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

Abstract

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).

A Comparison Study of Middle Bronze Age II Daggers and Their Rivets as a Tool for a Better Understanding of Their Production

“…The weapons-axes, daggers and spearheads-were found in a consistent pattern near or on the skeletons. A similar phenomenon has been noted in numerous graves throughout the Levant with adult burials (Kletter and Levi 2016;Kan-Cipor -Meron 2017) that are considered, variously, as 'warrior burials', or burials of a social class or (aristocratic?) status group within Middle Bronze Age society (Philip 1989(Philip , 1995(Philip , 2006Hallote 1995Hallote , 2001Garfinkel 2001, 143, 157).…”

“…Type B: the metal composition of the daggers (see Table 1) The overall alloying pattern that emerges from the analyses of 35 daggers of this simple but variable type (as detailed in Kan-Cipor -Meron et al forthcoming) shows that the composition of these daggers differs Figure 1 A Type 1 ribbed dagger from Tomb B24 (after Kletter and Levi, 2016, fig. 12).…”

“…The Rishon LeZion MBII cemetery was discovered during salvage excavation supervised by Y. Levi of the IAA (Kletter and Levi 2016;Levi and Kletter forthcoming). Hundreds of different grave types of were found, with skeletons accompanied by assemblages of grave goods that, in many cases, also included weapons.…”

Once were warriors: Challenging occupation preconceptions in Lebanese weapon‐associated burials (Middle Bronze Age, Sidon)

“…Over the last decades many studies in Near Eastern archaeology have focused on these so‐called “warrior burials” and the associated grave goods that define the term (Baker, 2006; Baker, 2016; Cohen, 2012; Gernez, 2014; Kletter & Levi, 2016). Researchers debate if they are actually elite warriors, or simply typical elite males (Garfinkel, 2001; Kletter & Levi, 2016). The MBA site of Sidon College (a.k.a.…”

Foreigners at Beni Hassan: Evidence from the Tomb of Khnumhotep I (No. 14)

“…129-30, 132-33, 135, 137-38]; Bagh 2013: 61-62;Mourad 2015: 49-50;and Wenke, Redding, and Cagle 2016: 17, 348-50. 37 Regarding the Near Eastern practice of so-called "warrior burials" and the deposition of weapons in tombs as markers of gender, status, or wealth, see Philip 1995, Rehm 2003, Cohen 2012, and Kletter and Levi 2016 For other examples of the one-shouldered garment, see S. Smith 1933: pl. 9[f ]; Moorey 1986: figs.…”