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The Bronze Age is alive and well
Aug. 27th, 2006 04:50 pmI've long been fascinated by prehistory and early civilization. There are many good books about prehistory and early history in Egypt, Sumeria and the Agean; but most focus on monuments, warfare, rulers and graves; few discuss early society and the parallels with the current age.
Hence I was pleasantly surprised to come across two books that, in an off-hand manner, explicitly remarked on Bronze Age analogies with today's world.
The first is Barry Kemp's Ancient Egypt, which I read a few month's back. He discusses the trappings of Bronze Age leadership and how many elements intended to impress the populace are equally present today: the ruler will speak to a crowd from a balcony on an oversized building, travel in a ceremonial vehicle while guarded by elite military, dispense ceremonial gifts to high-favored officials, and will encourage a cult of the individual.
The second is Elizabeth Wayland Barber's Women's Work: The First 20,000 Years, detailing prehistoric textiles, gender relations, ancient myths, and how archeologist deduce data from such small things as small blobs of clay used to weigh down looms. This is a fantastic book that I highly recommend; but I must I add I got a lot of dirty looks, while reading on the subway, from women who saw the main title (Women's Work) and must have assumed I was reading right-wing reactionary materials. Anyway - the author shows how certain types of clothing, first established in the late Bronze Age, still apply today. I had no idea that men's clothing (trousers and a sweater or jacket on top of a white or light-colored shirt) date back that long; or even that the word shirt itself is derived from the verb to shorten - a shirt is a shortened tunic.
All this makes me think it's high time to write a fantasy novel that eschews the predictable Arthurian, celtic, medieval or renaissance setting. I'm thinking about a Bronze Age background with a strong centralized state, an effective spy system, and political intrigue, in the midst of a civil war. Say Alan Furst in Babylon, 2000 BC. Let's avoid magic,special artifacts, quests, chase scenes and big fights (after all, this would be 1000 years before the sword was invented). I wonder if anyone would want to read that!
Hence I was pleasantly surprised to come across two books that, in an off-hand manner, explicitly remarked on Bronze Age analogies with today's world.
The first is Barry Kemp's Ancient Egypt, which I read a few month's back. He discusses the trappings of Bronze Age leadership and how many elements intended to impress the populace are equally present today: the ruler will speak to a crowd from a balcony on an oversized building, travel in a ceremonial vehicle while guarded by elite military, dispense ceremonial gifts to high-favored officials, and will encourage a cult of the individual.
The second is Elizabeth Wayland Barber's Women's Work: The First 20,000 Years, detailing prehistoric textiles, gender relations, ancient myths, and how archeologist deduce data from such small things as small blobs of clay used to weigh down looms. This is a fantastic book that I highly recommend; but I must I add I got a lot of dirty looks, while reading on the subway, from women who saw the main title (Women's Work) and must have assumed I was reading right-wing reactionary materials. Anyway - the author shows how certain types of clothing, first established in the late Bronze Age, still apply today. I had no idea that men's clothing (trousers and a sweater or jacket on top of a white or light-colored shirt) date back that long; or even that the word shirt itself is derived from the verb to shorten - a shirt is a shortened tunic.
All this makes me think it's high time to write a fantasy novel that eschews the predictable Arthurian, celtic, medieval or renaissance setting. I'm thinking about a Bronze Age background with a strong centralized state, an effective spy system, and political intrigue, in the midst of a civil war. Say Alan Furst in Babylon, 2000 BC. Let's avoid magic,special artifacts, quests, chase scenes and big fights (after all, this would be 1000 years before the sword was invented). I wonder if anyone would want to read that!
