(Theoretical aspect of the problem according to the data of archeology and historical ethnology) The aim of the study is to correlate the theory of historical ethnology with archaeological sources that reflect the development of the phenomenon of military power, i.e., the power of military leaders, in their symbolism. For this purpose, the prestige of burials with weapons from the Neolithic - early Bronze Age periods is analyzed based on materials from the Danube, the Caucasus, and southern Eastern Europe. The paper briefly presents the theory of ethnology on the classification of wars of the pre-state period, i.e., the actual primitive and for the extraction (real). On the basis of ethnological studies, the author notes the different position of military leaders in societies and their rapid path to the top of power with the development of wars for production and the acquired right to distribute spoils of war. An excursion into the theory of ethnology is directly related to the analysis of archaeological sources, as well as works of art, mythology, which reflect the growing prestige of people associated with the military sphere, i.e. those who exercised military power, by the symbolism of weapons, related items and plots. Key words: ethnology, archeology, war, mining, power, weapons. Introduction In this paper, an attempt is made to reconstruct the process of development of the phenomenon of power associated with military operations in pre-state societies. This multi-faceted phenomenon is considered on the basis of historical ethnology and archaeological sources of the Neolithic - early Bronze Age. Such research has its own characteristics. On the one hand, they consist in illustrating theoretical propositions with concrete examples from ethnography. On the other hand, the conclusions are based only on indirect evidence from the materials of archeology, since for the studied regions there is no ethnological information about the time of the Neolithic - Bronze Age. A ... Read more