How do they know?

[glee]

I’m watching TV here in England. On comes a programme about the Iron Age. I settle down to watch - I could learn something interesting.

Straightaway there’s a twist. It’s a ‘re-enactment’ show, where volunteers try to live the lifestyle. They have the clothes, buildings and food that archaeologists think were current back then.

The group look a bit nervous, but decide to elect a leader.
The commentator states ‘Of course this is a modern invention. Iron Age tribes fought duels to decide their leaders.’

Oh yes? How do they know?

[Liberal]

The archeological evidence is hard to ignore. Iron kind of leveled the playing field more than ever before. More and more people came to own very effective weaponry.

Between 1200 and 1000, however, the export of knowledge of iron metallurgy and of iron objects was rapid and widespread. With the large-scale production of iron implements came new patterns of more permanent settlement. On the other hand, utilization of iron for weapons put arms in the hands of the masses for the first time and set off a series of large-scale movements of peoples that did not end for 2,000 years and that changed the face of Europe and Asia. — Britannica

There was a noticeable increase in violence-related structures, like walled edifices, and the like. War was an every day affair practically everywhere, from Ireland [sup]1[/sup] to Israel. The Old Testament of the Bible has excellent documentation of the Iron Age. You can read about the wars, squabbles, and leadership duels in Palestine that spanned eons.

1200-600 BCE - Early Iron Age (Israelite Period)

Under the leadership of the Judges and later the Kings, the Israelite Kingdom reaches its zenith. King David (1000 BCE) wages war with the Philistines, while his son, King Solomon, builds the Temple in Jerusalem. After the death of Solomon the kingdom breaks into two, and the period of independence finally ends when the Israelites are defeated in battle by the Babylonians and taken into captivity around 587 BCE. Nebuchadnezzar lays seige to Jerusalem, and destroys the Temple. — Jerusalem Post

People in the East, though coming into the iron age later, did not escape its violence.

All of the nomadic tribes that inhabited the Eurasian steppes and higher grasslands are perceived to have been ruthless raiders—faceless hordes following the commands of Ghengis Khan-type leaders, terrorizing fortified cities, burning, pillaging and raping as they rode ever westwards. Ancient historians, interested only in the most horrific exploits of the marauders, gathered their materials from the point of view of the conquered. Archaeologists of the late 19th and 20th centuries amplified the long-standing convictions that the Early Iron Age tribes were warring, strong patriarchal societies and over the decades they continued to interpret kurgan burials from this point of view. — Statuses of Eastern Early Iron Age Nomads

But while defensive castles and weapons proliferation indirectly confirm violent societies, nothing confirms it quite like the skeletal ramains themselves. Not since man started living outside caves had people bashed each others heads in more.

Skeletal remains portray long-term changes in violence. Skeletal trauma appears highest in the Neolithic, uncommon in the Copper Age, and moderate to high in the Bronze and Iron Ages – a pattern which contradicts the image of the peaceful Neolithic and the warlike Copper Age derived from art and artifacts, and which complex changes in the social use of violence (see “Violence and Gender in Early Italy”, in Troubled Times: Violence and Warfare in the Past, edited by D.W. Frayer and D. Martin, 1998). — Human Skeletons and Society in Prehistoric Italy, University of Southampton, Department of Archaeology[

There were some enlightened pockets here and there from time to time, but overall, it was survival of the most ruthless.

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[sup]1[/sup]HISTORY OF LAND TENURE IN IRELAND Stone Age to Iron Age

[glee]

Libertarian,

an excellent post - thanks for the sources.

I didn’t make it clear that the program was talking about a small group of people (< 20), and I couldn’t believe they had any evidence of how such a group would behave.

[ThisYearsGirl]

In a similiar vein, I was watching the Discovery Channel’s Walking with the Dinosaurs, and there was an elaborate reenactment of the mating dance of two dinosaurs. How did they know that?

[Synergist]

This article seems more to the point about intra-group politics, as opposed to warfare: http://www.britarch.ac.uk/ba/ba57/feat2.html .

The author’s thesis, grossly simplified, is that the one who supplied the best booze was the leader.

Of Iron Age groups, of course, not dinosaurs.