Analysis of Greek Prehistoric Combat in Full Body Armour Based on Physiological Principles: A Series of Studies Using Thematic Analysis, Human Experiments, and Numerical Simulations

Abstract

One of the oldest complete suits of European armour was discovered in 1960 near the village of Dendra, in Southern Greece, but it remained unknown whether this armour was suitable for extended use in battle or was purely ceremonial. This had limited our understanding of the ancient Greek–Late Bronze Age–warfare and its consequences that have underpinned the social transformations of prehistoric Europe and Eastern Mediterranean. In a series of archeo-physiological studies, merging knowledge in archaeology, history, human physiology, and numerical simulation, we provide supporting evidence that the Mycenaean armour found at Dendra was entirely compatible with use in extended combat, and we provide a free software enabling simulation of Late Bronze Age warfare. A group of special armed-forces personnel wearing a replica of the Dendra armour were able to complete an 11-hour simulated Late Bronze Age combat protocol that we developed from a series of studies based on the available evidence. Numerical simulation of the thermal exchanges in Late Bronze Age warfare extended this conclusion across different environmental conditions and fighting intensities. Our results support the notion that the Mycenaeans had such a powerful impact in Eastern Mediterranean at least partly as a result of their armour technology.

Introduction

Sixty years ago, a 3500-year-old suit of bronze armour was discovered in a tomb near the village of Dendra, a few km from ancient Mycenae, in Southern Greece (Fig 1) [1]. It is considered as one of the oldest complete suits of armour from the European Bronze Age (Online Supplement: Sections 1.1–3). Earlier experiments with replicas demonstrated its flexibility for use in combat but not its suitability for use in extended battle contexts [2–4]. Was it purely ceremonial [5,6]? This limited our understanding of ancient warfare, particularly in the Late Bronze Age, and its consequences which have underpinned the social transformations of the prehistoric world.

In the series of studies presented here, we have attempted to answer this research question and have provided supporting evidence to show that the armour discovered at Dendra was, indeed, entirely compatible with use in combat. A group of special armed-forces personnel wearing a replica of the armour were able to complete an 11-hour Late Bronze Age combat simulation protocol, developed on the basis of analyses of the Iliad. Numerical simulation of the thermal exchanges in Late Bronze Age warfare extended this conclusion across different environmental conditions and fighting intensities. To facilitate and promote research in this field, we developed a freely-available software enabling simulation of the thermal exchanges in Late Bronze Age warfare.

As no historical accounts or descriptions survive from the Greek Late Bronze Age regarding the scope and use of armour of the Dendra type, we turned to a key–and only–detailed early account of warfare, battle, and single combat: Homer's epic account of 10 days in the Trojan War, the Iliad. To suggest that Homer's epics were precise accounts of events which took place some five hundred years earlier, as Schliemann did in the 1870s, would invite both censure and disbelief. To follow Thucydides' (I.2-12) approach that the traditions about the remote past of the Greeks contain truth and suggest that they provide a reasonable basis for evaluating the nature of early warfare in Greece is, we believe, a rational starting point. Accordingly, three independent reviewers conducted a literature review and two in-depth thematic analyses of Homer's Iliad and the extracted information was combined with physiological and biometeorological knowledge to create a combat simulation protocol replicating the daily activities performed by elite warriors in the Late Bronze Age. We hypothesised that the Dendra armour was compatible with use in combat if two conditions were fulfilled when this protocol was applied: (1) that the physiological strain caused by the armour was tolerable and within normal levels, and (2) that the armour did not limit the fighting ability of the wearer. A step-by-step description of the rationale, methods, and results of this study is provided in an Online Supplement where all our results and data are freely available.

Materials and methods Studies 1–2: Analysis of Late Bronze Age warfare and battle tactics The Trojan War, as described in the Iliad, was used as the archetype for Late Bronze Age warfare (Online Supplement: Sections 2.1–2.7). We extracted the information needed to create a Late Bronze Age combat simulation protocol by performing two thematic analyses complemented by a literature review. The 1st thematic analysis (termed Study 1) of the Iliad addressed the following five warfare and battle tactics topics: (1) the characteristics of the physical environment in which battles took place, (2) the typical start and end time of daily army operations, (3) the typical activities performed by warriors during one day, (4) the typical food and water intake during a day of battle, and (5) the physical characteristics and the level of combat experience of most warriors. The following additional topics were addressed in the 2nd thematic analysis of the Iliad (termed Study 2