Chariots Swords And Spears

This volume brings together recent excavations at two sites in Pocklington, East Yorkshire. The main focus of the Volume will be examining Iron Age burials, which included chariots, sword and spears and will also include earlier Prehistoric and later Roman activity. The excavations have enabled further scientific evidence for migration and mobility in the Iron Age population and secure chronologies for artefacts. New evidence from osteological analysis gives support for Warrior Graves and burial rites. The Pocklington shield has been described as one of the most significant pieces of Iron Age art. The exceptional Finds including a dismantled chariot with horses and an upright chariot also with horses captured the worlds media and the public imagination. The excavations at Pocklington in 2017& 2018 were featured on BBC 4’s Digging for Britain series and was voted Current Archaeology Rescue Project of the Year 2018. The Anglian elements will be included in an additional volume.

This volume brings together recent excavations at two sites in Pocklington, East Yorkshire. The main focus of the Volume will be examining Iron Age burials, which included chariots, sword and spears and will also include earlier Prehistoric and later Roman activity. The excavations have enabled further scientific evidence for migration and mobility in the Iron Age population and secure chronologies for artefacts. New evidence from osteological analysis gives support for Warrior Graves and burial rites. The Pocklington shield has been described as one of the most significant pieces of Iron Age art. The exceptional Finds including a dismantled chariot with horses and an upright chariot also with horses captured the worlds media and the public imagination. The excavations at Pocklington in 2017& 2018 were featured on BBC 4’s Digging for Britain series and was voted Current Archaeology Rescue Project of the Year 2018. The Anglian elements will be included in an additional volume.

This collection of papers is primarily concerned with transport by wheeled vehicle in antiquity. They shed much light on the construction of the vehicles, the ways their draught animals were harnessed and controlled, and the uses to which the equipages were put. The evidence discussed includes actual remains of vehicles and bridles, as well as figured and textual documents. Ridden animals and their gear also feature in this collection of papers. The Selected Writings of Mary B. Littauer and Joost H. Crouwel are important for all those interested in the cultures of the ancient Near East, Egypt and Cyprus and of Bronze Age Greece.

Most studies of ancient warfare focus only on the Greeks and the Romans, but this sweeping study covers the whole of the ancient world from Greece and Rome to the Near East, then eastward to Parthia, India, and China. Bradford transports the reader into the midst of ancient battles behind such great leaders as Thutmose III, Ashurbanipal, Alexander, Hannibal, Caesar, and the First Emperor of China. He details the rise and fall of empires, the role of leadership, and the development of tactics and strategy. One sees the clash of peoples: nomads against agricultural societies, infantry against cavalry, as well as the greatest technological change in history—the combination of the composite bow and the chariot. This readable account analyzes ancient armies in terms of modern military doctrine, allowing the reader to make comparisons between the combatants. Recruitment, for example, varied tremendously with Romans drawing from a limited pool of recruits for service terms of twenty to thirty years and Chinese planners preferring a large pool with short-term service. While various types of governments prepared for and waged war in significantly different ways, Bradford finds that better organization led to success on the battlefield and that, for the most part, societal innovation was more important than technological innovation. The ongoing discussion of the lessons of ancient warfare around the globe will provide valuable insights for interested general readers and military professionals alike.

This ambitious and innovative book sets out to establish a new understanding of human aggression and conflict in the distant past. Examining the evidence of warfare in prehistoric times and in the early historical period, John Carman and Anthony Harding throw fresh light on the motives and methods of the combatants. This study marks a significant new step in this fascinating and neglected subject, and sets the agenda for many years to come. By integrating archaeological and documentary research, the contributors seek to explain why some sides gained and others lost in battle and examine the impact of warfare on the social and political developments of early chiefdoms and states. Their conclusions suggest a new interpretation of the evolution of warfare from the Stone Age and the Bronze Age, through the military practice of the Ancient Greeks and the Romans, to the conflicts of the Anglo-Saxons and of medieval Europe.

This is the first volume in a series of WRG publications providing detailed guidance on the structure and organisation of ancient armies for use with the De Bellis Magistrorum Militum (DBMM) wargame rules.