Introductory narrative: The World of Metal Introductory narrative: Once upon a time, a warrior’s weapons… The French edition of A CALL TO ARMS was awarded the Verdun World Peace Center History Prize in 2018. But our European ancestors have their own history, and this book tells it.Īnne Lehoërff is Professor of Archaeology at CY Cergy Paris University, and she presides the ‘ Conseil National de la Recherche Archéologique’. She focusses on oral societies which have for a long while remained poorly understood, passed over by a historical tradition that saw the world of Classical Antiquity in a different light to that of ‘primitive’ peoples. Western Europe developed new social structures, a new kind of civilisation involving neither towns, nor writing.īy tackling the subject ‘a call to arms’, Anne Lehoërff investigates war’s long-term development. Societies were transformed, and came to revolve politically and economically around warfare. Through the sword, the Bronze Age brought war into being. They were used in combat, then laid to rest, whole or broken, often during complex rituals that are still hard for us to understand.

Soon, over a vast area between the Baltic Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, thousands of weapons were manufactured. This marked a technological turning point, giving rise to an arms race that has never since ceased. One day, sometime around 1700 BC, a bronzesmith made the first sword.

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