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MA in Modern History, University of Oxford (Graduated 1985)4y
RelatedWhat weapons did ancient Egyptians use?
Ancient Egyptian history is commonly divided into three periods of power — the Old Kingdom (2686–2181 BCE), Middle Kingdom (2055–1650) and New Kingdom (1550–1069), each separated by roughly a century of weakness, civil war and foreign invasion. The New Kingdom ended in a similar but longer collapse, leading to the so-called Late Period when Egypt was no longer a great imperial power, but instead the victim of successive invasions by Nubians, Assyrians, Persians and Macedonians. The rise of the Greek Ptolemy dynasty is generally seen as the end of the Late Period, though some could argue that the Roman conquest marks the true end of Ancient Egypt as a power.
During the Old and Middle Kingdoms, the Egyptian army was largely a militia force armed with clubs, maces and bows. Metal was known but rare; the peasant militia used weapons made of stone and wood.
The Hyksos migrations ended the Middle Kingdom, and also introduced Egypt to new ways of warfare — the chariot and the composite bow. Bronze weapons also became more common around this period. The army of the New Kingdom was a much more professional force, with noble warriors using archery from chariots as a mobile strike force, backed by disciplined infantry using bronze axes and curved swords. This army allowed Egypt to extend its power up the Nile and across into Asia as far as Syria.
Finally, the collapse of the New Kingdom led to Egypt being influenced more strongly by West Asian and European methods of warfare, such as straight stabbing swords and the use of the pike phalanx. The introduction of iron working during this period also influenced weapon design.
The following more detailed analysis of Egyptian weapons draws on this very useful site as the main source: An introduction to the history and culture of Pharaonic Egypt
Clubs and maces
Inscriptions from pre-dynastic Egypt show soldiers using simple clubs made from thick tree branches. A more effective form of this weapon was devised when a heavy weight was attached to the end of the wooden shaft, turning it into a mace.
The first Egyptian maces had stone heads, but these were superseded by the use of copper. A copper ball could have a tapered hole cast through the middle, making a secure anchoring point for the mace’s wooden shaft. As well as plain spherical mace-heads, the Egyptians also experimented with flattened discs and pear-shaped heads as a way of concentrating the force of the impact.
The mace was a common weapon until about 2500 BCE, when the increased use of helmets and body armour made them less effective. However, they retained a symbolic importance as a sign of power and authority for at least another thousand years or more: pharaohs were often depicted in artworks as striking down their enemies with a mace, even after maces had ceased to be practical weapons on the battlefield.
Nesut-Bity Khasty Hor-Den Iaret-nebu-shen (‘Den’ for short), King of Egypt circa 2970 BCE, using a mace to strike his enemies.
Axes
The battleaxe seems to have gradually replaced the mace as the main weapon of the Egyptian infantryman, as bronze became more common. Illustrations show these axes as having a wooden shaft about as long as a man’s arm, with a crescent-shaped curved blade fixed to the shaft. After about 1500 BCE the most common design of the axe-head changed to a longer and narrower chisel shape, designed to punch through helmets.
Battleaxe from the 12th Dynasty circa 1800 BCE.
Swords
During the era of the New Kingdom, the sword first appeared on the battlefield. The khopesh or sickle-sword was an early design, copied from the Canaanites of the Levant. It had a short but wide and highly curved blade made from bronze, and was used for slashing.
Bronze khopesh attributed to Ramesses II of the 19th Dynasty, died 1213 BCE
During the 1200s BCE the Sea Peoples ravaged Egypt’s coasts, and introduced them to a new design of sword. These were straight, up to 75 cm in length and two-edged, tapering to a sharp point, and could be used for stabbing as well as slashing.
The Egyptians adopted this new design of straight sword without abandoning their traditional curved swords. A painting from the reign of Ramesses III circa 1160 BCE show mercenaries armed with straight swords and shields charging headlong at Egypt’s enemies, while more disciplined ranks of native Egyptian soldiers with curved swords advance steadily behind them.
Spears
In most ancient armies the spear was the most common weapon of the ordinary solder, but not in Egypt. We can perhaps assume that the reason for this is the desert climate, as trees producing long, straight branches suitable for spear shafts are rarely found there.
Chariot riders, who were noblemen who could afford the best equipment, did carry a number of spears in their vehicles as a back-up to their bows. They were especially useful for spearing fleeing opponents in the back if they tried to run away from the chariots.
During the late period, when Egypt fell under Persian and then Greek influence, the spear and even pike did come to play a more important role in combat. The Greek writer Xenophon describes an Egyptian army fighting in phalanx formation little different to that of his own troops. Presumably the wood for the spear shafts was imported.
Bows
The bow was always an important weapon of Egyptian armies. At first these were simple wooden bows, shooting arrows with flint arrowheads.
The Hyksos migrations of 1650 BCE and afterwards introduced Egypt to the composite recurve bow. These were reinforced with a strong layer of horn on the inside (nearer to the archer) and wrapped with sinew for elasticity, all glued together. When unstrung, the bows curved in the opposite direction to their shape when strung for action (the ‘recurve’ part of the description).
Composite bows were far more powerful than simple bows of equal size, needed greater strength to draw them but offering a much longer range and penetrative ability. At about the same time as they adopted them, the Egyptians also switched to bronze arrowheads instead of flint.
The composite bow became the signature weapon of Egypt’s chariot riders, who were the key element in the army of the New Kingdom.Typically, massed chariots would attack the enemy line and unleash a storm of arrows: their accuracy from the back of a moving vehicle was likely to be poor, but they made up for it by volume of fire (a chariot could carry more arrows than a man on foot) and the speed and shock of their attack.
An enemy thrown into confusion by a chariot attack could then be assaulted by the infantry wielding swords, axes and maces. If the enemy broke and fled, the chariots could then pursue them and cut them down as they ran using the spears carried for that purpose.
Ramesses III in his chariot. Note he is depicted as having the reins tied to his waist rather than having a separate driver; this might be realistic, or perhaps merely a way for the artist to depict Pharaoh’s superhuman, godlike skill and talent.
Other missile weapons
Javelins were occasionally used, but seem to have been rare — the same problem of availability applies to them as it does to spears.
Some Egyptian soldiers used slings, though contemporary illustrations show these as being much rarer than bows. Slingers were sometimes used as skirmishers to harass the enemy, or during sieges where they hurled their missiles up and over the walls of the fortress. The big advantage of slings over bows was the cheapness of their ammunition: simple pebbles picked up from the ground. Having said that, in the late period the Egyptians did introduce lead bullets as sling ammunition, which gave a 50% greater range than plain stones.
Shields
Most Egyptian infantry carried shields to protect themselves. Sometimes even archers, who needed two hands to use their bows, were accompanied by a shield-bearer to stand in front of them.
Shields were typically made of wood and leather: bronze shields were introduced during the New Kingdom, but were heavier and do not seem to have offered sufficient advantage over the traditional materials to replace them.
In the early years shields were often very large, even man-high, to protect the user from enemy arrows. When metal axes and swords became more common on the battlefield in the 2nd millennium BCE, shields were forced to become smaller and lighter, allowing the soldier to use it actively to parry and deflect an axe-blow rather than simply hide behind it.
Armour
Egyptian soldiers rarely wore armour; the hot climate would make that uncomfortable or even dangerous. Charioteers were an exception, since they rode rather than marched. They are often depicted wearing leather armour, often in the form of thick bands of leather wrapped around their torso. Scale armour, leather sewn with many overlapping bronze or (later) iron plates, was also known, and seems to have been worn as much for status as for protection (pharaohs were often depicted wearing it).
Chariots
The chariot dominated Egyptian warfare for over half a millennium, starting around 1650 BCE, before being replaced by mounted cavalry as horses grew larger.
An Egyptian war chariot was a two-wheeled vehicle drawn by a pair of horses. It had a crew of two: a driver, and the noble warrior who fought from the chariot using his bow and spear. Other powers in the Middle East also used chariots, but the Egyptian ones were noted for being particularly light, fast and manoeuvrable. They were also fragile, and needed a lot of careful maintenance between battles.
Replica of an Egyptian chariot