in some instances “unmilitarized”—was possible with much smaller forces. The
Babylonian Chronicle, the Cyrus Cylinder and Greek sources agree that in 539 BC,
after Cyrus defeated Nabonidus’ army at Opis, the Persian troops entered Babylon
without a battle and Cyrus took over the Neo-Babylonian empire with its several million
inhabitants. Two hundred years later Alexander’s army that put an end to the Persian
empire took over a population 100 times its size. The Arabian armies that took over
Mesopotamia, the Levant and Egypt in the 7th century seldom exceeded 25,000 men.
94 See the website at http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/poland-3600-year-old-cemetery-reveals-life-
tumulus-warrior-community-1550380, accessed January 19, 2017.
95 Vandkilde 2014, Fig. 5.
96 For a map showing distribution of Apa swords in the Carpathian basin and in
northern Europe see Metzner-Nebelsick 2013, Abb. 1. For the two Nebra swords see
Hansen 2010.
97 See Wincentz Rasmussen and Boas 2006; see also Horn 2013a.
98 On the contemporaneity of the northern with the Carpathian swords see Bader
1991, p. 51: “Die Gleichzeitigkeit der karpatenländischen und der nordischen
Vollgriffschwerter vom Typ Apa ist sehr wahrscheinlich.” See Vandkilde 2014,
pp. 605–606 for discussion of chronology of the NBA (Nordic Bronze Age) IA and
IB and links to Nebra and the Carpathian basin.
99 See Vandkilde 2014, p. 603: “The argument will be presented that Carpathian
connections commenced on a smaller scale in NBA IA c. 1700–1600 BC, but were
particularly lively, influential and culturally formative in NBA IB c. 1600–1500 BC.”
Vandkilde’s chronology is about a century higher than mine, since she accepts the
1628 BCdate for the Thera eruption.
100 Vandkilde 2014, p. 623:
The emergence of the NBA as a cultural zone in and of itself was historically
linked with the Carpathian crossroad, particularly during the period with Koszider
metalwork (Table 1). This could in turn mean a longer chain of linked socio-
cultural change starting in the Aegean. Indeed, similar warrior gear with swirling
cosmology-embedded designs embellishes the pinnacles of the material
hierarchies across Europe with highlights in southern Scandinavia, the Carpathian
Basin, and the Aegean. A widely shared Indo-European background may have
facilitated a generally high degree of receptivity across Europe at this time.101 See Cowen 1961, Fig. 5 for distribution of the Sprockhoff Ia swords.
102 Horn 2013a, p. 20.
103 Vandkilde 2014, p. 611.
104 See Christensen 1972, p. 161: “Quite a lot of log boats have been found all over
Scandinavia, but nearly all are just plain ‘dug-outs’ and offer little help in explaining
the transition from a one-piece boat to one fashioned from many pieces of wood.”
105 Ling 2014, p. 63:
A majority of these items are well dated from their contexts, mainly graves from
the LBA, period IV-V.... There are considerably fewer bronze items with ship
renderings from the EBA, so far only two, namely the Rørby sword, dated to
period 1b... , and the famous Wismar horn.106 Oxford: Oxbow Books, 2014.
107 Ling 2014, p. 1.
108 Harding and Hughes-Brock 1974.
109 Kristiansen and Larsson 2005, p. 206, Fig. 92. See also their comments at p. 207:
There is also the strange rock carving of ships outside an early tholos from
the late Middle Helladic/early Late Helladic (Wachsmann 1998: Fig. 7.30–31).Militarism in temperate Europe 173