Download Bronze Age Greek Warrior 16001100 BC Raffaele D'Amato Andrea Salimbeti Giuseppe Rava 9781849081955 Books

Product details Series Warrior (Book 153) Paperback 64 pages Publisher Osprey Publishing; First Edition edition (March 22, 2011) Language English ISBN-10 1849081956

Bronze Age Greek Warrior 16001100 BC Raffaele D'Amato Andrea Salimbeti Giuseppe Rava 9781849081955 Books Reviews

• Drawing on a wide array of archeological finds from tombs in shaft graves and circle graves, frescoes, pottery/krater, sculptures, linear B tablets, Homer's works, and occasionally referencing Egyptian and Hittite context, the authors attempt to reconstruct warring Achaean kingdoms that centered around palatial domains of Mycenae, Thebes, Pylos, Tiryns, Orchomenos. The major part of the booklet describes related material culture (pp. 11-47) clothing, various types of spears and javelins, swords and daggers, bows, arrows, slings, double- and quadraple-edged axes, helmets (conical, hollow-eyed, boar-tusk, tiara-like, beehive style), shields (tower-like, figure-of-eight, proto-dipylon, round), armour and its parts (breastplate, corselet, cuirass, shoulder guard, graves, "Zosteres-Mitra...composed of front and back plates laced to the body armour and intended to give added protection to the belly and waist" p. 39), war chariots and their fittings.
  The above list comes alive in its entirety through the illustrator's creative reimagining in eight colour plates, some of which are partly based on rather primitive, stylized pictorial representations on kraters and seals.
  
  "After the fall of the Cretan Thalassocracy around the 15th century BC, probably echoed in the legend of the mythical Achaean King of Athens Theseus and his war against the Cretan King Minos, the Achaeans began to build up their maritime power in the Aegean Sea...Achaean objects have been found even as far as Britain, and precious material such as electrum, which was used early in the Mediterranean and which has been found in the royal graves of Mycenae, has been also found in the Baltics" (p. 4).
  
  As for the downside
  
  > I would have liked to read proportionately more about actual events during the half a millenium under discussion, and regarding the general background and warfare (naval clashes are covered to some length on pp. 48-51), not just what we are afforded on pages 4-11 and 47-58.
  > While the central figures of the colour plates are depicted in more or less fine details (especially the warrors of plates B-C) and with expressive countenance, persons and objects on the periphery and those in the background, in addition to the landscape, are much less elaborate and sketchy enough, or even blurry in a hazy mist (p. 45). Or have a look at the gallopping lions in the distance on plate G (p. 55) - they are a tad laughable, imho. I'm not sure that even artistic perspective can justify this. Anyhow, D'Amato and Salimbeti's extolling Giuseppe Rava as "the true heir of Angus Mcbride" (see acknowledgements on p. 2) seems to me quite a bit of exaggeration.
  > More than half of the authors mentioned in the main text are not listed in select bibliography (p. 61) Schachermeyr (p. 6), Nilsson (p. 8), Hoeckmann (p. 13), Graves (p. 17), Forrer (p. 58), Korfmann and Pernicka (ibid.)
  > It would have been helpful to furnish non-specialist readers with a map to be able to locate the welter of sites, extending from the Greek Peninsula through the islands of Crete, Cyprus, Salamis, Kos (near Rhodes), to the Anatolian coast and as far south as Ugarit (Syria).
  > Ambiguous/misunderstandable conclusion begging clarification "The next reference to military activities with Ahhiyawa [elsewhere spelled 'Ahhijava' see p. 7; i.e., Achaea] comes from the time of the Hittite King Mursili II (c. 1310-c.1290). He [Mursili II] conquered the country of Arzawa [place or personal name?], which lay in the area of classical Lydia...Relying on Ahhiyawa's [Achaean] king, Arzawa engaged in hostilites against the Hittites and incited the land of Millawanda [Miletos] to rebel, but he [Arzawa as a personal name?; sentences structure does not indicate the Ahhiyawa king as the referent of personal pronoun 'he'] and its prince [that of Millawanda's] probably handed Ahhiyawa's king [?; Arzawa, instead] over to the Hittites" (p. 57).
  In what little a quick search has yielded, there's no mention of any Achaean ruler ever being taken captive by the Hittites. Arzawa is a place name whose governor named Uhhazati in alliance with Achaeans, and later his grandson Piyamaradu, rebelled against Hittite authority. The so-called 'Tawagalawa Letter' demands the extradition of said grandson from the addressee, prince Eteocles. (Cf. Charles A. Burney - Historical Dictionary of the Hittites (Historical Dictionaries of Ancient Civilizations and Historical Eras) pp. 35, 201-2, 211-2, Scarecrow Press 2004).
• It is a little unnerving to see the probable battle dress of fighters at the time when the Trojan War may have happened. Instead of the chest-shaped bronze breastplates and fierce helmets with eye-slits and crests, we find human scarecrows in massively unwieldy armor. Not what I imagined when reading the lovely passages about Achilles' armor in The Iliad. But this is wonderfully well-researched and very useful as a reference. And the illustrations, showing the parts of weapons, carts, and so forth, give a real sense of what was involved and what could go wrong.
• The book in undoubtedly very good in terms of the illustrations and the representation of material at times so old that there s no way of saying what exactly it represents. Due to the efforts of these talented archeologists and historians we can once again glimpse at the Bronze Age warriors of Achaea, also known as the Mycenaean Civilization (we r talking somewhere around 16th B.E.)
  
  Of course, a few centuries from the 17th to the 20th are documented well enough to have more than a glimpse, but when it is 14-16 B.E. it is very hard to follow the intricacies of progress that may ve taken place during those times, and the authors are making a good point of that.
  
  As we look into the obscure distant past, there s very little clear. Questions like "where was Troy?", "who were the Acheans?", "did events described in the Iliad really take place?" are all valid. But it is common silliness to ascribe to the people, warriors of these far away times the look peculiar to the Classical Greek, as depicted on numerous vases, etc. - the Greeks of the Classical period were depicting themselves, just as the Star Wars' creators had their characters dressed in the bell-bottoms with the typical 70's hair dos. From this standpoint, the above book is a good effort to unveil the distant mystery. The illustrations are very good and bright, but what is really awesome is the authors' humbleness in saying "this is what we have come up with after the long research - now you give it a shot".
• Nice little book with informing illustrations. Illustrations are based on the archaeology of weapons, armor, and stone reliefs from the Bronze age.
• This is a great companion to the Osprey Aegean Warriors and Mycenaeans books. I like the art, the book is extremely informative about warfare in the Bronze Age and as a amateur sculptor, the illustrations are a marvelous asset.
• As an archaeologist for many years i searched the warfare of the Mycenaeans. Unfortunately most of the illustrated publications from Osprey or otherwise were depending on very dull information and images...But this book relies on up to date material and information thus having the best and the most realistic depictions of the Bronze Age Greek warriors and their world!!!!
• Another great reference book in Osprey Publ. series.
• thanks