Warrior Graves Research Articles

Оn the Eve of the “Scythian Invasion” to Central Europe: a New Warrior Grave in Bilsk

In the article, the results of excavations of the Barrow 1/2020 (no. 57) in Skorobir (Area “4th Field”) are presented. In the burial of the beginning of the transitional period (580/570—560/550 BC), a set of handmade pottery, two iron bits, a spearhead and a quiver with arrowheads were found. The arrowhead set makes possible to synchronise it with other warrior burials of the time of the eve of nomad campaign to the Hallstatt and Lusatian lands around the middle of the 6th century BC. Complexes with similar arrowhead sets could belong to warriors, who moved to the compaign to the west after the conquering of the Eastern European forest-steppe tribes.

De grafheuvel van de bronstijdkrijger van Drouwen: onderzoeksgeschiedenis, hergebruik in de Vroege Middeleeuwen en regionale funeraire context

In 1927, A.E. van Giffen excavated a largely levelled burial mound near the village of Drouwen in the Dutch province of Drenthe. A few years later, Van Giffen published a summary report on the excavation, in which he concentrated on the lavish inventory of the central Sögel warrior burial. In 1985-1989, J.N. Lanting carried out further research at the site of the mound and revealed a large number of soil features from the Bronze Age and early Middle Ages. This second excavation has never been published before. The present article discusses both excavations. After an evaluation of all the excavation data the author zooms in on the warrior: what was his cultural context, and how can we interpret his social status in the region? The article concludes with an analysis of the spatial pattern of which this burial mound is a part. To do so, the author looks at all the prehistoric and protohistoric burial monuments in the area between the villages of Drouwen and Borger.Van Giffen’s profile drawings of the mound section he investigated suggest two construction phases. The oldest structure, a central mound of grey sand (c. 8 m across by c. 0.80 m high), was raised over the remains of a pyre. This first mound probably dates to the Early or early Middle Bronze Age. In the 16th century BC the warrior grave was dug into this mound; posts around the grave suggest the presence of a mortuary house or fence. The mound that was associated with this grave was c. 1.60 m high, possibly elongated (26 by 15 m or less) and surrounded by an oval ditch up to 1.6 m wide, with to the north a c. 3.40-m-wide opening. Whether there were any secondary burials is unknown.In the early Middle Ages, when the surrounding ditch had long since been filled in, the mound and its immediate vicinity became the location of a cemetery with graves arranged in rows (rijengrafveld). Only a small section of this cemetery was excavated (61 graves) so that the full period it was used is uncertain. Most graves were oriented east-west. Of the investigated graves, the majority were fully excavated, and several contained traces of a coffin. The buried individuals were mostly adults. Many did not produce any grave goods, and those items that were found were - in Van Giffen’s words - ‘armelijk’, rather poor. They are mostly iron knives and ‘prikkels’ (‘goads’, iron points, of unknown function, originally attached to a rod), bronze needle cases, keys, and one brooch. Of particular interest are three strings of beads and one isolated bead. To the extent they can be dated, all grave goods are comparatively late and could well be 8th and 9th-century, indicating that the cemetery ended at some point in the 9th century. The only human remains come from a small sub-recent pit close to Grave 29 (GrM-28439: 1244 ± 21 BP, i.e. 680-876 cal AD (2σ)).It is highly unlikely that the ‘Drouwen Warrior’ was anything more than a ‘big man’ whose network extended into northern Germany and possibly even Scandinavia. Whether he actually was a warrior in life is still an open question. When he was buried, at some point in the 16th century BC, several (very) ancient burial monuments already existed nearby. The mound of the warrior may have been part of an old linear alignment of these features. Why this particular mound was chosen in the early medieval period to situate a cemetery will probably always remain a mystery, although it is tempting to think that stories about the dead man buried there 2200 years earlier were still being told in the 7th or 8th century AD. That would tie in with the current archaeological narrative of the Bronze Age warrior as a person who strove after a heroic status after death, a form of immortality, created by the stories, passed on in each generation, of his martial, cosmopolitan and adventurous life.

Воинские погребения скифской эпохи могильника Заюково-3

The article examines the relationship of the local population from the foothill zone of the North Caucasus on the territory of the western variant of the Koban cultural and historical region with the steppe nomads in the second half of the 6th — first half of the 5th centuries BC. The authors analyzed the funerary ritual and inventory of four warrior graves from the Zayukovo-3 cemetery (Baksansky district, Kabardino-Balkaria) in which weapons were found, an object in the Scythian animal style (a bronze scabbard-end with an image of an elk), ceramic sets, jewelry sets, and came to the conclusion that the studied materials demonstrate a rather insignificant presence of steppe imports in warrior graves of the population that founded the necropolis. However, the military items produced by local craftsmen manifested the embodiment of ideas that emerged from the steppe world. In other aspects of material culture, the local population remained faithful to the traditions of the previous era, which partially changed over time, but retained their key features.

Warrior graves reconsidered: metal, power and identity in Copper Age Italy

ABSTRACT The article proposes a new interpretation of Chalcolithic and early Bronze Age warrior graves grounded in the ‘Rinaldone’ burial tradition of central Italy, 4th and 3rd millennia BC. In European archaeology, warrior graves are frequently thought to signal the rise of sociopolitical inequality rooted in metal wealth. The work questions the empirical and conceptual foundations of this reading, arguing that, in early Europe, copper was not as rare and valuable as it is often presumed to be; that metalworking did not demand uniquely complex skills; and that metal-rich burials cannot be interpreted in light of modernising ideas of identity. It is argued instead that the key to decoding prehistoric warrior graves lies in context-specific notions of gender, age, and the life course. In particular, life and death circumstances including violence (both inflicted and suffered) would determine why certain individuals were laid to rest with lavish weapon assemblages.

GRAVES OF THE SCYTHIAN AMAZONS: TYPOLOGY AND DESIGN FEATURES

Types of burial structures are one of the most reliable ethno-differentiating criterion. They are commonly due to local natural and economic factors that were accepted by the newcomer population along with main characteristics of their own ritual.
 As for the shape, the graves of Scythian warriors are arbitrarily divided into 11 types with options, which in general make up three main groups: simple pits and more intricate variable chamber constructions such as undercut and catacombs.
 303 graves of women with weapons from 267 barrows are known in the territory of European Scythia. More than half of them (55 %) have not been looted. By territorial principle they can be divided into five main groups: 1) Lower Dnipro steppe (or Steppe); 2) Crimea Foothills; 3) Danube-Dnister steppes (or Transnistria); 4) Forest Steppe Dnipro area (or Forest Steppe); 5) Don region (Steppe and partly Forest Steppe).
 In total, among graves of the Amazons of European Scythia the undercut (alcove) graves are the most represented — 104, inferior to them are catacombs — 99 and pit graves — 80, undefined — 20. However, the indicators for some groups differ significantly.
 We can mention the following design features of the graves: ground steps and hollow in the bottom of entrance pit, separation of entrance to dromos or chamber etc.
 Some specific features are also present in the arrangement of internal space of the graves (nishes, wall and ceiling design, floor decoration, arrangement of a funeral bed etc.).
 So, burial complexes of the female warriors correspond to Scythian regulations, that is, the design of ground and underground elements does not stand out in the burial ground. Here, we are dealing only with regional features typical for community members who lived there.

Funerals During the Second Iron age: A Newly Discovered Sepulchral Ensemble Reveals Practices in Western Switzerland (Pré-Du-Stand, Geneva)

During preventive archaeological excavations at the site of Pre-du-Stand in Geneva (Switzerland) in 2015 and 2016, four cremations dating to the middle La Tene period (La Tene C2/200-150 BC) were found. This discovery sheds light on Second Iron Age societies, which remain poorly understood to this day. Analysis based on existing anthropological knowledge and funerary artefacts suggest these structures represent a female grave, two warrior graves, and a deposit of charcoal and burned human bones. On the Swiss Plateau, the beginning of the Second Iron Age (LTA2-LTC2/425-150 BC) is characterised by inhumation necropolises. Cremation, meanwhile, disappears until 150 BC, when it makes a comeback. The recent discoveries made at Pre-du-Stand push back the appearance of cremations to the La Tene C2 period around 200 BC, and bear witness to the presence of two male tombs, a rare occurrence in the funerary context for this period.

The paleoanthropological analysis of Myndos Necropolis human remains and a warrior grave

Bodrum Yarımadası’nın batısında, Gümüşlük Beldesi sınırları içinde yer alan Myndos Antik Kenti, antik dönemde yoğun olarak kullanılan iki korunaklı doğal limana sahiptir. MÖ 4. yüzyıldan MS 4. yüzyıla kadar kullanıldığı bilinen nekropol alanında Bodrum Müzesi tarafından gerçekleştirilen kazı çalışmalarında tespit edilen 96 mezar içerisinde, 89 bireye ait iskeletler tespit edilmiştir. İskeletler üzerinde yapılan antropolojik incelemede 73 yetişkin ve 16 yetişkin öncesi döneme yaşlandırılan birey tespit edilmiş olup en sık karşılaşılan ölüm yaş aralığı 35-50 olarak belirlenmiştir. Çalışmada bireylerin cinsiyetleri, ölüm yaş aralıkları, boy uzunlukları, ağız ve diş sağlığı durumları, patolojileri ve varyasyonları da ortaya konulmuştur. Bir bireyde kültürel kafatası deformasyonu ve başka bir bireyde nadir görülen bir varyasyon olan iki köklü mandibular köpek dişi tespit edilmiştir. Bir mezarda ise, içinde bükülmüş bir kılıcın da olduğu savaş nesneleri tespit edilmiş olup, mezarın bir savaşçıya, muhtemelen Avrupalı bir paralı askere ait olduğu düşünülmektedir. Bu çalışma, Myndos Antik Kenti’nden çıkarılan iskeletler üzerinde gerçekleştirilen ve demografik verilerin ortaya konulduğu ilk çalışma olması bakımından önem taşımaktadır. Kentte gelecek yıllarda devam edecek kazılarda bulunması muhtemel iskeletler ile kent insanına dair daha detaylı bilgilerin ortaya çıkacağı düşünülmektedir.

An Assessment of Cultural and Heritage Tourism Products in Kampung Hujong Permatang and Kampung Permatang in Kuala Selangor

The purposes of this study were to explore the availability and conditions of the cultural and heritage products in Kampung Hujong Permatang and Kampung Permatang in the Hujong Permatang sub-district of Kuala Selangor. The data and information were collected via observations and unstructured interviews, guided by using checklists on resources such as community, site, physical and natural, environmental, and the tourism facilities and services, that were to be examined. The findings indicated some very interesting and unique cultural and heritage products that were available and could be promoted as tourism products such as the historical sites which had the graves of famous warriors at Bukit Raja, the old mosque of Kampung Permatang, the traditional Bugis and unique Malay houses, the Malay art of self-defence called Silat Lincah, the almost extinct traditional dance called Dabus with the accompanying musical instruments, and the handicrafts made of jute fibres. Proper planning for tourism development which should include all the stakeholders, especially the community members, had be carried out at the onset of ideas for improvement of the villages.

Бритва как принадлежность воина европейского бронзового века: знак и функция

Razors are frequently found in warrior graves of the later half of the second millennium BC in Scandinavia, central Europe, Italy and Greece. It is common to treat such razors as indicating a status and symbolizing an elite lifestyle. This view is justified, but it offers no explicit explanation of why the razor acquired such a role. It was repeatedly observed that razors are frequently found in the graves that contain a sword as well. It is further worth noting that Nordic razors (the most remarkable class within the type) appear in graves during period II of Montelius when also a new kind of weapon — the slashing swords appear there. This epoch-making weapon spread throughout Europe and the Mediterranean in the course of a few centuries. A close association between the slashing sword and the razor is clarified by occasional remarks by Greek authors. One learns from them (Plutarch, Theseus, 5 is particularly important passage) that swordsmen, being close fighters, cut off their hair in the fore part of their heads not to give their enemies a hold of their hair and beards. It remains true that the razor was used as a symbol, but this happened because of its function.

The Diversity of Weaponry in La Tene Culture Burials in Poland and Comments on the Non-burial Find of a Celtic Sword in Rzeszów

The purpose of this work is to create a comprehensive summary of arms originating from Celtic warrior graves in Poland. The largest number of artefacts comes from La Tene culture cemeteries from Lower Silesia, in Sobocisko and Głownin. Individual warrior graves came from Podgaj, Smolec and Wiązow. Other examples of weaponry were found in the Kietrz cemetery in Upper Silesia, with Lesser Poland warrior graves from Iwanowice, Aleksandrowice, and Krakow-Witkowice. From Lesser Poland we also know of alleged graves from Krakow-Pleszow and Krakow-Wyciąże. Some comments about the non-burial find of a Celtic sword from Rzeszow will also be given. A fresh consideration of the source material has corrected the earlier interpretation and reinterpreted some aspects. A new detailed chronology will also be proposed. It will also present a very broad area of connections of Celts residing in Poland.

THE EARRINGS OF THE SVITLOVODSK CEMETERY

Scythian tribes and their North Pontic neighbors had a magnificent set of jewelry in their everyday life: beads, bracelets, appliques for costume decoration, rings, earrings, torques, pins.
 One of these categories, the earrings, is widely represented in the large Svitlovodsk cemetery on the south of the Dnieper Right Bank Forest-Steppe. During the 1975—1990 by archaeological expeditions under the direction of N. M. Bokiy and I. A. Kozyr more than 160 graves of Scythian Age have been excavated.
 A total of 45 items were found in 34 graves (21 % of the total). They are ring-shaped and sometimes decorated with beads or pendants. More often, the earrings have been put into female burials. Sometimes one earring has been occurred in the graves of male warriors.
 The ring-shaped earrings are made of bronze wire. One end is usually sharpened. This is the most numerous group including 19 items (42 % of the total) from 16 burials.
 Twisted wire hoop earrings (5 items, making up 11 % of all earrings, come from 4 burials). Moreover, 3 items are silver, 2 are bronze. They have been found jnly in female tombs.
 Hoop earrings with curved ends. 4 specimens (almost 9% of earrings) have been found in two graves with buried women.
 Ring-shaped smooth earrings with beads are the second largest type in Svitlovodsk, including 11 items (24 % of earrings from 11 graves). The body is usually bronze, only once it is silver. The beads made of glass, less often of copper, bone, bronze. Usually one bead was set onto body. In several cases 2, 3 and 4 such decorations have been recorded. This type is the most frequent attribute of female burials, sometimes of a child and a teenager, in one case of a wealthy male warrior.
 Hoop earrings with twisted body and bead. Two specimens (over 4% of earrings) come from 2 assemblages. They are made of bronze and electrum.
 Bronze hoop earrings with pendants. Two items (4 % of earrings) come from two graves. In one case the pendant was made of the animal tooth, in the second it was the bronze ring.
 Earrings in the shape of a stylized duck. Two copies (4 % of earrings) were found in graves 70 and 77. In Svitlovodsk, these jewelry were found in graves belonging to poor community members.This category of jewelry from Svitlovodsk shows the part of the set of jewelry of the common population of Scythia.

Military Concepts in the Russian Linguistic World Image (as in the case of " Warrior" Concept)

The article features the cognitive signs of the warrior concept. The main representation of the concept is stylistically marked. The word warrior is often used in elevated style. In Russian culture, the army has always been a special estate that protects the people and the Russian lands. The concept warrior proved to have some structural peculiarities. It includes seven motivating signs in the structure of the concept: (battle) cry, army, conquest, hunting, desire / aspiration, target, dedication. Only four of them transformed with time and moved into the category of conceptual signs: army → warrior / defender / one who is fighting; desire / aspiration + goal + dedication → purposeful (person). The second group of the structure is formed by twenty conceptual signs: military, liberator, fighter, (military) employee, soldier, (experienced) in military affairs, warrior / defender / the one who fights, hero, protector, brave man, winner, squire, courageous / valiant (man), role model / example for imitation, responsible (man), purposeful (person), giving a debt to the country, ready for self-sacrifice / accomplishing a feat, participant in the war, patriot / devotee / loyal (Motherland / Fatherland / people). These cognitive characteristics show a wide range of functional manifestations of modern representations of military occupation. The special group includes figurative stereotypical and gender signs, since a warrior has always been a male hero in Russian linguistic culture. The stereotypes of Russian linguistic culture are connected with the military past of our people, with its heroic epos, tales, and legends. Symbolic signs make up a separate group. The structure of the studied concept includes sixteen symbolic signs, which are also connected with the history of the Russian people with its numerous wars and victories: gods and saints, (fraternal) graves of warriors, war veterans, eternal flame, (military) rituals, (military) units, banner, George the Victorious, coat of arms, hero cities, icons, awards (orders and medals, weapons), monuments (obelisks and columns), songs and marches, field, status Hero-city, temple.

Denis Topal, The specificity of the Scythian panoply of the Lower Danube

The archaeological landscape of the Lower Danube was changing with the importance of the Danube itself, which either became, or a cultural water¬shed, or an artery, connecting the ancient communities. In the Early Iron Age, it seems that the Danube did not become an invincible barrier for the spread of offensive weapons of Scythian origin. Moreover, Dobruja itself looks like a ter-ritory mastered by the Scythians, starting from the Archaic period. The Lower Danube group forms a separate “steppe” cultural assemblage together with the Lower Dniester, South Carpathian and South Danube groups, for which the spear became the main type of weapon. However, these preferences were re¬flected in the morphology of the Scythian akinakes. So, for this steppe or Dan-ube enclave, swords are more characteristic than daggers. Daggers are connected mainly with the forest-steppe part of the Carpathian-Dniester region and Transylvania. The warrior graves of the Lower Danube region mainly belong to the Classical Scythian period, while the only exception is related to the right bank of the Lower Danube. However, there are no burials with akinakai and even stray finds in Classical time outside the steppe.

Intentional Destruction of Inventory in Celtic Warrior Graves in the Middle Danube Region

Intentional Destruction of Inventory in Celtic Warrior Graves in the Middle Danube Region

Viking warrior women? Reassessing Birka chamber grave Bj.581

Abstract

AMAZONS IN VIKING AGE

Amazons are usually associated with the period of the early Iron Age. However, a large number of graves of armed women of the early Middle Ages are known in the territory of Eurasia. In the Scandinavian countries, the period of the 9th — the first half of the 11th centuries was called the «Viking Age». This period is related to the military, commercial and demographic expansion of the Scandinavians. During the archaeological researches, burials of women with weapons were recorded in the cemeteries of Denmark, Norway and Southern Sweden. They constitute a small series of 16 funerary complexes.
 Typically, the female warriors were buried in individual graves, and only occasionally they were accompanied by a woman or a child. Only in two cases armed man and woman of equal social level were placed in one grave. In the necropolis, the graves of the Amazons are usually localized among the military graves. On the territory of Western Europe, both rites of burial of warriors — inhumation and cremation are registered.
 The age range of female warriors is quite wide — from 10 to 50—60 years, with the domination of young women. The material complex showed that women’s weapons were intended for both remote (bows and arrows, spears) and close combat (swords, knives, axes). And in this period preference was given to axes. Several graves of female warriors were accompanied by a horse or a set of horse ammunition. This means that women could also fight in the equestrian battles.
 Based on the range and the number of weapons, the Amazons of the Viking Age mainly were part of the lightly armed units. These women took up arms on a par with men in moments of acute necessity — periods of seizing of new territories or defending their lands from an external enemy.

A female Viking warrior confirmed by genomics.

ObjectivesThe objective of this study has been to confirm the sex and the affinity of an individual buried in a well‐furnished warrior grave (Bj 581) in the Viking Age town of Birka, Sweden. Previously, based on the material and historical records, the male sex has been associated with the gender of the warrior and such was the case with Bj 581. An earlier osteological classification of the individual as female was considered controversial in a historical and archaeological context. A genomic confirmation of the biological sex of the individual was considered necessary to solve the issue.Materials and methodsGenome‐wide sequence data was generated in order to confirm the biological sex, to support skeletal integrity, and to investigate the genetic relationship of the individual to ancient individuals as well as modern‐day groups. Additionally, a strontium isotope analysis was conducted to highlight the mobility of the individual.ResultsThe genomic results revealed the lack of a Y‐chromosome and thus a female biological sex, and the mtDNA analyses support a single‐individual origin of sampled elements. The genetic affinity is close to present‐day North Europeans, and within Sweden to the southern and south‐central region. Nevertheless, the Sr values are not conclusive as to whether she was of local or nonlocal origin.DiscussionThe identification of a female Viking warrior provides a unique insight into the Viking society, social constructions, and exceptions to the norm in the Viking time‐period. The results call for caution against generalizations regarding social orders in past societies.

Воинское погребение середины I в. н.э. из Усть-Альминского некрополя (Юго-западный Крым)

Воинское погребение середины I в. н.э. из Усть-Альминского некрополя (Юго-западный Крым)

Middle Bronze Age Burials in the Southern Levant: Spartan Warriors or Ordinary People?

Summary Intermediate and Middle Bronze Age tombs with weapons (mainly daggers) in the southern Levant were often interpreted as ‘warrior graves’. Taking into consideration new data from Rishon Le-Zion (Israel), recent work on early warfare and warriors, and a study of so-called ‘warrior graves’ in Mesopotamia (Rehm 2003), we suggest that most of these graves are not graves of elite warriors, but typical male burials. We also discuss the assumed ‘burial kit’ and the decline in numbers of weapons per burial, which is in our view related to the shift from individual burials (in the Intermediate Bronze and Middle Bronze IIA periods) to multiple shaft burials (in the Middle Bronze IIB period).

Religion and Society in Middle Bronze Age Greece by Helène Whittaker (review)

Reviewed by: Religion and Society in Middle Bronze Age Greece by Helène Whittaker Daniel J. Pullen Helène Whittaker. Religion and Society in Middle Bronze Age Greece. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014. Pp. xiv, 291. $99.00. ISBN 978-1-107-04987-1. The Middle Helladic (MH) period (the Middle Bronze Age of mainland Greece, ca. 2000–1700/1675 BC) has over the last decade finally emerged from scholarly obscurity, no longer completely overshadowed by the MBA of palatial Crete. Much of this new interest is due to new questions and approaches such as Whittaker’s study, one of the first monographic treatments of MH Greece, with its focus on the interconnected topics of religion and the great social transformations that characterize the emergence of Mycenaean society in the Shaft Grave period of the late MH and early L(ate)H(elladic) eras. She demonstrates that Mycenaean society and culture of Late Helladic Greece has its roots deep in the MH period, if not even back into the Early Helladic (EH). Whittaker places great importance on the power of analogy and comparison, both historical and cross-cultural, in archaeological explanation, and thus avoids the occasionally myopic approaches of Aegean scholars. One of the great strengths of this book is the careful evaluation of the evidence for external influences on MH and early LH Greece, in contrast to local developments. Here I would include Whittaker’s lengthy discussion of supposed Indo-European ethnic social and cultural characteristics, and their introduction to Greece (20–26, 45–55, and elsewhere); she concludes that Indo-European explanations remain an open question. Influences from southeastern and central Europe receive as much attention as those from Crete, and Whittaker shows how the emerging Mycenaean elites manipulated these influences from wherever to suit their own purposes. Whittaker provides the novel model of a pastoral substratum in the later Neolithic through EH II periods and argues that the profound changes beginning in EH III represent a “fundamental shift in mentality” whereby pastoral or nomadic values (i.e., those often associated with Indo-European “ethnicity”) begin to dominate: more egalitarian organization, less materialistic or permanent expressions of wealth, respect and honor through personal achievement, and hospitality in social relationships (58–60). She identifies the tumulus, widespread throughout mainland Greece during the EH III–LH I period, as a key component in the materialization of religious beliefs, whether through burials in the tumuli or other usages. (The appendix provides an up-to-date catalogue of the tumuli, burials, and finds accompanied by a series of maps.) [End Page 580] Whittaker weaves a complex argument about the development of warrior culture, the rise of elites and hierarchical sociopolitical organization, and the emergence of a distinctive Mycenaean religion. Part of her argument uses evidence from the site of Kolonna on Aegina, with its early Shaft Grave and the Large Building Complex, and how that society influenced mainland Greek ones. Whittaker draws our attention to contemporaneous warrior graves and related cultural features elsewhere, and places importance on parallels and connections with continental Europe, rather than the Near East, such as the appearance of swords, amber, and horse-handling technology (and most recently reinforced by the publication of a LH I horse-bridle piece of Carpathian-Danubian origin found at Mitrou by J. Maran and A. van de Moortel in the American Journal of Archaeology 118:4 [2014] 529–48). Elite sponsorship of feasting and drinking as a means of realigning social structure and asserting power is another important component in Whittaker’s model for the development of early Mycenaean elite warrior culture. But feasting and drinking, as well as religious rituals, seem to be always characterized as communal affairs in this study, with little allowance for individual or group agency. Surely the votive deposition of warrior equipment and other items at the early Mycenaean cult site Mt. Kynortion (Epidauros), which provides support for her model of the interrelationship of religion and warrior culture (189–194), are acts of individuals, not of a community. She does not fully explore the processes by which individuals contribute to the sociopolitical shift from an egalitarian/kinship basis to elites and the emerging warrior elite ideology...