Running a Bronze Age Campaign - Part 2

[Don Jones]

For this part of Running a Bronze Age Campaign, we’ll look at the politics and structure of societies. Unlike the first part on weapons and equipment, it is crucial to know which part of the Bronze Age you want to use for your story or setting before beginning. While the equipment and weapons didn’t change much through the Early, Middle and Late Bronze Age, the nature of societies and politics underwent a drastic evolution.

The Bronze Age has been rightfully called the beginning of civilization. At the beginning of the Early Bronze Age, the average settlement had less than a couple hundred people and covered two to three acres. Even though walled cities, like Jericho, had existed long before the Bronze Age, they were rare, and it was uncommon for their influence to extend beyond the farmlands outside the city walls. By the end of the Early Bronze Age, larger cities such as Uruk had begun to take shape and international trade was flourishing. By the end of the Middle Bronze Age, what we would consider kingdoms and small empires had started to spring up, while the modern concept of diplomacy went into full bloom. In the Late Bronze Age, the political structures from the Middle Bronze continued, but society itself went into a dark age. That’s for another post.

The change from hunter/gatherers to agrarian cultures had already taken place in the Neolithic period, for the most part. While we tend to think of the rulers in the early years of the Early Bronze Age communities as chieftains, this isn’t necessarily true in the sense of the stereotypical idea of chieftain. We know from burial sites that the rulers were considered people of great importance and were materially affluent. Who they were isn’t documented, though. In areas where there was a lot of conflict, the greatest warrior may have been ruler. Since many of these communities had tribal family relations, many of them were elders or respected members of the tribe. Given the place of prominence religion held by the later years of the Early Bronze Age, it is very likely people seen as religious leaders held some level of leadership in the political affairs, although whether this was the role of actual ruler or a co-ruler relationship is unknown. Patriarchy and matriarchy in leadership both seem to have been fairly common. For a game or story at the early part of the Early Bronze Age, a variety of leadership models are possible, even within the same geographic region.

In the Early Bronze Age, specialization of tasks was uncommon. The earlier Neolithic agrarian model of everyone working the fields flowed into this time period. There were people who made pottery, worked metal, made textiles, weapons, utensils, etc. However, these weren’t full-time occupations, but activities in addition to farming, probably shared in by many. Although intertribal conflicts and raids were extremely common, there were no standing armies or warrior class. Although there may have been a class of spiritual leaders, these were likely people among the elders, and past the age of working the fields anyway.

In the Middle Bronze Age, monarchies were well-established. City-states with far reaching influence began to spring up, taking the place of prominence from the smaller walled cities. At their peak, both Uruk and Thebes had approximately 80,000 inhabitants. Land that had been shared in common during earlier periods was now becoming privately owned. Land produced the food that was crucial to support the growing populations, so land became the most common form of wealth. In a standard game or story, a person with a great amount of gold is considered wealthy. In a Bronze Age game, the person with a great amount of land is considered wealthy, with the gold and jewels being a symbol, or side effect, of the land wealth. Instead of characters being paid in gold and jewels, rewarding them with a half an acre of land would be a great reward. Land was often worked by slaves, either taken in war or criminals, so rewarding them with workers would also be common.

The growing reach of city-states and early kingdoms created the need for a standing army, and the surplus of food from agriculture allowed for the birth of the warrior class. The surplus of food also allowed for specialization in many areas. The spiritual leaders of the earlier periods were now able to become a priest class. While religion is basically window-dressing in many settings and stories, religion was a central part of Bronze Age life. In Uruk, for example, the layout of the city has a major ziggurat at the center of the walled city. This is a fairly common layout. Considering the many monolithic sites of religious significance going back to the Neolithic Period, and the amount of time and resources necessary to build them, it is clear the religion was side-by-side with agriculture in playing a part in the rise of early civilization.

In addition to the military and clergy, a number of other specializations emerged in the trade skills. Ceramics and pottery were a critical part of everyday life, and due to their tendency to break, work was always needed. A great deal of building began, making masons, carpenters and engineers important trades to know. Textile workers and blacksmiths were also in demand. Miners were especially important, depending on the geographical region. While many mines were worked by slaves and prisoners, there is archeological evidence of some miners holding exalted stations and being given elaborate burials. One important difference in the trade skills between a Bronze Age setting and the typical Medieval setting is that most trade skill workers were working directly for the government. The idea of just dropping into the local blacksmith shop really wasn’t a thing, since most of them were either working directly for the government, or exclusively employed by a wealthy patron.

One of the most important specializations to develop during the time period was merchants. Bronze was obviously critical to the time period, but the tin and copper required to make it were rarely found in the same regions. The amount of trade taking place during this period is staggering in the geographical range it covers. Metals were not the only major items traded. Items like salt, textiles, wine and foods, and various other common items are found widespread outside the regions where the originated. This also gave greater importance to the role of diplomats, another emerging specialization. The Pax Romana was not yet in place to keep travelers safe, making these extremely dangerous jobs. While in many stories and settings the characters are adventurers out exploring, even being merchants or diplomats would provide enough adventure for a lifetime.



In the next part of Running a Bronze Age Campaign, we will look at Economy and Trade.