When reading royal inscriptions from any period of history, where they exist, we often find interesting oddities within them. One such interesting inscription has come my way recently and I have grappled with how to deal with its implications as of late.
The inscription in question derives from the reign of Tukulti-Ninurta I (1233-1197 BCE) in the years of 1224-1219 BCE. It covers a supposed battle record or praise from a battle between Tukulti-Ninurta I and Kashtaliash IV, the king of Karduniash, who was competing for dominance in Mesopotamia with Assyria and possible held an alliance with the Hittite kingdom recently defeated in 1231 BCE by Assyria. In said battle, the Assyrian force defeated the Karduniah handily and Kashtaliash IV was slain by the Assyrians and his kingdom was made a vassal of Assyria. However some praises given by Tukulti-Ninurta I, are frankly unprecedented in all that I have ever read regarding the manner in which Assyrian military forces operated.
The inscription reads as:
" Wildly raging, taking forms strange as Anzu (the great eagle beast of legend);
They fiercely rushed to combat, removing their armor;
Having stripped off their breastplates, thrown forth their clothing (as in, they were nude);
They bounded their hair and polished their weapons with songs;
They snorted at each other, like fighting lions with eyes of fire;
The swirling dust storms of battle whirl about them."
By mentioning them as such, Tukulti-Ninurta I seems to have implied that they played a particularly important role, whoever did this. The way it is worded too, seemed to imply that whoever these men were, they were different than the normal Assyrian warriors. Some sort of mercenary, foreign soldier or a special sort of unknown Assyrian fighting style.
Traditionally, scholars and myself understood the idea of the naked or near-nude warrior to be a cultural trait found particularly within Eurasia among Bronze, Iron and Early Medieval European and wider Indo-European societies. Celtic, Germanic, Scythian and so forth, all seem to have practiced a form of battle wherein men would remove all armors and even often clothing. Perhaps consuming some sort of concoction prior to, these warriors would often enter a state of high-adrenaline and become especially fearsome offensive units. Frequently, the naked fighters would be of a higher caste or noble class and the nakedness in battle was to exude a level of dominance and of bravery to not fear wounds. More practically, the custom had benefits in battle due to an aspect of imposing fear upon enemies and also, in the aspect of giving the warrior in question superior maneuverability.
An example of such effectiveness of naked warriors when paired with powerful bodies, quick feet and skill/experience is seen in the campaigns of Roman Emperor Julian (360-363 CE) wherein he utilized a host of Germanic warriors in his war against the Sassanid empire. Therein, the Germanic warriors seemed to have claimed to have experience in battle against heavily armored cataphracts and horse archers. They removed their armor and clothing and donned only large clubs and a small thin curved sword around their belt fastened to a naked waist. Their skill was displayed for when the cataphracts charged, their heavy armor weighing their charge, the Germani soldiers sidestepped the cavalry and with club smashed the body of the rider, causing a blunt trauma reminiscent of hammering a bell. Having slammed a horsemen from his mount, the small curved sword was tactically used to stab the rider between his armor as he was recovering from his fall and the assured sound of this armor ringing.
Other examples abound of this. Another battle against the Palmyran Roman claimant saw such cavalry tactics bested by naked berserk warriors from Gaul and Germania. In the column of Trajan, commemorating his victory over the Dacians, Germanic soldiers clad in the sky or nude are especially frequent and displayed as the personal bodyguards of Trajan as he ascends to victory. It is possible that said nude fighters were especially effective in ritualized warfare in Gaul, where displays of flamboyance were of great importance or when these nude warriors were backed by an existing formalized army of regulars or otherwise more disciplined fighters.
Unlike however, the Romans who boasted of the usage of these naked fighters and of soldiers from cultures known to use these styles of fighting, Assyria never did so. Assyrian armed forces in the Bronze Age, were generally composed of nobility and an annual conscripted or levied population from the cities and rural areas, including slave warriors. Assyria likewise, trained its soldiers during the time between harvest and annual campaigns. Soldiers were likewise, denied individual acts of bravery and so forth, supposedly acting as fingers, toes and otherwise general tools of the Great Gods and the Great King of Assyria. They were to hold their formations and do exactly as told, not seeking renown aside from the issuance of orders. Assyrian soldiers were too, assets in logistical terms, used to garrison, construct infrastructure.
Their pay was not necessary, as they served the Gods, war was a religious duty. However, their expenses were paid by the state, which issued weapons, clothing and rations for their usage. At the end of a war, the levies returned to their farms and or the estates of their masters and performed their agrarian duties of producing children, producing crops and acting as the fuel and servants of the Great Gods.
Thus, it is odd considering the traditional narrative of Assyrian soldiers that any type of soldier would be this praised, would act this rashly and also be removing their clothing. Reading such an inscription, I can imagine a conservative Assyrian scribe becoming agitated and yelling out that Assyria has fell to the sin of pride that they take the battle to the enemy without the leave of the Great Gods. Such a critique would be very much in the line of traditional Assyrian models of war and soldiery.
My only conclusion thus, is that some sort of mercenary or otherwise non-Akkadian unit was used in this situation... Who that is, is difficult. My instinct is to point to the Mitanni or something.
Reasoning and possibilities:
1. Mitanni: My opinion, is that of Mallory and most preeminent experts in the field of Indo-European and Bronze Age studies. That in the Middle Bronze Age, there was an influx of a people of chariot and sword wielding nobles or elites from Iran and the Pontic Steppe. These elites were of Indo-European or Kassite stock. Therein, some mixed and became one with the Hurrian people, whose names they intertwined with their own and mixed their deity names together. These noble elites ruled vast realms across the Middle East, importing their Maryanu elite warrior caste across the Mid East. In the case of the Kassites, they ruled the old lands of Akkad and Sumer and in the furthest east, ruled as a noble clan in the land of Elam.
While, I do not believe there is any direct reference of the Mitanni fighting as berserk infantry or nude in any capacity, it is surely possible. In a society as potentially hierarchical and elitist and considering their hypothesized origin beyond the Caucasian mountains, it seems surely possible that said men of Indo-European and Hurrian cultural groups, did practice nude fighting in war. Greeks of the Bronze Age for instance, seemed to have done so and Home in the Illiad mentions examples of the most brave warriors removing their armor and garments so as to engage in a true battle of the body. Hence why later Greek writers often lauded the Celts and others as battling in the mode of their legendary predecessors of the long ago age of Bronze. Hittite figurines also seem to show swordsmen and ax-men fighting naked and in postures denoting dancing.
Likewise, many of the deities of myth in cultures in question, have tales of their deities partaking in battles wherein their armor was simply a sort of radiant aura and thus the rest of them was a naked splendor. Such epic renderings of warrior spirit play into aristocratic, flamboyant and ritualized warfare, wherein displays of courage and individual skill are of enormous importance; as is imitating the gods. Greek histories mention that Greek men for instance who battled naked, were protected by the gods, for their bravery was made holy by the gods.
In even earlier periods, we find artwork deriving from the Pontic Steppe and in the region of Copper Age Romania, depicting such fantastic symbols such as: a man with three axes in a single hand, a large erect penis, long flowing hair, a tightened belt with a curving sword and fallen heads (probably the heads of his slain enemies). Likewise, said warrior was in a dancing posture, much like later Germanic, Celtic and Scythian art, which displayed their most esteemed warriors as dancers, chanters and resembling radiant entities of impersonal slaughter. This is much different from Assyrian art of soldiers, who were displayed as stoic, strong, masculine and yet, servile and ordinary.
Needless to say, it is not a far-fetched idea that the Mitanni may have contained the nude-warrior and or berserk styled fighter. Yet, the better reason for my identification of the Mitanni, is that they are the main population with whom we know with utter certainty that the Assyrians valued and used readily. When the Mitanni kingdom fell to the Hittites, according to Assyrian records, many of the warrior elites of the Mitanni and their foremost instructors came to Assyria and submitted. They were then made soldiers and instructors in Assyria. Later, when Shalmaneser I (Tukulti-Ninurta I's father) conquered the Mitanni vassal under the Hatti kingdom, he integrated it as a province of Assyria (the first true province of Assyria, all prior were simply destroyed and settled as part of an expanding Assyrian direct monarchical bureaucracy or were made into vassals who paid exorbitantly in tribute. This entailed, that the Mitanni population would have been levied as warriors for Assyria.
However, it is also plausible that any naked form of war that the Mitanni possessed was lost to them long ago. Egypt, Hatti nor Assyria mention that the Mitanni battled nude in the manner that Tukulti-Ninurta I mentions. Furthermore, the Mitanni noble castes were known as masters of chariots and of extremely hyper heavy bronze armor. So it is potentially incorrect this hypothesis.
2. Another option?
This is difficult. If it was not Mitanni, then it would have to be some other group with this strategy. Removing potential candidates would be as such:
-Egypt: Impossible, nakedness in battle would have been a display of slavery. Likewise, there is no mention of this. The only known examples, are when certain kings throw their armor off so as to escape faster. Such as Ramses II at the Battle of Kadesh.
-Southern groups: Peoples such as the Arabs are unlikely. Their environment in the unforgiving Arabian sun would make nakedness in battle a great means by which to become burned. Likewise, there is no imagery or example of such. Warriors always at best wear loincloths and head coverings and furthermore did not ever enter hysterical states of battle.
-Elam: Impossible, as there is no mention in their culture of such styles and their form of warfare was mostly similar to those of the Akkadian warfare standards, that is heavy use of axes, shields and bronze armor with conical helmets.
Possible options:
-Something Northern? This could be peoples from the Caucasian mountains, such as the Hurrians, the Kaska, the Mushki, or so forth. All of these groups were known to Assyria. However, Assyria's relation to them was extraordinarily hostile. Assyrian forces were generally unable to commune with these people, as they were frequently purged by the Assyrian armies in wars of subjugation that became extermination campaigns into the mountains of Armenia and so forth. However, it may be possible that these people could have been hired as mercenary or serving as slave levies for Assyria. The reforms of Shalmaneser I issued a tradition of permitting enemies to be made into slaves and serve Assyria (prior Assyrian kings, had simply exterminated all captives, at least according to their royal inscriptions) . This is possibly an example too of Tukulti-Ninurta I's vaunted and excessive devotion to Nurgle (the Great God of looting, plunder, fire, flayed skin, punishment and scorpions, he is the most aggressive of the Akkadian gods), which led him into a path of looting, pillaging and yet also permissive and recalcitrant to the conservatives of Assyria who derided his reasons for war as being not in line with Duranki (the idea of the completion of the world or world conquest). Likewise, it is not impossible that Assyrian commanders could have acquired said warriors from the beyond the Caucasian mountains from among peoples of the Pontic Steppe, but there is no evidence suggesting this.
Yet, except for the case of the Pontic Steppe option, none of the mentioned groups have a known history of nude warfare or of the sort of fighters that Tukulti-Ninurta I describes. Thus, it is somewhat weak. Furthermore, there is no known example of these peoples serving within the Bronze Age Assyrian armies. Only in the much later periods of the Assyrian state, under less conservative bureaucracy do we find a more diverse army including northern hillfolk and Cimmerians-Scythians in a true sense.
-Something Western? This is a possibility that meets the criteria for the existence of nude fighting in the way the inscription reads. The idea is that there existed in the Bronze Age an extensive trade network carrying goods from Europe to the Mid East. By the time of Tukulti-Ninurta I, the Assyrian state was the preeminent and imposing power of the region. It would have had great trade links both west, north and east. Thus comes the possibility that Assyria may have hired mercenary who came from Europe, either from the Aegean or from more Western or Southern Europe at great distances.
Imagine perhaps, excessive warfare in Europe and possible famine and turbulence in Europe had occurred (as there is some evidence for) that may have led certain groups or bands of men from proto-Celtic or Italic peoples in Italy or Gaul to board a ship towards the world then currently embroiled in serious conflict between Egypt, Hatti, Assyria and Kardunaish, to both make a name for themselves and likewise to steal wives, land and produce children. This sort of mentality, especially among Indo-European groups is not uncommon and is noted from the Bronze Age until the Medieval Period. A great example of this, is the Alemmani whose name means 'they are mixed' or 'they of the all-people' wherein their supposed foundation myth was that of young warriors forming a band of outcasts which leaving their home tribes, formed their own people by conquering and subduing another people and taking their women as theirs (this is a hypothesized and the model that I prefer for the spread of Indo-European tongues into Europe). These warriors would then arrive in say Cyprus and thus to Phoenicia as hired swords. Originally perhaps serving the Hatti, they may have defected to Assyria after the Assyrians defeated the Hatti state. This could be a possible vector for which Assyria gained warriors of this type to serve as a radically erratic and dangerous force against the rival Karduniash.
This however has no evidence. There is no evidence that states Assyrian military forces used mercenary from this region. Though, there is evidence of people from the west being used as mercenary in this period. The Hatti and Egypt used extensively mercenary from the Aegean, Crete and Cyprus. Further, if the Sea Peoples of legend were from beyond the Aegean to the west, this would be evidence of mercenary bands in use by major states from further away than the Aegean and thus giving credence to this theory.
----------------------------
Hope this interests you guys. If anyone has some ideas or thoughts regarding the topic, I would love to court these posts. Perhaps a good conversation can develop, certainly.
The inscription in question derives from the reign of Tukulti-Ninurta I (1233-1197 BCE) in the years of 1224-1219 BCE. It covers a supposed battle record or praise from a battle between Tukulti-Ninurta I and Kashtaliash IV, the king of Karduniash, who was competing for dominance in Mesopotamia with Assyria and possible held an alliance with the Hittite kingdom recently defeated in 1231 BCE by Assyria. In said battle, the Assyrian force defeated the Karduniah handily and Kashtaliash IV was slain by the Assyrians and his kingdom was made a vassal of Assyria. However some praises given by Tukulti-Ninurta I, are frankly unprecedented in all that I have ever read regarding the manner in which Assyrian military forces operated.
The inscription reads as:
" Wildly raging, taking forms strange as Anzu (the great eagle beast of legend);
They fiercely rushed to combat, removing their armor;
Having stripped off their breastplates, thrown forth their clothing (as in, they were nude);
They bounded their hair and polished their weapons with songs;
They snorted at each other, like fighting lions with eyes of fire;
The swirling dust storms of battle whirl about them."
By mentioning them as such, Tukulti-Ninurta I seems to have implied that they played a particularly important role, whoever did this. The way it is worded too, seemed to imply that whoever these men were, they were different than the normal Assyrian warriors. Some sort of mercenary, foreign soldier or a special sort of unknown Assyrian fighting style.
Traditionally, scholars and myself understood the idea of the naked or near-nude warrior to be a cultural trait found particularly within Eurasia among Bronze, Iron and Early Medieval European and wider Indo-European societies. Celtic, Germanic, Scythian and so forth, all seem to have practiced a form of battle wherein men would remove all armors and even often clothing. Perhaps consuming some sort of concoction prior to, these warriors would often enter a state of high-adrenaline and become especially fearsome offensive units. Frequently, the naked fighters would be of a higher caste or noble class and the nakedness in battle was to exude a level of dominance and of bravery to not fear wounds. More practically, the custom had benefits in battle due to an aspect of imposing fear upon enemies and also, in the aspect of giving the warrior in question superior maneuverability.
An example of such effectiveness of naked warriors when paired with powerful bodies, quick feet and skill/experience is seen in the campaigns of Roman Emperor Julian (360-363 CE) wherein he utilized a host of Germanic warriors in his war against the Sassanid empire. Therein, the Germanic warriors seemed to have claimed to have experience in battle against heavily armored cataphracts and horse archers. They removed their armor and clothing and donned only large clubs and a small thin curved sword around their belt fastened to a naked waist. Their skill was displayed for when the cataphracts charged, their heavy armor weighing their charge, the Germani soldiers sidestepped the cavalry and with club smashed the body of the rider, causing a blunt trauma reminiscent of hammering a bell. Having slammed a horsemen from his mount, the small curved sword was tactically used to stab the rider between his armor as he was recovering from his fall and the assured sound of this armor ringing.
Other examples abound of this. Another battle against the Palmyran Roman claimant saw such cavalry tactics bested by naked berserk warriors from Gaul and Germania. In the column of Trajan, commemorating his victory over the Dacians, Germanic soldiers clad in the sky or nude are especially frequent and displayed as the personal bodyguards of Trajan as he ascends to victory. It is possible that said nude fighters were especially effective in ritualized warfare in Gaul, where displays of flamboyance were of great importance or when these nude warriors were backed by an existing formalized army of regulars or otherwise more disciplined fighters.
Unlike however, the Romans who boasted of the usage of these naked fighters and of soldiers from cultures known to use these styles of fighting, Assyria never did so. Assyrian armed forces in the Bronze Age, were generally composed of nobility and an annual conscripted or levied population from the cities and rural areas, including slave warriors. Assyria likewise, trained its soldiers during the time between harvest and annual campaigns. Soldiers were likewise, denied individual acts of bravery and so forth, supposedly acting as fingers, toes and otherwise general tools of the Great Gods and the Great King of Assyria. They were to hold their formations and do exactly as told, not seeking renown aside from the issuance of orders. Assyrian soldiers were too, assets in logistical terms, used to garrison, construct infrastructure.
Their pay was not necessary, as they served the Gods, war was a religious duty. However, their expenses were paid by the state, which issued weapons, clothing and rations for their usage. At the end of a war, the levies returned to their farms and or the estates of their masters and performed their agrarian duties of producing children, producing crops and acting as the fuel and servants of the Great Gods.
Thus, it is odd considering the traditional narrative of Assyrian soldiers that any type of soldier would be this praised, would act this rashly and also be removing their clothing. Reading such an inscription, I can imagine a conservative Assyrian scribe becoming agitated and yelling out that Assyria has fell to the sin of pride that they take the battle to the enemy without the leave of the Great Gods. Such a critique would be very much in the line of traditional Assyrian models of war and soldiery.
My only conclusion thus, is that some sort of mercenary or otherwise non-Akkadian unit was used in this situation... Who that is, is difficult. My instinct is to point to the Mitanni or something.
Reasoning and possibilities:
1. Mitanni: My opinion, is that of Mallory and most preeminent experts in the field of Indo-European and Bronze Age studies. That in the Middle Bronze Age, there was an influx of a people of chariot and sword wielding nobles or elites from Iran and the Pontic Steppe. These elites were of Indo-European or Kassite stock. Therein, some mixed and became one with the Hurrian people, whose names they intertwined with their own and mixed their deity names together. These noble elites ruled vast realms across the Middle East, importing their Maryanu elite warrior caste across the Mid East. In the case of the Kassites, they ruled the old lands of Akkad and Sumer and in the furthest east, ruled as a noble clan in the land of Elam.
While, I do not believe there is any direct reference of the Mitanni fighting as berserk infantry or nude in any capacity, it is surely possible. In a society as potentially hierarchical and elitist and considering their hypothesized origin beyond the Caucasian mountains, it seems surely possible that said men of Indo-European and Hurrian cultural groups, did practice nude fighting in war. Greeks of the Bronze Age for instance, seemed to have done so and Home in the Illiad mentions examples of the most brave warriors removing their armor and garments so as to engage in a true battle of the body. Hence why later Greek writers often lauded the Celts and others as battling in the mode of their legendary predecessors of the long ago age of Bronze. Hittite figurines also seem to show swordsmen and ax-men fighting naked and in postures denoting dancing.
Likewise, many of the deities of myth in cultures in question, have tales of their deities partaking in battles wherein their armor was simply a sort of radiant aura and thus the rest of them was a naked splendor. Such epic renderings of warrior spirit play into aristocratic, flamboyant and ritualized warfare, wherein displays of courage and individual skill are of enormous importance; as is imitating the gods. Greek histories mention that Greek men for instance who battled naked, were protected by the gods, for their bravery was made holy by the gods.
In even earlier periods, we find artwork deriving from the Pontic Steppe and in the region of Copper Age Romania, depicting such fantastic symbols such as: a man with three axes in a single hand, a large erect penis, long flowing hair, a tightened belt with a curving sword and fallen heads (probably the heads of his slain enemies). Likewise, said warrior was in a dancing posture, much like later Germanic, Celtic and Scythian art, which displayed their most esteemed warriors as dancers, chanters and resembling radiant entities of impersonal slaughter. This is much different from Assyrian art of soldiers, who were displayed as stoic, strong, masculine and yet, servile and ordinary.
Needless to say, it is not a far-fetched idea that the Mitanni may have contained the nude-warrior and or berserk styled fighter. Yet, the better reason for my identification of the Mitanni, is that they are the main population with whom we know with utter certainty that the Assyrians valued and used readily. When the Mitanni kingdom fell to the Hittites, according to Assyrian records, many of the warrior elites of the Mitanni and their foremost instructors came to Assyria and submitted. They were then made soldiers and instructors in Assyria. Later, when Shalmaneser I (Tukulti-Ninurta I's father) conquered the Mitanni vassal under the Hatti kingdom, he integrated it as a province of Assyria (the first true province of Assyria, all prior were simply destroyed and settled as part of an expanding Assyrian direct monarchical bureaucracy or were made into vassals who paid exorbitantly in tribute. This entailed, that the Mitanni population would have been levied as warriors for Assyria.
However, it is also plausible that any naked form of war that the Mitanni possessed was lost to them long ago. Egypt, Hatti nor Assyria mention that the Mitanni battled nude in the manner that Tukulti-Ninurta I mentions. Furthermore, the Mitanni noble castes were known as masters of chariots and of extremely hyper heavy bronze armor. So it is potentially incorrect this hypothesis.
2. Another option?
This is difficult. If it was not Mitanni, then it would have to be some other group with this strategy. Removing potential candidates would be as such:
-Egypt: Impossible, nakedness in battle would have been a display of slavery. Likewise, there is no mention of this. The only known examples, are when certain kings throw their armor off so as to escape faster. Such as Ramses II at the Battle of Kadesh.
-Southern groups: Peoples such as the Arabs are unlikely. Their environment in the unforgiving Arabian sun would make nakedness in battle a great means by which to become burned. Likewise, there is no imagery or example of such. Warriors always at best wear loincloths and head coverings and furthermore did not ever enter hysterical states of battle.
-Elam: Impossible, as there is no mention in their culture of such styles and their form of warfare was mostly similar to those of the Akkadian warfare standards, that is heavy use of axes, shields and bronze armor with conical helmets.
Possible options:
-Something Northern? This could be peoples from the Caucasian mountains, such as the Hurrians, the Kaska, the Mushki, or so forth. All of these groups were known to Assyria. However, Assyria's relation to them was extraordinarily hostile. Assyrian forces were generally unable to commune with these people, as they were frequently purged by the Assyrian armies in wars of subjugation that became extermination campaigns into the mountains of Armenia and so forth. However, it may be possible that these people could have been hired as mercenary or serving as slave levies for Assyria. The reforms of Shalmaneser I issued a tradition of permitting enemies to be made into slaves and serve Assyria (prior Assyrian kings, had simply exterminated all captives, at least according to their royal inscriptions) . This is possibly an example too of Tukulti-Ninurta I's vaunted and excessive devotion to Nurgle (the Great God of looting, plunder, fire, flayed skin, punishment and scorpions, he is the most aggressive of the Akkadian gods), which led him into a path of looting, pillaging and yet also permissive and recalcitrant to the conservatives of Assyria who derided his reasons for war as being not in line with Duranki (the idea of the completion of the world or world conquest). Likewise, it is not impossible that Assyrian commanders could have acquired said warriors from the beyond the Caucasian mountains from among peoples of the Pontic Steppe, but there is no evidence suggesting this.
Yet, except for the case of the Pontic Steppe option, none of the mentioned groups have a known history of nude warfare or of the sort of fighters that Tukulti-Ninurta I describes. Thus, it is somewhat weak. Furthermore, there is no known example of these peoples serving within the Bronze Age Assyrian armies. Only in the much later periods of the Assyrian state, under less conservative bureaucracy do we find a more diverse army including northern hillfolk and Cimmerians-Scythians in a true sense.
-Something Western? This is a possibility that meets the criteria for the existence of nude fighting in the way the inscription reads. The idea is that there existed in the Bronze Age an extensive trade network carrying goods from Europe to the Mid East. By the time of Tukulti-Ninurta I, the Assyrian state was the preeminent and imposing power of the region. It would have had great trade links both west, north and east. Thus comes the possibility that Assyria may have hired mercenary who came from Europe, either from the Aegean or from more Western or Southern Europe at great distances.
Imagine perhaps, excessive warfare in Europe and possible famine and turbulence in Europe had occurred (as there is some evidence for) that may have led certain groups or bands of men from proto-Celtic or Italic peoples in Italy or Gaul to board a ship towards the world then currently embroiled in serious conflict between Egypt, Hatti, Assyria and Kardunaish, to both make a name for themselves and likewise to steal wives, land and produce children. This sort of mentality, especially among Indo-European groups is not uncommon and is noted from the Bronze Age until the Medieval Period. A great example of this, is the Alemmani whose name means 'they are mixed' or 'they of the all-people' wherein their supposed foundation myth was that of young warriors forming a band of outcasts which leaving their home tribes, formed their own people by conquering and subduing another people and taking their women as theirs (this is a hypothesized and the model that I prefer for the spread of Indo-European tongues into Europe). These warriors would then arrive in say Cyprus and thus to Phoenicia as hired swords. Originally perhaps serving the Hatti, they may have defected to Assyria after the Assyrians defeated the Hatti state. This could be a possible vector for which Assyria gained warriors of this type to serve as a radically erratic and dangerous force against the rival Karduniash.
This however has no evidence. There is no evidence that states Assyrian military forces used mercenary from this region. Though, there is evidence of people from the west being used as mercenary in this period. The Hatti and Egypt used extensively mercenary from the Aegean, Crete and Cyprus. Further, if the Sea Peoples of legend were from beyond the Aegean to the west, this would be evidence of mercenary bands in use by major states from further away than the Aegean and thus giving credence to this theory.
----------------------------
Hope this interests you guys. If anyone has some ideas or thoughts regarding the topic, I would love to court these posts. Perhaps a good conversation can develop, certainly.
