Sonderdrucke aus der Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg
HEIKO STEUER
Warrior bands, war lords and the birth of tribes and
states in the first millennium AD in Middle Europe
Originalbeitrag erschienen in:
Ton Otto (Hrsg.): Warfare and society : archaeological and social anthropological perspectives.
Aarhus: Aarhus Univ. Pr., 2006, S. 227 - 236
Warrior Bands, War Lords, and the Birth of Tribes
and States in the First Millennium AD in Middle Europe
HEIKO STEUER 16The subject: the background
It is my intention to formulate a model on war. But
it is not warfare itself that will be considered in all
its aspects (Steuer 2001; Jorgensen and Clausen 1997),
but rather the causes and effects of wars conducted
by war lords and their warrior bands. Wars from the
4th century BC to the 10th/11th century AD will be
considered in devising the model - wars spanning a
period of more than a thousand years, from the
ancient Celts to the Normans. Based upon the reports
in the written sources, characteristic phenomena
(Erscheinungen) will be singled out as criteria for
defining this type of warfare. Not all criteria will be
obtainable for every epoch, but in the overall view a
varied number of criteria can confirm the comparability
of the armed conflicts and therefore also their
socio-political backgrounds. (This model is not a
newly formulated thesis. Most of it can be found in
Wells 1999). The question of the expression of these
events in the archaeological sources will only be
raised in the second place, and it will be shown that,
contrary to general opinion, warrior bands can never,
or rarely, be recognised using archaeological methods.
On the contrary, following the conclusion of the
socio-political process - the birth of tribes and states
- the later occupation of land as a result of these wars
would leave marks on the archaeological remains.
The Celtic and Germanic societies of central Europe
of the first millennium were permanently changing.
These variations appeared regularly, to some extent
in waves or phases. We can abstract the rules; but
history does not repeat itself, that is why the various
epochs are not completely identical. The different
reports in the written sources describe this change
in an indirect manner. The recorded names of the
active groups - we will call them tribes following
Caesar, Tacitus and the later Ammianus Marcellinus
- emerge and disappear again. The names of tribes
during the time of Caesar (100-44 BC) (De Bello
Gallico, 58-52 BC) differ from those of the time of
Tacitus (55-116/120 AD) (Germania, 98 AD) or those
of Ammianus Marcellinus (second half of the 4th
century), Gregory of Tours (ca. 540-594) (Historia
Francorum), or the time of the Carolingian and
Ottonian historians. 150 to 250 years lie between
each of these reports, the equivalent of five to eight
generations.
Various ethnogeneses (tribalisations) are reflected
in the change of the names, but even in the preservation
of an old name the old tribe does not continue.
A new ethnogeneses creates other political entities.
There are Ariovistusus' Suebi, the Suebi of the age
of Tacitus, the Suebi (Suevi) of the migration period
in Spain, etc. The same applies to the Marcomanni
WARRIOR BANDS, WAR LORDS, AND THE BIRTH OF TRIBES 227
during the times of Ariovistusus or Maroboduus and
those of the Marcomannic Wars 166-180 AD, which
are not the same tribe. The Alamanni, mentioned for
the first time around 300 AD, were made up of various
groups of Germanic people, then constituted
themselves in a second ethnogenesis (tribalisation)
in the Merovingian Empire around 500 and then
again for a third ethnogenesis (tribalisation) in the
dukedom/duchy of the 8th/9th century.
What are these tribes? Are they the population
of territorial units, the unification of several settled
landscapes with large numbers of villages (Siedlungskammern)?
It is a matter of discussion whether the
tribes which are mentioned by name in the ancient
sources emerged only as territorially bound units in
reaction to the overly powerful threat of neighbouring
empires or states; as the open ranked society based
on clan-like organisation with its numerous inner
dependencies had become obsolete. The Celtic tribes
with their central oppida mentioned by Caesar are a
reaction to the pressure of the Mediterranean states
and only appear in the Middle and Late La Tene
period with the aid of returning mercenaries. The
Germanic tribes may only have constituted themselves
due to the pressure of the Celtic oppidum-civilisation
on the Germanic clans, to which Germanic
mercenaries in the service (army) of Celtic nobility
may have contributed on their return home.
Ethnology has pointed out this development for
Africa during the colonial age of the 19th century:
before the intrusion of Europeans there would appear
to have been none of the tribal structures that later
on became apparent and which up to today provide
a continuous cause for conflict and wars (Vail 1989;
Sigrist 1994; Lentz 1998). Today the political and
social organisation of rule under Shaka (Marx 1998),
the founder of the Zulu tribe or realm, is under discussion
in this way, and likewise the deadly conflict
between Hutu and Tutsi, today two different tribes,
but before colonisation two different economic
structures: farming and cattle breeding.
The idea of tribes (gentes), of a people (Volk), and of
a nation developed as part of the nation-state thinking
of the 19th century. Events in the present (in
the Balkans, in Africa etc.) show that ethnic clashes
may also be conflicts among rival bands of thieves
(warrior bands).
But it is impossible to speak about these terms
(termini) in all their complexity in this paper. In
recent decades there has been a very controversial
and many-sided discussion concerning the terms
'tribe/Stamm' or 'ethnogenesis/tribalisation/Stammesbildung'
(compare developments for instance from
Wenskus 1977 to Pohl 1998 and 2002, or also Bowlus
2002; Barth 1969). In numerous lemmata the Hoops
Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde (Pohl
1998) tried to specify this discussion in its many
aspects. For some other terms like Gefolgschafr (comitatus),
i.e. followers or retinue, problems in the translation
from Latin into German or the English language
exist as well. For the structuralist attempt - an
old one, not a poststructuralist or contextual attempt
- made in this paper it may be enough to formulate
a model as an idea.
I VOlkerwanderungen' , translated as migrations of
whole peoples, were in fact not migrations of peoples
but rather military campaigns. These campaigns only
had temporary camps as stations, not permanent
settlements. Campaigns of warrior bands could be
undertaken without difficulty, as the landscape was
relatively empty. Although the landscapes were
populated completely and systematically with settlements
like a network in distances not more than 5
kilometres as a rule, there was still enough space to
allow larger military units with their horses to pass
through, either unnoticed or officially sanctioned.
The groups called in the sources by names such as
Suebi or Langobardi were warrior bands and not neighbouring
societies living in villages with families or
kinship groups based upon relationships among
relatives, and with a clan-system. Perhaps only the
leading clans went by these names. Through their
concepts of order, ancient writers equated the names
of the mobile and multi-ethnic warrior bands with
inhabitants of the territories from which some of the
warriors were drawn. The authors, with their background
in the Roman Empire, did not recognise the
principal difference between warrior bands and rural
populations with the same names. The names randomly
appear next to one another, not because parts
of tribes had migrated to other countries, but because
a military unit had been divided and deployed at
various places.
The VOlkerwanderungen of that period therefore
are not the migrations of tribes with the whole family,
their mobile belongings, cattle and all, as was
believed in earlier research, but rather campaigns of
warrior bands whose wars only much later led to the
occupation of land. Their emigration did not leave
the native lands depleted of their population.
228 • WARFARE AND THE STATE
Depopulation had completely different reasons and
backgrounds. For instance:
- The Germanii disappear from the territories east
of the river Elbe long after the end of the so-called
migration-period in the 6th century, and Slavic tribes
immigrate.
- The landscape of Anglia (Angeln) in modern
Jutland, and other areas along the coastline of the
North Sea, only appears to become depopulated more
than a century after the emigration to England
around the middle of the 5th century; it would therefore
seem that only latecomers were concerned.
- People, i.e. warrior bands, left the densely populated
areas. Even when these warrior bands settled
in new countries, no major changes came into effect
in the native areas, a fact that can be attested in the
archaeological features - the structures of the villages
show no change. At the very least no decline in the
density of the population can be registered.
Wars are an immanent part of social change.
Ethnogenesis or tribal constitutions (tribalisations)
and the development of states were not possible
without wars. One therefore has to consider the effect
of the feedback. Because higher organised societies
(empires) influenced their surroundings, tribes developed,
taking the place of clan-societies, in order to
defend themselves. Warrior bands split off after the
constitution of these tribes. Because warrior bands
appear and influence the higher organised societies
(kingdoms or empires) through mercenary services
or as organised bands of thieves (warrior bands) threatening
them militarily and through raids they
in turn attempt to influence the tribal communities
through paying mercenaries or drawing up
contracts with these groups in order to use the tribes
and warrior bands for their own ends.
War
War is the armed conflict between groups of men,
i.e. armies of various sizes (Steuer 2001: 347ff).
a) The armies or warrior bands or 'Gefolgschaften'
as military units can be levied from the villages of a
territory in order to protect them. Out of the clanbased
society - due to the necessity of organisation
- a tribe will arise, possessing its own territory. This
tribe can then even erect special fortifications to
defend the settlement area as a whole, as can be
observed during the later period of the Roman Iron
Age when constructions consisting of ramparts,
palisades and ditches were erected along the borders
on land or in the sea. The territories were up to 30
to 50 kilometres wide. These areas of roughly 2500
square kilometres would incorporate about 100 villages
with areas of 25 square kilometres per village,
each village consisting of 10 households with 10
inhabitants per household which in turn leads to a
total population of 10,000 people. Up to 20% of this
total number could go to war, which means that
such an area could raise an army of up to 2000 warriors.
Another method of reckoning is based on the
number of weapons in the find from Illerup: based
on the ratio of excavated shield-bosses made of silver,
bronze and iron which are 6 to 30 to 350, a leader
with a silver shield commanded a warrior band with
the strength of a Roman centuria' (60 to 80 soldiers).
The entire force could easily have reached the size of
a Roman'auxilia' unit with 1500 to 2000 men, corresponding
to the number of warriors from the area
of one tribe in the Germanic territories. The warrior
in the burial of Gommern in Saxony-Anhalt with
his precious grave-goods and silver fitted shield
corresponds to the leaders in the military unit from
Illerup in Jutland, and he would have been one of
the leaders of the warrior-contingent from the 30 kilometre
wide settlement landscape around Gommern.
b) The military units (army) can be made up of
warriors and a leader (king, rex or dux) who completely
separate themselves from the structures of
the clan or tribe and move about in an 'unattached'
manner in order to plunder and pillage (gaining
the spoils of war-booty 'Kriegsbeute'). Warriors from
various tribes came together and the old ethnic affiliations
lost their meaning.
c) These military units can be recruited and offer
their services to a higher order of state (an empire) as
auxiliary units, or as groups of mercenaries.
Warfare is a lifestyle, combined with a certain
mentality of the warrior (Bodmer 1957). This is a
behaviour which accepts war as a way of life and
struggle of existence (besides the rural life), from
which a warrior or noble caste emerges. War was
waged almost every year in the early historic societies
of the first millennium. The function of a military
unit varied, depending on its role in the formation
of a tribe or the constitution of a state. The
organised states or empires, as in the cases of the
Roman Empire or the Merovingian Empire, waged
war annually along various borders, sometimes in
defence, but mostly in order to expand their political
WARRIOR BANDS, WAR LORDS, AND THE BIRTH OF TRIBES • 229
power and to obtain war booty. The warrior bands
in turn waged war every year in order to `earn' their
living, either against other armies or, more often,
against the settled communities of tribal societies,
or they waged war against the more organised states
in the form of raids.
The historical phases
Early and Middle La Tene
Celtic mercenaries appear during the 4th century
in the area of the Mediterranean, for example in
the wars of the tyrant Dionysius (c. 430-367 BC) of
Syracuse against Carthage. The invasions of Celtic
warrior bands into northern Italy commenced soon
after 400 BC, culminating in the plundering of Rome
under Brennus and the battle at the river Allia in
387. The withdrawal from Rome was achieved with
the payment of 1000 pounds of gold. The Celtic
occupation of land began in the ager Gallicus along
the Adriatic coast. The Celtic groups named in this
migration were the Senones and the Boii, as well as
the Insubres. None of this can be proved archaeologically;
only solitary assemblages with weapons and
belt ornaments are to be found among the cemeteries
of local character from the 5th to the 3rd century
BC; settlements remain unknown. The Celtic immigrants
would appear to have adapted immediately
to the local culture, to have acculturated themselves.
But there is a cultural feedback to the areas
from the north of the Alps to the river Marne, mirrored
in the decorative style of the jewellery.
A general feature of importance to this discussion
is that mobile warrior bands allow themselves, as a
first step, to be recruited as mercenaries. They return
to whence they came with their pay. The early Celtic
minting of coins in gold and silver imitates the
coins of Phillip (*382, king 359-336) and Alexander
the Great (*356, king 336-323). These mercenaries
come from the cultures on the fringes (Randkulturen
- cultures in peripheral or border regions) of the more
state-like higher organised societies. In the next phase,
they resort to wars of aggression under the leadership
of warrior-kings (Heerkonige - war leaders, commanders).
The name Brennus is an occupational name and
relates to the Breton word brennin - which means
king. The names of the `tribes' in the written sources
are not valid for whole peoples, but rather for the warrior
bands. The occupation of land only begins later
and is not reflected in the archaeological evidence.
Late La Tene
Around 72/71 BC Ariovistus, rex Sueborum (Pliny
Historia Naturalis 2,170) or rex Germanorum (Caesar
de Bello Gallici 1,31,10), appears among the Sequani
as a leader of mercenaries. They had employed him
and his 15,000 warriors for the war against the
Haedui. The number grew to 120,000 as time passed
on. In the decisive battle against Caesar 58 BC 24,000
Harudes, descendants of the warriors that had once
roamed Central Europe with the Cimbri, as well as
Marcomanni, Triboki, Vangiones, Nemeti, Eudusii
and Suebi - totalling at least 7 different groups could
be found amongst the armies. That this coalition
was made up from various individual warrior
bands is a remarkable fact. Where Ariovistus came
from is still unknown - he may have been a Tribokian.
But these names again do not describe peoples, but
rather warrior bands that may indeed mainly have
been recruited from just one tribe.
Ariovistus remained as a mercenary leader in Gaul
and controlled one third of the territories of the
Sequani. The campaign ended in the year 58 BC with
his defeat, after which the troops moved about for 14
years 'without a roof over their heads' (qui inter annos
XIIII non subissent I Caesar de Bello Gallici 1,36,7).
There are no archaeological traces of Ariovistus' campaigns.
But archaeologists think they may be able to
prove an occupation of land through the `Germanic'
finds in the Wetterau and from the Rhine-Main area
to the northern part of the upper Rhine in the Late
La Tene period. There can be no doubt that there are
correspondences in the inventories of pottery and
weapons between the Polish Przeworsk Culture and
cultural groups in central Germany, Thuringia and
the river Elbe region. There is a cultural link between
the groups along the Rhine and the cultures further
east. It cannot yet be decided if this is an extension
or expansion of an archaeological culture group
(Kultur- or Formenkreis), or if it is an immigration of
people towards the Rhine, as the archaeological finds
in both regions are contemporaneous. But there is
no connection between the mobile and very mixed
warrior bands of Ariovistus and the rural settlement
areas along the Rhine and Main rivers with influences
from the areas of the Przeworsk Culture, as
Suebi from distant territories only made up a small
part of the troops.
230 WARFARE AND THE STATE
The age of Arminius
Ariovistus was not only the enemy of Caesar, but
was also amicus populi Romani in the year 59 BC.
And the Cheruscan with the name of Arminius from
the stirps regia of the tribe was a Roman citizen and
belonged to the class of eques, he was a Roman
knight: he had been to Rome and led a band of mercenaries,
an auxiliary unit, in the Roman army. In
the famous Varus-Schlacht (clades Variana), or
Schlacht im Teutoburger Wald', some 'tribes', the Marsi,
Bructeri, probably Chatti and later on Langobardi and
Semnones, could be found fighting alongside the
Cherusci under his command. The term Cherusci
sociique is used. Again a coalition of various warrior
bands came together, some groups may earlier have
been in action as auxilia, or other groups that had
not been in Roman military service. The so-called
`Germanic Battle of Freedom' under the leadership
of Arminius was - according to the historian Dieter
Timpe (Timpe 1970) - no popular uprising, but
rather the mutiny or rebellion of Roman mercenaries,
of a regular or normal auxilia.
One other war lord of this period was Maroboduus,
genere nobilis (Gaius Velleius Paterculus 2,108,2), a
Marcoman who had also been to Rome before he
made himself a king. He then assembled a coalition
of various warrior bands, made up of Lugii, Zumi
(Zumern), Butoni, Sibinii (Sibiner), Semnones and
Langobardi, a force of 70,000 foot soldiers and 4000
horsemen. The areas of settlement of the Marcomanni
in Bohemia, to where, following his differences with
Arminius, Maroboduus had retreated, and the
emigration of the Marcomanni after the death of
Maroboduus into Slovakia are said to be recognisable
archaeologically. These are, however, patterns
of rural settlements which cannot have had any
direct connection with the mobile warrior bands.
The age of the Marcomannic Wars 166-180 AD
The wars of Marcus Aurelius and his son Commodus
were conflicts involving the Roman army in defence
against the warrior bands that were threatening the
Roman provinces from the interior of the Germanic
territory. In the beginning, the Victuales and
Marcomanni, as well as others, are mentioned (Marcus
Aurelius 14.1: Victuales et Marcomannis cuncta turbantibus
aliis gentibus), who demand the allocation
of land as a tribute following their raids. An army of
6000 allied Marcomanni, Langobardi, Obii and others
is mentioned in the year 166-167. Later on, the
Marcomannic king Ballomarius is mentioned as conducting
negotiations and as speaking for 11 legations
(Cassius Dio 71.3.1a), therefore as a leader of a
coalition with ten other war lords. The traces of the
Marcomannic Wars are said to be clearly recognisable
in the archaeological record, for example in the
presence of Roman weapons - swords with ring
pommels and coats of ring-mail - as well as spurs
(Stuhlsporen) of the special Mu§ov-type in a corridor
of traffic between Jutland and Bohemia via the river
Elbe. A feedback into the areas whence the Germanic
armies came could thereby be recognised.
The so-called VOlkerwanderungszeit,
or Migration Period in the 3rd and 4th centuries
The invasions of Alamans, Franks and Saxons into
the Roman Empire began as raids of warrior bands
who wanted to pillage. Some of the warrior bands are
directly employed as mercenaries, not least as garrisons
of the Roman forts along the imperial borders
of the Rhine and Danube in late antiquity.
The Roman commander - and later emperor Julian
won the battle of Argentoratum (Strasbourg,
France) over an Alamannic army in the year 357.
The Alamannic leaders were king Chnodomar and
his nephew Serapio/Agenarich, who had assembled
a coalition of five kings (Vestralp, Urius, Ursicinus,
Suomer and Hortar) as well as ten regales (on horseback)
and a respectable number of nobles (optimates),
in total 35,000 armed men (armatores) on the side of
the Alamanni. There were 17 war lords for 35,000
men, which meant that every one of them had
2000 to 3000 warriors under his command. Other
Alamannic kings are known from this period, as
found in the descriptions of Ammianus Marcellinus;
for example, the brothers Gundomad and Vadomar,
and the son of Vadomar with the name of Vithikap,
were leaders of war bands - which at times waged war
upon Rome, and at other times were in the service of
Rome as leaders of mercenaries. In the Roman military
handbook, the Notitia Dignitatum from the time
of around 400 AD, there are mentions of Germanic
units, the Brisigavi iuniores and the Brisigavi seniores
from the Breisgau, the Lentienses, the warriors from
the Linzgau, and others. The Romans recruited
warriors from regions in which Alamannic groups
had begun to settle. A phase of occupation of land
ensued, following the initial period of raids and
service as mercenaries, constituting the basis for the
first ethnogenesis (tribalisation) of the Alamanni.
WARRIOR BANDS, WAR LORDS, AND THE BIRTH OF TRIBES • 231
Archaeological traces from the beginnings are very
rare. There are only a few burials, the total number
being out of all proportion to the strength and
numbers of the armies of which we know. It may
therefore be assumed that at first these war bands
returned to their homelands on both banks of the
river Elbe some hundreds of kilometres from the
Limes. The discoveries of enormous lost booty from
the Rhine, as in the cases of Neupotz and Hagenbach,
are proofs of this thesis. In the areas of origin beyond
the rivers Elbe and Saale, in Thuringia, the so-called
princely graves of the Hassleben-Leuna group are
interpreted as the burials of leaders of mercenaries
and their families. A number of years ago Joachim
Werner (1973) pointed out the rich furnishings with
vessels made of bronze and glass, with Aurei as
Charon's-pennies and with knobbed bow fibulae
(Bagelknopfribeln) — Roman officers' fibulae — to mark
mercenaries from the'Gallisches Sonderreich' , the
separated Empire of Gaul under emperor Postumus.
It appears that from the 3rd to the 5th centuries
warrior bands moved to the south from beyond the
river Elbe and later made way for the ethnogenesis
(tribalisation) of the Alamanni. Warrior bands from
northern Germany headed into northern Gaul and
led to the ethnogenesis of the Franks, and the warrior
bands of the Angles and Saxons from the coastal
area of Schleswig-Holstein contributed to an ethnogenesis
in England.
The density of settlement after the acquisition/occupation
of land only began to increase during
the 5th century in the Alamannic area. Military hillforts
and rural settlements belonged to this pattern.
Only during this phase does an increase in the
population become archaeologically evident, which
maintains close cultural relations to the areas of oilgin
beyond the Elbe. A steady flow of people towards
the south is also recognisable, but so is a cultural
feedback which influenced material culture, from
fibulae to ceramic inventories.
It remains unanswered how far the Roman military-belts
of the 4th/5th century which can be found
in grave furnishings in Germany — should to be
seen as indicators of returned mercenaries. Germanic
craftsmen themselves began to produce belt mounts
of that type even quite far from the border to the
Roman Empire as a result of a fashion trend. It is
rather the deposits of gold coins, ring-jewellery and
fibulae which were probably the possessions of former
high-ranking leaders of mercenaries.
The Vikings in the west during
the 9th and 10th centuries
The number of raids of the Danish and Norwegian
Vikings into the Carolingian Empire was on the
increase from 840. War lords with war bands came
in order to plunder with their ships that could transport
30 to 60 oarsmen and warriors. In the beginning
they returned to the north, but later they began to
spend the winters in enemy territory. With 100 ships
easily 3000 to 6000 men were involved. The Danish
king and war lord Harald Klak offered mercenary
services, and Louis I ('The Pious' [died 840]) granted
him a fief in Friesia, so that he would fight other
Vikings. The Danish king Horik I offered Louis his
support for the same reasons. He also demanded
Friesia, and furthermore the lands of the Abodrites
as fiefs. In order to give his demands more weight,
he sent several hundred ships against Hamburg.
As the Germanic kings and war lords had offered
mercenary services and 'foeratii contracts' after their
raids in Roman times, so the Viking kings were now
attempting the same.
Under the reign of Karl II (`The Bald', dem Kahlen
[838-877]) the payment of `Danegeld' began. It was
the time of the Viking irregulars under independent
chiefs, who in turn were linked in alliances. A chief
or war lord by the name of Weland let himself and
his followers be recruited by Karl for payment, and
fought other Viking irregulars/bands. He had access
to 200 ships and wanted 5000 pounds of silver as
well as provisions for driving other Vikings away.
Such alliances between Vikings and local rulers were
also to be found in England and Ireland before the
Vikings openly resorted to raiding. A great band or
army of Vikings gathered in the year 865 in Kent
and remained together until 879; the army conquered
several Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. Parts of this
army began to settle in England from 876 onwards;
others moved on against France in 879 and besieged
Paris in 885 and 887, but returned to England in
892 and were defeated by Alfred the Great. This socalled
Great Army, a coalition of numerous war lords
and their armies, was continuously strengthened
through fresh units. Attempts at colonisation only
began after 900 (see Coupland 1998).
The Normans and the Mediterranean
during the 11th century
The Viking leader Rollo spent the first ten years of
the 10th century fighting for booty in the area of
232 WARFARE AND THE STATE
the river Seine. He was granted a fiefdom in the year
911 after converting to Christianity - land at the
estuary of the Seine, later known as Normandy. He
thereby became the first duke of Normandy. The
descendants of Rollo tried to strengthen the fiefdom
and to incorporate the 'Viking' nobility in a tighter
fashion, but parts of this group rebelled and moved
on to new raids in the Mediterranean.
The first group of Norman knights appeared in
Salerno in southern Italy in the year 999: They were
a group of pilgrims returning from Jerusalem and had
stopped over in Salerno when the city was attacked
by Saracens. They procured weapons and horses
and chased the Saracens away. The lord of Salerno,
Gaimar IV (999-1027), wanted to employ them as
mercenaries, but they returned to Normandy accompanied
by envoys who in turn were to employ others
as mercenaries. Other versions mention that warriors
from Normandy appeared in southern Italy at the
latest in 1015-16. They were in the military service
of the local nobles and therefore in the service of
the emperor against the Muslims or Saracens and
Byzantine enemies. 250 Normans are listed as defeated
mercenaries in a battle against Byzantine forces;
various later sources mention contingents of 300
knights under the command of leaders who were
granted Sicilian towns as fiefdoms.
The Norman Robert Guiscard followed his brothers
to southern Italy in 1046-47, conquered Calabria
and became duke of Apulia and Calabria as well as
Sicily. He sent his younger brother Roger (26 years
old) with just 60 knights to hold the area of Calabria.
The conquest of Sicily followed in 1061 through a
first wave of attack with 13 ships and 270 knights
which was then joined by a group of another 170
knights in the second wave of attack in order to conquer
Messina. The battle and victory of 700 knights
over 15,000 Muslims followed. Sicily, which had
become Muslim in the 9th century, had been reconquered
for the empire in the later part of the
11th century; Palermo was taken in 1072, the last
Muslim outpost fell in 1091.
The rules of the war lords and warrior)
band warfare
Criteria for this special kind of warfare can be given
with the help of the following scheme of develop-
ment:
1 In the beginning it was mercenaries from the central
European clan and tribal communities who
offered their services to the armies of the more
advanced organised states. They returned home
with gold and silver which they had received as
pay, as well as with concepts and ideas of the more
advanced forms of societies.
2 The formation of warrior bands under the leadership
of war lords - who gathered entourages of
warriors around them - followed next; the war
lords and their warriors emerged from the old
tribal society, separated from it and became individual
entities with their own names that had less
and less involvement with their communities
and lands of origin.
3 In order to keep these warrior bands together, the
war lords had to see to it that a steady income was
ensured, which in turn was gained through warfare,
although sometimes the mere threat of war
was sufficient to trigger payments of tributes.
These raids were aimed at areas outside the home
territories, often enough (in terms of civilisation)
more organised - and therefore promising more
booty - political entities, empires or states.
4 Successful leaders attempted to strengthen their
armies, for which they needed more income, which
in turn meant that they had to wage wars more
frequently, in the end almost continuously. This
phase is characterised by a lack of fortifications,
as territory was of no importance to warrior bands
that were constantly on the move.
5 In order to be successful against growing military
resistance from the affected areas a number of
leaders joined together and formed military coali-
tions.
6 After a series of raids the warrior bands began to
occupy and at the same time to settle in the territories
they had fought in, instead of returning to
their lands of origin. Or the most powerful leader
attempted to build his own empire in enemy territory.
He thereby had to assert himself against his
opponents. The threatened countries solved the
problem through the inclusion of war-band leaders
into their own system of government (foederati
or fiefdom contracts). They then tried to use these
forces against further threats from without. In the
case of a lack of a local government organisation,
the leaders formed their own empires on the territories
of the state which they had occupied, or
where they could settle as mercenaries.
WARRIOR BANDS, WAR LORDS, AND THE BIRTH OF TRIBES • 233
All these proceedings refer to Central or temperate
Europe — from this part of the world I have provided
examples, but it may also be possible to apply this
sequence to other districts and cultures in the world
— with individual features dependent on the special
character of the epoch. Generalisation is only possible
in a limited manner, but will be attempted here for
model-forming purposes. Comparisons are possible
with other parts of the world and other epochs, for
instance in the special circumstances of neighbouring
traditional and nomadic empires, as in China
(Barfield 1989).
The movement from warrior band to empire or
territorial government always follows a pattern of
which the individual stages cannot — or at best in
some stages only — be archaeologically recognised. It
is only the final goal, the completed occupation of
land and new settlements complete with an ethnogenesis
(tribalisation), which leaves its traces in the
archaeological material. The signs of the constitution
of a tribe are (1) the filling of the area of settlement
with latecoming immigrants and (2) the connection
to the various lands of origin (the Saxons in England
and lower Saxony; Franks and northern Germany;
Alamanni and the area between Mecklenburg and
Bohemia beyond the river Elbe; Normans in Italy
and in Normandy).
It is an unanswered question, then, what the furnishing
of male burials with weapons in Early La
Tene, in the Roman Iron Age, in Merovingian times
and during the Viking Ages may imply.
Are weapons symbols of social status and rank, or
indeed signs of actual participation in combat, or
even in wars? In all cases only a small proportion of
the total numbers of male burials from each period
include weapons in their inventories; these weapon
assemblages often depend on the age of the dead
man. There is a difference between younger and older
warriors. For the early period there is also the possibility
that at first only members of warrior bands or
auxiliary units of the Roman Empire were buried
together with their weapons.
Pattern of interpretation
The function of the warriors in the constitution(s)
and development(s) of tribes (tribalisation) and
states (empires, territorial governments) is recognisable
through the described stages.
In conclusion it can be said, that (Fig. 1): Warfare
forces clan societies to organise themselves in tribes.
Tribes develop, which have to set up military units
in order to fend off threats and to defend themselves.
A part of the warrior group joins together to form
warrior bands that offer services as mercenaries or
undertake raids. A cyclical development creates war:
The contrast between states at different levels of
development and between states and clan-based
societies leads to warfare, which in turn leads to the
constitution of tribes. As tribes developed, warfare
between tribes followed. As warrior bands, which
searched for and needed 'work', developed on
another level (higher than tribes and above and also
independent of the tribes), the raid was invented
and mercenary services offered to state-organised
societies. These always had reasons for waging war
against their neighbours.
The question must be asked, why did the social
form of organisation called the warrior band and its
behaviour — the annual raid — develop? They must
have had either a regular or specific function in
European history; the regularity with which this
behaviour can be observed cannot be overlooked.
Possible explanations could be:
1 The warrior bands always existed, as they were
necessary due to certain inner structures of their
societies. A part of the young warriors could not
live in the rural surroundings of the settlements
at home because, for example, of laws regulating
inheritances which stood against them. They separated
themselves from the clan and tribal societies.
The wars necessary for their income were
mostly internal, as can be seen in the Celtic world
(sacrificial areas as in the case of Gournay in
France) or in the Germanic world (the great weapon
deposit of Illerup in Jutland). They only appear
sporadically in historic sources — mainly when the
raids were conducted against more organised states.
2 The co-existence of states — with varied levels of
organisation — and open ranked societies, clan and
tribal societies, forces the cultures along the fringes
(border lines) to adopt the new organisational form
of the warrior bands which make profits by mercenary
services or raids on the of more advanced
political entities.
The cyclic developments can thus be explained
by the fact that there are always new structures of
states emerging, which in turn influence their
neighbourhood. That is why my repeated model
234 WARFARE AND THE STATE
clan-societies
4,
1. tribalization
tribes
with territories
internal wars
from tribe to state
mercenaries
and
warrior bands
war
clan-societies
1. tribalization
tribes
with territories
internal wars
from tribe to state
war
war
2. ethnogenesis or
tribalization
tribes in occupied
territories
1
internal wars
from tribe to state
mercenaries
and
warrior bands
war
war
From Tribe to State
and WarfareImperial societies,
kingdoms and states
war
war
2. ethnogenesis or
tribalization
tribes in occupied
territories
migrations
internal wars
from tribe to state
"names of tribes"
(
mercenaries
and
warrior bands
war
war
2. ethnogenesis or
tribalization
tribes in occupied
territories
internal wars
from tribe to state
clan-societies
4,
1. tribalization
tribes
with territories
internal wars
from tribe to state
war
STEUER/PLONNER 2001
war
F I G . 1: Warfare and transformations of tribes and states.
can be used - and not only for the times beginning
with the Celts and the La Têne period, but
equally for the Hallstatt period and earlier epochs
of temperate Europe.
- The Mediterranean world with Greece, Rome and
Carthage influenced the clan-based societies of the
La Têne period - the first recognisable response
being the Celtic mercenaries in the area of the
Mediterranean.
- The secondary structuring development of tribes
and areas of rule (oppidum-civilisation) in the
Celtic world in turn influenced the early Germanic
world of beyond the Rhine. The first recognisable
response was the Suebi mercenaries of Ariovistus
employed by the Celtic lords of the Sequani.
- The Roman Empire in its varied stages of expansion
influenced the Germanic world, after integrating
and assimilating the Celtic world in the
Empire as the Gallic provinces. During the Roman
Iron Age far inside the Germanic countries areas of
rule developed which defended themselves with
ramparts and trenches. How many of these basic
units merged into a tribe still remains unknown.
100 tribal districts of the Suebi are mentioned by
Caesar (de Bello Gallici 4.1). These sent out 1000
armed men every year on raids, altogether 100,000
men - perhaps a reflex of this situation. (Caesar
goes on to report that the rest of the warriors stayed
at home in order to do their farming so that their
families would have an income, but were sent out
the following year when it was their turn). The
`Suebenknoten' (knot of the Suebi), the characteristic
knot of hair worn on the side of the head of the
warriors, is spread across the whole of Germania,
and Tacitus points out that it was an honour for
a warrior to wear this knot (Germania 38).
The first response outside Germany was the
bands of mercenaries serving as auxilia-units in
the Roman army since the times of Arminius. A
later response was the groups of mercenaries
WARRIOR BANDS, WAR LORDS, AND THE BIRTH OF TRIBES • 235
made up of the so-called Alamanni and Franks
who served during the 3rd century.
- The Frankish Empires of the Merovingian and,
even more so, the Carolingian dynasty had the
same stimulating effect on the Scandinavian
peoples. Scandinavians can be traced back to the
Merovingian or Vendel period where they had
been employed as mercenaries of the Franks (socalled
ring-swords may be signs of such alliances:
Steuer 1987).
- Raiding bands of Vikings are employed as mercenaries
against other bands of Vikings, the situation
later being resolved through the granting of
fiefdoms.
- Mercenaries from Normandy conquer the Muslim
south of Italy and found a kingdom.
The feedback such activities provided to the
places of origin only become apparent when
written sources report on it. Otherwise, the development
from clan- and family-based societies to
tribal societies and from that stage - with the key
word 'centre of wealth' - to early areas of rule
(empires, states) can only be deduced in an indirect
manner (compare: Mortensen and Rasmussen
1988; 1991).
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236 • WARFARE AND THE STATE
WARFARE AND SOCIETY
Archaeological and Social Anthropological Perspectives
EDITED BY TON OTTO
HENRIK THRANE AND
HELLE VANDKILDE
AARHUS UNIVERSITY PRESS 2006
WARFARE AND SOCIETY
Archaeological and Social Anthropological Perspectives
© Aarhus University Press, Ton Otto, Henrik Thrane
& Helle Vandkilde 2006
ISBN 87 7934 110 1
Editors: Ton Otto, Henrik Thrane & Helle Vandkilde
English revision: Stacey Cozart, Nick Thorpe,
Mary Waters Lund
Proofreading: Steffen Dalsgaard
Layout & cover: Hanne Kolding
Printed by: Narayana Press
Type face: Stone Serif, Stone Sans
Paper: Arctic Volume
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Cover: "War Magic", 1975, screenprint by the Papua New Guinean
artist Timothy Akis (deceased 1984). The picture illustrates the connection
between warfare and social identities. In some Melanesian
societies war magic is used to transform men into warriors, so that they
can kill people and thereby establish group identities and social
boundaries.
Published with the financial support of
the Danish Research Council for the Humanities