Symbols and Warriors: Images of the European Bronze Age

It is fair to say that warrior ideology was rife in Bronze Age Europe but all too often it is discussed in generalised and overly simplistic terms. This detailed study of the imagery and ideology of Bronze Age Spain and Portugal draws on a corpus of more than one hundred stelae. Describing them as `multi-vocal monuments' Richard Harrison examines how they embody ideological codes centred around militarism, masculinity and hierarchy, reflected in the symbolism of the imagery, the geographical location of stelae and their function. In Harrison's opinion the stelae contain a `treasure-trove of well-preserved ideas' of a society seeking to mark physical possession of territory, commemorate their great leaders and warriors and, in some cases, mark their burial. Discussion of examples and particular types of symbolism and imagery from Iberia lead to broader discussions of stelae practices, social evolution and warrior ideology in Bronze Age Europe as a whole.