128 Harding 2000, p. 285, in discussing the earliest evidence for shields, cites a burial
in Bush Barrow near Stonehenge (fragments of wood along with bronze rivets).
Needham, Lawson and Woodward 2010, p. 10, find unconvincing the suggestion
that the rivets and fragments are the remains of a shield. Harding also mentions a
shield mold at Kilmahamogue in Northern Ireland, carbon dated 3445 + 70 BP, so
15th centuryBC.
129 See Harding 2000, p. 284; “Such arrowheads were tanged and made of stone—
typically flint—in the Early Bronze Age, but by the Middle Bronze Age were
socketed and made of bronze.”
130 Harding 2007, pp. 55–70.
131 Thorpe 2013, p. 235.
132 See Kletter and Levi 2016.
133 Harding 2000, p. 281. Harding goes on to estimate—correctly, I think—the signifi -
cance of the spear: “Pre-eminently a thrusting weapon, the spear must have superseded
the dagger as a means of inflicting damage on an opponent without getting too close,
and therefore represents a dramatic new development in fighting techniques.”
134 Harding 2000, p. 275.
135 Harding 2000, p. 292. Sherratt 1994, p. 268, summarizes the beginning of effective
fortifications, visible especially in Romania and Slovakia, that occurred in the middle
of Bz A2.
136 On these see Toms 2000, pp. 92–93.
137 Possehl 1997, p. 434.
138 Cork 2005 identifies some of the blades found at Harappan sites as daggers, and argues
that the many Harappan bronze axes—even though unsocketed—could have been
used in battle.
139 According to Possehl 1997, pp. 434–435, no demonstrable fortifications have been
found at Mature Harappan sites, and the two “citadels” were probably places for
ritual.
140 Although Possehl 1997 proposes that what the Indus valley civilization experienced
ca. 1900 BCwas a “transformation” rather than a decline or eclipse, the transformation
seems no less bleak than an eclipse. Possehl proposes that many inhabitants of Sindh
and Baluchistan moved either to the east or to Gujarat, where considerable continuity
from Mature to Late Harappan is evident. The most likely factor in the abandonment
of cities in Sindh and Baluchistan, Possehl suggests, was a sudden dropping of the
Indus, and so a decrease of the irrigation waters on which agriculture depended.
A tectonic shift in the Himalayas may have sent much of the mountain water east to
the Ganges rather than west to the Indus.
141 It is pertinent here to cite Sarva-Daman Singh, Ancient Indian Warfare, with
Special Reference to the Vedic Period (1965). After dispensing with pre-Vedic India
in a single paragraph, Singh went on to Vedic literature. At pp. 7–8 he proposed
that,
mighty citadels such as those of Harappāand Mohenjodaro, provided with
watchmen’s quarters, suggest the presence of standing garrisons to man the
defences. Fighting, then, must already have become a profession, and the army,
such as it was, an important factor in the life of these wealthy communities. The
Rgvedic references to the forts and large armies of the native inhabitants of India
lend support to the evidence of archaeology.
142 On this culture see Anthony 2007, pp. 382–385.
143 Koryakova and Epimakhov 2014, p. 63.
144 Anthony 2007, p. 385.
145 Anthony et al. 2005, p. 398, report that the structure, evident from many post-holes,
measured approximately 14x8 m.
Warfare in Western Eurasia 105