Page 186 - Four Thousand Years Ago by Geoffrey Bibby

The Wide View (I) 147

central Europe the Indo-European-speaking battle-ax people
seem to have rapidly achieved the same position as in the hill­
lands of the Middle East. Over a dozen “nations” are distinguish­
able in the area stretching from Greece through the Balkans and
Germany to Scandinavia. (The archaeologist prefers, of course,
to call them “cultures,” but one assemblage of artifacts sufficiently
different from another to merit the name of a separate culture
must imply a different political entity.) And all of them—with at
most one exception—reveal, mixed with the Danubian artifacts
of the earlier inhabitants, the incursive artifacts of the battle-ax
people; and in this mixture the battle-ax components are domi­
nant. We need no written documents to see the Indo-European
speakers established here, too, as a warrior aristocracy over the
original inhabitants.
What we do not know is how it happened. In India, where
at this time the Indo-European-speaking Aryans were planning
their conquest of the city civilization of the Indus valley, there
have survived, in the Vedic literature, what in effect are the vic­
tory hymns of the conquerors. And they show that the Indo-
Europeans had no scruples about conquest and enslavement of
native populations. But in Europe there is no evidence—like the
scattered skeletons in the streets of Mohenjo-daro—of battle
and sudden death. Perhaps the sheer strength of the invaders
made resistance impracticable, perhaps the warriors were wel­
comed as allies and mercenaries, and peacefully usurped power.
The fairy tale of the prince who, appearing from beyond the
frontiers, performs great and beneficial exploits and wins as his
reward the hand of the princess and half the kingdom is pecul­
iarly widespread in southeast and central Europe. It may well
date back to this period, and give us a hint as to the way things
may have gone—particularly as there is evidence that the suc­
cession to the throne among societies derived from the Mediter­
ranean may well have been matrilineal, descending not from
father to son but from father to daughter’s husband. And this
would be a very convenient custom for land-hungry (and pa­
trilineal) warriors coming from abroad.
Whatever the process, the results were the same. All the peo­
ple who inhabited the eastern half of Europe three hundred