BIBLIOGRAPHY

Core theoretical and historical works informing The Metallic Complex. This represents the secondary scholarship underlying the research; primary ancient sources are catalogued separately.

Anthropology & Theory

Origins of state, class, and civilization

Pierre Clastres

  • Society Against the State
  • Archaeology of Violence
  • Chronicle of the Guayaki Indians

David Graeber

  • Debt: The First 5,000 Years
  • Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology
  • Toward an Anthropological Theory of Value

David Graeber & David Wengrow

  • The Dawn of Everything

Indo-European Studies

Comparative mythology, linguistics, and the warrior function

Georges Dumezil

  • The Stakes of the Warrior
  • The Plight of a Sorcerer
  • Mitra-Varuna

Bruce Lincoln

  • Myth, Cosmos, and Society
  • Death, War, and Sacrifice

M.L. West

  • Indo-European Poetry and Myth

Violence & War

Military history, trauma, and organized violence

Richard Rhodes

  • The Making of the Atomic Bomb
  • Dark Sun
  • Masters of Death

Robert Drews

  • The End of the Bronze Age
  • Early Riders
  • Militarism and the Indo-Europeanizing of Europe

Jonathan Shay

  • Achilles in Vietnam
  • Odysseus in America

Lawrence Keeley

  • War Before Civilization

Metallurgy & Technology

History and archaeology of metalworking

Alan Williams

  • The Sword and the Crucible
  • The Knight and the Blast Furnace

Andreas Hauptmann

  • Archaeometallurgy: Materials Science Aspects

R.F. Tylecote

  • A History of Metallurgy

Mythology & Religion

Ancient religions, initiation, sacrifice, and mystery cults

Mircea Eliade

  • The Forge and the Crucible
  • Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy
  • A History of Religious Ideas

Walter Burkert

  • Ancient Mystery Cults
  • Homo Necans
  • Structure and History in Greek Mythology and Ritual

Gregory Nagy

  • The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours

Karl Kerenyi

  • Eleusis: Archetypal Image of Mother and Daughter

Alchemy & Hermeticism

Alchemical tradition and hermetic philosophy

Lawrence Principe

  • The Secrets of Alchemy

William Newman

  • Atoms and Alchemy
  • Promethean Ambitions

Antoine Faivre

  • Access to Western Esotericism

Pamela H. Smith

  • The Body of the Artisan

Philosophy & Critical Theory

Theoretical frameworks for understanding violence and technology

Gilles Deleuze & Felix Guattari

  • Anti-Oedipus
  • A Thousand Plateaus

Rene Girard

  • Violence and the Sacred
  • The Scapegoat

Lewis Mumford

  • Technics and Civilization
  • The Myth of the Machine

RESEARCH COLLECTION

The full research library includes 600+ primary ancient texts (Vedic, Persian, Greek, Norse, Hermetic, Biblical, Mesopotamian) and 100+ academic articles on archaeometallurgy, Bronze Age societies, and related topics.

Learn more about the project