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InterweavIng worldssystemic Interactions in eurasia, 7th to 1st Millennia BC

Papers from a conference in memory of Professor Andrew Sherratt

what Would a Bronze age world system look like? world systems approaches to europe and western asia 4th to 1st millennia BC

EditorsToby C. Wilkinson, Susan Sherratt and John Bennet

© OXBOW BOOKS 2011ISBN 978-1-84217-998-7

Contents

Contributors v

1. Introduction 1 Susan Sherratt2. global development 4 †Andrew Sherratt

a. the warp: global systems and Interactions3. evolutions and temporal delimitations of Bronze age world-systems in western asia and the Mediterranean 7 Philippe Beaujard4. the Mediterranean and the Mediterranean world in the age of andrew sherratt 27 Cyprian Broodbank5. Ingestion and Food technologies: Maintaining differences over the long-term in west, south and east asia 37 Dorian Q Fuller and Michael Rowlands6. Revolutionary Secondary Products: the Development and Significance of Milking, animal-traction and wool-gathering in later Prehistoric europe and the near east 61 Paul Halstead and Valasia Isaakidou7. world-systems and Modelling Macro-Historical Processes in later Prehistory: an examination of old and a search for new Perspectives 77 Philip L. Kohl8. ‘From luxuries to anxieties’: a liminal view of the late Bronze age world-system 87 Christopher M. Monroe9. re-integrating ‘diffusion’: the spread of Innovations among the neolithic and Bronze age societies of europe and the near east 100 Lorenz Rahmstorf10. what might the Bronze age world-system look like? 120 David A. Warburton11. ‘Archival’ and ‘Sacrificial’ Economies in Bronze Age Eurasia: an Interactionist Approach 135 to the Hoarding of Metals David Wengrow

vContents

B. the weft: the local and the global

12. the Formation of economic systems and social Institutions during the Fifth and Fourth Millennia BC in the southern levant 145 Nils Anfinset13. negotiating Metal and the Metal Form in the royal tombs of alacahöyük in north-Central anatolia 158 Christoph Bachhuber

14. the near east, europe, and the ‘routes’ of Community in the early Bronze age Black sea 175 Alexander A. Bauer15. Between assyria and the Mediterranean world: the Prosperity of Judah and Philistia in the seventh Century BCe in Context 189 Avraham Faust and Ehud Weiss16. northeast africa and the levant in Connection: a world-systems Perspective on Interregional relationships in the early second Millennium BC 205 Roxana Flammini17. strands of Connectivity: assessing the evidence for long distance exchange of silk in later Prehistoric eurasia 218 Irene Good18. travelling in (world) time: transformation, Commoditization, and the Beginnings of Urbanism in the southern levant 231 Raphael Greenberg19. Bridging India and scandinavia: Institutional transmission and elite Conquest during the Bronze age 243 Kristian Kristiansen20. new Kid on the Block: the nature of the First systemic Contacts between Crete and the eastern Mediterranean around 2000 BC 266 Borja Legarra Herrero21. lost in translation: the emergence of Mycenaean Culture as a Phenomenon of glocalization 282 Joseph Maran22. anticipating the silk road: some thoughts on the wool–Murex Connection in tyre 295 Jane Schneider23. Unbounded structures, Cultural Permeabilities and the Calyx of Change: Mesopotamia and its world 303 Norman Yoffee

Nils AnfinsetUniversity of Bergen

Alexander A. BauerCity University of new York

Christoph BachhuberBritish Institute at ankara

Philippe BeaujardCnrs

John BennetUniversity of Sheffield

Cyprian BroodbankUniversity College london

Avraham FaustBar-Ilan University

Roxanna FlamminiPontifical Catholic University of ArgentinaConICet

Dorian Q FullerUniversity College london

Irene GoodHarvard University

Raphael Greenbergtel aviv University

Paul HalsteadUniversity of Sheffield

Valasia IsaakidouUniversity of Sheffield

Philip L. Kohlwellesley College

Kristian KristiansenUniversity of gothenburg

Borja Legarra HerreroUniversity of leicester

Joseph MaranUniversity of Heidelberg

Christopher M. MonroeCornell University

Lorenz RahmstorfUniversity of Mainz

Michael RowlandsUniversity College london

Jane SchneiderCity University of new York

Susan SherrattUniversity of Sheffield

David A. WarburtonUniversity of lyon

Ehud WeissBar-Ilan University

David WengrowUniversity College london

Toby C. WilkinsonUniversity of Sheffield

Norman YoffeeUniversity of nevada

ContrIBUtors

Archaeologist, Teacher, Friend.Professor Andrew G. Sherratt, 1946–2006.

19.

Bridging India and Scandinavia: Institutional Transmission and Elite Conquest during the Bronze Age

Kristian Kristiansen

Introduction – the Bronze Age World-SystemThe Bronze Age world-system is a heuristic device that allows us to think big and trace the forces of history in their full extent. Following this defi nition world-systems may be of varying scale, depending upon what historical epoch we are talking about and which historical forces we are analysing (Kardulias and Hall 2008). An historical trend towards larger more encompassing world-system can be observed (Chase-Dunn and Hall 1997). Used in this way the notion of a Bronze Age world-system (Sherratt 1993; Kristiansen 1994) becomes an interpretative frontier that challenges conventional wisdom. However, to penetrate deeper into the nature of such large-scale historical forces or fi elds of social power we need to mobilize all historical evidence, something Andrew Sherratt mastered to a staggering degree. Indeed, if correct, our interpretations should be able to account for all types of evidence, from language to social and religious institutions; it remains the ultimate test of their validity.

This article attempts to explain the apparent paradox that textual evidence from the Rig Veda in India, written down sometime in the late 2nd millennium BC entails descriptions of select gods and rituals, which have their

This paper aims to demonstrate a number of institutional and ritual similarities in so-called Proto-Indo-European or rather Mature-Indo-European mythology that can be traced from India to Scandinavia during the early to mid 2nd millennium BC in texts and material culture: in particular the ‘Heavenly Twins’ and their associations with the horse in social and ritual contexts. It presents a historical explanation that accounts for these long-distance connections, discussing the social dynamics that reconnected and transformed the original Proto-Indo-European societies of the late 4th and 3rd millennia BC into more complex Bronze Age societies, a historical process that demonstrates the fundamental correspondence between social and religious institutions.

closest parallels in the archaeological record of Bronze Age Europe, and especially in Scandinavia. It is supported by more fragmentary, later textual evidence from Greek, Roman and Celtic religion. However, it is now possible to provide an historical-archaeological explanation that accounts for these wide ranging connections during the Bronze Age. In doing so I demonstrate that textual and archaeological evidence are complementary when we approach the historical epoch of the Bronze Age. While the texts provide names and narratives that can enrich the archaeological record, the latter provides a chronological and spatial frame of reference for the texts that they normally do not possess, since they were mostly written down much later as the conclusion of a long oral tradition. Furthermore they were often committed to writing at a specifi c location, sometimes far away from the origin of the tradition. The complementary relationship between oral tradition, text and archaeology is illustrated in Figure 19.1. While the main focus is on the early to mid 2nd millennium BC, the 3rd millennium BC forms a necessary historical prelude.

I propose that the gradual inclusion of the temperate zone of Eurasia into a Bronze Age world-system from the late 4th millennium onwards was closely linked to the

Kristian Kristiansen244

Figure 19.2. Model of the transmission of a package of material traits representing an institution across different cultures (after Kristiansen and Larsson 2005, fi g. 3).

Figure 19.1. Model of the relationship between oral tradition/texts and material culture. It demonstrates their complementary relationship and the important role of archaeology in anchoring text-based institutions and gods in the material world in time and space (after Kristiansen and Larsson 2005, fi g. 112).

19. Bridging India and Scandinavia: Institutional Transmission and Elite Conquest during the Bronze Age 245

formation and expansion of mobile pastoral societies in an open steppe environment (Burmeister 2004; Kaiser 2007; Shishlina 2003 and 2008). Its social organisation was based on a new dynamic perception of family, gender and property, selectively adopted from neighbouring urban societies during the Uruk period (Algaze 1989; Kristiansen 2006; Manzura 2005; Rezepkin 2000; Rothman 2003; Sherratt 1999). To this was added a new institution of the male warrior chief (Vandkilde 2006). The expansion of Indo-European languages was thus a secondary function of the expansion of this new highly mobile social formation in temperate Eurasia during the early 3rd millennium BC (Anthony 2007; Kohl 2007; Koryakova and Epimakhov 2007). With the invention of the two-wheeled chariot around 2000 BC this frontier of shared institutions and languages expanded further, and from the middle of the 2nd millennium it ranged from India to Scandinavia. It should be remembered that languages do not expand; what is expanding are people with a certain social organisation that is able to dominate and thus transform other social formations in the process. Unless preserved as text, languages do not leave material traces, but institutions do. Therefore the archaeological study of institutions and their transmission in time and space provides a platform for tracing large-scale historical interactions and the concomitant transmission of shared institutions.

In Figure 19.2 I demonstrate the methodological strategy employed in this article to trace the expansion of the material package of the two-wheeled war chariot and the complex technological, social and economic support that was demanded by its use. It therefore represented the expansion of a new kind of warrior aristocracy in temperate Eurasia, whereas it was more easily adopted in the civilisations of the Near East and China as a purely technological and military device. But also here it demanded a new concern with the breeding and training of horses that created a continuous demand for fresh imports from the steppes

What I do in the following is, fi rstly, demonstrate a number of institutional and ritual similarities in so-called late Proto-Indo-European (PIE) or rather Mature-Indo-European (MIE) mythology that can be traced from India to Scandinavia during the early to middle 2nd millennium BC in texts and material culture. Secondly, I present an historical explanation that accounts for these long-distance connections. In conclusion I discuss the social dynamics that reconnected and transformed the original Proto-Indo-European societies of the late 4th and 3rd millennia BC into more complex Bronze Age societies during the 2nd millennium BC, an historical process that demonstrates the fundamental correspondence between social and religious institutions. I thus add a new historical dynamic to the development of Indo-European mythology and institutions, one that is situated in datable archaeological contexts. I employ the concept Indo-European

as shorthand for Indo-European speaking societies, their institutions and myths.

The ‘Heavenly Twins’ in texts and material cultureInstitutions can sometimes be demonstrated in material culture through a combination of symbolic traits that relate to ritual performance and to divine features. In the following I use the textual evidence of the so-called Divine Twins to defi ne their diagnostic features, their dominant rituals and the myths they participate in. I then link textual evidence fi rstly to the newly discovered Nebra fi nd in central Germany from the 17th century BC, and subsequently to the application of the institution of the Divine Twins in Scandinavia from the 16th century BC onwards. My method is grounded in traditional archaeological hypothesis testing through correspondence between a hypothesis with a set of diagnostic traits, in this case derived from texts, and a set of material correlates. The degree of correspondence between the diagnostic features of the hypothesis and the archaeological features defi nes the degree of verifi cation. A full correspondence, as in the case of the Divine Twins, implies that the archaeological record is able to identify and defi ne the distribution of belief in these gods in time and space. It lends support to the archaeological verifi cation that it is based on a complex set of four correspondences that are not random, and which suppose a full knowledge of the functions of the Divine Twins and the corresponding myths. It should also be stated that while twins are a common phenomenon in many religions the particular historical functions of the Divine Twins set them apart from this general phenomenon.

The Nebra fi nd combines well known ritual practices from the Early Bronze Age with a unique object, a bronze disc depicting the heavenly realm with moon, sun and stars, and a sun ship, all in gold (Meller 2004). It takes the idea of the Bronze Age sun cult, as represented by the Trundholm sun-chariot, one step further back in time, and it indicates that the myth about the journey of the sun (Kaul 1998, fi g. 170; Kaul 2004), was anchored in complex astronomic and cosmological knowledge (Randsborg 2006). This knowledge probably originated in the Near East, where the sun and moon are often displayed on seals, but in Europe it was wedded to a shared Indo-European religion, that placed the sun-cult and its practitioners in a milieu of dual gods (Gonda 1973; Olmsted 1994; Kristiansen and Larsson 2005, 258–263). Most famous among them were the so-called ‘Divine Twins’, the Vedic Aśvins, and the Greek Dioscuri (Ward 1968 and 1970), who were sons of the sky god, and brothers of the sun-goddess, her helpers and rescuers during the night when she


Figure 19.3. The Nebra fi nd (after Meller 2004).

was taken away to the underworld. The replay of this myth is testifi ed in Nordic Bronze Age iconography, rock art and bronze fi gurines dating from 1700 to 500 BC (Kristiansen and Larsson 2005, fi g. 146; Kristiansen 2010). They are also said to represent the morning and evening star, and the

twin stars in the constellation of Gemini. This constellation, which belongs in the winter sky, could possibly be identifi ed in the lower part of the Nebra disc, as it consists of 8 stars in a formation much like what we see on the disc.

Their divine functions as rescuers of sailors, protectors


of travellers, helpers in battle, healers of illness, master musicians and dancers are further testifi ed to by recurring scenes on rock art, bronze work and fi gurines where they appear pair wise, as ships carrying the sun, as humans carrying cult axes, and playing lurs (horns), or as dancers with their

staffs or poles, another of their attributes. With minor changes these functions remained intact throughout the Bronze Age. In Figure 19.4 I have listed the archaeological correlates of the main functions of the Divine Twins as handed down to us in texts. These correlates consistently recur in hundreds

Figure 19.4. The material correlates of the 4 main functions of the Divine Twins during the Early and Late Bronze Age in Scandinavia. As rescuers of sailors (twin ships), helpers in battle/war gods (twin axes), master musicians (twin lurs) and pulling the sun/helpers of the sun goddess (Trundholm sun chariot and sun ship) (after Kristiansen and Larsson 2005, fi g. 146).


of material contexts during the entire Bronze Age and testify to the central role played by the ‘Heavenly Twins’ over a millennium.

The Divine Twins may also appear in their transformed shape as horses (their Sanskrit name aśvins means ‘horse tamer’, and ‘possessed of horses’, and they were born as horses) pulling the sun, or they transform into twin ships with horse heads – retaining their identity – as they carry the sun safely through the sea of the underworld. Such motives are common on Scandinavian rock art (Kristiansen 2010). However, there exists a link between this iconography and its material attributes (axes, lurs), as these items are regularly found deposited, mostly in pairs throughout central and northern Europe (Kristiansen and Larsson 2005, fi g. 146; here Fig. 19.4). I now discuss the meaning of these deposits, based on the textual evidence of the ‘Divine Twins’ in early Indo-European religion, the results of which also pertain to the Nebra hoard.

The ‘Divine Twins’ and their earthly representativesThe textual evidence of the ‘Divine Twins’ is securely dated to the Bronze Age, as they are referred to by their Vedic name as divine protectors in a treaty between the vassal prince Kurtiuaza of the Mitanni and his Hittite overlord and great king Šuppiluliuma from 1350 BC. The most detailed evidence, however, comes from the Rig Veda, probably written down in the middle or late 2nd millennium BC, but referring back to an earlier period. The Greek evidence is generally a bit later, and in Germanic and Celtic texts the importance and the identity of the Divine Twins have dwindled, as they were written down much later during the Iron Age and early medieval period. Baltic folklore retains more evidence of their role (Ward 1968; Zeller 1990). The importance of the ‘Divine Twins’ is thus greater the further back in time we go. This is supported by archaeological evidence that testifi es to their importance during the Bronze Age, whereas they seem to disappear more or less during the Iron Age (Kristiansen 2007). Their role is thus safely linked to a mature stratum of Indo-European religion in a phase that, on archaeological grounds, cannot be much earlier than 2000 BC. That is the earliest appearance of two-wheeled chariots and well-trained horses that the Divine Twins embody both as chariot drivers and as horses.

While their role originally was as helpers of the sun-goddess, circling day and night in their chariot to draw the sun, and break open the daylight, their roles seem to differentiate over time. Thus in Greek and later Roman tradition one twin represented the warrior function (horse), and the other

fertility and farming (ox) (Ward 1970). However, there is a peculiarity of the ‘Divine Twins’ that makes them interesting from an archaeological perspective, and that is their role as communicators between gods and humans, which includes their many roles as rescuers and protectors, dating back to the Rig Veda (Zeller 1990, 36–84; Oberlies 1993; West 2007, 186–91), and is attested also for the Greek Dioscuri (Burkert 1985, 225–245). This characteristic is refl ected also in the fact that in some legends the one twin is divine while the other is human born, and thus mortal. The obvious implication of this is, that if some gods can become human, then some humans can also become divine. This ‘theocratic’ trait creates an alliance between the rules of the gods and the ruling of humans, which materializes archaeologically. It explains the rich evidence of twin depositions and twin representations in iconography during the Bronze Age, beginning already around 2000 BC.

In the Early Bronze Age we fi nd a rare group of burials and hoards with twin depositions of objects and chiefl y males, the most prominent being that at Leubingen (Fig. 19.5). The two males, an old and a young person, were positioned across each other in a cross, and so were their weapons, axes and daggers. Here we have a twin deposition linked to the burial of two aristocratic males. It indicates a special relationship between them, and it throws light on the widespread deposition in hoards of twin axes and swords, as well as other objects. A similar cross deposition to that in Leubingen is evidenced in a burial from Brittany (Hansen 2002, fi g. 6), while the often large number of daggers and axes suggests that the royal or chiefl y elites were connected by trade and alliances. If we take the cross symbolism in these early contexts to represent the spokes of a (chariot) wheel, this was also a symbol of the sun. In this way a symbolic link is created between the divine sphere and the earthly sphere defi ning the twin males and their material correlates as earthly incarnations of the divine, heavenly twins, helpers of the sun goddess.1

However, during the Early Bronze Age it was more common to make ritual deposits of prestige goods in peatbogs and lakes or in the ground. In the Aunjetitz Culture we fi nd, besides the many hoards with ring ingots, also pair-wise depositions especially of halberds and axes. In multi-type hoards, it is often possible to fi nd twin sets of ritual axes or halberds, which suggests that several of these hoards had a ritual meaning. During Montelius period 1 (1750–1500 BC), which corresponds in Scandinavia to the period of the Nebra hoard, ritual axes and a group of magnifi cent swords or scimitars of Hittite inspiration, were deposited in pairs (Fig. 19.6). The scimitar was a royal and divine attribute in the Near East already from the early 2nd millennium BC, and in Hittite contexts we fi nd besides the scimitar another divine attribute: the kalmus. It is a staff with a crooked terminal, originally a herding staff. They were both symbols


Figure 19.6. Example of the supplementary archaeological evidence for the twin use of axes: carried in procession on high poles on rock art from Sweden and an example of the deposition of such ritual axes throughout Scandinavia. The twin fi gurines are another example of their use in rituals, just as the caps are a defi ning feature of the Dioscuri in Greek texts (after Kristiansen 2005, fi g. 4, created by T. Larsson).

Figure 19.5. The Leubingen twin male burial with a complex cross symbolism applied to both the buried persons and the objects. If the cross is taken to represent the spokes of the chariot wheel, it symbolizes the sun, and thus identifi es the two male persons as mortal incarnations of the ‘Heavenly Twins’, their earthly rulers (after Kristiansen and Larsson 2005, fi g. 48).

of paramount profane and divine rank, and linked to the sun god: ‘Der Krummstab kalmus, (ist) das Herrschaftssymbol des hethitischen Königs und des Sonnengottes’ (Haas 1994, 512–13). Both these symbolic objects were employed in

the Nordic realm where we fi nd the scimitar deposited in ritual hoards in pairs (Engedal 2002), and the kalmus is displayed on rock art in Bohuslän, western Sweden, carried by a sun wheel fi gure/god (Fig 19.7). These symbols and


their transmission to northern Europe point to the same kind of international connections as those underlying the Nebra disc and the famous Kivik grave on the east coast of Scania in Sweden (Kristiansen and Larsson 2005, 186–212). They were part of international connections in the earlier 2nd millennium BC between the steppe, Anatolia, the Carpathians and Scandinavia that are well documented archaeologically (Kristiansen 1998, fi g. 191), and which I describe in more detail below. But fi rst I situate the Divine Twins and their earthly representatives in a Nordic Bronze Age context of the 15th–14th centuries BC with its rich burial evidence. Here hundreds of rich burials allow us to present a more detailed picture of their now institutionalised role, which materialized in a recurring set of prestige objects of high artistic quality.

During the Early Bronze Age period 1 (1750 – 1500 BC) there is no strict differentiation between weapons that were

deposited in individual graves, and those that were ritually deposited in pairs, mainly in hoards, except that ritual twin depositions contained mostly unused and beautifully executed pieces. During the subsequent period 2 (1500–1300 BC) a differentiation takes place, so that a class of divine cult objects are singled out for ritual use only, and are never, or rarely, deposited in burials (Vandkilde 1999, fi gs. 8 and 9). They are richly decorated cult-axes, later also blown instruments (lurs), bronze shields and helmets. They belonged to the gods and could not be owned by mortals. In addition a group of ‘divine’ priestly burials are now characterized by an exclusive use of sun symbolism and horse symbolism. I characterize only the male burials, but they are paralleled by a group of female priestly burials with sun discs and spiral decoration, that are often found in ritual hoards as well (Kristiansen and Larsson 2005, 298–303). In the Tumulus Culture in Germany the use of wheel pins may have had the same symbolic meaning.

During Montelius period 2 (1500–1300 BC) the horse head is a defi ning attribute of a group of chiefl y priests in the Nordic realm, as we know them from several hundred rich tumulus burials. We fi nd it on the handle of the razor, which is symbolically formed as a ship, and also on belt hooks (Fig. 19.8 and 19.9; Fredell 2003, fi g. 5.14). Some of these graves also contain small hat-formed tutuli, another reference to the Divine Twins.

The importance of the horse head as a symbol/replacement of the Aśvins is apparent from the Vedic texts (cf. Zeller 1990, 79):

“Ye brought the horse’s head, Aśvins, and gave it unto Dadhyac the offspring of Atharvan.” (Griffi th 1889–91, Book 1, Hymn CXVII, 22).

“To you in praise of sweetness sang the honey-bee: Auśija calleth you in Soma’s rapturous joy. Ye drew unto yourselves the spirit of Dadhyac, and then the horse’s head uttered his words to you.” (Griffi th 1889–91, Book 1, Hymn CXIX, 9).

The role of the horse, and especially its head in rituals is well known. The horse was divine, and the Aśvins were horse-born and symbolized by a horse head in some hymns. The horse head was supposed to be able to speak on behalf of the Divine Twins. When we fi nd the horse head as a main symbol on razors that could also have been used for medical and ritual purposes (Kaul 2004, fi g. 95), and that this very same group of graves also contained a special type of full-hilted swords with spiral decoration (the sun symbol), that were used mainly for parading (Kristiansen 1984), a spiral-decorated war axe, drinking cups with a protruding sun star at the bottom, and sometimes also a so-called ‘shaman bag’, as in the Hvidegård grave (Kaul 1998, 16–20), then we have here all the attributes of a mortal Aśvin, or rather a divine

Figure 19.7. From Anatolia to Scandinavia. The international context of the scimitar and herding staff linked to divine rulers and the sun god in the Hittite kingdom and in Early Bronze Age Scandinavia. Hittite king with scimitar, pair of Scandinavian scimitars from Rørby, rock art sun-god fi gure from Bohuslän, western Sweden with kalmus (based on Larsson 1999a; 1999b).


Figure 19.8. Finds from male burial with spiral- and sun-decorated full-hilted swords, horse-headed razor in the form of a ship, and belt hook with horse head. The two swords, one with a heavily worn hilt and the other with a freshly produced hilt, are probably sword and dagger respectively (after Aner and Kersten 1973, fi g. 353).


Figure 19.9. Finds from male burial with Nordic sword, razor with spiral head, belt hook with horse head, and miniature twin double axes, another representation of the ‘Heavenly Twins’ as warrior gods/ sky gods (after Aner and Kersten 1973, fi g. 364).


‘Aśvin-priest’. He was a medical expert/healer, a war leader (but not warrior), leader of rituals and drinking ceremonies, and also performed in the important rituals, especially those linked to the sun journey, as attested on rock art (Kristiansen and Larsson 2005, fi g. 139).

Later in the Bronze Age a goose or swan head replaces the horse head on razors and ritual iconography, and ox horns also become a defi ning element on the helmets the twins wear. This corresponds to the several places in the Veda where the Aśvins are called bulls, and, according to the archaeological evidence, this is a later trait. The important role of honey (which is the basis for mead) in the Veda is interesting, as it was part of an important morning ritual for the Aśvins in order to break open the daylight. They used their whip to mix the honey into the soma drink (cf. Zeller 1990, 89, 90):

“Waken the Aśvin Pair who yoke their car at early

morn: may they approach to drink this Soma juice. / We call the Aśvins Twain, the Gods borne in a noble car, the best of charioteers, who reach the heavens. / Dropping with honey is your whip, Aśvins, and full of pleasantness sprinkle therewith the sacrifi ce.” (Griffi th 1889–91, Book 1, Hymn XXII, 1–3).

This ceremony is directly refl ected in the artful wooden cups in the above group of graves (Fig. 19.10). Pollen analysis has in two cases demonstrated that cups in graves from this period contained honey, probably as an ingredient in mead/soma (Koch 2003), a tradition that is also documented in the Single Grave Culture of the 3rd millennium BC (Klassen 2005, 39–40). Thus, when the cup was lifted to the mouth the sun would rise, as the protruding star at the bottom became visible. I can think of no better parallel between a ritual text and its corresponding piece of material culture, although separated

Figure 19.10. Wooden cups with protruding star under the bottom, used for mead drinking, found together with campstool. Above are Mycenaean frescoes with related motives of two persons sitting on campstools in a drinking ceremony (after Kristiansen and Larsson 2005, fi gs. 126 and 138).


by thousands of miles, but once unifi ed by Bronze Age long distance networks with a Eurasian origin in the early 2nd millennium BC, to which I turn in the next section.

We may conclude that a recurring twin symbolism characterizes a certain segment of the material and icon-ographic world of the Early and Middle Bronze Age in central and northern Europe. In the Aegean it is restricted to double and twin axe symbolism. It is introduced already in the Aunjetitz culture, and we can in the Leubingen grave link the twin symbolism to a ritual pairing of princely ‘twin’ males. In all probability it defi ned a dual ritual leadership. Later during the Middle Bronze Age from 1500 BC onwards a class of priestly chiefs can be defi ned, and they are linked to the Aśvins through horse head symbolism and the exclusive use of sun symbolism through spiral decoration and wheel symbolism. A small number of double or ‘twin’ male chiefl y burials continue the tradition introduced by the Leubingen grave (Fig. 19.11). The importance of the ritual sphere is underlined by the production of special ritual objects that are never found in burials. Thus, a complex ritual and religious system had emerged headed by chiefl y priests (ritual leaders), who were in the service of the Aśvins, or rather their

worldly representatives. They constitute a ritualized, political leadership. Below them a chiefl y group of warriors without ritual functions was now in place defi ned by the fl ange-hilted sword. A large group of commoners that are ritually invisible must be assumed to have supported this chiefl y structure, which was anchored in each local community.

Thus, the twin swords and axes in the Nebra hoard correspond to a widely shared ritual tradition of such depositions, which are the material correlates of the Divine Twins in Bronze Age ritual. This idea is further supported by the Nebra disc that links the Divine Twins (twin axes and swords) and the sun cult together, and thus confi rms their intimate relation.

The historical connection between eastern and western EurasiaWhen confronting the textual evidence about the Divine Twins with their material correlates during the Bronze Age, as I have in the preceding section, we are met with a paradox: some of the best material and iconographic correlations with

Figure 19.11. Double male burial from Montelius Period 2 in Denmark, with a ritual leader with Nordic full-hilted parade sword and a bronze staff, and a war leader with a central European fl ange-hilted warrior sword (after Kristiansen and Larsson 2005, fi g. 122). The burial of the ritual leader also contained a razor and tweezers, as well as a wooden cup for the ritual drinking of honey-based mead. The war leader would normally not have such ritual paraphernalia. The bronze staff, or rather stick, could have been used to direct the horses of a war chariot (Willroth 1997).


the Rig Veda texts are found in Central and Northern Europe during the early to middle 2nd millennium BC, whereas the textual evidence that corresponds most precisely to this evidence is from the Rig Veda in India, written down sometime in the later 2nd millennium BC. It should be added that corresponding textual evidence can be identifi ed both in the Near East, Greece and in northern and Central Europe, but often more fragmented, as most of these texts are later survivals. However, thanks to new archaeological discoveries during the last 25 years in the Urals and further east and west, we are now able to present a historical scenario that bridges these remote regions by explaining the transmission of social and religious institutions (Kristiansen and Larsson 2005, 170–185; Kohl 2007, 126–181; Koryakova and Epimakhov 2007, 45–110).

South-east of the Urals a remarkable culture based upon a system of fortifi ed settlements that controlled metal production and housed a warrior elite employing two-wheeled chariots, the composite bow, lance and swords, has been documented. It is named the Sintashta culture after its main settlement and burial place. Conditions of preservation were exceptionally good, so wooden logs from burials, human and animal skeletons were well preserved. This offers a unique insight into burial rituals and animal sacrifi ce. The latter was a dominant part of burial ritual, horses being sacrifi ced and buried. Many burials were plundered in antiquity, but still reveal important aspects of religion and cosmology, just as they demonstrate an elaborate system of rituals. Burial rituals and the construction of burial chambers and barrows reveal a hierarchical system, presumably corresponding to a similar social hierarchy. Warrior chiefs were buried with chariots and horses in full horse gear (bits and cheek pieces), ready for action in the other world. Sometimes only the skulls and hooves were deposited (Figs. 19.12 and 19.13), and this habit became widespread during the later expansion of this warrior culture both towards the east and the west. In this aspect it corresponds to the Rig Veda, where the head of the horse symbolised the Divine Twins. The horse head symbolism can thus be documented from Scandinavia to India, but it materialized differently in the various regions. More generally horse sacrifi ce was an important ritual activity in the Sintashta culture, linked to the chiefl y or royal strata and in this it also corresponds to the Rig Veda, where the royal horse sacrifi ce is one of the most important and complicated rituals.

The Sintashta culture has been described as: “a kind of quintessence of the Eurasian steppe world in the early Metal Ages … [It] is not a special archaeological culture. It is a new stage in the development of the Eurasian Steppe – a stage connected with the formation of hierarchical societies and proto-state structures” (Zdanovich and Zdanovich 2002, 253).

After 1900 BC this new military structure began to expand

beyond its borders towards the southwest and east. A new series of radiocarbon dates has established this western expansion as a rapid one taking place between 2000 and 1800 BC (Kuznetsov 2006). We must therefore envisage it as one of both conquest migrations and the gradual movement of groups of warriors and their attached specialists and families. This historical process accounts for the formation of new intensive long-distance connections between the Trans-Urals, the western steppe and the Danube and the Aegean, summarised below in Figures 19.14 and 19.15. It led to the expansion of the horse/chariot military package both to the far west and the far east, where the Tarim basin became an Indo-European bridge towards China (Kuzmina 2001; Mallory 1998; Mallory and Mair 2000), where soon afterwards the chariot was adopted. Another route would go towards the southeast ending in the conquest of India, which followed slightly later (Hiebert 1998; 2002; Kuzmina 1998). Finally, on the western route a link passed through the Caucasus, to Anatolia and the Near East (Rubinson 2003; Puturidze 2003). It is, however, the westward expansion that I focus upon here.

The westward expansion is characterised by the following components:

• it comprises a specialised package of material culture linked to horse and chariots (especially bits and han-dles for whips) often in bone or antler (Boroffka 1998)

• a specialised style of decoration linked to these objects, which is mostly foreign to the local style traditions. It is a royal style that we fi nd in several Hittite kingdoms and Mycenae (David 1997)

As it demanded the transfer of new skills, craftsmanship, and horses, we have to envisage the migration of small groups of warriors, craftsmen, and horse breeders that were welcomed at the chiefl y courts along the networks just described. Some of their training program for chariot horses is described in the famous Hittite Kikkuli-text from the middle of the 2nd millennium BC (Raulwing and Meyer 2004). The occurrence of identical or nearly identical objects in the Carpathians, Mycenae, and Anatolia indicates that direct personal contacts and long-distance travel were involved in the creation and expansion of the new social institutions (David 2001). We cannot exclude that conquests were also a part of the scenario in some regions, particularly where the package appears ‘intrusive’, e.g., the emergence of shaft grave dynasties with links to the steppe region both in terms of burial ritual and physical anthropological type (Angel 1973; Manolis and Neroutsos 1997; Penner 1998; critical discussion in Day 2001). Steppe horses were also introduced into the Aegean during this period (Payne 1990).

Textual evidence from Anatolia, Egypt, and the Near East describes this period as one of disruption. Whether or not one


Figure 19.12. Sintashta chariot burial with only horse head and hooves buried, the earliest example of this long-lived ritual tradition among steppe societies. The symbolism of the horse head as representing the horse is echoed in the Rig Veda, when it refers to the speaking horse head, just as horse heads are common on ritual objects of the chiefl y elites in Europe during the Bronze Age (after Anthony 2007, fi g. 15.3).

wishes to agree with Robert Drews about the ‘coming of the Greeks’ (Drews 1988), he nonetheless points to a series of interrelated historical changes in the Near East in the 18th to 16th centuries BC. They were linked among other things to the spread of the Indo-European ‘chariot package’, which demanded both skilled specialists and the import and training of horses from the steppe. It coincides with disruptions and social changes, including conquest migrations over large areas: the Kassites in Mesopotamia, the Aryans in India, the Hyksos in Egypt, a new chiefl y dynasty in Mycenae (Grave Circle B), and Indo-European speaking peoples emerging in Mitanni texts and other sources from the Levant and Palestine. In all these cases we are dealing with rather small groups of warriors and specialists linked to the ruling elite:

“The new rulers are in most cases a dominant minority, constituting only a tiny fragment of the population. This was especially true of the Aryan rulers in Mitanni and the Aryan and Hurrian princes in the Levant; it seems also true of the Kassites in Babylon and the Hyksos in Egypt. The Aryan speakers who took over Northwest India may have gone there en masse but were nonetheless a minority in their newly acquired domain” (Drews 1988, 63).

Thus, after 2000 BC, long-distance trade and movement of warriors and other specialists linked the societies of Eurasia from the Urals to Mesopotamia to the Aegean and Scandinavia. This corresponds to the spread of warrior aristocracies and the light, two-wheeled war chariot (Anthony


Figure 19.13. Ritual sacrifi ce of horse heads at the Sintashta cemetery, testifying to the paramount importance of horses and horse gods, one of the representations of the ‘Heavenly Twins’ (after Gening, Zdanovich and Gening 1992, fi g. 130).

2007, 371–457; Kristiansen and Larsson 2005, 170–185). It transformed not only warfare but also social and religious institutions from Scandinavia to Mesopotamia and later also India, as evidenced in contemporary written sources. These changes represented a new level of social complexity, and they added a new layer of political and religious institutions to the societies formed by interaction and conquests. Thus, the chariot complex and its institution of a warrior aristocracy can be archaeologically documented from Scandinavia to India, and so can the corresponding religious institution of the Divine Twins (Kristiansen and Larsson 2005, 142–250).

Religious innovations here went hand in hand with technological and social innovations, and both can be safely dated to the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. The picture implies that the mythology of the Divine Heavenly Twins spread along with the chariot complex, and thus cannot belong in the Proto-Indo-European period, unless we assume that there existed an earlier version of the heavenly twins in the 3rd millennium BC. Other traits may cover only some part of this huge geographical area. An item of specifi c interest is the pillar/phallic formed stone mortar, with a distribution from the Black Sea region through the Caucasus, the eastern steppe and the Iranian plateau (Boroffka and Sava 1998). It originates in the steppe during the 3rd millennium BC, but its main distribution that links the Pontic steppe with the Iranian plateau is during the early to middle 2nd millennium BC, that is, in the same period as the conquest migrations

to India along the same route. In the Iranian area the pillars or mortars often occur in pairs. As it is well know from the Rig Veda that soma was made using a stone mortar, we can in all probability now document the origin and spread of this central ritual institution. Only in Scandinavia do we fi nd the drinking cups employed in the rituals. Thus the social and religious institutions materialized in different ways within this huge interaction zone that reshaped the Eurasian continent during the early 2nd millennium BC

Divine Twins and twin kings – a Bronze Age innovationThe material and iconographic correlates of the myths of the Divine Twins are most clearly represented during the Bronze Age. In the Vedic texts they are among the most popular of gods, and also in Greece they were very popular. In India they helped Indra, their mother’s brother and thus uncle, to get the soma from Tvastar, the sky father, which suggests their importance in the second and third generations of gods. Therefore they are constantly referred to as young. Based on archaeological evidence from Europe it is clear that the Divine Twins were dominant gods during the 2nd millennium BC and well into the early 1st millennium BC. Their popularity is linked to the expansion of the war chariot after 2000 BC, which they used to drive around the earth with


Figure 19.14. Specialised wavy band decoration on horse gear that unites the distribution on fi gure 19.15 (Kristiansen and Larsson 2005, fi gs. 77–78; after David 1997, Taf. 7).

the sun. However, in the Vedic texts it is often described as a cart, with three wheels (or sets of wheels/axles?). In this it corresponds to the sun chariot from Duplje, which has three wheels (Kristiansen and Larsson 2005, fi g. 139), while the cart carrying the horse and sun in the Trundholm miniature could also be considered as a three axle cart. These examples suggest that the Vedic texts refer to the use of miniatures that were to be rolled in rituals, and therefore needed an extra set of wheels.

Based on their close connection with the technological innovation of the late 3rd and early 2nd millennium, chariot and horsemanship, the Divine Twins as they are defi ned in the Rig Veda and later European sources, cannot be much older than about 2000 BC. The dual leadership, however, may originate in the 3rd millennium BC, as we have a number of double male burials during this period (Madsen 1970). The tumulus barrow is also a sun symbol, so its role in Indo-European religion dates back to this period as well. Also the


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Figure 19.16. Finds from a horseman’s burial with a mix of objects of steppe origin (the cheek pieces for the horse, trumpet-shaped earring, and stone pestle), and objects of the BMAC civilisation of central Asia (dated 2000–1800 BC) such as bronze vessels and pots (after Anthony 2007, fi g. 16.8). The burial is a good example of the cultural hybridization taking place as mobile steppe societies expanded into the territory of more sedentary civilised societies (the Dasa enemies in the Rig Veda), which would ultimately take them to northern India and Pakistan.


recurring beaker in male burials was linked to ritual drinking, as it contained mead or beer (Klassen 2005). Rich female burials with two sun-shaped amber discs may further refer to a ritual role in the sun cult. The dominant war axe, or rather axe hammer, which is found in male burials from the Urals to Scandinavia, may be a symbol of the oldest of gods – the sky god. It is supported by the fact that his name, *D(i)yéus (West 2007, 166–73), is shared from India to Scandinavia in Proto-Indo-European language. One may further note that the beginning of the 3rd millennium represented a similar period of social and political expansion over a huge geographical area from the Urals to north-western Europe during a rather short time period, including some conquest migrations (Kristiansen 2007).

However, it is not until the Bronze Age proper from 2000 BC onwards that a richer material culture and outstanding conditions of preservation in oak coffi n burials in Denmark allow us to reconstruct the religious institutions linked to the sun cult and the Divine Twins, as well as their earthly representatives. By this time the second and third generation of young gods, headed by the Divine Twins, had taken precedence. More complex Bronze Age societies with a new warrior class, chariots and horses demanded new gods with new functions, which also redefi ned the role of an earlier pantheon of fi rst- and second-generation gods, as we have seen. These new gods are often referred to as young and shining and their roles were numerous. By acting as mediators between the sky and the earth, between the divine and the profane, they instituted a divine, ritualized leadership based upon dual kings or twin chiefs. Norbert Wagner already pointed out this relationship some time ago (Wagner 1960). He also indicated the role of the Divine Twins in training young warriors, as they were supreme sportsmen, winners of running and boxing contexts in the fi rst Olympic games, but also dancers and leaders of the weapon dance (a training programme). Thus he links them to the training and initiation of young warriors, which would then be in the hands of their earthly representatives, the twin kings. Wagner further points to several examples from later Germanic sources of twin- or dual-leadership, the most well known being Horsa and Hengist of the Jutes who migrated to Kent in England in the 5th century AD, and whose ritualized names refer to horses. Also among the Greeks we fi nd dual kingship, most famous again with the Spartans, who traced it back to the Dioscuri who were their national gods (see discussion in Miller 1998). By tradition the Spartans were originally migrants, just like the Jutes in Kent. Wagner therefore points to a possible relationship between dual leadership and conquest migrations, leading to the foundation of new royal lineages and chiefdoms.

If this pattern holds true we should expect dual kingship to have played an important role during the expansion of

the social and religious institutions of early Indo-European speaking societies during both the 3rd and 2nd millennia BC. And that is indeed the case, as I have demonstrated for the 2nd millennium BC. Consequently both the institution of dual leadership and the institution of young war-bands were essential features of early Indo-European societies as we know them archaeologically during the 3rd and 2nd millennia BC, while later textual evidence also points to the role of youth groups organised in warlike brotherhoods (Sergent 2003).

The introduction of innovations was another characteristic feature of the Divine Twins. This aspect could just as well be linked to travelling, and therefore they are also the protectors and rescuers of sailors and travellers. The Divine Twins were eternal travellers in their golden chariot, and thus epitomized the importance of speed and travelling in the new more international and interconnected Bronze Age world. That is part of their dominant position. Their chariot further represented the new warrior aristocracy that rose to power throughout Eurasia after 2000 BC, and was often based on dual leadership.

Looking at the archaeological evidence it lends support to the dominant role of dual leadership in the Bronze Age. We have a few examples of double male burials, where a ritual chief and a warrior chief are buried together (Fig. 19.11). The question is how such burials relate to the performance of ‘Divine Twins’ on rock art and in ritual depositions. Here mortal chiefs with ritual functions played the role of the twins at the large ceremonies.

Thus, we have at hand two possible models of dual leadership:

• One that is constituted by two divine/political leaders• One that is constituted by a divine/political leader and

a warrior chief.

In the latter case we must assume a subordination of the warrior chief to the divine chief, who represents the highest leadership constituted in heaven by the Divine Twins. In the fi rst case, the leadership is a replay of the ‘Divine Twins’ and thus represents two equals, who may not meet regularly, but only on the occasion of large rituals in which they had to perform together. I leave the question open, as we have evidence that point to both models, and they may indeed co-exist, but in Indo-European mythology the dual leadership of the fi rst, divine function was long ago demonstrated by Georges Dumézil to be a widespread phenomenon from India to Rome and Scandinavia (Dumézil 1988). One might envisage that a ritual/political leader or king, supported by a war leader in periods of warfare, constituted local political leadership. The divine twin leadership would thus represent a higher level of leadership, for a whole chiefdom or kingdom, whereas the ritual leader and warrior chief would be the


normal model at community levels. The Greek evidence supports this reconstruction where in Mycenaean times the great king was titled wanax, whereas the war leader was titled lawagetas, and was subordinate to the king. This relationship could often be one of foster brothers, as in the case of Achilles and Patroclus. Furthermore, in the catalogue of ships in book 2 of the Iliad twin leaders often represent the participating kingdoms. The Mycenaean and Scandinavian evidence suggests that dual kingship was common throughout the Bronze Age of Europe. The Spartan model of two equal kings would thus represent an old Bronze Age heritage that the Dorians brought with them from the Balkans into their new territories.

The beginning of this dual leadership instituted in heaven is thus represented by the Leubingen burial and in the many twin depositions that followed, of which the Nebra hoard is the most prominent. Its origin may be found in the rare, but recurring twin male burials of the 3rd millennium BC. From 2000 BC onwards it came to a marriage between old Indo-European religion and new astronomical knowledge from the Near East, which also characterized other areas of Bronze Age society, and which lends to it a unique historical character. Shortly after, steppe societies from the Urals to the Black Sea introduced new chariot-based warfare and the concomitant institution of aristocratic military leadership supported by the chariot driving Divine Twins. These new institutions spread as a package through conquest migrations to India in the east and to central Europe and the Aegean in the west, and from here to Scandinavia. The Divine Twins were the new Bronze Age gods with no clear antecedents in the late Proto-Indo-European speaking societies of the 3rd millennium BC. They belong to a separate stage of more complex and mature Indo-European speaking societies of the Bronze Age in the 2nd millennium BC, which were distinctively different from later Indo-European speaking Iron Age societies, when regional differentiation became more pronounced, chariot warfare came to an end and the Divine Twins lost their dominant position.

Thus, we are fi nally able to provide an historical framework that accounts for the bridging of India and Scandinavia in texts and material culture during the 2nd millennium BC.

Note1 In an important article, which appeared after the completion

of this paper, Asko Parpola reassesses the historical role of the Aśvins, or the Nasatyas as they are often named, based on their textual evidence (Parpola 2004–2005). He comes to similar conclusions to those reached in this contribution: that they were among the most important gods in the Bronze Age (‘The Aśvins as the deifi ed chariot team’ pp. 6–12), and that their dual roles imply dual leadership or kingship as a

dominant principle during the Bronze Age (‘The Aśvins and dual kingship’ pp. 13–18). Parpola further adds new important information about their role in burial rituals, including the chariot race, as seen on many Scandinavian rock art scenes, most explicitly in the Kivik burial. I fi nd it comforting that a leading scholar in the fi eld of Indo-European studies has, quite independently, come to strikingly similar conclusions to those I have reached based mainly on archaeological evidence.

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