ABSTRACT
The characteristic feature of the Bronze Age was that people learnt to alloy copper with either tin or arsenic to make a stronger metal. This alloy is known as bronze; alloying 10 per cent tin with 90 per cent copper results in bronze. Bronze Age Eurasia witnessed a gradual convergence of the military systems of various poli-ties. The Trojan War is a classic case of conflict between two Bronze Age civilisations. Homer uses the terms Achaeans, Dorians, Argives and Hellenes but never ‘Greeks’. And modern scholars refer to the Greeks of the Late Bronze Age as Mycenaeans. The bronze bits introduced by the Hyksos allowed wagons and chariots to be drawn efficiently by the horses. The Proto-Indo-European speakers then experimented with the spoked wheel, which replaced the disc wheel and made the chariots lighter and more mobile. Kristiansen is actually implying a ‘military revolution’ in the Bronze Age without actually using the term.
