Book Review - Bronze Age Military Equipment by Dan Howard

Last week I reviewed Chariot by Arthur Cottrell, a book covering one of the most iconic aspects of Bronze Age warfare. I found it to be a great read, but flawed in a number of ways.

So this time, I'm reviewing the next book I read on Bronze Age warfare. This covers the equipment used, and the author is both an historian and a gamer, with a strong interest in martial arts and re-enactment. It makes a difference !

At first glance, this book appears as a very dry reference tome, the kind of thing that you use to look up a specific topic rather than read from cover to cover.

Compared to Chariot, I was immediately struck by the far more structured and logical layout of the book. It is divided into five chapters each dealing with a specific topic, as well as four appendices and the normal index, lists of plates, sources etc.

The chapters start with one covering Bronze Age warfare, which demonstrates how it evolved over the period, what social and material changes led to that evolution, and a lot (and I mean a LOT !) of references to original evidence to back each assertion up. As with all the chapters, it is nicely divided by logical sub-headings to further segment the information.

Following this chapter, the succeeding ones cover weapons, chariots, armour and shields. Again, the same rigorous logic is followed, with each chapter looking at carefully-sourced geographical variations in the same order. Compared to Arthur Cotterell's book, the structure and clarity is a stand-out feature.

Something which I found particularly interesting when it came to the armour and shield chapters was that where possible, reference was made to experimental archaeology, understanding in depth how historical replicas of the protective gear were constructed and behaved when confronting the weapons of the time.

Too often I've seen television documentaries doing incredibly poor experimental archaeology, making a replica shield out of plywood, testing it against steel-headed modern arrows and declaring it to be of no protective value.

This book doesn't do that. The replicas are constructed as close as possible to originals that have been excavated, and tested against authentic weaponry. The tests are outlined with actual statistics, detailing how deeply weapons penetrated the armour etc.

I particularly like the recognition that most archers continued to use flint arrows well into the Bronze Age; they were surprisingly effective against flesh, textiles and wood, only really struggling against bronze armour that would have been "top of the tree" and very expensive for the time period. I also like that the author points out any issues with the testing, for example that the thickness of reconstructed armour may not be correct due to the originals having been buried for a few thousand years and possibly suffering from corrosion.

The appendices were a big surprise to me. Too often, the appendices of a book are eminently skippable. Either they are just lists of sources, or sometimes tables of data. In this case, each of the four appendices is a deep dive into a specific sub-topic that might have been included in overview in the main text but are worthy of further detail.

The first appendix looks at Homeric shields, covering the detailed evidence presented both in the Iliad and archaology of the different types of shield and how they are likely to have been used. This is then used to construct a replica of Hector's shield from the siege of Troy. It goes into serious detail, even including how the the bronze outer layer became thinner towards the edge, how that affected the overall weight and how the shield would have behaved in combat.

The second appendix covers armour in similar depth, and I have to mention the plate included in the book of the incredible replica of the Dendra panoply the author owns. I've seen the original in Napflion Museum, and that is impressive enough, but the replica is just awesome.

It is interesting that Dan Howard reaches a far more nuanced conclusion than Arthur Cotterell when it comes to this armour. In Chariot, Arthur Cotterell dances around how and when this armour was used, and concludes by calling it "baffling". Dan Howard is clear that the use of this type of heavy armour had been abandoned by the time of the siege of Troy, due to changes in the way warfare was conducted, but that in an earlier period when the key threat was from chariot archers, it would have been essential for an armoured chariot driver. Unlike the archer, the driver was less able to dodge or duck, and if he was hit the whole chariot would be lost, so he needed protecting. By the time of Troy, infantry were more disciplined and better armoured, so the chariot archer was far less effective.

The third appendix is a useful round up of what warriors from each geographical location would have looked like, and the differences between them. A useful summary !

Finally, appendix 4 is a wonderfully illustrated typology of Bronze Age European and Middle Eastern swords. It's a great reference source. If I ever come into enough money to be able to afford one of Brian Burridge's incredible museum quality replicas, this will be like my shopping list !

Overall, this is one of the best books I've read on any early military historical subject. I kind of wish there were more line illustrations, but that's a very minor nit-pick. The book is packed with detail, and the explanations and layout are clear enough that it makes the whole thing a fascinating and easy read. For anyone interested in the Bronze Age, it's a "must have" that should be on your bookshelf, especially if you want to understand it from a re-enactment or experimental archaeology perspective. The volume of sources could probably give you a lifetime's reading and research.

Photos are by me, of my copy of the book.

Published in 2011 by Pen and Sword Books Ltd. 169 pages with 15 plates. ISBN 1399023373