bdjsiqoocwk
3 hours ago
Random trivia about Ramses 2 (from memory, might be wrong): died at the age of 90, his 14th or something son inherited at the age of 70.
Remains of Egyptian army barracks and a bronze sword unearthed by archaeologists
39 pointsposted 10 hours ago
by peutetre5 Comments
jmyeet
6 hours ago
I'm always fascinated by these ancient archeological finds, like someone made this thing 3000+ years ago and it somehow survived. Like the only known surviving Roman scutum shield [1].
It should be noted taht we have a lot of misconceptions about ancient warfare. Swords were largely ceremonial, probably owned by officers (muhc like even modern militaries have sabers as part of dress uniforms).
The dominant weapon in ancient warfare was the spear, not the sword. Why? Because it's relatively easy to teach to use, it's effective against cavalary and easy to use in formation, as in 3 rows (or more) of men could have spears facing forward.
Ancient egyptians at this time were hoplites [2]. They did have swords but they were close-quarter weapons, probably for dealing with survivors when a formation breaks down. And hoplites were followed by Greek phalanxes and ultimately Roman legions.
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scutum_from_Dura-Europos
[2]: https://owlcation.com/humanities/Ancient-Egyptian-Battle-Tac...
golergka
5 hours ago
Spear or some form of a spear has been the dominant weapon of pretty much all time, from prehistoric people hunting the mammoths to world war 1 bayonets. Roman legionaries with sword and javelin are about the only major exception to this rule that I can think of.
card_zero
3 hours ago
Maybe the Franks, according to one Roman author:
> they had a small body of cavalry about their leader, and these were the only ones armed with spears, while all the rest were foot soldiers having neither bows nor spears, but each man carried a sword and shield and one axe. Now the iron head of this weapon was thick and exceedingly sharp on both sides, while the wooden handle was very short. And they are accustomed always to throw these axes at a signal in the first charge and thus to shatter the shields of the enemy and kill the men.
But this is probably wrong.
xenospn
5 hours ago
Don’t forget bows and arrows!