

in to oblong p lates an d pierced in th e co r- ners "'; th h oles , we re sewn onto a conical frame of leather. The d irec tio n of th e cm....e of the tusks ....-asmade to alternat e in each successive row, of wh ich there were norm allyfou r or Five. Th e crown of th e hel met was ei the r ad orned with a pl um eor te rminated in a knob : and so m e had neck and / o r chee k guards.Nearly e"('IJ' re presentation of a Mycen aeau h eavy in fant ryman wea rs aboar's-rusk hel met. Th ese h elm e ts - a purely Aegean co nt ribut ion to th ehistorv of armour - would not on ly have lo ok ed impressive b ut wouldalso have be en ' ·ef}' pro tec tive.

12

A~ image of a bQ.ar's-tusk helmel

e ngra ved on to a Cretin doubl..

81e. (Co urtesy Professor Or

H·G.B uchholz)

T his type of helme t is fu lly described by Homer, alth ough it had goneOUT of use long be fo re his day an d did not survive the Myceneeanpe riod. It may have originated in Crete, but it is impossible to know forsure d ue to a lack of reliably dated finds. One bronze do uble axe head,said to come from Knossos, has a bo ar 's-rusk h elme t en graved on bothsides. Thi s axe is dated to be twee n 1700 and 1450 BC; if it doe s indeeddate back to 1700, the n it is the oldest known depiction of such ahelmet, and sllg~ests that th ey d.d origi nate o n Cre te . Whatever th ecase, the main land adopted it not long after this; an actual example wasfou nd at Mvce n ae , d ated 10 soon a fter l !l!')O RC T hen" arc manydepic tions of the boar 's-tusk helmet in Mycenaean ar t: it is wo rn by....-a rri ors depic ted on rings and e ngravi ngs . it is a pop ular mo tif in i~'0'1'

inlay work, and it is figured on th e 'Siege Rhyton ' cup fragmen ts. Thistyp e of hel met's mos t popular period appears to have been c_1550-15ooBC, and n umerous fragm ents of :h e cm and pierced tusks have beenfou nd in tombs all over Greece.

AnOll'l e r example of an ivory i nl ay

portraying a boor's_t usk helmet,

In th i ~ ca sa Irorn Mycenaea n

Cre t e , 14th-13th centur ie s BC.

This Is of re liiltive ly sim ple

c onst N ct lon, having only t h ree

rows 0 1 s liced tu sk .... wi1:to a

knob at t t,e top and no cheeIt

g....rd.. (Courtesy National

Art::haeologieal Museum, Athensl

13

Sele ct ion of Late Minoan andMycena ean helmet ty pes taken

from depictions and ...."'ivin;

examples. Fol lowing th ..

discovery of a sui t olbro nn

armour at Dendra, 'helmet B ' h",sactually b .....n identi f ied as ashouldK piece from such a s uIL••Due to the ab&trMot ns t " re of

de pictions such as 'F' and 'H',details o l l .... ir construc!lon

:re un known . (Alter Ventrls

&. Chadwick)

...~.vA B c D

Tactical imp licationsMvcenaean warriors armed with a long: spear, a tower o r figure-of­eight shield and a helmet fulfilled the typica l tactical role of heawinfan trymen. Thei r '\'eapo ns and armour tell us thi s: due to hisrelative lack of manoeuvrabili ty th is rypc of infan trym an needed

HGFE

Oth er helmets

Besides the boar's-rusk helmet, several othe r typ es are known . A conicalhel met of shee t bronze with cheek pieces ....-as found in o ne of theKnosstan warrior tombs; it is p ierced w'ith holes for aua cbing a fe lt orlea ther lin ing. Dated 10 about 1450 BC, it the refore probably belo ngs tothe period of Mycena can control mer the region . Other finds of parts

of th is typ e of h elmct have bee n mad e o n Rhod es and Cyprus.Two other 1)pes of helmet can he seen o n a go ld rin g and a

seal fro m Crave Circle A at Mycenae, 1>O[h dated to the 16thcentury BC. The heavy infantrym an on th e seal wears an odd typeo f helmet composed of wh at look like two th ick ' ro lls'su rmoun ted by a composite kn ob and a horn, Th e helmet wornby a swordsman on the gold rin g- is of a simple de sign, possiblymade of bronze or thic k lea the r and surmounted by what loo kslike a tufted cockade or po mpon. Another fonn of h elmet issh own on a Crero-Mycena ean vase fro m a tomb at Isopata , ne arKnossos . It has six concentric bands wh ich some interpret as str ipsof leather, and others as th ick padding- Sl 'W Il together at in terva ls.A similar helmet, whose sections h ave a more pronounced bulge,is sho....-n on the fragm ents of a faien ce relief from Mycenae.

Con ical bfonz. hMmfll with

cheek guards, lound in awarrior's t omb on Cret e andreconslrucled from more I....n

a hundred l ra gments. One 01the rare surviving .....ples of

My<:enaean helmets other than

the boar's-tusk type , it datesto 1450-142 5 BC. (Cau"es)'

Pl'OfesSGr Dr H·G .Buchhalzl

14

~. /'

~~,.

!if\ ".

I' j" ' IIIi 19 c:...;. ,-,;() (I ,, ,

IHi 'I'~ t, H 'Ill

I :' . \ I 11:. ofif ' ,.~ \ I

V V15

&rty Mi_ and Mya!naean

sw ords d ating f ...... between

e .1900 a 'ld c . '400 BC. Theshorter eQmpl e, third from right,

w as acl .... lly found In Tul1<.ey towh.... it had been traded. Therema'nGeI' were (I,sc overed in

Greeee and Crete. (Courtesy

Profe-s$Or Or H-G.8uchholz)

Minoan and M,cenaean daggen;,

and sw ord !secon d from le ft).

Th e left· ha nd dagger is from

Cret .. and Is very ea rly, datin q t c0. 2150-1900 BC, lon g bef or e t heappearance of the Myce"aea"civ ilization. The two at righ t datet o the later Mycen aean period,

c. 1300-12oo BC. (Courtesy

Professor Or H-G.Buchholz)

,

~, ~1

1"' I', .

! \':, I' ,, "

I;

1\; Ii ', I

'I ' I p \

IIWII! :~!11 ';:"III

11,I

; ~,

•i.1,I

[1

Swords

Seco nd only in Importance to the long, heavy spear in th e Mycenaeanar m oury was th e swo rd 0 1' pakrm a, of whi ch abu ndan texamples have been recove red fro m th e Shaft Gra ves - inwhich eve ry wa rrior was apparen tly equipped with ma ny m oreth an he would have needed duri ng h is life time. All shownotice abl y fine workmansh ip , whe ther plain, p rac tica lexamples o r richl y decora ted pieces . The earlies t swords (Typ eA) h ave rou nded shoul ders, shor t tan gs and pronounce d m id­ribs: the fo rebea rs of this type are cer tain ly Minoan. Alongs id ethese thrus tin g sword s (whi ch h ave bee n confu singlydescribed as ' ra piers') in the Shaft Graves was fo und anothe rkin d (Type B); these are less wel l represen ted than th e former,an d only o ne example \\'3.5 found in th e earlier Crave Circle B.Sword Type B has square or point ed sho ulders. a lon ger tangan d a sh orter blade . It may have deve lo ped from the flanged

to be organized in a drilled , close-order fonnation in order tobe effective. A warrior accoutred in this way and fightin g on hismm would fall ea'}' prey to lighter. m ore m obile infantry" andchario ts. Standing alo ne , his movement is clumsy and slowbecause he is hampered hy his large sh ield and h is long spear;it is easy for a light swo rdsman , for example, to parry his spea rpoin t with o ne blow fro m seve ra l fee t a"'ay and then close wi thhim to stab a ro ur.d th e clu msy sh ield before he CMl d ra w h isown sword to defend himself.

To use so me much la te r ana logies tha t d em o n stra te sim ilarpractical limitations: in the Napoleonic period, when thelan ce m ade a re surgence of popularit y among light cavalry; itwas well known that if a caval rym an armed on ly wi th a sab recould ~ct pa~t the lance poi n t. the lancer \\&> done fu l.Agincoun (I-U.:'» p rovides an even more sim ilar paralle l.when the lightly armed , largely unannoured En g-lish archersclosed with vc rJ heavily armoured di smounted Fre n chl.n ig-h ts. and exploited th eir far greater agility to kill them inlarge numbers with suc h \,;ea pons ,IS dagge rs and hatchets.

On the other hand , if a heavily equipped wa rrior is placedsho ulder-to-sho ulder with seve ra l hundred like-a rmedcom ra des a vel)· differen t picture emerges. The large rectangular andfigure-of-eight shields held next to each other or even ove rlappingwould prese nt an a rmoured wall cove ring th e whole ba ttle line fro mneck to an kle . Th is would not on ly rende r the fro nt ra nks a lmo stinvu lne ra ble to missiles, but would pre'i·ent many missi les from pas sin ginto rhe lea! ranks, which Mlld lll: J shiekb, could I IO L tlo w effective ly,1he size of th e sh iel ds may th us suggest a co ns iderable missile exchangebefore co ntac t.

In suc h a m assed fo rmation. severa l ranks dee p, the c.12ft spear is farh o rn be ing im p racticall y long, but is a per fec t weapon either fo rlevelling agains t an opposing" line of infantry', or fo r defence agains tchario ts. In addition , the ligh t tr oops who would have p roved so dead lyto an iso la ted heal')' infan trym an in th e open would themseh-es bevulne rabl e if they a ttempted contact wi th such a fo rm ation .

16

Fou r exc.avated sword s spa nning

the Mycenaea n pe riod. The lefthand example Is the earty long

thru sting sw ord . The non t two

date to betw" en e.1400 and

c.1200. The sho rt sw ord at

bottom is of t he w lde·bladed,u nf ulle red , s las hing type which

was intro duced in the later

period. (Cou rtesy Nat ion ..l

Arehaeol og ical Mu seum , Athens,and Mu seum of Th ebes)

d agger, o f whi ch the re we re seve ral exam ple s inthe e arlie r Grave Circ le , b u t it can also trace i tsorigin _~ 10 the Ne a r East. A variant o f Type B is thehorne d thrusti ng sword , the po inted should e rsbe ing e x te nd ed to fo r m two h o rns. T hecn lcifo rm --sho u ld e red ra pier also SlTIllS to hede rived from Typ e A.

From the beginning of tbe I-lth cen tury BC a

new ~pe o f "wo rd seems to hale been favoured ,perha ps d ue 10 broade n ing con tac ts with the NearEa.st. The o ld th rusting s.....ord continued in m ed uring th e l-tt h ce n tury BC. b u t was Ix ingreplaced by a two-edged slashing swo rd . This newweapon h as squa re ..ho u ld e rs , and these, as well asthe hi lt . arc fla nged.. T he b lad e is b ro ad, with awidening towards the tip , and has no mid-rib . Theea rlies t examples m ost probably d a te 10 th e secondhalf of the l -tth century' BC. T h e a ppeara nce o fthese slashing: swo rd .. i.. evidence fo r a change -hatMyce naean heavy infantry underwent d mi ng rtlt'"later period, when warriors became ligh te r andmo re m o bile. su~csl1ng th a t they fough t in moreopen fo rmauons than pT<....-irnc..ly,

Mycenaean infa ntry carried the ir swo rds in ascab bard , sometimes tar...scllcd. wo rn a t the left waistslung from a sho ulder belt. This sword served as aseco ndary weapon for the ea rly heavy mranuvman;

it wo uld have beer; usefu l e ither if the spe-od r broke. o r afte r the in itial pushof spc<lr had inevitably d evelo ped in to a close-quarte r me lee .

Changes from c .1300 BCIn the la ter Myccnaea n pe riod the large body sh ields a nd long sp ea rsfell o u t of use . The late r Mvr e-nae an _~ I lt'a r lll' f'":lrll' m u e- h ~h nrt " r, :<1 1around 5--6ft , still tip p ed wi th a soc ke ted spearhead . T h is allowe d it tohe wield ed with on c hand , fre e ing the oth er fo r gripping th e shield .So me in fa n try at least (tho ugh p robab ly not at ) we re addi tio nallyarm ed with a sword , carried a s before ill a leathe r scabbard worn from asho u ld e r belt. The la ter swo rds were , as described. design ed m ore forslash ing than thrusting , being shorte r and wid e r than those o f the earlyperiod, an d ....'nh no mid-r ib.

Two new patterns of shield were intro d uced : the ro un d sh ield orospis. and th e 'inverted pelta' . A~ with the earlier types, n o rem ain s ofthese wickerwo rk and hide sh iel ds have su rvive d . Inst ead o f being -ul l­bod y d e fe nces 'wo rn ' by m eans of the telaman, tbe late r sh ield s wereca rried o n the le ft arm. a develo p me n t wh ich was carried th rough to thelan-r hoplilf> period Examples of :n)()p~ c anying the ro und shi eld canbe fo u nd in fresco es from Mycc nae , T lryns a nd Pvlo s. It was largeenough to co ver ta e to rso o f the wa rrior. hut a lso manoe uvra ble e noug hto use in the indivi d ual co mbats tha t a p pear to ha ve become mo reco m mo n in the late r period. The ce n tre o f the shi e ld . being- raised ,wo uld also have ser-ved as a boss, a nd its cu rva ture wo uld have h elpe d todeflect cnemv bl ows .

I

;\

F...."'o;o fT"gment depio;ting

" later period warrior with a

round Shie ld. Since the exact

positlon and lan gth of hi s

w all pon een o nly be guessed

at. it i$ difficu lt to know

whether h<! Is a javelinman

or a spearman , alt hough the

presence et a shie ld makes

the la"_ mora likely. ICour1esy

Department of Classics.,

University of Cincinnali)

The 'inverted pt'lIa' pauem was almost round b ut had a cu rved cut­ou t in its lower edge. wnen ca rrie d in front of the bo dy it wo u ld protectth e warrior 's to rso, b u t the cu t-ou t wo ul d allow him to run without thelower rim of the shield ban ging into h is upper legs .

With these smalle r shields came a need for body armour for theheavy in fan try. and co rselets were in troduced fo r Mvcenaean warriorsfrom c. 1200 BC. Th ere are some excellent de p ictions of tm opsacco u tred in this way o n rb e ~o-r;l llprl '\ V;.J n in T Vas p' an d 'w a rri o r Src lc 'from Myccn ac. These co rse lets appear to have be en mad e of lea th erwi th coppe r or bronze sca les sewn on . T he depicted ...earners also wearlea ther skirts tha t reach to mid-thigh, which could also be reinforcedwi th bronze scales. A.hhough (he -nost notable depictions of this dresscome from Mycenae. severa l o the r sires sh ow rroops sim ilarly equipped.sugges ting that its use was wide spread . 17

The later period also MW the introductio n of grt'a" I '~ for infan try,metal greaves co ming into vogue appa ren tly quite suddenly in around1200 BC. The ad option of meta l grean.' s was p robably linked to the fanthat throughout most of the Mvcenaean period me n protec ted th eir legswith lea ther ' spats' whe n at work in the fields . Th e- bro nze greavescan not ha ve been very effective sinc e th ey were relatively thin, o neextant pair being only 2mm thick; modern experimen ts have sh own thateve n a thickness o f 3mm can be CUI thro ug-h entire ly with a slashingsword . Afte r the middle o f the 12th ce ntury BC preaves d isappe ar fromth e archaeological record, so it seems tha t th eir use in the early part ofthat century' was a short-lived expe rimen t.

The chara cte ristica lly Mycenaean boar's- tusk he lmet rema inedpo pular in th e la ter period , bu t new pauerns were also introduced .These arc kn o....n as the ' horne-d h f'lmet' an d the 'h edgeho!( helmet ',bo th terms being d erived from the helmeu' depicted appearance . As wehave no su rviving examples of these helmets th e details of theirco nstruction are unclear. Il is likely, howev-er, that the)' were formedfrom hard lea ther. Bo th the ' horn ed ' and the ' hed gehog' helmet arewo ru by the o therwise id entically dressed warriors portrayed on the so-

18 called "Varrior Vase ' fro m .vrycenac, which is dated to about 1200 BC.

'Tho> Wa rrior Vauo': _ o f th..

most detailed depictions of Late

M yeenaean soldiery, this va se

sho ws two units of spe armen....ad ing out o n cam paign . Too

warriors on the side s ho w n

here Wear 'horned helmets',

and on t he reverse Is a

..lm ildrl~ eq uipped Une of

w arrio.... wearing 'hedge hog

hAlrnels ' . (Cour1esy National

Ar<:haeological M useum , AthlH1sl

One of a pai r of bro....e grea..­

found in a tomb in~. It

has noles aro und t ne edges

through whtc:h bronze w ires

were threaded fM attac:hment.tt d ales t o the e nd of the

"'ye enae.an period. d"ring t l>e12th century BC. lCooartn'l'Frofes SOl' Dr H..Q.B ud'lhotzl

The 'ho rn e d ' he lmet has p roj ections at front an d rear wh ich comedown to protect th e b ro w an d the nape of the neck , and ano the r isdrawn d own to protect th e temple. There is also a c u rio us p roj ection o nto p of the helme t, sim ila r in p ro file to a n axc hcad , 10 wh ich a flowingplume is affixed . The helmet ta kes its name fro m the fac t that two th in ,curved horns are sho wn a ttac hed :0 the fro nt. \\ne ther o r not the'h edge hog ' helm et was actuall y covered with the spincd skin of thean ima l is im possib le to know, but there is no rea l reaso n to dismiss theid ea . The d epictio ns o f it on the Wa rri or Vase show it as being of simpleconical shape and con-red with sh ort sp ikes.

It is o n ly from the la ter period th a t evidence is fo und fo r the~Iyccnaean warrior using footwear. TIle so ld iers de p ic ted on the,rarrior Vase have cross-hatching on the ir fee t. suggesting that they alewearing san dals. Thi s is supported by the discovery at Mallia o t a mode!of a sandalled fool.

SKIRMISHERS & LIGHT INFANTRYThere are abou t as man}' depictions of ligh tertypes of infa nt ry from the early pe riod as thereare of heaw in fantry n l is ~lIgg...s t~ tha t ligh tin fan try played a sig n ifica n t rol e in :\Iycenaeanwa r fa re . In al l exce pt o ne early example wherelight Iroops a ppear, he avy in fantrym e n are alsoassocia ted with the sce ne , suggesting tha t the twotroo p types we re mutually sup portin g onea no ther in a tactical con text.

T he lig h test warriors of whic h we kn ow appearon the 'Siege Rh yton ' fro m Grave Ci rcle A at:\Iycenae , whic h da tes from the sec o nd half of the16th ce ntu ry BC. These warriors are interpre ted asbeing the ligh test troo p type ava ilable 10 theMvcenaeans because the)' arc actually n ake d . Th eyh ave n o defensive armo ur an d no he address, andca rry nothing but thei r weapons. Two weapo ns arcShO\\11, the slin g- an d the bow; since bo th arcmissile weapoll s a n d the warriors ca rry rosidcarms or C\UI d ubs . this stro ngly suggesls thatthis l)p c o f fi~htin~ 1I11' ll wen: not intended '.0

e n ter in to hand-TO-hand com bat >- th at they we re ,in fa ct, skirmishers.

They are de p icted ti~htin g- in a loose formationcharacteristic of skirmish infan try, An archer canbe seen be twee n a pair o f slin ge rs. and two m o rebehind them. suggesting th at th ese troops we renol divi ded into separate un its based o n theirarmament b ut tha t all-purpose skirmishe rs we regr ouped toge the r. The fact th a t they a re fighting ina loose formation is re in fo rce-d by th e inclus io n inthe sce ne of two heavy in fa n trym e n. with towersh ields and lo ng spea rs, sta nd ing in what cannot beinterp reted as a nyt hi ng o the r than a 'shou lde r-to­sho ulde r' formatio n. Wh e re th ese heavyspea rmen 19

Th ese simp le g rea ves fou nd at

Dendra date to the early 14th

century BC, w hich makes them

late r t han the suit of annourroun d ..I Lh......"'.. " it.... T h e y ... e

cons t ruc ted of very thin bro nze

pl ate. (After Astroml

'Th e Siege Rhyton' - a drawingof the surviving fragments of

the cup. On the fe'latiYeIy 'a rge

fragm ent (right) can be seenn..aked bowmen and sli ngers

skl nnlshlng , as w el l as a ' unit'of two infant rymen w ith tow er

shields.. Fro m the c ity wa ll s

people appe.... to be throwing

missiles lit the enemy. (After

S.Chapmlln)

"land in relation to the swarm o r skirmiahc ra i, alsosigntncane they a re d rawn up be hind th e m . This fits wi thth e nonna l tactical role of skirmishers, which is to roverthe fron t of th e main battle line a nd harass the o ppoSingbattle line with mi ssiles, in orde r to break up or d isorde rt he o pposin g fo rmation p rio r to contact with the'friendlv' h eavy infantry, This tacti c was rc utine in lateran cient warfare , bu t th is dep iction sh ows that it wasalso known and employed in the Aegea n as early as the16th ce n tury BC.

There is a lso a figu re of wha t is p roba bly askirm isher 0 11 an inl aid d agge r from Mycenae. Hewea rs th e rypic alloinc lo th o r sho rt kilt a lso worn by hisheavily a rm ed com ra des. H i.. o lll} \\capu lI ls a sho rtb ow, \ "Cl)' simi la r to those carried by the skirmishe rs o nthe Sie g-e Rhyto n. a nd hi s pose is also H'ry sim ila r to

th os e wa r rio r s, As in the Sie ge Rhvto n sce n e , ' fr ie n dly' heavyinfan trym e n a re associa ted with t he a rch er, In th e inlaid d agger scen ethe a rc h er is the th ird fig-u re ba ck from the ' enemy' (who is depictedas a lio n ) , The warrio r s in front o f h im are heavy infa n trym en , of....tho rn the re is a no th e r beh ind the arch e r. The a rch e r is the reforesupporting th e he avy infa n try, as on th e Siege Rhvton . The fac t th atthi s Figure wears tile sa me clo th ing as th e hea vy infan try might sugJ;"estthat he is m ore of a ' regu la r' than th e na ked ski rmi sh ers of th eSiege Rhytc n .

ArchersFrom the Myce naean period three main typ es of bow a re known: asim ple wooden 'self' bow made of a single stave ofwood: a sinew-backedbo w, Le , reinforced with sinew glued to the back :0 prf'\ 'ent brea kagean d to increase th e bow's cast: and a co mposite bow, ....-hich combineslayers of horn, woo d a nd sinew to create a wea pon wi th a ba lance of

20

strength under ten sile and compressivc forces which provid es a hi~hly

etncrent transfer of the e ne rgy stored in m e fully drawn bow.T he wooden self how is th e simplest and oldes t fo rm . Since the

earliest direct evide nce for woode n bows and arrow shahs dates to thelate Uppe r Palaeol ithic pe riod (before c. 1O,550 BC) in Europe, andpossibly to th e Cppt~ r Palacolithic an d Natufian pe riods (c. l 0,550-8,0':,0BC) in the Levant , we can he sure tha t they were also th e first type usedin II H" A pgf' ;l1l , a nrl probabl y r-ame in to II S~ rh e-re <'1 1about the same t.me .

T he short wooden how is difficult to shoo t well, since sma ll variatio nsin draw length lead to a great variation in arrow flight and velocity. Awooden longbow, measuring 6ft or more, sh oots bette r an d mo re evenly,but because o f its len gth im poses a relative lack of manoeuvrability onthe archer. It is therefore llO accide n t that the appearance of a mo reaccu rate, re liable and manoeuvrable t}VC- the composite bow - can heclearly do cumented soon after the in trod uction of equid-d rawn carts inMesop otamian warfare ill the mid 3rd millennium BC, an d followingthe appearan cc of h orse-drawn chario ts in Egyp t an d the Levant athousand years later. It is worth noting here that the single depiction wchave in Myccnacan an of an archer/ chario t co mbination is dated to thisvel)' per iod (i.c. 16th century BC) , an d comes from an elite grave atMycc nac. T h is may tell us two th ings.

Firs tly, assumi ng that the Mycenaeans actua lly use d this combination ,even if only fo r hu n ting. it shows that they were familiar with th c latesttech nologi cal inuovatiu ns wh ich we re occurring in the contemporarycultures of Egyp t and th e Levan t. Although the hfycenaean depictio nshows th e bow-armed chariot in a stag hu nt, at thi s time it was alreadybeing used m mant' in warfare by the Egyptians and I Ivksos.

Thl$ t 6th eentury BC g oldslg nel ......, bea n the only

known depict ion 01 a Mycenaean

bow-anned chariote-er. This isa hunting seene , however, and

a $ $ u<:h should not be regarded

as evidence that this combination. lIS used iro My cen aea n

. lI rlare. (Courtesy NationalAre haeol09l cal Mu seum, Athens)

21

~mple" of early Myeenaean

nint and obsidian arn:>whead".of tangO!'d and recessed fonns,

'rom various " ites i" Myo;anaea"Greece, a nd dating from between2150 and 1500 BC. Sucharrowheads continued to be

used by even wealtl1y ""itfriors....t.en b ronze had come into

common use. Note th e va ry

skilled ""orkmanshlp and I!lrtis tic

fo nns of many in t he lowerrows. (Courtesy Profe8llor Or

H-G.Buchholzl

J\' ~ .!~ 1

'" '" J U -"7 J U Jio" "- m

• A Am m m ,.. '" JY ~ .l9 ~ m ' x

'"

22

Secondly, sin ce the bow-armed chariot wa s historically cor uem­po raneo us with the com posite bow, for reasons noted above. it suggeststha r the Mycenacan cha rio t bowman W<l S arm ed wi th a composite bow.(This also sho ws how quick they were to ad opt the latest ,·..eapons.)The co mposite bow, when fully d rawn, takes a sem i-circular curvethro ughou t its length. .Allowing for th e simp licity of this d epict ion, theh ow <:.h n ",'" on i t is only h alf drawn, b ut looks as if it .....ould beco m e se m i­

circular when fully d rawn . funher in creasing th e likelih ood th at it issupposed to be a composite bow. Th e large grip vi sible on thi s depictioni s also a feature characteristic of composite bows and not found on plainwoode n stave bows.

The Siege Rhyton from Mycenae also shows bowmen. It is moredifficult to suggest the type of how these warriors are using, du e to the vcry

san p ltsuc uea uneut. TI U:: <-!C<l.ICM uuc b IUllg e n o ug;l to 1:0<" a sln gle-etavelongbow. The fact that the bowmen are naked and in loose format ionsllggesL~ tha t they are poor irregular troo ps who would presumably annthemselves with the chcapcst rcpc of weapon, the self bow.

The archer portrayed on an inlaid dagge r from the same grave as theabove two artefacts is rela tively detai led an d less abstracted tha n th eother d ep icti ons, but determinin g the type o f bow shown i..still difficult.What is immediately noticeable is that it is quite small, which in itself isan ind ication th at it is supposed to be a co mposite bow. The curve of the00....·, a lthough only half dra....'n. a lso loo ks like th at of a co mposite bow,making this the mos t likely type . T his suggests that th e mo re ' regular'skirmishcr bowm en such as th is one migh t haw been better arm ed withcompo site bows than th eir poorer. irregu lar com rades; it is even possiblethat these bows were issued by th e palace milita ry organ ization .

Turning to the arro ws the mselves. the re is ample evide nce in theform of substan tial finds of arrowheads in several Myccna can s.tes.Alth ough bronze arrowheads became wid espread with the developmen tof bro n ze-working tech n ology. Flint an d obsidian arrowheads ­presumably relatively cheap er and more ex pendable - contin ued to beused alongside bronze down to abo ut 1400 BC.

Unfortunately, arrowheads canno t be used to form a chronologicalt:.p olot,')' on the basis of their fo rms. in the way that po tte ry. fo r example,ofte ll can . Historical and ethnographic evidence has shown that it wasusua l for mili tary archers to ca rry several d ifferent types of arrows intheir quivers at once, so that they cou ld use heavy OiITOWS at short rangeto pierce arm our; or lighter arrows to ha rass an ene my at lon g ran ge .

Developmerot of Aegearo

arrowheads, diagram of types ,

EH/EM =2500-2150 BCMH/MM = ' 1~_1 f'i,f'i,n RC

LHlLM I . 1 55~1500 seLH /LM 11 .. 1500-1400 BC

LHlLM III A= 1400-1 300 BC

lHILM III B " 1300-1 200 BC

LHILM III C " . 200-11 00 BC

(Courtesy Professor Dr

H-G,B uehhelz)

Pre-PotteryNeo lithic

CeramicNeolithic

EH/EM

MH/MM

lH/lMI,

lH/lM IT

lH/lM illA

lH/LM ill B

lH/lM ill C

Types:

I

,,

~~~~ ~~ !j~~ 4

1 I j I23

.-

I

2.

Tan ged projecti le po int s. Th ese

were simply cut from bronze

plate, <In<! thus would h OllY,", been

economical to produc e In largen umber.>. The two~st po;nb

may be l ig ht javel in !le ads.(C The Tr\.<sl ees of the British

Museuml

Becau se flint co n tinued to be used for arrowhea ds even when th e me ofbron ze was wides pread . it is also unconvincin g to create a ch ronology onthe basis of what arrows we re made of. The only remaining means o fdetermin ing the relative age o f a -rowhead s is thro ug h strarigraphicdating {i.c. the sol level in wh ich the artefac t wa s fo und }, and suc hreco rd s are often in comp le te . Attemp ts to distin guish betwe enarrowheads and poi n ts assu med to be j avelin head s found in th e sameassemblage. solely 0 11 the bas is of arbitrary' size and weigh t limits, mustalso be avoided in the absence of supportin g evidence.

whethe r made from bron ze or stone , there are thre e basic methodsby which Aegean arrowheads were fixed to th e shafts: by mean s o f atang, a recesse d base or a socket Natu rally, sockcred arrowheads areonlv made from metal, since the sockcting of he ads \\'<\5 made possibleby adva nces in meta l cas ting techniques. Tanged and recessed-basedarrowhea ds are found in both bro nze and stone examp les. T hese typesof ar rowheads seem to have been sign ificantly mo re nume ro us than thesocken- d v :.I n p'}" pe rh aps fo r eco nom ic re ason s, U nlike sockct edarrowheads, which had to be cast in special moulds, ranged or recessed­ba se arro wheads were simply cu t o ut of bron ze pla te.

One o f the earliest types o f arrowh ead ....'as also the lo ngest-used .T hese were made from bron ze pla te . tria ngular, ....i th a v-shapedrecessed base which formed barbs when at tach ed to the shaft This typewas use d from c.2~OO BC right down to th e end of the Mycenacan

The 'o altlft ,n thft Gl ftn' nng t ro m

Mycenae, 16th century BC, Thi sis an interesting composit ion,

show ing two swordsme n In

comba t wh ile .. spe arm an

remains on thfl d flt fln Sn.. behindh is to_ shie ld . Note th<!'

promin en ce g iven to tile centralsw ord sman figu re. This sc ene

may relate to a long-lost myth

or evenL (Courtesy National

Archaeological Museum, Athen s)

period. It is perhaps no coincidence that this was one of the old est andlo nges t-serving bronze l}pes, since it .....ould have been th e eas iest toproduce in large numbers, and th us the most suitable for large scaleissue to soldie rs.

It migh t he logi cal to su ppose tha t the cas t bro nze a rr owheads whichcame into use fmm about 1500 BC onwards wou ld haec been employedma-nly by the upper classes of warriors. In fact , however, mos t of the flintan d obsidian arrowheads known to us .....ere fo und in the \'el")' rich buri a sof elite warriors. Sto ne a rr owheads fell ou t of use afte r about 1100 BC.

Light infantry swordsmenIn addition to skirmishers, th ere is also picto ria l evidenc e tha t thevlyccnacans em ployed a form otbaule fie ld ligh t in fantry, To define ourterms, light infan try are a type of troo ps tha t fit so me.....he re be tweenheavy infan try and skirmishers in te rms o f a balanc e be tween mobilire,p ro tection an d offe nsive val ue. Thev are genera lly capa ble of fightinge ithe r in massed units or as skirmishers. Light in fantry were useful toancien t armies for several reasons. Th eir flexibi lity of employme ntmean t th at they could fill th e tactical gap be tween (in th is case ) themassed heavy infantry and the ve lY Lght sktrm tshe rs.

Because ligh t infantry ar e sometimes required to figh t in massedformations , they n eed to be more capable of snstam tng hand-to-handco mbat th an skirmishers, who are supposed to evade close combat. Thish and-to-hand ca pab ility, coupl ed with th eir ability to operat e in lo oseformations, made light infantry per fec t for fi~h tin~ over broken ormou ntainous te rrain, and one can easily understand why the Greekswou ld have fou nd such troops useful, given the landscape of the region.H e il\Y in fan t '}' a rt" u n euued TO fig h t in g f)w'r h rn k" n , oW'ry,rnw n or Sl eep

ground because of the d ifficulty of manoeuvr in g in close o rderformatio n in such te rrain , and because of th e non-linea r na ture ofcomba t im posed 1»" such an envi ron men t. Very lig:ll skirmishe rs a resufficie ntly manoeuvrable to d eploy in suc h cond itions with ease , bUIbecause of their lack of mHce weapons and armour are unsuitable if itis desired to d ose with th e enem y. 25

ABOVE Thi s fine ivory milTOr

handle tmm Cyprus is interesting

bec:ausll it portrays

a eem men My cenaean motif,

th" t ot a sword sm an slaying11 li on . Dating to around the

13th century BC, this depiction

Show" thal t he appea rance orMyc:en aun swordsmen d id

not a lt e r mu ch throu gh out the

peri od . lCourtesy Dir e<:tor

of Departmen t of Antiquit ie s,Cyp rus)

ABOVE LEFT Later Mycenaeandagg_s, da lo d 10 between 1400

and 1100 BC. La ter weapons

s l>Ch as t ne- am c haracteriz ed

by their one-piece conslnJct>onand wide b lades. 1l'Iey would

originallt have had inlaid grips

of wood or bone. (Courtesy

Professor H-G.Buchhol z)

The earliest pic tori al evide nce for Mycenaean use of lig-ht infantrycomes fro m the 16th century BC Shah Graves at Mycenae . T his is in theform of a cylind er seal and a ring, of which both seem to show a similartype of ligh t in fantry swordsman. Tu rn ing first to the cylinder seal, (hescene depicts a warrio r weari ng the cbarar- te- risric kilr an rl armed with along, straigh t sword , stabbin g a heavy in fantrym an in th e th roat over thetop rim of the la tter's figu re-of-eight sh ield. Thi s scene vividly depictsthe reaso n th at light infantry cou ld be useful against heaw infa nt ry:th e swordsman has managed to g<-'t past the heavy infantryman 's spearpoint, leavi ng the latter at the mercy o f h is more agi le opponent.

26 This swo rdsman is obviously ' lighter ' than his adversary; because he does

not carry a shield. He cannot be a skir-mixbe-r, be cause h e does nothave a missile weapon and is enga ged in d ose combat with a heavyinfan tryman . Th e fact th at a l.gtu infan tryman was given suchprom inence in ar t as to be sh own slaying a h eavy sp carman suggests tha tligh t infantry were respe cted in Mycenacan warfare; on th is seal theligh t s....'ord sman is clearly the ' hero ' of the scene. Historically, moreoften than not, the ligh ter the troop type , the poorer an d less respe ctedti ll::,. were; and apan from their lowly social stat us, skirrnishc rs who didnot close with the enemy were sometimes regarded as using cowardly or'dir ty' tactics - that was how Classical Greek hoplitcs saw light troops.

Ttte fresco "_....nt lrom~ean I(nossos., 1450-1 400

BC, named 'The Captllln of the

Bl acks ' a cent ury ago. This

shOws what appear.;.; to be a

Gntek javelinman le ading a unitot African mercena.ws; the main

figure 's skin colour ... brown,. t hat

0' t l>e o thet' logoure, black . The

yellow/orange 'k il t ' ha S a blac k

and white bord er. {Court esy

Ashmolean Museum '

27

28

F~ from ~os. 13th centuryBc.,d ep icting a skinnish

~Myeena~ tight

Infamry and ·ba~'.

Th is shows the Pyli;on 1igh1

infantrymen in very unifonnd~S. The s lTaps acroaa theirchests ani for the sword

scabbard , and note dult one

carries a spear. The 'k il U, ' ha ve

a black over1ay, p roba bly ofleather. See Plate F. (Courtasy

Department of Class ics,

Un"'er slty of Cincinn;otl)

Th e evidence from th e Mvcenaean world , however, con tradict... thisattitude; it even see ms tha t ligh t swo rd smen actually enjoyed higherstatus than the speannen of th e line , being regarded as 'ch amp ions '(promarhm). In Mycenaean depictions light infantrv are portrayed withrespect fo r th eir bravery, an d given a prominence that $uggesb that theywere an integral pa rt of the army as a whole.

An other and simila r depiction of this type of light infantrym an canbe seen on the so-called 'Battle in the Glen ' rin g. Like the previousexample, it comes fro m a Shaft Grave at Mycenae an d is dated to thesecond half of th e l fith century BC. Here too a swordsman is depictedin a heroic lig ht. Th e scene sh ows, on the left, a fa llen man - no weaponor anTumr i~ visible , bu t he is p robably a warrior. A central fig ure i'larmed wi th what ap pears to be a sho rt sword or lo ng dagger, and wearsa kilt and a bo ar's-tusk hel met. This warri or is about to stab anothe rswordsma n , who i> kneeling and trying to sta b hi!> atta cker wit h a longstra igh t swo rd; thi , man also wea rs a helmet, though it does n ot appearto be of th e boar 's-tusk t}pe. At far righ t is a heavy infan trym an wi th atower sh ield, long spear and boar's-tusk helmet. adopting a defe nsive

postu re. This S(."(.'II{' is Int eresting in that it sh ows ( WO ligh t infantrymenin combat against on e an o ther with the heavy infantryman m ore o r lesson the sidelines.

Due to th e specific subj ec t ma tte r of th is scene , it p robably de p icts along-lost sto ry o r myth ; howeve r, it is still a \'er;- use ful d e pictio n of\ l ycenaean light in fantry. It shows tha t they could wear hel mets, and ifso-ne rea lly di d wear the boar's-rusk type it re info rces th e idea tha t th esetroops had a relatively high status. Tha t they wear helmets bu t d o notcarry sh ields is in kee pin g with the needs of the light in fantrym an tohave so me protection while needing ( 0 remain lightly equ ipped andmobil e . T he presence o f a he avy in fantrym an in th e scene fu rthersup ports the like lihood th a t ligh t in fa n try worked in support of and inconj unction with heavy in fan try, It a lso shows tha t ligh t In fan-rvsometimes confron ted each other, wh ich is understan dable if both ...idesMere us ing the same tactical doctr ine .

T he weapons shown in the hands of these war rio rs a re alsocharacterist ica lly Mycenaean , i.e. the lo ng, straigh t stabbi ng sword an dth e sturdy dagger o r short sword . It m ay even be possibl e to id entify theswo rd types used in th ese d epictions fro m actual examples. For example.the long, straight sworrl held by th e kneeling warrior in rhc Battle in th eGlen ring could he the so-ca lled Sandars Type A, onc of which wasac tually found in the same gra\'c circl e as th e ring, an d is ofconte m porary da te, The swo rd being wielded by the swo rds man Oil th ecylinde r seal fro m the Shaft Grave has a ye ry dis tinctively sha ped hilt ,which looks \'ery' close to tha t of the Sandars Type CII sword. H oweve r.(his presents a chronological p ro blem: m e CIl sword is date d to around1400 BC, whereas the seal is from th e se co n d half of th e 16th ce n tury'BC. Perh aps this seal is evidence th at th is pa llt'nI of sword wasin trod uced m uch earlier than was previ o usly tho ugh t. TI le type o t's hort.wide-bladed dagger with wh ich th e other swordsm an on th e Battle in theGlen ring is armed was a common Mycenaca n weilpon , as a ttested bynumero us fin ds in the Aegean regi on.

A th irrl p n",,,,ih lf' j'x;\m pll' o f rhi ", r}lw of warri o r is rle p iCl e rl 011ar- cuhcr 161h centu ry cylinder seal fro m Mvceuae , al tho ugh - since he isdepi cted figh ting a lio n - h e is stric tly speak in g a h.uuer ra ther th an awarrio r. H oweve r, h e is a rm ed and dressed exactly the sam e as theparallel exam ples discussed above . He is not wearing a helm e t. Like ther ing discussed above , th is scene p robably relat es to z story or myth , andth is id ea is supported by the depiction of a very sim ila r scene on anivory m ir ro r handle fro m around 1200 BC. T he similari rv of the pose ofboth man an d lio n in bo th depictions, thou gh [OUT cen tu ries ap art, isstriking. Alternatively, th e lio n may be a sym bol of ' the enemy'.

Tactica l implicationsThe most like ly tactica l me of such swordsm en as depicted on the ShaftGrave goods was as a kind o f ligh t infarrrrv wh ich foughc aga in sl, and inconjunction with , the heavy in fant ry. T hey seem to haw held a relat ivelyh igh sta tus , partly because they went in to battle wi thout shields and too kon heavy in fan try (and, most likely, chariot" too ) . They woul d haw beenmost e ffe c tive if ga the red in fa irly large u nit" in a loose , ye t o rganizedforma tion. Xot being 'sc reen ing' troops like skirmish crs, they wouldneed to be in massed units in o rde r ( 0 haw enough solid ity and impetus 29

30

El engage effe ctively in melees wtrh heavier infantry, T hey would havebeen extremely effect ive against disordered hcaw in fa n try'. breakinginto the lauer's form ation and cutting it apart. If hcavv infanuv weref.cei ng. a tim ely rush by a fresh unit of light swordsmen wo uld be ableto outrun the m with le thal re sults. Another like ly deploym ent mig h thave bee n to guard the Flanks ofthe main heaw infan try battle lin t' fromene my attacks - one o f th e main h istorical ro ll' s o f light in fan t ry, both inOrcccc and els ewh ere , since a closely ordered bat tle lin e of heavyinfantry' is inheren tly vulnera ble to flan k attack. III summatio n , u.c scs·....o rdsm en wo uld have played an importan t ro le in ~lycenaeall war fare,wh ich m ay also expla in their promi nence in the a rt istic record.

Jav e linmenBesid es swo rdsm en , the so-cane d 'Ca p tain o f th e Blacks ' fresco fromMyccnacan Knossos sh ows ano ther t)PC of ligh t infantry - j aveli nmen.The fresco fra gment shows a runulng ma n in th e usual male Flesh colou rof redd ish-brown , but also the upp{'r leg" o f an other nian with black skin ,as well as a fragment of th e latter's hea d. Sir Anh ur [van s, excavator ofKnossos . saw th e brown (i.e . Gree k) war-rio r as the offi cer o f what h ebe lieve d 10 have h t' c' !l a li n s- o f Africa n m e rcenaries. he nce rh e n ame

given to the fresco ,h was co m mo n in a ncie n t wa rfa re for j avel inmeu to ca rry two light

javelins (Mvce na ean . pil laja) . The main figure 011 th e fresco carries jus tsuch a pair of ligh t javelins and this. coupled with h is lack of an yarmo ur, identifies h im as a light in fa ntrym an. Be in g so armed h e couldtechn ically be a skirm ishcr: but th e a ppeardnce o f the bl ack-skin nedma n 's te g dose behm d him , weari ng a sim ila r ki lt a nd in the sam e pose ,sugg ests that the two a rc part o f z. unit and in an o rd ered format ion ,Th e black warrio r show n on [he fre sco fragm ent is gene rally cal led aNubi a n m erce n ary. Apa r t from 11'.(' skin co lo u r, the o ther r eason fo rthis is the t.....o feathers wh ich can he see n in th e ha.r of bo th the G reeka nd the African be hi nd him. Some have in te rpreted the warriors aswea ri ng a ' h ri <,rly h al ' with horns, bUI lh is loo ks ra the r mo re like thewarrior's hair; ancient depictions of Nubians do not sho w them " 'caringhorned ha ts. but e ither lea rn er caps o r head bands wi th one o r twostand in g feathers. Nubians wore re nowned as good light troo ps an dwere e m ploye d as me rce n aries by th e Egyptians. The most likelyinter p re tati o n of the fresco is th erefore that it shows a un it of Xuhianjavchu m en . wean n g native headd re ss a long with a Myce n acan kilt.'i h ey arc le d by a Gree k officer, who wears th e Nu bia n feathers as abadge of h is uni t an d 10 tdenufy h im as the ir o ffi cer.

The re is a lso a no the r obscure fresco fragme nt from ~Ircenac.'an

Kno ssos (ca lled b} Eva ns 'Wa r rio n; Hur ling j avelins'} , showing what areprobably j aveli n -armed ligh t in fa n try. T here arc several sim ilarit iesbe tween this and the fre sco discussed above, wh ich in rlica re tha t j avelin ­a rmed liHh t infantry we re a n actual troo p typ e , n il' two frescoes a rc.'pain ted qui re d iffere ntly, sh ow ing that th ey d o no t co me from the samesce ne. Some of th e: war rio rs in the \ \'arno rs H urlill t{ j avelins fresco arewearing white ' ne cklaces ' o f the same tn)e as the Captain of th e Blacks,an d all arc wea ring til l' sam e kil t. They are portrayed in a rather denselypa cked un it, hurling j avel ins upwa rds at abo ut a l:l----deg ree angle,possibly a t an e lle my banlemem o r perha ps over tin.' head .. of o ther

infantry. T he re is also what can only be an officer standing with a lo ngstaff o r- javelin. All th is suggests th at th ey are ligh t infan try of the sameMvcen ae a n troo p type as the supposed Nubians; however, they a re notAfricans but a Gree k unit.

Changes from c.1300 BCDepictio ns fro m the la te r Myce naean period are conspicuous fo r th epredomina nce of ligh te r equ ipped warriors. Unlike th e h eavy infa n try,later Myce n aean ligh t infantry d id n o t undergo an y radicaltran sformati ons in their equipment or tactical doctrine. T he shortexplanatio n fo r th is is that th ey d id not n eed to: it was the cu m bersomeh eavy in fantry that needed to become m ore mobile to confrontchanging enemy tactics, no t the alre ady well-devel oped light infantry.H owever, th ere are so me notab le changes in their d ress an d eq uip m en tthat firs t ap pear d uring th is la ter period.

Many Mycenaean ligh t infan tr ymen in th is peri od wore a tunic,p robably of linen. T his garmen t was sbo rt-stee ved , cu t to lapel' inaround th e waist and then fla re out agai n, a nd ex tended to just aboveth e knee . Another garmen t worn by th e lig h t in fan try of the pa lace ofPylos was a white cloth kilt , with a protective leat h er ove rlay r ill so rhatits ends fo rmed pointed tassels h anging down . La te r Mvcenaeanligh t troo ps also commonly wore lin en greaves, tie d at th e a nkle a nd

Gravestone f rom a 16th centuryBC shaft grave in the Mycenaean

citadel. This is one of the

earliest depictions of the chariot

in Mycenaean art, and shows

a box chariot riding down anenemy swcrceman, (Counesy

National Archaeological Museum,

Athens)

32

below the knee and re in fo rced m-er th e sh tns. T he boar 's-tus k helmetrema ined popular; a fresco from Pylos depicting ligh t infa ntrym enarmed ....-irh ~pear and swo rd fighting 'barbarians' shows the troops allwe ari n g th e MOle pattern of boar's-tusk helmet.

Depictions of later light infantry sh ow th em armed with a sword . an da sh ort spear or j avelin . The swordsm en continued to carry th eir weaponin a scabbard worn from a shoulder belt. Although there are nodepictions of later arch ers , thei r exis tence is att ested by the discovery ofmall Ym ass-prod uced arrowhead s at Pvlo s. Like wise there is no p icto rialevidence (or archaeological , for that matte r ) fo r stingers in th e laterMyccnac an army. However, an explanation for th is may be that sling-cl'Swen: recruited from th e civilian population wh en the need arose an dsup plied their own weapon , as in the early period.

CHARIOTRYThe Greeks were quick to adopt th e chariot for IL'e in warfa re. In the16th century BC. m-er litt le more than a hund red years , th e spoked-whcctwar chario t became fam iliar in an area extending from Greece 10 Ind ia ,and from south RIL,,-, ia to Egyp t. TI le apparent abruptness of ti llswidespread appearance. and th e d OS{' ,i m i1:l riry in fn nn berween chario tsover the whole area at the beginning of the La te Bronze Age. has longencouraged the view tha t the ir sp read m us t be atrribured \ 0 a specificpeople. In fact, thi s was th e seco nd , nOI the first nage in a process ofinnova tio n and diffusion in wh ich ~any factors are still obscure .

Wh at we do know is that the fully d eveloped war chariot is sho wn onseverallate 16t h cen tu ry BC gravestones fro m Myccnac, as well as on ari n g found in one of th e Shaft Graves. Llns ISroughly the same time th a tit appeared in Egypt. Although most probably d iffused from th e v ea rEast afte r the Middle Bronze Age (c. 192>0-1550 BC) , as a result ofxtycenae's likely trad e co ntacts with tha t regio n , no single e thnic o rlinguistic group see ms to haw been the maste r innovator in the historyuf horse-drawn chariotry in the Near Eas t. In te restingly, unlike mostMvccn aean mili ta ry .r-chnnlngy. ' he ch <'l riOl does not seem to have cometo th e mainland via Cre te . but th e other way around; it was not u nt il th emid- Ifith ce ntury.' BC tha t it appears o n tha t island , listed on th eMyccnaean Linear B tablets.

The Aegean chariotwhenever possible, the baulcground chosen by Mycen acan armies wasa re lati vely level and open area on which opposing fo rces could arraythemselves. Du e to the se t-pie ce, linear n atu re of ancient warfa re therewas no question of an ex tended fron t over un p repared ground . Th ereaso n fo r this W'L' sim ply tha t if one side offered battle on te rrai n whichwould se riously ham per the adversa ry's abillw ( 0 use h is troopsetfecuvelv, th e adversa ry would refuse battle .

n "" pitl: the apparently b ru tal simplicity o f such confronta tions. theydid involve quite complex calculations which took into accoun t variousfactors such as tin-e restrictio ns, th e ultimate objectives of the particularcampaign. lin es of co mmu nica tion, and even weather; The basic goalwas to fo rce the en emy into baule o n te rrain th at was disadva n tageo usto them. Th e fact that banles were fouzht on r- hoser; a round rather than

(CoJll i lllm l Im 1"'1<' 4l )

1500 BC.,.ARLY INFANTRY, c.- - "1 : Tho'!ora.n he avy spa

2: Sw«dMlan3: Heavy speannan

i .;.- .

A

B~-"--

, .- -.

EARLY MISSILE TROOPS, 16th- 15th CENTURIES BC

1: Regular arche r, 16th century BC

2: Irregu lar slinger, 16th century BC

3: Nub ian mercenary javeli nman , 1 45O-~'<7'_.

-

c

D

F

PYlIAN 'U fGHT INFAN

c.1250--1200 TRY & 'BAR, . _ BC BARIANS'. light •

e S """""""--3:~ <~'--- ' '\ i r; " 1-(

"

RAIL CHARIOI : Charlou- T. e.1 2S0-1 150BC

2: Spearman

~.

G

H

1: Mounted_warrioc. (;:1200 BC

i: Mycena&an woman

a

•

randomly is important to the understan d ing of the use of th e chario t in:'o.1}"cenaean warfare. Alth ough no one can cred ibly argue that cha riotswere not used m masse in the contemporary armies of the Near East .man y have argued that th e}' could not have been used in a similar ....-ayin Greece. o n the grounds that Gree ce 's terrain is too mountain ous toaccommodate tactics developed on the broad, flat plains of th e XearEast. This argumen t is u nconvincing for several re-asons.

It is true th at chariots only work effectively on relatively open ground;bu t a study of the topograph y surround ing important Mycenacan andMinoan centres shows that they all bord er plains. Mycenae and Tirynshave the Argive Plain . P)'IO!i the Messcn ian Plain . Phaestos the Plain ofMessara , and so forth. These level areas d id not h avc to be as large asthose of th e Near East to be suitable ba ttlegrounds, because the armiesInvolved would o nly have taken up a relatively limited amount of spACe.While th e Mycenaeans had immediate access to amply-sized plains justoutside the gates of th eir citadels, the fact remains that these plain s werestill ge nerally rougher, rocki er and mo re broken than those of th e Nea rEast. However. the Mycenacans evidently did not le t this stop them fromw ing massed chariots; they simply made their chariots heavier and morerobust than the-ir ligh t Egyp tian and Near Eastern contempo raries. TheAegean chari ot, from its earliest d epictions at .\treenae in the 16thcen tury BC and through ou t the Mycenaean period, kept the fou r-spoked....h eels seen on other chariots . but made them stronge r and more robust,a ch aracteristic visible when con-pared with, for instance, Egyptiancha riots. The draught pol e was strengthened by a wooden support with

t 3th centuly BC fresco fromPyIos showWig a dual chariot inuse On the later period. Although

of an ok! type, this e:um pleappea .... _ lightly _n...bucteo!

than earty dual c hariots; perhaps

it was now used more fortransporting infantry than

charg ing - the spearmlln

marching behind the ch.ariot is

the kind of warrior who wouldride in it. Note the waisted tunicsc n.r-rteri3tH; of cMpOc;ti0n5 of

lat~ tn>op$: and theboa.....tusk helmets., both wittI

neck guards, one with a knob at

the ape" aod one with a curvedtusk. (Courtesy Department of

Classics, University of Cincinnati)

41

\

42

Fragments of a cera mic vesselfrom Tiryns,late 12th century

BC, appa re ntl y showing , a ilc hll r iots. In the ch ariot t o the

tight, part of an infantryman with

a round shield and $pellr ca nDe seen ri ding with th e dri ller.

These were the last type of

My<;:enaean c hariot to '"IISeCl and were o f t he l>ghlest

c onstruction. (Courtesy NaupUa

Museu m)

c ross-brac ing. It is possible than this cha rac te ristically Aegean secondshaft ex te nd ed backwards as an in tegra l part of the struc ture of thecab. If these ch ari ots had only been em ployed to drive the e lite alongth e Mycenaean road system, there would have been no ne ed fo rsuch stre ng th en in g.

Th roughout th e Myccnaean p eriod onl y the two-h orse cha rio t wasused , but va rio us types are di stinguishable. The earliest typ e thatappear.; in th e Mycenacan period is te rm ed the box ch ario t, who seperiod of use was c.1550-H 50 BC. It is so named beca use the cab was

bas ically box-shaped. ha ving a more or less rectangular profil e . Its sidesrose up to h ip hei ght or so mewh at lower and were covered ....tithscre enin g m a te ri al . po..."ihly wir-ke-rwo.rk . Al th o ugh this type of chariot isof orienta l origin, its proto types appearin g on Syri an seals o f the18th- 17th centuries BC. it a lready displays typica lly Aegean fea tu res.

The dual ch ario t, used c.1450--1200 BC (with possible ex te nsio ns atei ther end of that time range ) , is so named because its cab co nsis ted oftwo distinct parts: the cab proper, and curved extensions or 'wings' addedto th e sides at the rear. The floor was Dehaped, probably being made ofinte rwoven leather thongs which would have served as a kind ofsuspension syste m for the occ upants. The siding extended around thefron l and sides and rose to approximately hip he ight. The curved sideproj ections may have more clums ily served the same purpose as thesweeping handrail fou nd o n Egyptian chariots. T hese wo uld have been ofgreat assistance both in mounting the chariot, and as guards from thewhH'l~ sh ould the horses at any momen t turn or back. unexpected ly. Inaddition they may have acted as 'mudguard..' against flying stones anddUL The sides and win gs were covered by some so n.0:screening: ma terialsuch as lea the r or linen. Documents describe these chario ts as beingpainted various shades of red, some being decorated ....ith ivo ry inlay.

A ra re typ e of chario t, known only from on e or two ca rvedrepresen ta tio ns, is termed the quadrant chariot; its representations date

to c. l4tlQ-.- l:r/5 KG. Unlike other Myce naean chariots th is type is onlyshown ca rryi ng o ne occupan t- T h is co uld m ean that it was not used inwar. It appears to have had a D ehaped floor like th e d ua l chariot. Itssiding consisted of what were pro bably heat-bent rail s. the roun dedprofile approaching the quadrant of a circle. like the o ther chario ts itssides rose to app roxi mat ely h ip height and were covered with screening.

TI lt" I" "T 'lpp of \ lycenaean chario t to a ppear was th e rail chariot,da ted from c. 1250 BC down to 1150 BC. Its cab could hold two occupantsab re ast. This was an ex tremely ligh t veh icle, its sides com pnsm g anope n framework of rai ls rising to appro xim at ely hip heigh t, with arounded profile.

Chariot armament\Ye have se en h ow the form of th e Aegean cha riot was adap ted to th eloca l terrain by mak in g it heavi er and m ore ro bust. This, and thea rmament of th e cha rio tee rs who rode in th e m, can sugges t the mostlikely tactical use of th ese cha riots in war fare .

There seems 10 be only one indubitable example of a chariot crewedlY,' an arche r in ~l)'cenaean-Minoa., represen tations . This comes in th efonn of a gold signet ring from Mycenae and is da ted to aroundI:J50-1500 BC. .-\11other depictions of chario ts in this early period showthem carryi ng warrio rs a rmed wi th a long spear, sim ila r to that carried bvthe heavy infantry. A ca rved gem fru m Vapb eio on th e so ut h ern tip ofGreec e sh ows th e drive r as well as th e war rior. It would h ave beenabsolute ly necessary ro have a separa te d river for a wa r chario t, becauseit woul d be imp ossible to co ntrol th e chariot and wield a weapon at th esame time. Therefo re , when only the warrior is de p icted - as in th eexample of a sculpted gravestone at Myccnac - it must be assum ed thatin reali ty the re wou ld have been a dr iver as well. (This de piction is hig-h lystylized , which m igh t also ac count for th e lack of a de picted driven)

Although some have a rgued tha t the Mvce naean spea r-a rmedchariots we re used fo r d ispl ay and tr ansport to and fr om th ebat tlegr ound, the evi dence stro ngly suggests that spea rs ...'e re actuallyuse d from the chari ot. The gravestone refe rr ed to above actua lly showsthe cha rio t warrio r im pal in g a sword-armed infantryman with his spear.This te lls us fi rstly tha t the lo ng spea r was use d fro m the back of thechar iot in d ose com bat, and sec ondly that chariots could he used in thisway again st infan try, not j ust opp osing chariots.

Un fo rtun ately, it may n ever be po ssib le to di sce rn any o f th e specificsof Mycenae an chariot tactics du e to th e extreme lack of descriptiveevidence. Some basic q ue stions can neve rt heless be answe red di rectlyfro m the avai lable evidence, and o thers are im plied by suc h evidence asthe relevan t Linear B table ts from Knossos .

Tu rn in g first to th ese tablets, the large number o f chario ts listed(-I OO--plus a t any one time) suggests that they were used m /M.W. Suchnumbers wou ld be m uch m ore th an those needed only for th e tran~port

of nobles, even allo wing extra cha riots as spares. Fu rthe rmore , th echariots in wh ich the noblca/commanders migh t have ridden ac tuallysee m to be listed separa tely in th ese tablets, in the term of 33 cha riotsinlaid with ivory. These inlaid chariots m ay also have bee n fo r purelycere m onial u se , but that still leaves at least 367 other ch ariots asse m bledat Knossos shortly before its final destruc uon . while it m ust be conceded 43

44

This scene showtnv an early

period Mycenaean bo. chariot isfound engraved on a camelian

$NJ from Vapheio doIted to the

15th ce nt u ry BC. Th l. i. one of

t he few depict ions that . how s

t ha s pearman as well as the

dl1var in t he cna nor, The sturdy

double upper-and-Iowe r draugh t

pole with las hed bra.,es Is very

prominently s hown. tCourtesyNational Archaeological Museum,

Athensl

that th is n umber of ch ario ts is still immeasurably smalle r th an th e bodiesor ch ariotry d eployed by the Egyp tians and l liui tes o n the more o penbattle fields of Syr ia, thi s in itsel f does not preclud e the ir use as a massedshock fo rce.

Such a force could be used to deliver the coup de gmcewhe n th e enemywas recoiling or about to b reak, to outflan k th e e nemy bat tle line, or topursue a broken encIIlYforce . The use of ch ariots against disorganizedtroo ps is relatively well attested in ancien t literature, both th e ancie n tChi nese and the Hittites being aware of their ben efits in th is role . Theroughness of the Greek plains and the limited space for th e massed useof chario t" may have been an important reason for the relatively smal ln umbers o f them fielded (as reflected in the KnO SS<iS tabl e t") comparedto th e E~pti;ms o r H it ti te s. This topographical limitation is p resumably\\by they did not form th e backbone of th e ~1>·cellaC".m tactical doctrin e,as was th c case amon g the Egvprians and Hiu nes.

Experiments in reco nstructing an 18ft-lo ng Macedo nian .sarissa(poss ibly of sim ilar length to the :\Iycenaean chariot spear) showedthat it h ad to be held near i ts centr e to stop it overbalan cing to thefron t. T his would certainl y be a problem if it was held with one hand,

bill not so if it was held with bo th h ands in a similar manner to th ath eld by heavy infantrym en . The carne lian gem fr om Vapheio shows achario t war rio r hold ing: th e long spear near its rear 'with both ar mspartia lly exte nded in th is m anner. O n the o th er hand , the m ort'stylized Mycenaean gravesto ne show'S a spea r being held wi th the ri ghthand on ly (the left is grasping a sheathed swo rd ). When tryi ng toin te r pre t stylized depictions it is poss ible 10 wo rk out Ih t> m ma li1: ,.lyrea listic ele ments, d istingui sh in g those features that would ac tually'wo rk in real life from th ose tha t would not, By these crite r ia , th e m or erea listic pose is th at shown on th e Vaphcio gem rather th an that on th egrave stel e .

In order to use th e two-han ded spea r effectively from the chariot, theMyce naea ns would have had to find a Y.-ay to d eal with the p ro bl em th a tdue to the rockmg mouon of the chari o t, and the j olt received when thespear struck home . the warri or who had no hand free to steady h imselfwould lose his bal ance . Proj ecting fro m the un de rsid e of somedepictions of dua. ch ariots can be seen a sm all ' spur ' ; no one is surewhat this was or what its fun ction mi ght have been. O ne pos....ibiliry isthat it is the cnd of a central rail, a con tin uation of th e pole-stay, whichp ::l",..rd th rough rhr ('~h hf.n''''''l;'n the two occupants. The warrio r couldhave used this to brace h is rea r leg when del ivering a thrust, therebyp reven ting h is uninten tio nal ex it to the rear.

The char iot ' c ha rg e'Earl y Mycenaean cha rio ts would nor have charged at speed at ene myforma tio ns in the man ner of med ieval cavalry, This wo uld have led tot hem crash m g int o opposing c ha ri o ts and infan try wi th terribledest ruc tio n to oolh sides, and would result in the ....-arri or becomin gd isarm ed o nce he h ad struck with th e spear fo r the first tim e. It is m orelikely that th ey would havc taken the more sens ibl e approach of star tingat speed . to minimize the cas ua lties su ffered fro m missiles. and slm,ingdCW:Jl j us t befo re contac t with a line of in fantry: Even a t a trot th eirnpr-rns of two horses a n d a chario t bearing d own u pon foot-sold ierswould sti ll be considerable - an d especially so if the infan try wercdisordered. while it is we ll kn own that cavalry h orses will not willinglyrun straight in to a mass of infantry, the psych ological threat posed by acharge has ve ry o ften prove d sufficien t to d isorder in fan try fo rmat ionsj ust before actu al im pac t. A line of chari ots attacking in such a waywo ul d be able to ac h ieve th e same, especially given the weapons rea chaffo rded to th eir crews by long spears. Th e need to defend against th iscould be one of th e reasons that th e Mycenacan heavy infan try' wereequipped and formed in the way they were - with long spear an d largeshiel d, in close-o rder formatio ns. Of co urse , the chariot teams - like allwar h orses - would have to be well tr ained in this form of a tta ck to stopthem from swerving or bolt in g.

Confro nting o pposing chario try the cha rio tee rs would probably havetried to avoid crashing in to each o ther, th e ....arriors using: their spears tostrike at the opposing horses and crews . The fac t that th e earlyMycenaean chario t warriors a re no t equipped wi th shields ca n berecognized as evidence th a t the)' fough t from th eir chario ts. As ....-ith th eheavy infantry. th e long spears with which the chariot warriors werearmed would be an imped iment to a foot-sold ie r unless he also had a 45

46

The 15th century BC articulated

bn>nze c:ornelet found at Dendra.

This masterpiec:e of Myc:enaean

broNe-working is the mostcomple te e~ample found,

although there Is evidence

that such armourS Were notun oommon in the My<;e...... . ..

army. Their \K8 was probably

li mited 10 tt>e highest d<tn ot

c:h.iI riot-borne wa~ (George

MyIonas, Mycenaoe and ftH:

Myc:enaean Age , 0 1966Princeton Univer si ty Press;

reprinted by permission ofPrlnoelon Unive rsIty Pre5S1

large shield and fou gh t in d ose o rd er wnh like­armed comrades. If these chario t spearmen hadd ismounted to figh t wi thout shields they wo uldhave been nearly useless .

A de pictio n of an early chariot on a carvedgravesto ne from Mycenac shows bo th a warriorarmed with a lo ng spear and a ~ Ilf':.l tht"d s.....ordattached to the ou tside of th e chariot cab, in amanner reminiscent of Egypuan arrow quII·cTS.This is most likely a secondary weapon , logicallyprovided for use if the spear were lost o r brokenor if the warrior ha d lO abandon th e veh icle .

A mid I fith century BC ring from one o f theShaft Graves at Mvcenae depicts a chariot crewedby a driver and an archer. This is one of th eea rl iest depic tions of a t.lycenacan cha rio t,rough ly contempora ry' with th at on the carvedgravestone. Unlike the in laid dagger describedearlier, which at face value dep icts a hu nt b utp robably h ad a rlt>f" p l"r mean in g , th is ri ng doesno t suggest tha t it is d epictin g anything mo rethan a nobleman 's hunt. Also unlike the inlaiddagger, the weapon and equip me nt shown areperfectly suited 10 huntin g. an d th e emp hasisplaced o n the ch ariot horses rathe r than thechario t itself also conveys a con-m ilita ry feeling.

None of the three chariot-scu lpted sha ftgravestones show archers; however, this signetri ng came from th e grave ofa man who can havebeen at no grea t tempo ral remove from theintroduction of this Asiati c co mbi nation of bowand chariot. The fact that this combina tion wassh own nm TPm porary wi th a n in d ubitable

example of a spear-armed chariot warrior in warfare fu rther suppo rtsthe likelihood that the signet ring's subj ect matter wars intentionallythat of the h unt. This being the case, there is no credible evidencefor :\Iyce nacan chariots being crewed with bowmen for wa rfare - amaj or d ifference between Myccnaea n chariot tact ics an d th ose ofEgypt, for examp le.

The Dendra armourAt Den dra, ne ar the :\Iycenaean citadel of Midea, Gre ek and Swedishexcavations found a ch amber lamb which contained a suit of bronzearmour wh ich is dated [0 abo u t 1400 BC. This set o f bro nze platedefen ces displays adva nced skills in metalworking and armour design .The various 'pir-r-es, eg shoulder guards, skirt, en d cuirass, were fitted toone anoth er and attache d wirh lea ther th ongs, allowing th e variouspla tes ( 0 slide over one another and affording th e wearer some limitedmovement of the hod)' and limbs. The pieces of a boar's-tusk h elmetwith bron ze check guards were fo und wi th the armour; as were a bron zeneck guard which sat a top the shou lders, bro nze grca\'es and armgua rds . A knife or dagger '.\11h a single cutting edge was also fo und .

There was ongtnauy a sword in th e tomb, of which o nly two gilded rivetsfrom the hil t survived ; and th ere may also have been an arrow qu iverand a shield, th ese last two items only survivin g as patch es of blac kishmateria l. (What so me h ave sugges ted was a shi eld may instead have beena cover for the large two-handled basin also fou nd in th e tc rnb .)

This is by no rr.eans the only example of Late Bro nze Age Aegeanhrnn7f> arm our to have been found . Xine o th er sites h ave yieldedexamples of armour made fro m bronze plate. These include grea"esand helmets, as well as pieces .....hich see m to have come from the sametyp e of armour as the Dend ra example. Phaistos, Mjcenae and anotherto mb at Dend ra have all revealed pieces like thi s.

This typ e of armour seems, then , to h ave been in reasonablywide spread use between c.1500 and 1400 BC in the :\l ycenaean wor.d.T he use of piale fo r armou r con tinued th ro ugh out the remainder of theMycenacan pe riod , but what is sign ifican t here is the fact tha t it was sodeveloped in the early part of the period. This shows that the Dendrapan oply w-as nor a 'o ne-off' c reated for an in nova tive warlord wh o tookit 10 the grave wi th him . Ra th er, it seems to have been a relatively wellestablish ed type of Mycen aean mili tary equip men t.

In terestingly, th e Linear 1\ table ts from Knossos and Pyla s both ha veideograms whic h seem to ind icate these armou r co rselets . The Knossostable ts show the issue of at least 36 corsele ts, an d on ni ne tablets thecorsele t h as been erased an d an ingot inserted instead . T his m ay beinten de d to be an issue of me tal required to make corsele ts. In themajori ty of cases the releva nt nu mbers associa ted with a corseletideogram have been lost. so it is unknown how many more might h ave

15th cent ury BC bro nze for earm

guards f rom Dendra. Defen ce s

suc h as these w ere probabl y

worn with the bronze corsele ts .(After As lrom)

47

48

0..., u' lhe , .. re d ..p6ctl...... urhorse-suldier$ In Mycenaean art,from a late period vase frag.....nt.The artis1'S unfami liarity withthe subject ma"er may be the

reason for the wa y the ' rider'

is shown be ll lde t he horse,although he Is ho lding thereins . (Courtesy National

Archaeological Museum, Athens)

bee n listed. The Pytos table ts list 20 corsele ts; and in ad ditio n, the Pyla scorselet id eograms have a triangular shape on top of them. This loo kslike a he lmet, an d the Pylas table ts ac tually m ention h elmets alon g wi ththe corselets.

A clue as to the use of the Knossos corsele ts ma}' he found in the factthat eac h of those tablets is in troduced by a man 's name, and itemisescorselets, wheeled ch ariots and horses. This strongly suggests that thecorsel ets were worn by at least some chariot-ho me w-arriors. Eigh t of thetable ts list 'one corse let ' and 14 list ' 1\\'0 corsele ts'. Th is could mean eitherthat some men were issued with two co rselet>; for themselves, or that somemen were issued with one corselet for themselves plus o ne for their drive r;Those crews who did no t pos.'ieSS a ~ll i l ()f hronl~ annom- (presu mably themajority) wore minimal dothing typical of earl}' Mycenaean warriors,consisting of a cloth kilt-like garmen t and hare upper body

Later chariotryAs with all of th e other Mycenaean troop types. in the la ter period th eMycenacan chariot became lig hter and more mobile . Th e previousheavy box chariot and dual ch ariot !{ave way to the lig-ht rail chario t,wh ich appe ared in th e 13th centu ry BC.

The appearance of th is new style of ch ariot acco mpa nied a majorchange in the tactical rote of ~Iycenae-.m chario t!"}'. Un like in the earlyperiod, ch ariot-bo rn e warriors were now expected to dismount to Ctght..making them in effect mounted infantry, This can be seen by theirequipmen t. wh irh became the same as that o f the infan try - a shor tspear, helmet, body armour, kilt , greaves. and a round sh ield . A frescofrom Pylos also shows a somewhat lighter ch ariot-home warrior whowears th e cloth tunic in place of body armour. These changes refl ect th emore mobile n at ure of warfare in th e la ter period . Such a force wou ldhave been useful for rushing troop'" to areas wh ich had come u ndersudden attack, as well as fo r laun ching such attacks.

CAVALRYThe rroop type fo r ;·vh ich there is th e least evidence is eavall)', of which ourknowledge is limi ted to what can be gleaned from a handful of potteryfragmcn ns. These date to the cud of the ~f )'c t'nacan period. givi ng so-neind icatio n of the spread of the an of ho rse- rid in g: to Greec e . As regardsdre ss, o ne rel.uivelv detailed d epic tio n fro m Mvce nae sh ows thecavalrym an wt":l.I; nl~ h'TP'I'l:l"S, th e familia r la te p e riod tu n ic , an d wha tappe ars to he upper-body armour. Stirrups were as yet un known , saddleryhein g: in its infancy.The ho rse was fitted with a sadd le pro ba bly consistingof little more than a pa dded blanket. Th e reins and bridle were probablyrela tively developed owin g to the long trad ition ofchariotrv in MvccnaeanGreece. Exam ples of b its have be e n fo und , al t.h o ugh whether they comefrom saddle hors es or chariot horses is un known .

lhc role of sadd le horses in !.Iycenaean war fare is a matter io rco nje ctu re, sinc e no depictions or descriptions or co mbat involvi ngcava lry are kn own . No weapo ns Gm he seen in the few de pic tions.Although this might be taken as evi de n ce that th ese warrio rs did notcarry spears or javelins , it cannot be said for sure that they were no ta rm ed with swo rds. Due to the highly stylized and fragment ary nature oflht' p ictorial evide nc e, as we ll as th e unfam iliar s u bjec t fo r th e ar tist, th eswo rd may have been omitted as it was h idden by the figure 's righ t side(the depictio ns show the figures facing to their left) .

If they did carrv a sword , it is possible that these warriors fough t a..cavalry, However, it is equally possible th at the warriors sh own mountedrepresent a class who . although not rich o r prestigious enoug h to 0\\1\ achario t, could affo rd a horse to carry them arou nd rather than walking.T he third possibility is tha t these warriors co nstituted a force ofmoun ted infant ry, This would tie in to th e evid ence that some char iotsin th e later peri od were also des ign ed simply for swift transport. Such aforce would have been p art icu larly suited to respo nd ing to the kind ofraids that see m to have been oc cu rring in the later period .

M ILITARY ORGANIZATION

T he ~Iycenaean army was not compose d of a horde of individual noblewarriors who d ressed and armed themselves however they liked . Instead ,the literary an d archaeological evidence shows that it was composed ofseveral well organized an d equ ipped troop types, each ....-i th their owncharacteristic formations and tactical uses. These troops were organizedinto units of those similarly equipped, and must therefore have been'd rilled' a t leas t to some extent. In this respect Mycenaean armies weresimilar to those of more imperialist contempo raries ouch as the Hitutesand Egyptians. A degree of organization was clearly nec essary to a militaryculture which retained power in its 0"'11 homelands for cen turies, andse bed a n d co n trolled o ther areas suc h as the Aegean islands ancl Cre te.Therefore , it follows that each Mvcenacan an n}' would need to besupported by a com mand and logistics system equally well develope d, bythe standards of its age. 111is issue has been more fully addressed in theprevious Myccnuean scholarship.

T he most usefu l p rimary evidence of ~Iycenaean organ ization co mesfrom the Pylos and Knossos Linear B table ts. Some info rmation abo ut 49

Th e 'Li on Gate" at IAyeenae. This

wa.. the main ent rance to the

c itadel. of wt>ictI the ma ..........

$tone c ircuit wa ll s _re b<.Iilt

In the 13th century BC. Thesc ulpture above the illte ma y

ha .,.. been the c ity's or rule r'$

ba dge . IGeorge MytonitS,

Myeenae and l he Myce~an

Age, 0 1966 Prince ton University

Pmss ; re pri nted by permission

of Princ eton Unlven ity Pm ss)

Mycenacan mili tary leadership G ill a lso be gleaned from depiction s.The la te lSth century BC Pvlo s tablets provide us wi th a great deal ofinfo nnation on th is topic. Although Myce naean tactical d oc trineappears to have u nde rgone a signiricarn cha nge in th e 13th cen tury BC.such aspe cts as hi gh er command structure and logistics may bepresumed to have re mained relatively u ncha nged from the earlierperiod. a t least a.s far a" lh~y _<,t" ~m to fi t rh f' o ther evidenc e . The LinearB archives paint J. pictu re of a h igh ly develo ped bureaucracy dealingwith milita ry m a tters. Th is in itself su ggests tha t the Mycenaean annymust have been well organized and institutionalized to warrant such apalace bu reaucracy to support it. Th e rel evan t tablets deal with suchthings as unit co mposition , deploymcnts, garrisons , equipping of tro ops,and su pplies.

Battlefield organ iz at ionTh e Mycenaean milita ry system was composed of man}" un its or va rioustroop I)pes which had to work in conjunction with o nc anot her o n thebattlefie ld in o rder to fulfil their vario us tactical roles. In th e ch ...sic fieldbattle the h eavy infantry which seem to have fonned the core of th e armywnlllO h ::l\"t>been drawn up in line in the cen tre . Th e h eavy infan trywouldmost likely have been organized into a n um ber o f units with in th e mainbattle lin e. for reasons of co mmand and con tro l. Because swordsmenseem to have fough t closely wi th and against heavy infan try, un its of suchtig-hter troops were probably deployed amongst the heavy infan try units or

50

arou nd them. O n the flanks of th e main battle lin e wo uld have been otherligh t infantry such as j avclinmen and more swordsmen . The skirmishers ,being screening troops ~. nature, would have been deployed in theirloose form at ions across the front of the ann}', from where they couldscreen the troops behind them fro m opposing missile fire and hara....\ theenemy with their O\\-TI arro ....'S and sling bulle ts.

The heavr c b ariotry of the earl ie r period, also organized inro one o rmore uni t.. (d epe nding on how many were fielded) , could conce ivablyhave been d eployed in any of three "'-aY's: either in front of the heavyinfant ry, beh ind them , or 0 11 th e flanks. The first would h ave allowedthe chariots to charge directly into either th e enemy ch ariots or heavyinfantry. This does no t seem likely, since it would involve chargingfro mally agains t well ord ered spcam le n o r char iots. Chariots see m tohave been most effect ive agai n st diso rdered or outflan ked troops - theHini tcs and eve n the approximately con temporary Ch inese used themin th is way.

If the chario ts were depl oyed beh in d the main battle line they couldhave been used to de liver th e cou,fJ de grace after the heavy infantry andswordsmen bad done their work of breaking up and disor derin g: theenelllY line. Th ere is a p roblem with th is, h owever: how would fri cudlvinfantry he able (0 get out of the way of their mm cha riots charging: frombeh ind them? On the o ther hand , should friend ly infa n try p ut theiropponents 10 nighl and crea te a g".tp for their chario ts, th e la tter wouldhave been very useful for pursuing the fleeing foot.

The third possibility, that of the chariots being deployed o n o ne orboth of the flanks, would have given them the opporruniry to defeat theenemy's flan k troops and turn the flan k of h is main battle line . Th istherefore seems th e most probable use of h eavy chariots in tacticalwarfare. In deed, at the battle of Kadesh (1300 BC) the Hittite chario tsstruck the first blow of the battle b; charging the unguarded flan k of oneof the Egyp tian divisions.

The point of these speculations is 10 grce an apprec iation of wh~ the~t}'ccnaean a rmywould h ave required a n o rganized command st ructu re

in order to get the ir various troop types la work toge ther as an ann)'_Certain functional appoin tments would have been unavoidable : theremust h ave been a co mm and er-in-chief and at least one office r for e\'e'Yun it ill th e army. Th e co m man de r-in-ch ief' sjob would be, presumably, toplan the ro utes of march of an army on campaign , and to devise th e planof attack once the battlefield had been chosen (as well as take the creditfor victo ry and the blame for defeat, no do ubt). He would give theseord ers to the un it commanders, who in turn would order th eir units tomove in accordance wi th the plan and som e required timetable .

Command st r uc t u reThe h igh est rank in the Mycen aean army was most likely the umnax(chid) of o ne of the rich palaces suc h as Mvccuac, N I U ) ) U ), e re.Although we kn ow practica lly no thing about the «aaakae except fromthe tabl ets th at record thei r p rivileges. and Homer, who might havepreserved their names, th ey were probably the 'own ers ' of the forces intheir region. The rich burials of the :\Ircenaeans are gen erally acceptedto be tho se of th e highest IC\-e1 of socie ty, and th e gra \'e goods in manyof th ese paint a picture of a militaristic m ling class. Heads of state were 51

52

the usual commande rs-m-cruet ot most an cien t armies, in cludi ng thoseof the con temporary Egyptians and Hi ni tes. This was natural, since rhe vhad to be seen as mi lita ry leaders who could protect the ir people.Ho mer tells us mat for the Trojan expedi tion th e many Acbaeankin gdoms were united in a confederacy led by the king of Mycenae.However. even if -his confederacy is not a fict ion but a piece of hivorvwh ich curvive-rl th ro u g h the oral rrad irion d O"'1:1 to H o m e..r 's d ay, itprobably da tes to at least the late l. Srh ce ntury BC - quite la te in theMycenaean ch ronology. The uni formity of military dress and cqu ipn-emin Mycenaean Greece , Cre te an d th e Aegean in g-enera l does n otnecessarily imply th at th e re was one ci ty or king con trollin g- a ll of it ;rathe r, it sug-g-ests a com mon Ach aean mode o r wartare .

It is possible tha t alliances an d pact.~ were formed betwee n palaces,as seen in the ma inland's control of Knossos. Mycen acan Greece wasmade up of small auto nomous Slates ruled by independ ent chiefs. Th e rema y have been family ties betv..een them, but noth ing definite is knownabout the rel ationsh ip of one settlement to another. C iven a good set o frich graves. like those of Mycenae. at other sites , it m ight have beenpossible to extrapol at e th e rela tive wea lth of th ese settlemen ts andth erefo re their r-e la tive po",·e r. b ut un fo rtunately th i,; is no t the case. Theevidence a t Mycenae is la rgely missin g and all of its tholoi (a l)pe oftom b) have been looted . T he fact th at the finest array of mil ita ryeq uipment of the period was fo und at Dend ra is simply a matter o fchance , and te lls us n ot h ing about the ranking of Argolid sites. Thes estat es may have had lOOM:: m ilita ry associa tions at one tim e or anothe r,which may be the orig-in of H ome r's idea of a con fed e racy; but it mustbe imagin ed that over cen turies such allianc es wou ld sometimes havebroken down , resulting in inter-sta te wars and the rearraugcmcnts ofsuch relationsh ips.

The wanax probably held su preme authori ty over the fighting: fo rcesand came from the highest clas,s of soc iety, I lis immediate deputy wasthe lawav tl' (or (qrla) , transla ted as 'leader of the fighting people ' . Thispurely military figure was probably th e real ' bl-ains' behind th e ar-my'sstra tegy an d tactics, since he was free of th e m uch broader concern.. ofthe wanax. H e wou ld p resumab ly have been of high birth to en tid e himto hol d such an impor tant positio n, and migh t well have been a memberof th e wanax 's family,

Below th ese leade rs of the sta te th e 'regimen tal' co mmanders andthe basileis must have operated . Th e basileis in cluded ad ministra tors ofprovincial estates, whom we fin d being given new lan d in the P vlostable ts. Due to th e expe nse and prestige of chari ots. the warr iors whowere moun ted on them were probably from the upper class of soc ie ty.Th is co uld in clude landown ers such as baslleis and oth e r high-born andthe refore wealthy me n . The pal ace se rved as the administra tive,com ma nd and supply cen tre of the a rm )'. Ch ariot un its were o rganizedan d co ntrolled by m e palace. as the ta ble ts show.

Higher organization: the evidence and the argumentsThe role of the palace as th e ' genera l headq uarte rs' of the Myceuaeana rmy, issu ing detailed o rde rs for the deploym ent of troops, ca ll be seenin the Pylos ta blets of the 13th cen tury BC, ar.d may perhaps bepresumed for the ear lie r pe rio d . Th e tab le ts rec ord th e installat ion at

several places along the vlessen ian coast o f bodies of troops eachconsisting of a commander, several o fficers and a number of soldiers .Each con tingent is accompanied by a nobleman wi th the title ftJ,ta.Some have in terp re ted th e hJrln as a kind of lia ison officer be rween thefield un it and the palace, o thers as the commander ofa regiment of theanny. Sinc e each gro up lists an officer as well as an eqao; the formerinterpre ta tion seems more likely.

T his doc ument, co mprising five tablet.", is h eaded 'Th us the wa tchersarc guard ing th e coas tal regions ' . It tells m that Pylas, bei ng an nnwalledcoastal city, feared an att ack from the sea, and that the authorities a t th epalace decided to send out small unit." to watch "or ra ids. T he wholecoast was divid ed into ten sectors; th e name of the official responsiblefor each sector is listed , fo llowed by a few other n ames who arepresumably h is subordinate officers. In a world without maps, th is showsa high level of organization.

T he palace bureaucracy also records th e issue of what appears to heclothing to b e distribu ted to th e f qrta an d keseno (see below) at Knossos.These do cuments form part of a series of tablet." that d eal with a specifickind of textile o r garmen t called pawfa. This garment/ textile is furtherdefined by adjectives such as fH'1U'weta ( twith wedge patte rn ' ) , aroa (' ofbetter q uali ty' }, reukonuku ( ' ....-ith whi te fringes' ). eutarapi (,with redpattern ' ) , and ot he rs , It has already been suggested that the eqetae wc rchigh-ranking command ers. K l') t7/Q, on the other hand , seem to havebeen a sort of alternative to the l' qt'( l(! but ofa lower rank, since th ey areneve r issued with ga rmen ts 'of be tte r qu ality' , but with those of rath erun iform decoration. It is likely that the word kesrna was the d esignationfo r fore ign wa rriors who were supplied wi th garments fro m the palace.Th is is sup po rted by the Ca ptain of the Blacks fresco from Knossos,

A re eonstn ,,;t ion of th e c itadel

of MyeenM .s it INIY h~

o p pco rod I.. Dbou1 1300 B C .

(from a pa,n li n 'll by Alton

S.Tobey)

53

5'

....hic h sho....-s the Xubian ....-arrior wearin g the same type of wedge­patterned Mycenaean kilt as hi s Gree k leade r. Finally. the total am ountof stored paweQWJ.~ probably about 453 items, the large number Ixingan ind icat io n tha t we are dealin g with un iform s.

A Mycenaean army composed of most or all of the d iffe ren t tro opt~ves ident ified h er e would h ave cons iste d of several thousan d so ldiersof all ran ks. Because o f th is, it is impossib le tha t its warriors could allhave been d ra wn from th e local region 's ruling elite . Some d isagre e....i th th is. believing tha t the Mycenaean sold ie r was firs t represe nted bythe in dividual aris toc rat from th e tim e of th e Shaft Graves. followed byan elite corps at the time of the fall of Knossos, and that it was not untilthe 13th century BC th a t units o f commo n men developed. tra ined toIlgh r on foot and led by h orse-ta ming officers. H owever, th is model isun likely to be accurat e . It so uucb, heavil y in flu enced by the H omer ic'heroiziug' of Myccuaean 'Warriors a nd H ome r's picture of individua l­istic warfa re . Co uld the individual aristocrat o f the 16th ce n tu ry BChave exerted enou gh power over the population o f h is region tocontrol th em. interact wi th fur-off kingdoms, an d retain hi s position,without an actual army beh in d him? As for th e sugges tion that theindividual aristocratic warrio rs had developed in to an e li te corps by thetime of the fa ll of Knossos (c. 1400 BC) , it has since been shown thatalth ough the gra'-es of th is peri od do seem to represent part of an' aristoc racy', the exclusively mili tary ch arac te r of such a class ca nnotbe demonstra ted.

Although it is pro bably correct that in the 13th ce ntu ry BC sold ierswere o rganized into un its of tr ained com mon men, the evidence.':I ugg~$U rhar thi$ was <!-bu Lt:illg done as early as the Shaft Grave penod(c.1650-1550 BC) . T he main evidence for th is is th e dep ictions andfinds o f weapons in the Shaft Graves associated ....-ith, for example , theemploymen t of units of h eavy spearmen .

Driessen and Macdonald analysed the so-called 'War rior Graves' ofc.l 430-1400 BC Cre te [0 se e wha; rh ev could tell us abo u t Knossianmilita ry organizatio n in the ~ Iyccnaean period. T hey start ed wirh rhe­assumpti o n that. given the evidence fo r a central ized soc iety andbureaucracy. a military organizati on was likely to have been part of thepalace structure. It d oes not seem likely that there was a specific ' wa rrio rclass' wi thin Knossian socie ty; such as t he lat e r homoioi of Spana. Themos t plausible interpretation of these graves is tha t they representofficials o r diffe ren t ranks in th e pa lace military organi zation. ThesewaJl iUl~ llIa.y h ave been drawn from diITe rent levels o t soc ie ty, thoughthe wealth of th eir graves suggests mat all of th em were from the u pperlevels. The Knossos graves furn ished ....ri rh swords are not poor burials,and none are likely to represent the lower classes or th e rank and file o fthe Knossian a rm v,

As to whether th is kind of mili tary o rgani zation was also p resent inother a reas of the Aegean, Driessen and \hcclnnald say th at. it waspossibly unique to Knossos at th e tu rn of the 15th centu ry BC. Altho ughlack of evidence from th e mainland preven ts firm comparisons betweenmain lan d sites and Cre te , such u niqueness does not se em likely, giventhe facts tha t a t this time Knossos had been take n ove r by theMrce naeans, and the language in which this ' Knossian' bureaucracy wasbein g cond ucted was an early fonn of Greek .

~\"''-.!...-....LL~--=L- ~_=~__--'Although the c...-idcnc c for an ins titutionalized milita ry o rgan ization

on the main land is not a t all co nclusive , the fact that suc h a norga n ization was set up at Knossos u nde r Mycenaean control, in thei r:an g uagc . ....Ju v.:. d Lvu fiucUl illfl:H:ULl: Uldl :'UL1I a leve-l u f u l g d u it a u ulI

also existed on the main lan d . Th ere is also the argument from need :such an organiza tio n woul d be necessaI1' to eq uip , train and commandarmies like U10 ..e o f N IOSWS and Pvlos - armies of several thousandsold iers, o rganized into like-armed units of va rio us types.

This prompts th e question, who made up the rank a nd file of the~ Iycenaean arm)'? If some (probablv most ) of these soldiers were drawnfrom the common folk of a given region, it would have been nccc;saryfor the 'sta te ' (ce ntred on the palace ) to arrange for hund reds of shieldsand weapons to be made and issued to the recruits. In o rde-r for a unit of~l}'cenaean heavy infantry 10 pe rform its tactical role cffecrivclv its shields....'o uld all have to be of a rela tively un iform size and its spe ars of the samelength . This is certainly the case with the 161h century BC w;rrriorsdeple ted i ll a fi esco f l U III Akro urt UII Thera (th e prcscllt ~r Aegeanisland of San to nni) , as well as for th e Knossian depic tions of lightinfantry, and the heavy infantrym en shown on th e ea rlie r Siege Rhrton .In add ition to arming and equ ipping such a force, the Sla te wo uld h aveto organ ize th e trai ning of the soldiers according to their par ticulartroop lype, to fight in appropriate formations an d 10 manoeuvre wi tho utfalling into d isorder. In short, they would have to be drilled , an d in orderto ach ieve this a well orga nized military system woul d have to be in place.

Retu rning to the question of whether or n ot such a mili ta ryorganization existed in othe r Mycenaean centres be sid es Knossos, th earchae ological reco rd o f Mycen aean plate armou r m ay also besign ifican t. At KJlo~ sOS we have docu ments listin g th e issue of corse lets,but no archaeo logical eviden ce. At nin e other Mycenaean sites we havearchaeological evtdence o r corsele ts, but no doc umentary eviden ce .Knossos tells us that these corsel e ts were dealt with by th e palacebure aucracy, even th ough none may have actually su rvived fro m there,It is th erefore reaso nable to suppose th at , having th e actual rem ains ofcorselets a t o ther sites, th ese too would originally have been issu ed bythe local palace. Afte r all, as h as been seen , th ese corselets were used byexpen sive chario t-borne sold iers, and would themselves have beendifficult and expe nsive to make.

One characteristic o f the Mycenaean anny co mpared to th at of theco nternporarv Egyp tians o r l l ittires is that the formers ' equip ment isco mparauvelv less u nifo nn. It may he th at di fferent palaces had sli.;htlydi fferent patterns of shields, helmets, e re, which in turn suggests an umber of h igh ly ce ntra lized states.

Uroe.. r B bblel rrom Mycenaea..

Knossos, one of the m a ny t hat

de al wM military equipment.

Thi s p.;or'tku!;w " )lampl" reeeeesthe Issue '0 ;I w;lrrior of a dualc ha riot, a n armoured col'$elet

a nd hol'M'L (Aft er Pal mer, 1965)

55

( /)

/--

1\

56

Linear B ideograms of eorselets

from Kno<:<><><> and Pylo~ T he....

come from tabl ets recording the

a lloc.at ion of military equi pment

10 ""..wriors., and are • ..,idenceof. well-deYeloped My<:_an

mil itary oryanization. (Atter

Ventrts & Chadwick)

T he breeding or importing of hund reds of h orses to d raw chariots.as well as th e actual train ing of these horses (a highly expensive andspecialize d skill) , wo uld likewi se need to be organized u nder somecentral authority. Evidence fo r me allocation of ch ario t horses can befou nd in the Knossos table ts, which show ho rses ite mi zed a lo ngs idecorselets and wheeled chariots, togethe r with a man's name. There areabout 11 entries with ' a single horse' , an d a t least 2;') wi th ' a pair ofho rses ' . This smal l number of listed horse teams. as compared 10 Iht"ove rall listing of 'lOO-plus charions, m ight be explained by the simplepossibility tha t most of the ta ble ts recording horses d id not su ....-ive thedestr uc tion of th e palace - such sur-riva ls a re , by definition , random. Weknow from depiction s th at th e chario ts had a team of two horses, so whywere some men on ly issued with or-e? Th e a nswer could lie in th e factthat the same applies wi th regard to th e issue of corselets. A possibleexp lanat ion is th at th is se t of tablets are ' tying up the loose ends' 1Il thegeneral equipping o f th e Knossian chariot co rps. The fact tha t in somecases a bronze ingot ideogra m - enough for a pair of co rse le ts - isinse rted instead is also in keepin g with this in te rpretation.

U ni t sizesIt was the usual practice in o rganized an cie n t a rmies To haw' at leas : an om inal or suggested se t of unit strength s. It is not easy to reconstru ctnormal uni t sizes fo r any of the known vtycenaean troo p typ es , bu twha t litt le e vi d ence can be gleaned from th e Pylos Lin ea r B table ts ofc. 1300 BC is quite in te res ting. These troo ps were always d ivided intom ultip les of ten , so it appears th a t th ey organ ized th ei r un its ba sed onth e decimal syste m. It is like ly that at th e tim e of the Pylos ta blets theactual st ren gths of vari ous types or units d iffered fro m th ose of theea rlie r pe r iods before the im plied change in methods of wa rfare.H oweve r, the fact tha t th e a rm y (and hence the pal ace mi li taryorga n iza tion ) use d th e deci mal system is so me thing so fu ndam en taland re mote from tac tics tha t the re is no reaso n to d oubt th a t it alsoappli ed earlie r,

In tc resringfv, U "'f" nf th ,' r1p('ima l s~~tcm fo r un it organtaadon seemsto have been common in Bronze Age armies. As a contempora ryexam ple. the H ittites had office rs in ch arge o f 1,000 and 10,000 men ina risin g hierarchy of com mand. Even the Tai KUllg 's Six Seem Tmrhings,an ancient Chinese book on th e art of war, states : ' Fo r th e cha rio ts - alead er fo r five chariots, a capta in for fifte en , a commander tor fifty, anda general fo r one hun dred.' Admiued ly; this book 's current rcccnsion

or'o'bablv dates to m,llly cen tu ries afte r tlrc Late Bronze Age ; but i t

nonethe less co n tains co ncep ts ori gin ating early in the era of Chinesechario t warfare.

In conclusion, alth ough we may never have any hard evidence fo r thesize and orga nization of earl}' Mycenaean units, it does seem likely thatthey were based O il the decim al sys tem and that th ere was a risingnierarchv of command, wi th each h igher rank commandin g a greaternumber of soldiers . O n a purely practical level , this is the most efficient~'\;<lY to organize: and command an army; a ' pyramidal' structure is theno rm in any m ulti-class state or bureaucracy, an d is thus in keeping withwhat we kn ow of the structu re of Myce naean socie te;

Issues of equipmentThe war rior gJ<t\ c:'s with th eir weapons , arm ou r an d weal th , and the titlesof the Linear B doc uments, sh ow u.s something of the upper classes of:he Mycenaean army who would haw provi ded the ch ariot corps and:h e officers; but ....h at of the rank and file?

It is unlikely that common soldie rs wou ld be identifiable as such in:he graves. The buria ls furnish ed with swords [i.e. the Warri or Gra \t.'S atKnossos) are not those of poor men . The rank-and-fi le was probablyco mposed o f th e common people who made up the great maj ority ofthe populati on of any Aegean kingdom. :\Ios( wou ld be u nable to affo rdthe necessary eq uipment, bUI all were necessa(}' to make up th enumbers o f any army. Therefore their weapo ns, shields and helmetswou ld have to be paid for by the sla te, and would probably ha ve'remained th e proper ty of...' wh ichever palace supp lied th em. (T hiswould also ensure the nece~ary unifo rmity of equipment.) T h is seemseven to have been the case to some ex tent for th e upper class of soldiers,since some of their equipment (e.g. corsele ts) is also listed in the palacearchives, whic h suggests tha t th e pa lace owned it and was issu ing it. Ifequ ipment was ce ntra lly provided. it is logi cal th at a co mmon soldie rwould not be at liberty to have his mi lita ry p anoply buried with him; insuch systems it would be normal for it to be stored in th e p alace arsena l.Th is may explain why the maj ority of th e soldiers of th e Mvcenaean:lnny are no t visible in the archaeological re co rd .

The palace see ms to have bee n the centre of production orweapon sfor the mili ta ry. Th e evidence for this co mes mostl y from th e Knossostablets, but also fro m archaeological finds. ' Ve have evide nce for th eproduc tion an d inventory of arrowh eads, spcarhcads. j avelinh eads andswords, thus broadly covering the wea ponry for all th e kn own troopt}pes wi th the exceptio n of stingers. (Th e absence of sling ammunitionfrom in ven tories an d graves hard ly weighs against the gen era largumen t, however. Slin gers were, after all , p robably loosely o rganizedan d locally raised irregulars, and th ey may well have co ntinued to usethe earlie r unfircd clay or knap ped stone p rojectiles rather than castLead bulle ts like the later Greek and Roman gUmrlJ'.\.)

As fo r th e ot her t}p cs of ligh t infantry' and skirrnishers , i.e. a rchers,javel inmen and sword smen, th e fact that their weapons were made ofbronze meant that th e palace did direct thei r p rod uction . Turning aga into the Knossos table ts, Sir Art hur Evans fou nd a cache of tablets .... hichshow id eograms of what appear to be swords ; a tablet servi ng as a totalto this series lists so me 50 of these. T h is relatively small number has 57

58

been sugges ted to be an inve n to ry of m e eq uip mcm of a rutcrsbodygua rd; but once again, it should be stressed tha t the scarciw of ;m yitem in th e a rchaeological record is not in itse lf a ' proof of a negative'.It is no te ....o r thy that the number of s.....o rds liste d supports me evid en ceth at Mycenacan un its we re organized in mult ip les of te n . Al th ough itsee ms tha t in ge neral the palace may have issued swo rds to soldiers,th e ir p resence in e lite burial s sUj1;gesu that th ose who were wea lthyenough lO provide their own a rms did so .

Th e Knossos tab le ts also list numbers of javel in s and arrows . Evansfoun d so me seal impressions with the word potaja an d an id eogram of ashort pointed stick , and in associat ion ....i th th ese , finds th a t he describedas a rrowh eads. It was therefore in itially thought that pataja meantarrows. Howeve r, there is another ideogram with Ilig fus on th e tai l whichlooks more like an a r ro ...., !!ou tl n: potmed stick la be lled patoja is m oreprobably a ligh t j ave lin . This is sign ificant because it tics in w-ith th edepictions ofwarrio rs a rmed wi th such weapons , no ta bly th e Cap tain ofth e Blacks and War rio rs H urling j avelins fr escoes. It also shows tha t thepa lace equipped these troop t}p es.

N o t su rpr isingly, in addition to light infan try an d skirm isherweapons, th e Knossos tablets sh ow th at the palace con trolled the sup plyof the h eavy inf an try 's main ann, the large spear. This is dea rly ....that iscalled mJrJws on the tablets - the sam e word as in the Classical period.

Finally, turning to the a rchaeological evi de nce. fragments of sword swere ac tually fo und in the sam e corri dor at Knossos as the clay Linear Bseal imp ressions which listed swords. The most in d isputable evidencethat th e palace stored weapons in bulk com es from the 'Arm ou ry' atKnossos , wh e re LL H ; C se a l im pressions were found attached to th echarred remain s of (\\'0 wooden boxes contain in g carbonized a r rowshafts an d arrowheads. In the sam e building was found a table t with th ea lTOW symbol followed by the high nu mbers 6,010 and 2,630.

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

The fol lowi ng a re som e of the m ain so urces which have proved useful inthe re sea rch fo r this book:Andersonj.K , 'C reek Cha rio t-Bo rne and Mounted Infan try ' , 11mnicQ n

Journal of Archawlogy 79:175-187 (1975)Asrrom, P., The Cuiras s Tomh and OtherFinds at Dendra (Coeteborg. 1977)Buch holz, H .G. , & V.Karageorghis, PrehistoricGreece /lnd L)prus

(Londo n, 1973)Chad wick].. The Mycm atan UOrid (Cam bridge, 1980)Driessen,j.M., & C.Macdonald , 'Some Military .\5peCLS of the Aegean

in the L ite Fifteenth and Early Fou rteenth Centuries BC' , AnnlUllof rk British School at .-\thnu 79:4f'-.74 (1984)

E\3IlS, AJ ., The AllRlUll of tbe British School: at Ath" H, Nn fY, Sen ion1899-1900 48:U Q-1l 3 (Lon don , 1900)

n eAnnual or the British School at Athens, No.W, Session 18 99-1900 48(Lo nd on, 1900 )

Crecnhalgh , PAL., 'The Dendra Cha rioteer', Antiquity .:)4:21Q-5 (1980)Early Gm k Harf are: Horsemen and Chariots in IM Homeric and Archaic Ages

(Cam bridge , 1973)

Lang, M ., Th e Pa!<l,C( ofNator a t l y m in llb/ern Mess enia; vo l.2,

The Frescoes (Princetcn, 1969)Linaue r, 11., & J .H.Crouwel. 'Char io ts in Late Bro nze Age Greece ' ,

A ntiquily57:187-9 2 (1983 )Man ning, S.W., 'The Military Fun ction in Late Mino an 1 Cre te : a note' ,

1l0rld Arrhorology 18, volume 2: 284-88 (Cambridge, 1986 )Matz, E , Creu and Early Greece, TJuPreLude to Greek A. ,.-t (Holland , 1962)Miller, K , McEwen , E., & C.Bergman , 'Experimental Approaches to

Ancient Near Easte rn Archery', llOrld ArchafflLogy 18, volume 2:179-95 (Cambridge, 1986)

Minist ry o f Culture - T he National Hellenic Committee - ICO~I , TM.\fycmMan Wodd, Fivt Cmturin ofEarly GTffk Ouuure 1600-11 00 BC(Athens, 1986)

vtoorey, P.R.S.• 'The Eme rgence of the Ligh t, Ho rse-D rawn Chario tin th e Near East (. 2000-1500 BC'. UQrldArchaeology 18, volume 2:197- 215 (Camb ridge. 1986)

Pm,,·e11. T.G.E.• 'Some Implications of Chariotry', in Cullu'ft andEnoimnmau. F.ssays in Honour et Sir CyriLFox, ed . I.Foster &LAdcock , 153--69 (London , 1963)

Sch liemann , 11.• A~)'CtTIlU; A. .Narrative of Researches '1.nd Discooeriaat Myu ruu and Tiryns (London, 1878)

Schuchhardt, C.• SrhLinnannsExcauations, A n .4. rrJuu oJogical andHistorical Study (Ne w Yo rk, 1971)

Taylour; W.D., n , Myunamn-S (New York, 1964 )Th ursto n , 5.• 'LBA Chariot Warfare - Part 11' , 11J1lJw.LivingHinoryJo.uk

( 1100--1500 Articles and Resourusj ( 1999)Ve u u i.", M.• &J.CII.u lwio.. l , I ftJc u 1IU"u l!. i n ,;\ I)l¥ / llM!Ult G If:l'k

(Cambridge , 1973)Verm eule , E.• GI?fU in tM Brrmu Age (London, 1972)Wec !>. 11. va n , 'Kings in ('..o mbat: Battles and H eroes in the Iliad',

rlllSJical Quarttrl) 38: 1- 24 (1988)Weingan n cr, S.• "In th e Near Eastern Bron ze Age, ch ariot tactics were

more sop h isticated than previously supposed ' , MiLitary' Heritap;e,August 2002: 18--22, 79 (USA, 2002)

59

THE PLATES

A: E A RLY INFA NTRY. c .1500 B CThe in$porabon for ths scene was taken from a seal fo..nd inShaft Grave III at Myoerlae. It shc7.Jo-s a WIfY ightly attiredswordsman stabtli~ a heavy spearman in the ttYoat O\ffl'r

the nrn 01 the latter'!: figure-<lf~ shield. haVlf"lQ got pastthe poent of his long and unwiolcIy epoor, The TIM:we.n heavy

spearman (Al ) has been aooed.Al : Theran heavy spearmanThis warriot is one cl a IOW of spearmen seen on a frescofrom Akrotiri, Thera (on the presen t-day Aegean island ofsantonnij . Akrotri is known as the.~ of the BronzeAge' , na...1IlQ been ertombed in volca1ic ash after the island

etaIy ellf)loded in arouna 1500 BC. HIS hel met, 01 leatherlaced with sliced boar's lu:.k:>. es plumed; It is not knOWn whateooo- Mycer\aea"l plumes were, or whethef trletr cololr was~ted to any orgcPzahonal system. He has a simple,probably early-pattern of 'tcwe- shield, camed - or ratherworn - by means of a leather strap (telar.JOfJ) which passesover his left shoulder and under his right arm. His asbwcocspear Is tipped with a 'srce -soceetec' brttlze head , this alsobeing 01an early design. The fresco from which he comes isunIQue in that il actually shows the spearmen 's swords, inI~ather scabbards with decorative tassels.A2: Swords manThis fi«ee character may be represented as a member- ofsomett1il'lg of an elite, pertlaps even Simiw in temperamentD the Vill.lng 'ee-sexe-. These I,lflprotected swordsmenwere apparently regarded as Vety brave; apart from attackingIleavy irltantry. as here. there are several deOiCtiOI lS inMycenaean art of ttis type of warrior flgh l lng a ion. His'1On'led' sVll'Ord is carried in i!II'l unusuaIy ornate scabbard.0\3: Hravy spearmanThIs warrior wears the UflKluely Aegea n flgure-of-eigt1t5tlleld, so named for its shape, and made from wickerworKon a wooden frame, cov ered with cowhid8. and with araised boss-l ike central rib. Uke all early Mycenaean heavyinfantry sh ifl ld~ . th i~ tyf)"l was worn by moans of a IQ/amon.

Se..1lmpnll.alon from Mycen_,16th _ tury BC, s howi ng a light-..d..-n dispatchi ng • .......,._ ....... _ _ Pbte A.. '"""'"

seene Is al9n~~ ItgI¥e$ an insOgIht inm _ of the

bctlcaI_ of such~

........ 'IP I'Ie-r s,....­

............ ..-.ng their~_

.II" ilitll. (Courtesy Professor Or60 1+4.8uctlhoUj

He too weaB the ch¥acter'ist1Ca11y Aegean ' boar's-tusk'hel rrwt. HiS spear had the socketed speartIead whichwas a development of the earli~ shoe- or double­sccket ed type.

0 ; EARLY I NI'AHTftY,16th.U5th C EN TURIES B CThis scene is Inspi red by 000 fol.Jl'\d on a decorative gold rilgfro m Myceoae, now cal led 'The Banle in the Glen' ring , anadated to the 16th cen tury BC . On the ring the dagger-aIlMdwarrior is portr~ as the 'hero ' :»f the sc ene, s1ayi:'lgano ther swordsn".an and resculllg an una rmed man. For I-esake of variety tI'Ie second swordsrTBn has been replacednere Oy a J8ve1ltWna1, and a heavy spearmatl looks on;perhaps they beIoog to a defeated aro "eeinQ anny.B1: Ught in fantry swordsman, 16th century BCThis heroiC warrior Is armed with a type of triangular~erfound In large rorrcers on Cret e. He wears the minimalclothing cnsractetstc of earty light in'a nlry. The fact tha t hehas a boar's-tusk helmet is not unLl5ual: mo st swordsmenfound in dep icti ons are so ecuiccec. Thi s and thepromirtence with which they are portrayed suggest that suchlight troops were held in relat ively high regard , possi blydue to the dangerous and individualistic nature 01 theirlactical role.B2: Creto-Mycenaean )avel inman, c.1450 BCTlw$ t1gln is laO;81 from an coscee fragrnertl of fresco fou~

in Mycenaean Knossos, and named by its discoverer. sa­Artt'lu"~ 'WlImot"';. ........ing J avMns". !t depicts. a~mass 01 these ja\elirtmen Ialroching their weapons high n othe u . This sk..mstler" wears a white~ band" apparen1ya charaCleristic: of Mycenaean javeirmen - It may even ha-Iebeen a badge of thetr trooP type .83: Heavy spearman, 16th century BCThis warrior cartes the fully develo::>ed pattern of tOVoQ"shield , of curved section and shaped into a raised neckguard 01'1 the top rim. Th e carrying st rap « llowed thol shiodl,l'!l;

..

position to be chcnqcd from the front to tho beck of the body

by throwing the upper body and shoulders back or forwardas needed. Like all early period spearmen he is equippedwith a boa r's -tusk helmet. His spearhead is of the "s1it ­eocketeo' type, a transit ion al design be tween thesooe-sccketec and fully socketed types.

c: E ARLY MISSILE TROOPS ,1 0th-1~ th CENTURIES BCThis scene shows thr ee distinct kinds of light troopsemployed by the eaty Mycerlaeans, ero the three missileweapons used. As wel l as battlefield skirmishers, such:roops would have been far more suited to the defence ofcitad el walls than heavy spearmen or swordsmen.C1: Regular archer, 16th century BCThis arche r can be found on a scene inl£id into the blade ofa dagger trom ooe of the Shaft Graves at Myceoae. He isshown supporti ng heavy spearmen, fighting an enem yoortrayed as lions. Our descript ion of this archer as a;regu lar' Is a relative term, in that he Is not nude like someother d epictions of Mycenaean archers, but wears a garmentaecoratec in the same way as those of his lour comrades onthe Inlaid scene, suggesting uniform regJlarlty. He is armedwith a composite bow which when dra.....n assu mes a semi­et-curer shape. His arrowhead is made of knapped obs idian(volcanic glass ); at a t ime when bronze was still expensivethis materia l provided a cheap and expendable alternative.The number fou nd ir elite burials Indicates that their use wasnot restricted to the lower classes.C2: Irregular s1inger, 16th centu ry BCThis figure represents what was probabl')o the lowest class ofMyc.eoaean warrior. He comes from an embossed silverrllyton (a vessel used to pour libatoos) now called Ihe 'SiegeRhytoo' , which depicts an assa ult 00 a walled town. Thenaked sl ingers and arch ers are shown skirmishing ahead ofheavy speermen with tower shie lds . Slingers suc h as th isone may have been civi lians who were called out to defendtheir town if it came under att ack. His weapon is cheap andsimple , being nothi ng more than a piece of leather cut toshape. His pro jectile is made of unfired d ay and is based onearlier excav ated examoles. these sling bullets were alsomad e of shaped stones.C3: Nubi an mercenary javelinman, 1450-1400 BCTaken from a fresco found in Mycenaean Knossos andcalled 'The Captair of the Blacks' , th is f igure po rtrays aforeign mercenary in Mycenaean servi ce, The fresco showswhat was evidently a line of Afr ican warriors led by a Greekoff ice r. The two feathers fixed into his hair suggest that he isNubran; th is type of adornment can also be seen in Egyptiandepict ions of Nubians , who were regarded as excellent lighttroo ps . He carries two light javelins 'oYi1h heads cut frombronze plate and tangs driven into the end of the shafts . Hisgarment is relativel"{ ornate , which ma{ suggest th is wasone of the pa lace 's elite specialist ums. As well as thechllracleris t ic jllvelinmlln's neck band he wellr.l twobronze rIngs above each ankle , which may or may not be aNubian element .

D : DUAL CHARIOT, 1500 - 1 400 BCInspired by a scene carv ed on a gravestone from Mycenae,th is plate depicts :he heavy 'dual ch ariot' of the earlie rperiod, so nam ed because the cab is of dual co nstru cti on ,

incorpo rQting the box proper Qnd :x:mi circulor 'winqa 'projecting from 1he rear sides. Excep t for the mouth bits ofthe bridle, no remains of Mycenaean chariots have beenfound, so reconstructions ca n only be made by studytlgdepict ions and tests as w ell as mak ing comparisons withsurviving Egyptian ch ario ts. The b-aced double draughtpole acces-s to be a strengthening feature of the Aegeanchariot. we do know that the cnaocts stored at MyceoaeanKn05SOS were paInted vanous soaoesof red . and tha t thes eprobably used by' higher ranks were inlaid w ith ivory.01: Warrior in corselet, c. 1400 BCThis warrior wears t he famous 'Dendr a panoply' narrecafter the site of ts d iscovery. This remark able suit of brorzearmour is the most complete example fo und of the type ofcorselets issued to chario t-borne warriors in the Unear Btablets, but fragments of a numoo- of similar armours havebeen found elsewhere. The vanocs plates were joinedtogether by leather 1M ngs and designed 10 be able to slideover each other, allowing the wearer enough mov ement tow ield his long spear effectively. The boar's-tus k helmet andarm guards were also fou nd with the corselet.0 2: Chari oteer, 15th cent ury BCUnlike the warrior, the cha riot drive' was not expected toengage in co mbat; his job was to maintain co ntrol of lha

chariot and manoeuvre it into position for the warrior to usehis spear. This would have ta ken great sl\ill, given the retatveheaviness of these early chariot s and the rocky Greek lerr<: in.For this reason ~.e wears only a wai st garment and a boar's­tusk helmet likE that of his comrade, with bronze cheekguards and plume.0 3: Sw ordsman, 15ttl century BCAlthough evidently highly effective against d isordered bodiesof heavy infantry. a loosely formed unit of light swordsrrenwould probably have been vulnerable to a chariot attack . Hisweapon is a long thrusting sWO!'C (sometimes called a'rapier'), of which many examples have been found.

E : LATER INFA N T RY, c .1 2 5 0-1200 BCThese figures are tak en from those portrayed on the 'WarriorVase' fou nd at Mycenae, and a fresco fragment from 11epalace at Pylos. These palaces were destroyed in the late13th cen tury BC. so these finds can be da ted to tha t period.They show a major ch ange in Myceneean mili l ary dressand equip ment fro m t he earlier per iod , and imply acorresponding change in tacti cs .E1: Mycenaean spearmanTaken fmm t hA Wllrrinr VIISf'!, this man WAllrR thA Rn·r;lI llfln'horned helmet'. We interpret t his as being made fromhardened Ieatbe-with bronze studs added for extra strength;it is adorned with two 'ho rns' - probably tusks from a boar ­and a plume mounted in a raised comb. His tor so is wellprotected by a sim ple fro nt-and-beck bronze cui-ass: his'kilt' is also for potecncn, being made of leather wit h bronzestuds. Underneath his greaves he wears woolleo over-the-­knee seeks. The MTlall bag attached to hi~ ecee- ts used

for carrying the wanior's rations and personal belongings ontile march.E2: Mycenaean spearmanThis warrior comes from the opposite side of the WarierVase 10 E1. HE is dressed and eq uipped the same as hiscomrade, apart from his headgear, of the type now knoYinas the 'tledgehog helmet' . Th is seems to have been 6 1

Thi s fre's<:o lro", Mycenae

clearly~ t he curved rim,

!ongiWdi.... rib be>-. -.clc:owhtOe -nng of the figu_

of-righl sIlleHS. IIw cowhide~lnled with dark brown palc,,"

on a while backgro und. This

da plcllon is d .. ....t tft""" 13th

century, whetl s.uc:h .nleHSs W«'8

_ Ionget' in u... (Courtesy

~donal Arct\aeologfc:.al~._~

6'

construct ed from or covered WIth the spined pelts of ar';tllalhedgehogs , attached to a leather frame. Such a helmetappears elsewhere In depictions of later Mycenaeanwarriors, and apparet1tly denotes a separate unit from thosewearing the horned t elmet. Both these .....arriOfS carry slungon their backs 'inverted pelt. ' sh ields. This type probablyalso had handles tor carrying It on the arm when fighting,though 1'\Ol'18 can be seen in depictions.E3: Pylian infa n trynun

This fal len warrior comes from the fresco fragment fro m thepalace at PyIos. H s dress Is charactertsticauy Pylian ,r.amely the linen tome and thick fabric greaves. It is unc learfrom the fresco whe:h er his weapon is it javelin intendedfor throwing Of a spe ar for th rusting. In an~ case he appearsto be a medium Infantryman, owing 10 the tact that hehas armour in the form of a sniekl and greaves but notody annour.

F: PYLlAN LIGHT INFANTRY AND•....RBARIANS· . c .12S0_1200 BCJlmong the fresco fragmerl ls tol.nd at the site of the palaceat Pykls was Ol">eshcwW'Ig a $lOrmish bet'tIrfeefI sokiiers and'll'hal can only be ckscribed as 'savages' or barbarians,which is the inspiration for th is plate.

F1 : Light spearman

Confirmation t hat this warrior 's we'1POO IS intended 10rthrusting rather than t hrowing is provided by the fresco,where one can be seen being thrust into a barbarian's gro in.His secondary weapon is a sword slung from a shoulder belt.He is very lightly attired. with on ly a I,nen kilt with leatherOWlrlay and linen sreavee. Th is would have made him w911suited for cceeatces in the rougn fri~ of Mycenaean rule,whel"e the b.artJ.arWls lJw""LF2: SwordsmanThis warrior Is possibly from the sam~ unit as his comradeF1, owing to their ident ical dress; however, mere is noindication that he too carried a spear. His sword is of the typeknown as 'cv crrcm-eooccerec'. His boar's-tusk helmet isin its fully evolved form , with a curved neck guard and smalltusk crestFJ; ' Barbarian'This savage hillman uses a Mycenaean sword take n from aslain PyIian soIdoEr. His garment is Simply a pl8C8 of hide orfleece tom so ttat it can be tied at the shoukier. It islJf'Ikno<Irm who exactly these warriofs represent in the PyIosfresco; howevef, the thought Iha1 they may have hadsomething to do wrttl the erty's unexplatned oestrcctcois intriguing .

G: RAIL CHARIOT, 0.1260-1160 BCThis scene shows the chariot halted beneath the 'Lion Gate'at Mycenae. The pott ery fragment from wnich the chariot andits crew are reconstruc ted came from the neighbo uringpalace at Tityl1s. Although a major centre in its own right,Tiryns appears to have been po lit ically dominated byMyceoae, and it is frcm there tha t ee cnanoreer has travelled.The rail chariot was the last type documeoted in Bronze AgeGreece and, like the dual dlarlot, was of lOcal orig in.G1: CharioteerHe wears a thick linM corselet over a wco aen tu nic, and hisbwer torso is further protected by a padded bronze waistbelt held on by its own teoecn. His con ical bronze helmethas chee k guards .G2: $pearmanThis spearman is less we ll equipped than those shown inPlate E. and may be a levied soldier, o'Ning to his lack ofOOImet and body armour. He has, howe'ler, procured a pai rof thin bronze greaves. His round shieki and short spea rseem to have been typical of the later Myceo aean period.

H1 : M ou n t e d werrlor, 0 . 1200 s eAlthough this rider is probably a cavajryman. it cannot beruled out that he is a mou nted infantryman. Indeed, the vasefragment fro m ....hich he is reconstn.ct ed appears to showhim d ismounted, although this may be the result of the artistbeing unfamil iar with the subject matter. His con ical bronzehelmet has cheek guards attached by leathers, and hiscuirass comprises a sImple set of breast- and back -plates.Below the edge of his tunic he wears long woo llen socksunder his thin bronZe greaves. and seooais. His weapon is aso-called 'c ruciform-hilted rapier' . The tying of the horse'smane in bullChe$ is shown in period sources, but the saddlepad and bnd le are conjectural apert from finds of bronze bits.H2: Mycenaean womanOffering the warrior a drink of water from a vessel known asa 1<yIix, this wo man wears the later Mycenaean dress ­similar to the men's tunics, but longer. Her hairstyle, >Mthsidelocks and two upwards cone above the forehead, ischaracteristica lly Mycena ean, and can be seen in frescoes olthe t ime.

Th is relati~el)' ea rty e" am pl e

of a bo ar's·tusk he lm et is

~onstn.leted based u po ndepI Ctions; It d lltes from

betw...... 1550 and t500 BC

a nd COme S hum My<;:enae itseI'.Note the eheek gua rds., also

constrveted of sliced tusksuwn on to • leather ba ckin g.

(Courtesy Profn.s.or Of"H-G.

Buchholq 63

64

INDEX

Fi~(C'; in bold reter 10 ill LL\IroUions

" "m tiri 'Sea Ba ll ]",' ffe"'o 10arch ers 20-5

and chario ts :n, ot f.early 6, 11, :W. 6 1. C IJate r 32

armourco rsele t ideogr,tll1S 56corselets l i , 46 . 61, 6:'1, DL Glcuirasses 61, 63, El . H IDcnd r.l lin d 46-8,46 , 47, 6 1, DIforearm gu ards 4 7. h l . LHgreavc s 18 , 19.20. 61, 63, E l , G:!. HI

axes 6, 1%. 13

baJitm 32'Battle in th" GI!:'n' rtn !t %5, :"'8 , 60battk fil"ld organization 50-1bows and arro ws 2(1-5. 22-4. 6 1, Cl

_ auo arch.....

cavalry 48, -19. 6."1 , HIchario ts an d ch ario trv -I. 30, 32--46

Aegean ch ario ts 32-43battlefield organization 5 1box chariots 42, 44'charges' 45-6ch ariot armamen t -1,3-5ch arioteers 2 1, 22. et. 63, 02, G Id ual chario ts 41. -12, 6 1. Dhorse sllppl~' 56quad..,m l chario ts 42-3rail ch ario ts n .·n .63. G

China 51, .')6....j

clothing'barbarians' 62, F3La>a1l)' 49cha rio tee rs 63, C lea rly 8,61 , C lKno~san dis tri bution 5~

late r period 3 1-2.61 , ElPvlian 28, 62. 0 , FlWOm e n &3, H 2

com mand structu re 51-3e rNe

JI,linoan civilization 3, +-5Mvcenaeans take O\1:'T 5J,N 00 0 Knos.'IO'\

daggers I t. 26 . :"'9, 60, 8 1Dendra armour -i6-8, 46 . 47. 61. DIDrie..."",n.J.M. 34

EIDptiaIlsann~' organization ~'), 52chari o ts 21. 32. 42, Hat Kadesh (1300 BC) 51and :\lycenaea ", :I

fIJI/ M 52,53cqui pm t'nt , iS5UC of ss-e. 57-81':\'a,,', Sir Ar th ur :-111,57- 8

footwear 19.63, H Ifortifications 7

helmetsboar's-ru sk 7. 11,1 2-1 3. 12- 13, 60 ,

62, 63, AI , AS, BI . f2cuuical bronze 63 . c r. HI'hedgcho.•( IS-19, 18, 6 1-2. E2'h orn ed ' 18-1 9, 18.61 , Elnther 14, 14plumes W, AI

1Iill ites 5. 44 . 49. 52. 51 , :;0HOlller 3, 5, 13, 5 1, 52, 54horse furniture 49. 63, HIhorses fi3, H

supplv 56

inf.m tr}:';"'nl('ficld organ;""'t!" n 50-1early 60-1, A B:l<'1I' ')' 8--19'a te r 6 1-2. E , FliKht 19-32, 28

j awhnmcn 17, 27, 3(1-1, 60 , 6 1. 8 2, C3j avel ins :'10, 58,61, C3

Kadesh , battle of (1300 BC) 5 1;"$"140 53Km""'ls

chariots 61des truc tion and reb uilding 5equipme n t issue 5~ 57-8frescoes from %7. 30-1.5~Linear 8 tablets from 43--4, H -8.

53--t, :i:in\ i1iuu~..organ ization 54--5, 56

1<w<Wt, 52Linear R 5, 55, 56logistics 55-6, 57-8

Macdonald , C. 54miitarv organization 49- 58Minoans 3, 4--5 , ir,..I)"'t'n"t'

citadel 53t xca\'3li,," 3Irescues from 62lion Gale 50. 63 . G

:\h'Cenat"",ln armycompcsinon 54-5evo lu tio n f>--8opponents 5unit sizes 56-7

M)'Cen,l",ansarchaeo logv on !>--6ce ntres of ci,~ lira lio n 4emergence an d do rninanc e- 4--5end of 7-8Ho mer on ;;polilical organization 52

:"Jubians %7, 30, 61, CS

palace role 52--6. 57-81"\-1..<

, eq .iipmc r n -17-8Ircscoes fro m %8. 41h i ~I OT)' 4, 7, 62in fam rynle ll from 62 , es. FI , £'2mil ila ry organization 52- 3, 56

saddbl9, 6;'1, H ISchliemann . Heinrich :1shie lds 9-11

IiK.lre.of-eight 7,8. HI-ll , 11, 611. 6%A>

'i nve rted peha' 17, 6 1- 2 El. E%round (lI_'pis) 16, 17, 63.G%Io<,.-.. r 3. 10. 11, 60- 1, AI. B3

'Siege Rh~'lon ' 13,1 9. 20.20, 2'1. 6 1skirmisherv 19-25, 5 1~lj"g 'IO""'~ 6, 6 1, C 2sting ers 6, 20. 32 . 57, 6 1. C2spcarmen

in chario ts 44early 7, 25. so-t . 60, A I. A.l . B3later 17, 61- 2, 63. El , E2. r i. G2

'l'""lT>l and spearhead, 11·12early Sla l.. 1fislit-sockctcd head 9. 61, 83wicb'ling 11. 14-15wi ~ lding from ch ari o t. 44--5, U

<words 1~16, 15. 16' cru ciform-shouldered ' f·2. 63 , £'2.

H Ilo ng th n L<ling 3, 16, 29 , 61 , D3,,~dd;ng 10

swords me n 25---30cal l~ %5. 60 ,60. A%later 26, 62 , F2IiKht 60, 6 1. BI , 0 3

taUinba ttlefield organiza tion [,(1-1cha rio ts 32---41,43-6,41'\l, t'4"" inr" ntry 1+1::;liHht' infanlT) ' 25:-.It' 'llilh ic 6-7skitmishcrs 19-2Qsw'ordcnen 29-30 , 60

Ta\"lclllr, W.D. 6Tl ryn s .1. 6.1

un if"nn s J,N d Olhine:

""'TUUM 51- 2'Warrior Va."", · 17, 18. 18. 6 1wcapun~

..a rty 6-7prcducti,," 57-8.,..'/' 'Il", individ ual wfcr'I"' >!,' 0' nail!<'

W"lJI~tl 63, H2