THE END OF

THE BRONZE AGE

C H A NGE S IN WARfAR E AND T HE
C A T A ST R O P HE C A . 12 0 0 B.C .

Robert Drews

""

PRI N C ET O N UN I VE RS I T Y P R E S S
PR I N C ET ON, N EW J ER S E Y

i
j

'[

CO N T EN TS
Co pyrig ht {' 1993

by Pnn ceto n Unive rsity I'ress

Pu blished by Princet on Uni versrrv Press. 41 \X'Jlham Stree t.

L IST O F lL L U ST R A TlO N .'

Pri nceton. New j ersev 0 854 0

In the United Kingdom : Prince to n University Press, Chiche ster, West Sussex

A C KN O W LE D G M EN TS

\' 11
IX

All RIgh ts Reserved

AB B RE VI A n O N S

Lib rary

ol Con gress Cataloging-in-Pnbiicatirm Dat u

XI

PA RT O N E: INT ROD UCTIO N

Drew s, Ra be n.
Th e en d of [he Bro nze Age: C h anges in \'(Iar fare and [he ca tastro p he
ca . 120 0

p.

B. C.

i Ra ben Drew s.

C H APT ER 01':E

The Ca tas tro phe an d Its Chro no log y

O L\P T ER TWO

em .

Includes bibliog rap h ical referenc es an d index.

ISBN 0 69 1-0 4811 8
1. Bro nze ag e-c-M edir er r.mean Regio n.

M ed iterranean Region.

2. \X'arfare. Prehisroric-

3. Chariot warfare-c-- Med irerr anean Region.

4. \V'e3pon s. Preh istor ic-c-M edirerr .mean Region .

Reg ion - A nti quities .

G N 77 8 .3 .A ID 74

5 . Med uerrauean

l. Title.

199 3

930 ' .09 822 -dc2 0

92 -4 65 1 1

CIP

T his book has been com posed in Saban

Prince ton Un iversity Press bo o ks arc printed on acid -free paper

Th e Ca tastro phe Surveyed 8

Anatolia 8
Cyp rus 11
Syria 13
111e Sal/them l.euant 15
Mesopotam ia 17
Egyp t 18
G reece and th e Aegean Islands
Crete 26
Su m m ary 29

21

Co m mitt ee on Prod uct ion Guidelines fo r Book Lo ngevity o f the

PART rwo. ALTER N ATIV E EXPLAN ATIO NS O F

TH E CATAST RO PH E

Co unci l o n Library Resou rces

C HA PTE R T HREE

an d mee t the gui delin e s for perma nence and dur ab ility o f the

Prin ted in [he Uni ted Sta res o f America

10

4 .J

Earthqu ak es

33

C H APTER f O UR

M igrat ion s

4H

The Egyptian Evidence 48

The O rigins of th e Thesis 5.1
Ar chaeo logical ,111.1 Historical Considerations
C HA PTE R FIVE

Ironwork ing

73

C H APT ER SIX

Dro ught

77

C II APT ER SEVEN

Systems Co llapse

S5

61

vi

C O:-':T E ~T S

LIST O F ILL USTRATI O NS

( HAPTER EIGHT

Ra iders

91

PART THREE: A MILITARY EXPLANATI ON O F

THE CATAST RO PH E

FIGURE I. M ap of Eastern Mediterranean, show ing ma jor sites

destroyed in the Ca tastro phe

CHAPTER N INE

Preface

to

a Military Exp lan atio n of the Catastrophe

97

CHA PTER TEN

The Cha riot Warfare of th e La te Bronze Age

104

Th e Beginn ings of Char iot War fare 104

Chariotries: Numbers and Costs 106
How Chariots Were Used in Battle 113
Th e Battles at Megiddo and Kad esh 129
CHAPTE R ELEVEN

Foorsoldiers in the Late Bro nze Age

135
" Runners ": Th e Role of lnfantryrnen in Chariot Warfare 141
T he Recruitment of Infantrym en ill the Late BrOllZe Age 147
infantry For ces in the Catastrop he 157

CHA PTER 1WELVE

Inf antry a nd Horse Troops in th e Earl y Iron Age

164

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Ch anges in Armor a nd Weapons at th e End of the Bronze Age

Armor 174
Javelins , Sp ears, and Lan ces
Sw ords 192

180

CHA PTER FOURTEEN

The End of C ha riot War fare in the C atast ro phe

BIBLIO GRAPHY
I NDEX

245

227

209

174

FIGUR!" 2. Tanged, ellip tica l weapon-heads of th e late second

millenn ium :
a. RS 1l0/99, fro m Catast ro phe de struction level at Uga rit ;
7 em. ; after Yon et aI., " O rga nisatio n," figure 28
b. RS 80/270, fro m Catastrophe destruction level at
Ugarit; 8.5 crn. ; after Yon et a l., "Organisarion.," figure 27
c. J 1 3; from EI Kh adr, Isr ael ; 9.2 em.; aft er Cross and
Mil ik, "Typological Study, n figure 2
d. Fro m Mycenae; 13 .7 cm.; after Avila, Lan zen spitzen,
Tafel 28 , no. 76 9
e. Fro m Hazar; head , 8.5 em ., sho e, 4 crn.; after Yadin et
aI., Ha zar , vols . 3-4, plate 347 , nos. 3 and 6
FIGURE 3 . Ea stern Mediterranean sw ords of the Late
Bronze Age:
a. Sick le swo rd from tomb of Turankh arnun ; 40 em.; after
Ya din, Art of Warfare, vol. 1, 207
b. LH II rapier from Plovdiv, Bulgaria; 76 crn.; after
Sanda rs, " Later Aegean Bronze Swords, n plate 22 , no. 7
c. Anato lian rapier found near Bogh azk 6y; 79 em .
including " killed " tang; aft er Un al et aI. , " H ittite Sword, n 47
FIGURE 4. Cur- and-thrust swo rds from the period of
th e Catast ro p he:
a. N aue Type II swo rd from Aran yos, Hungary;
ca . 65 crn.; after Cowen, " Flange-H ilred Cutt ing Sword, n
fig. 2, no. 4
b. " M erne pra h Swo rd" from Ugarit; 74 crn.; after
Schaeffer, " Bro nze Sword from Ugarit, n 227.
c. Longest of the four swords from " Ia maison du
Grandprerre d'Ugarit" ; 73 crn. ; after Sch aeffer, Ugaritica, vol.
3,fig.223
d . N aue Type II sword from M ycenae ; 60 crn.; a fter
Cowen , " Fla nge-H ilted C utti ng Sword, n fig. 2, no . 6
PLATE 1. Sen I attacking the ch ariots of the Hittite king. Line
draw ing of relief from Amun temple at Ka rn ak . Plate 34 in The

188

197

2 02

Bat tle Relie fs uf King Set) ' I. Co urresv of rhe O rienta l lnsrirure
of rhc Un iversity of Ch icago

ACK N OW U-:D G,'vl ENTS

123

PLATE 2 . " Ba rtle Scene" fresco fro m Pylo s, recon stru c ted by
Pier de j ong, Fresco 22 H64 (pla re ,\1) in M abel La ng, T he
Palace of Ne stor at Pylas . \ ' 0 1. 2 : T he Frescoes (Princeton :
Princet on University Press, 196 9). Reprodu ced by permission of
Prince ton Universit y Press. Pho tograp h o btai ned fro m rhe
University of Cin cinnati

141

PLATE 3. A shardana skirm ishe r slayin g a H irrire cha rioteer a r

Kade sh . Ab yd o s relief. Pho to grap h courtesy of Vronw y H ankey

144

PLATE 4. A shardana skirm ishe r cu tt ing off rhe ha nd o f a slain

H irrire ch a r iotee r a r Kad esh. Ab ydos relief. Pho rogr aph
co u rtesy of Vro nwy Hankey

145

PLA TE 5. Sharda na bod yguar ds of Ram esses II, a r Kadesh.

Abydos relie f. Phoro grap h cou rtesy of Vro nw y Ha nkey

154

PLATE 6 . Land barrie of Ram esses III, in Yea r Eighr , agai ns t

Philistine and other aggr essor s. Line drawing of relief from
M cdin er H abu . Co urtesy o f the Oriental lnsrirure o f the
Un ivers ity of C hic a go

15 9

PLATE 7. Sea bat tle of Rarn esscs III, in Year Eigh t, aga inst
Philistine an d othe r aggressor s. Line d rawing of relief from
Mediner H abu . Co u rtesy of rhe O rie nt al Inst itute o f th e
Un iversity of C hicago

160

PLATE 8 . "Warrio r Vase " fro m M ycen ae, side A. Ph ot og ra p h

o b ra ine d from Marburg! An Resource, Ne w York

162

PLATE 9. Seri I arracking Shos h u Bedouin in Ca n aa n. Line

drawin g of relief from Arnun temp le ar Ka rna k. Plat e J in The
Battle Reliefs of King Sety 1. Co urtesy of rhe Oriental lnsrirure
of rhe University of C hicago

183

PLATE J O. Bartle of Rarnesses III again st Libya ns. Line d rawing

of relief from Medin cr H abu . Co urtesy of the O rienta l Institute
of the Univc r siry of C hicago

200

O R PH OTO GR APH S a nd per mission to publis h th em in thi s book I

a m gra tef ul ro the O rienta l lnsrirure of the University of Ch icago and
to Princeton Univer sirv Press. Ar the O rie nt.rl Insrirure my req ues rs
we re very kind ly expedi ted by Jo hn Lar son and Lisa Sn ide r. T he pho to gra ph of t he reconstructed "Barrie Scene" fresco ar Pylos was mad e for me
by Tucke r Blackburn, Rese a rch Assoc iate in th e Depa rtment of Clas sics ar
rhe Universirv of Cin cinnari. For rhe illust rat io ns of "Sharda na warriors" I
am indebted to Vronwy Han key, who pro rnp rly and gracio usly respo nded
to my requ est for her ma tch less pho togr aph s of the Ab ydo s reliefs of rhe
Barrie of Kadcsh , The " \Va rrio r Vase" illustr atio n ca me from :>-!arbu rg ! An
Reso ur ce, of New York. For th e d rawing of ligures 2- 4 I rh ank !\kg Coo de
Sha nnon .
D rs. Joanna Scurloc k a nd Richa rd Bea l p rovided me wirh much co nsrruc rive criticism ar c1 cru cial suge of rhis ma nuscr ipt . I rh.ink rhem for
sav in g me fro m errors lar ge a nd sma ll and exone ra te them en ti re ly tr oru
tho se rh ar remain . I a m also inde bted, for vario us ki ndn esses and cornmu nicari on s, ro Professor s Leo na rd Albe rsrudr, Fra nk C ross, Stuart Piggo rr,
Anthony Sno dgrass, and Sma rr Wh l.'eler. T he cdiror s ar Princeton Universiry Press have again been very help ful : fo r rheir good work and judgme n t I
rha nk Lauren Os bo rne, Co lin Barr, and especia lly Lauren O ppenhe im.
For bib lical passages, un less otherw ise , pec ihed . I have used rhe RSV
rra nslar io n. T he rr.m slar iou s of occasio nal lines fro l1l Ho mer a ncl o the r
G ree k a ut ho rs a re my ow n.

A Hf3R F VI AT/O NS

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Allleric ,1II}0I/ TIl.I } 0/ Arch. reo/0 R."

.J.

B. Pr itc hard , ed ., A II Ci,"lt N t'.tr-!:.Istt'm Tex ts ReI.ltillg t ..

th e O ld Test.nn ent, 3d ed. Prin ceton : Prince ton Uni vers ity
Press, J 969
A rcba eologi c.i! Reports

Arcb.iologischer Anzciger
Al/ ata/i,lII Stl/ die;
Bulletin 0/ th e AIIIN ic,m S,:/wo!; 0/ Oriont,i l Resc.uch
Bul let : 0/ th e l nstitute 0/ A rdJ,1eoiogy (l .{//1/101I)
RilJ/ic,rI Arcb.ieol og ist
Bulletin de Ca rresp o nd.m cc l lcllcn iqu
I.E.S. Edw a rds, C. J. G'ldd , "J.G .L. Ha m mo nd , a nd E. So l
lbe rge r, eds , Th e Ca mb ridge A llt-ielll HIsto ry. _i d ed .
Ca mb ridge: C am h ridge Univers itv Press, 19 70 Cl.issic.tl Philology
Clas sica l Q I/arterly

Israel Explor.ttion lou rn.il

j ournal 0/ the A meric'lII O ri"III.rI Societ y
[o urnal 0/ the Amcric.nt Rrsc.trc]... Cen ter in F,:.:vpt
IOIlT/ r.1} 0/ Bih lica ! l .it cr.ttu rc
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Palestine I'x{ll" m tioll Q II.lrt" I!"
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ro vul JJ 'llg ,lIit pu lilu : sou -: 1.1 dO ,', D(!!1 ,II' tLnulc F il .
St! I>I,'/!;,r , vols. 2- 1> (P:lrI s : Lih r.ur u- C. Klimk vicck,
19 'i5- 70 )

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XII

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\ 'et us Testame ntu m
Zeitscbr itt [iir Assyriolog ie
Zeitscbrift der Deutscbeu .\ fo rgcn l<ill disclw l Gesellscha]t

P ART O NE
INTROD UCTI ON

Chapter One
TH E CATAST RO PH E AN D ITS CH RO N O LOG Y

H E EN D of th e eastern M editerran ean Bron ze Age, in the twel fth

ce nt u ry B. C. , wa s o ne of history's mos t frightful turnin g poi nt s. Fo r
th ose w ho ex perience d it, it wa s a ca la mity. In lon g retr o spect,
however, th e episo de marked a beginnin g rath er th an a n end, th e "dawn
tim e" in which peopl e in Isr ael, G reece, a nd even Ro me so ugh t th eir o rigins. In certain respect s th at assess me nt is still va lid, for th e Age of Iron
sta nds mu ch closer to o u r ow n th an does th e wo rld of th e Bro nze Age. T he
metallurgical progress- fro m bron ze to iron - was o nly th e mo st tan gible
of th e inn ovat ion s. M ore significa nt by fa r were th e developmen t a nd
sp read of a lpha bet ic w riting, th e growth of nati on ali sm , of repu blican
political fo rm s, of monoth eism, a nd event ua lly of rati on ali sm . T he se an d
o the r hist ori c innov atio ns of th e Iron Age have been frequ entl y not ed a nd
celebra ted .
Th e blea ker o bjective of th e pr esent boo k wi ll be a close look a t th e
negative side. In man y places an o ld a nd co mp lex so ciety did, after a ll,
co me to a n en d ca . 12 00 B.C. In th e Aegea n, th e pal ace-center ed world th at
we ca ll M ycen aean G reece disap pea red: altho ugh so me of it s glories were
rem ember ed by th e bards of th e Da rk Age, it was o the rw ise for go tte n until
a rchaeo log ists du g it up. Th e loss in Ana ro lia was even g rea ter. The Hittite
em pire had given to th e An atol ian plate au a measure of o rde r a nd prosperity th at it had never kn o wn before and would not see ag ain fo r a th ou sand
yea rs. In th e Levant recover y was mu ch faste r, and some imp ortant Bron ze
Age institu tio ns su rvived with littl e cha ng e; but o the rs did not , and ever ywh ere urb an life was drasticall y set back. In Egypt the Twentieth Dynas ty
mar ked th e end of the N ew Kingd om a nd almost th e end of ph araonic
ac hievement , T hro ugho ut th e eastern M editer ran ean the twelfth cen tury
B. C . ush er ed in a d ark ag e, whi ch in G reece a nd Anaroli a was not to lift fo r
more tha n fo ur hundred years. Alto geth er th e end of th e Bronze Age wa s
a rgua b ly th e wor st disast er in anc ient history, even more ca la m ito us th an
the co lla pse of the weste rn Roman Empire.!
Th e end o r transfo rm ation of Bro nze Age instituti on s is o bviou sly a
to p ic of eno rmo us d im en sion s. From the modern pe rspe cti ve it is th e d isappe a ra nce of ma ny of th ese centuries-old fo rms th at gives th e yea rs ca . 1200
I For the co mpariso n see Fernand Brandel, " L'Aube," in Braudel, ed. , L I Mediterrdllee:
l'espucc et l'histoire (Paris, 1977), 82- 86. In Brau del's words, "l a M edi terrane e orienta le, ;H I
xii- siecle avant J'e., reto urne au plan zero, o u p resque, de l'h isto ire."

I N TR O D U CTI O N

th eir extraordinary importance. In this book , how ever, I shall deal

with th at topi c onl y in passing. M y subject here is much more limited an d
concrete: the ph ysical destruction of cities an d palaces. O ne might o bject
th at althou gh the ph ysical destruction was tragic for th e occupa nts of th e
cities a nd palaces in que stion , in itself it need not and should not have
ent ailed the collapse and disappearance of Bron ze Age civiliza tion. The
razing of Ath ens in 480 B. C., after all, clear ed the gro und for th e templ es of
the Periclean city, and the burning of Rome in 387 B. C. was followed
directl y by an unprecedented burst of Rom an expa nsion. But a ltho ug h th e
sackin g of cities ca. 1200 B. C: was not a sufficient condi tion for the di sa ppearance of Bronze Age civilization in G reece, Anatoli a, and so ut he rn
Ca naa n, it was certainly a necessary co ndition. It is the destruction of sites
that I sha ll th erefore try to explain, a nd thi s topic is itself eno rmo us. Within
a peri od of forty or fifty years at th e end of th e thirteenth and beginnin g of
the rwelfth century almos t every significant cit y o r pa lace in the eastern
Mediterranean world was de stro yed, many of th em never to be occupied
aga in.
This destruction-whi ch hereafter I shall refer to simply as " the
Ca tastro phe" - I shall review in so me detail in cha pter 2. Before doin g
that, however, it will be useful to thre ad our way ch rono logically th rough
the period in which the Ca tastrophe took place. For a chronology we must
look to Egypt , since the only narrat ive history we ca n wr ite for thi s peri od
is Egyptian histo ry. Most scho lars would ag ree th at th ere survives at least
o ne document ary source on th e Ca tastro phe, and th at is an insc riptio n th at
Ram esses III put upo n th e wall of his mortua ry templ e at Medin et H abu.
This is th e famous text, acco mpa nied by pictorial reliefs, in which
Ram esses III celebrates the victory that he won over the "Sea Peoples" in
his eighth year.! Since Ram esses declar es th at befor e attacking Egypt th e
enemy had alrea dy ravaged H att i, Alashia, and Amor, it is a reason able
assumptio n th at the inscr ipti on furni shes a terminus ante quem for at least
so me of the destruction att ested in these places.
B.C.

2 W m. F. Edgerton and Joh n Wilson, Historical Record s of R.Jmses II !: The Texts in

"Medinet Habu, - Volumes I and 1I. Translated with Exp lanatory No tes (C hicago, 19.36),
plate 46 ; Breast ed, AR, vol. 4, nos. 59-82. Leo na rd H . Lesko, " Egyp t in th e 12th Ce ntu ry
B.C.," in W. A. Watd and M . S. [ oukow sky, ed s., The Crisis Ye.rrs: The 12 th Cen tury 8 .C.
(Dubuq ue, 1992 ), l SI - 56, has argued that this inscr iptio n was Cut for Memeprah' s mo rt uary
temple , that Rarnesses 111 appropr iated it for h..s ow n templ e at Mediner Hahu , and th erefore
that the events described in it occurred in the eighth year of Merneprah (1205 B.C. ) rather tha n
o f Rarnesses Ill . But the-sw ath of destruction th rough "Arnor " that the inscriptio n menrions

co uld hardly have take n place during M er neptah 's reign, since the Levanrin c cities we re still
sta nding at the seces sion of Quee n Twosret, In addi tio n, the defen sive po stu re that this
inscripn on attributes to the Egyptia n pharaoh i~ not easily reco nciled with the offen sive
campaign th at M em eptah claimed to have co nd ucted in the so uther n Levant .

THE C A T A S T R O P H E A N D I T S C H R O N O L O G Y

Dates for the reign of Rame sses III depend on the accession year cho sen
for Rarnesses II , th e illu strious pr ede cessor whose nam e th e young kin g
ado pted ; a nd in th is study I sh all follow th e " low " chro no logy th at no w
seems to be accepted by most Egyptologists. O n th is chro no logy, Ram esses
the Great ruled from 1279 to 12 12, accounting-all by himself-fo r most
of th e Nin eteenth Dyna sty.' Wh en the o ld king finally died, close to th e ag e
of nin ety, he was succeeded by his o ldest surviving son, his thirteenth,
Mern epr ah . T he latt er was, a t his accession , "a po rtl y man already in his
sixties." :' As ki ng, Mernept ah lived an oth er ten o r eleven years and was in
tu rn succeede d by o ne of his sons, either Sen II (who m Merneptah had
designated as his successo r) or Amenm esse. At any rate, Seti gain ed th e
th ron e not long after Mern ept ah 's death.
For the first tim e in decad es, Egypt was not ruled by a n o ld man . But th e
middl e-aged Seti II had an un exp ectedl y sho rt reign. After rulin g only SLX
year s, Seti died , leaving the succession in so me co nfusion." His principal
wife had been Twosret, but th e pair had no surviving son. In th e event,
Seti's nomin al successo r was Siptah, wh o was still a child or ado lescent.
Alth ough Siptah was evide ntly th e so n of Sed, his moth er was not Twosret
but Tio, one of his fathe r 's secondary wives, and Sipta h mu st have owed his
elevation to th e exertio ns of powerful ment or s. Twosrer survived the bo y,
and she herself rul ed as ph araoh for at least two years , being o nly th e fourt h
wom an in almos t rwo millenn ia of Egyptian histo ry to reach the throne.
During the reigns of Sipta h a nd Twosret (a period of at least eight years ), th e
power behind th e thron e see ms to have been Bay, a Syrian wh o had risen to
become "Great Cha ncellor of th e Entir e Realm ." With the death ofTwosret
(the circumstances in whi ch an y of th ese peopl e died are un kn own ), a man
of un cert ain o rigin, Setna khte, d rove "the Syria n " from his pos ition as
king-maker a nd esta blished him self as king. Thus ended th e Ninetee nt h
Dynasty and began the Twenti eth . Although Setna khte ruled for o nly rwo
years, Egypt was fort una te th at the up start had a son as capa ble as him self:
thi s was th e yo ung Rarn esses III , who faced the~ Catastro phe and surv ived
to describ e it.

, On th e high ch ro no lo gy Rame sses Ir s accessio n year was 1304 B.C. , on the middle
ch ron ology 1290. Th e high ch ro nolo gy has been generally aba ndon ed by specia lists. The low
ch ro nology was effectively advoc ated by E. F. Went e and C. C. Van Sicle n, "A Chro nology of
the New Kingdo m," in J. H . Johnso n and E. F. \'(\,nt e, eds., Studi es in Honor ofGwrge R .
Hughes (Chicago , 1976), 2 17-6 1. For o ther argume nts see Paul Astt om , ed., Higl,. Middle.
or Lou'? Acts of an ln ternational Colloquium 0" Absolute Ch ronology Held at the University
ofGo thenbu rg 20 th -22d August 198 7 (Gorebo rg, 1987 ).
4 K. A. Kitch en, Pharaoh Trium phant . The Life and Tim es of Ramesses 1/ (Warminster.
19&2), 207.
s The co nfusio n, at once the bane and the de light of Egypt o logists, was muc h clarified bv
Alan G ardiner, " O nly O ne King Sipra h and Twosre No t His Wife." JEA H ( 1958 i: 12-22.

IN T RO DUC T ION

T HE C AT AS T RO P H E A N D I T S C HRONO LO G Y

.lthough the regnal d at es for Ramesses III, his father, and their
reteenth -Dyn asty predecessors cannot be pre cisely fixed, the foll owing
n to be approximately correct:"
lineteenth Dynasty
Rarnesses II
127 9-12 12
Merneprah
1212-1 203
Amenmesse
120 3-1202
Seti 11
1202-11 96
Siptah
1196-11 90
Twosret
1190-11 88
lllent ieth Dynasty
1188-11 86
Setn akhte
Rarnesses 11l
1186-11 55

B.C.
B.C.
B. C.
B. C.
B.C.
B . C.

B. C.

B. C.

this reckoning, the terminus ante quem for mu ch of th e C at ast ro phe crucial eighth year of R amesses III-will be 1179 B.C. That fits well
.ugh with a recently discovered tablet indicating that Emar (o n the
ihrares, downstream from C a rche mish) fell in the second yea r of Melikoak, king of Bab ylon. 7 O n J. A. Brinkman's M esopotamian chronol ogy,
ar must have been sa cked in the 11 80 s. S An even more recent disc over y,
; time at Ra s Shamra , shows that th e rule of H ammurapi, the last k ing of
irit, began wh en Merneptah was ruling Egypt and extended into the
~n of Siptah and Queen Twosret. ? The synchronism proves that Ugarit
; st ill st and ing in 1196 B. C., and su ggests th at the city wa s not destroyed
ore 1190. 10
Since in so me cases o n ly a terminus post qu em for a monarch's death is availab le, vario us
mes have been p rop o sed, an d o n the low chro nology th e accession of Rarn esses III is
ed a nyw here from 1188 to I 182 B.C. For seve ra l possibilities see Went e and Van Sid en,
C h ro no logy of the New Kingdo m," a nd K. A. Kitchen, "The Basics of Egypt ian
en ol ogy in Relat ion to the Bron ze Age," in Astro m, ed ., H igh, Midd/e, o r Lo w ? .37- 55 .
Da niel Arn aud , "L es rex res d'Erna r et la chro no logie de la fin du Bro nze Recent ," Sy ria
1975): 87-92. TIle ta blet dat ed to Melik -shipa k's seco nd yea r is a sho rt- term co nt ract ;
aud therefore co ncl udes th at o nly a ver)' sho rt time (" quelq ues sema incs") elapsed
veen the writing of the cont rac t a nd the destru ction of the city.
Brinkma n, "Notes o n M esopot a mian Histor y in the Thirteenth Cent ury B.C. ," Bib /i'ea O rienta/is 27 ( 1970): .306 -7; I am mu ch inde bted here to th e ex plana tio ns furn ished
,1. Bier br ier, "Th e Da te of th e Dest ruc tio n of Ema r a nd Egyptian C h ro no logy," JEA 64
' 8) : 136-.37. At n. 2, Bierbri er not es th at " Professor Brin kman now info rms me that his
it dat e for year 2 is 1 185:!o 5 B.C. "
Jacque s Freu, " La tab le tte RS 86 .223 0 et la p hase finale du royau me d 'Ugarit," Sy ria 6 5
;ll): .395-98 . Tablets foun d at Ras Ibn Ha ni had a lread y establishe d th at Ha rnrnurapi' s
1 overlapped th at of Me rnept.r h. an d the new ta blet ind ica tes that Harn rnura pi was st ill o n
.hro ne wh en Bay, the "G rund Chancello r " for Siprah and Q ueen Two sret, held his office.
" Ibid., _'98.

Th e relative ch ro no logy supplied by M ycen aean pottery must be fit into

the ab solute framework derived from Egypt. It now seem s probable that
the transition from LH IIIB to IIIC pottery occurred no earlier th an the
reign of Queen Twosret. On the low Egyptian chro no logy thi s would mean
that lIIB pottery was still bein g produced ca . 1190 B. C." Since th at is o n ly
a terminus po st quem, and since it is likel y th at a few yea rs elap sed between
the last of the IIIB wares a nd the resumption of pottery making in the
Argolid, the earli est mc pots probably were not made before ca . 118 5 . The
destruction at Tiryns and Mycenae may have occurred sho rtly before
Ramesses Ill cam e to power. A few sit es in th e Aegean, on the other hand,
seem to have been destroyed several decades before th e end of th e IIIB
period , evidently while Ram esses th e G reat still reigned .
Alto gether, th en , the C atas tro phe seems to have begun with spo rad ic
destruct ion s in th e last qu arter of the thirteenth century, ga thered momen tum in the 1190s, and raged in full fur y in the 1180s. By about 117 5 the
worst was apparently over, a ltho ugh dreadful things continued to happen
throughout the twelfth century. Let us now take a close look at the physical
destructi on that the Catastrophe entailed.
11 Fo r a d iscussion of a ll the evide nce on the end of IlIB and the beginn ing of mc see Peter
Wa rre n and Vro nwy Han key, Aegean Bronze Age Chronology (Bristo l, 1989), 158-62. The
most importa nt synchro nism co mes fro m a faience vase with Twos rer's ca rto uche fou nd in a
shri ne at Dei r .Alia (ancient Succorh), alon g with a ran ge of LH lIlB pottery. Warren and
Hankey not e that the pots were not heirl oom s but fun ct ional vessels in the serv ice of the
sanctu ar y. T he auth or s adop t Kitchen' s slightl y later dat es fo r the last rulers of the Ni neteenth
Dyna sty and so conclude (p. 161) th at "we may p lace the boun da ry betw een lIlB and IIIC c.
1185 / 80 BC, ~he time of Tewosret Or a few yea rs later."

Chapter Two
T HE CATAST ROPH E SURVEYED

A N ATOLIA

X.

EVERY Anato lian site known to have been imp o rtant in th e Lat e
Bron ze Age the Catastro phe left a destructio n level. I Figure 1
show s a w ide d istr ibut io n of places in Asia M inor th at ca. 1200
B.C. suffered w ha t Kurt Bitt el described as a " Brandkatastrop he." Fou r of
the se sites are wi thin th e arc of th e Halys River, the heartl and of th e G reat
Kingdo m of H att i, and perh ap s th is region of Anar olia suffered mor e th an
o thers. In th e cent ur ies follow ing the Ca tastro phe the intra -H alys sites
seem to ha ve bee n occu pied only by squatters, and it is safe to say tha t fo r a
lo ng time afre r 1200 there were no cities in the area .
Hatrusas itself was plundered and burned at th e beginning of th e tw elfrh
century (since no M ycenaean pottery was found in th e destruction level,
co rrelatio n w ith Aegean site s is pro blema tic). The excavator s found ash,
cha rred wood , mudb ricks, and slag form ed wh en mud h ricks melt ed fro m
th e intense heat of th e co nflagra tion. The nearby site of Alaca Hoyu k,
twenty kilom eters to the northeast , suffered a similar fate : an ashy de struc tion level exte nds over the ent ire excavated surface. Southeast of H at tu sas,
th e Hirtite city a t Alisha r-s-p rotected by a sto ut wall-was destroyed by
fire.! A hundred kilom eters to th e east, at Ma sar Hoyu k, a palace th at had
hel ped to a nchor the fro ntier aga inst th e Kaska ns went up in fla mes
ea rly in the tw elfth century. Here so me LH IIIB pottery supp lies a rou gh
syn ch ro nism ."
Between th e Sanga rios and th e H alys three sites have been excavated , but
o nly o ne seem s to have been de stroyed in the Ca tas tro phe. Gordio n and
Po latli have yield ed no evidence of destruction, but Karaogla n met a fiery
a nd violent end. Skele ta l remains of th e victims were found on the site." O n
Ku rt Bind surveye d th e evide nce o n Anarol ia at the Zwett l sympo siu m : d . h is " Die
a rc h.iolog ische Sirua rio n in Kle inasien urn 12 00 v. C hr. und wa hr end dec nach folgend en vier
ja h rhu nde rt e, " in Sigrid De ge r-j alko rzy, ed . G riecbenland, ,iie AgJ ls un d die Leconte tca hrend der "D nri: Ages " (Vie nna , 1983 ), 25 -47 .
z H . H . vo n der O sten, The Ahsh ar H fiyii k : Seasons uf 1930- / 932 (Chica go , 193 7 ),1 89 .
\ Bitt el, ..Klei na sien ," .34. suggests tha t beca use ~1aP [ is so d isran r from the Aegean we
should perh aps allow rhe porrery " eniges N ach lebens. "If so , a dare even lare r than 1190 will
nur be exclu ded .
, Ib id. , 3 1.
I

F IG UR E

1. The Eastern Mediterranean: Major sites destroyed in the Catastrophe

GREECE

1. Tekhos Dymaion
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

Pylos
Ni cho ria
The Menelaio n
T ir yns
M idea
M ycenae
Th ebes

9. Lefkandi
10 . lolk os
C RETF.

I I. Kydo nia
12 .

/\'10 550 5

16 .
17 .
18.
19.
20 .
2 1.
12 .
23 .
14.
25.

Tar sus
Fra krin
Ka raogl an
H arru sas
Alaca Ho yuk
M asar
Alisha r H oyuk
No rsu nrepe
Tille Hoyuk
Lidar Hoyii k

CYPRUS

26.
27.
1 8.
29 .

Palaeo kastro
Kiri on
Sinda
En ko m i

ANATOll A
IJ .Tro y

14. Milet"s
15 . M ersin
~

SYRIA

32. Kadesh

33 . Q atna
34 . Harnath
35 . Alalakh
36 . Aleppo
J 7. Carcbemisb
38. Ernar
SOUTHERN LEVANT
39 .
40.
41.
42 .
43 .

Hazer
Akko
Meg iddo
Deir ' Alia

Bethel
H . Beth She mesh
45 . Lachish
4 6. Ashdod
4 7. Ashkcl on

30 . Uga rir
.11. Tell Suk as

At sites in it alics destructi o n in the Ca ta strophe is probable bur not certain.

10

I :'-l T R O D U C Tl O :-;

THE CAT A S TROP HE S U R V E Y E D

rh e weste rn co ast of Ana ro lia a fa r more importa nt Late Bron ze Age cenre r
W3 S rhe ciry of Mileru s (p ro ba bly Milaw ara, or Milawand a. in Hirrire
text s), aro und whi ch a grea r wa ll wa s built in the th irteenth century B. C.
M iletus roo see ms to hav e been destro yed durin g the LH mc pe riod . The
sire m.ry have been de solate for some rime bur was apparentl y resettled
before the beginning of th e Protogeorn erric peri od ..'
Ar rh e sire of Hi ssarlik rwo co nsec utive serrl em enrs-Troy Vlh a nd Tr o y
Vl la-s-we re de stro yed a t rhe e nd of rhe Bron ze Age, a nd in borh cas es rhe
cities seem ro have bu rne d . T he d ares for rhe destru ct ion of rh e two leve ls
a re mu ch d isputed , bur ir is now likel y th at T roy VI-an im press ively
forrified cit ad el , which is likel y ro have been oc cu pied prima rily by a royal
famil y, irs co urti e rs, and warriors-fell so metime during the seco nd half of
th e thirteenth century B. C. In the afr ermarh of rh ar destructi on, a crowd
of people-h umbler, bur sha ring th e sa me mat e rial cu ltu re as th e lords of
Troy Vlh-moved inro the cita de l. repairing rhe forrificarion wa lls a nd
building a wa rre n of sma ll hou ses. This ciry, Troy Vil a, was pro ba b ly
burn ed ca . 1 190 o r 1180,' bur th e su rv ivo rs aga in rebuilr rh e wall s a nd
occ u p ied rhe sire (Vllb ) rh rou gh rhe twelfth ce ntu ry,
~ T he mo st lu cid dis cussio n o f the eviden ce o n M rleru s is st ill that p rovided by Vince nt
Desb orough. Tlw L"s t My'CllJt'MfS and Their Su ccessors: All A rchaeological Survey c. 1200c. 1000 D. C. (O x fo rd. 1964 ), 162 -63 . Alt ho ugh fri tz Schu ch e rmeyr . M ykm e und das

Hethiterreich (Vien na. 1 9~ (l). d iscu ssed

Jt

grea t len gth the Mi lawa ta of Hittite so urces, he

sai d nothi ng abo ut the fat e of Bron ze Age M ileru s.

.. H l ege~ 's a rgu ment that Tro y VI ,v.IS dest ro yed in th e m id dl e .m d T ro y Vila towa rd th e e nd
of the IIIB pe riod i~ sti ll Widely .rccepred, hut his JJ te's-C.1 . 12 75 a nd ca . I 24 0- 3r e n OW 3d ays ge nerally reg.nded as m uch to o high ( B l e~ell 's da te s were based o n th e high Egyptia n
ch ro no lo gy a nd o n th e assu m pti o n that L H Hie bega n ar th e end o f M emep ra h '5 reign ). Th e
p rese nt eXCJV3to r at Hisvarl ik, M an fred Ko rf rna nn . suggests rh,ir T ro y VI was des troyed ca .
125 U, JnJ Vil a ca . II ~(). Sec Korfm a n n. " Alres u nd N eue s .I US Troia, " Du s Altertum 36
(1 9<'/0) ; 232. As not ed in chapter I. it nuw Jpp eJ rs thar rhe tr au siti on to LH IIIC CJ II be pl aced
no ea rlie r than th e reign of Q ueen Two s re t. Even if o ne accept s Blegen 's a nalysis of the po tter y,
b ut foll o w s the Egyp to lo gist;' low chro no logy , o ne co uld da te the 1311 01Tro y VII. as la te ,l'
11 9 il, J nd of Tro y VI .IS late J S 122.S. But even lo wer d J te > a re proba b le. Stud ies 01the pottery
hJ.ve ( o nvi nce J severJ.1 \pecia lists that V II.1 w as st ill stJ nJ ing in t he lIIe per iod . Fo r the
a rgu me nts , see ,\ I ich ad Wo od.ll/ S,>.lrc!J of tl,,' Trojal/ War (N ew Yo rk, 198 5 ). 22 4; all d D .
b"on, " H JS the Tro iJ n WJ r Been Found ?" Al/ liq/l 'ry 5 9 ( 198 5 ); 18 9 .lf mc she rd s wer e
inJct'J fo unJ in VII.I levd s, the' J estru ct io n &1tt' fo r VII;] wo u lJ be no 1.';.1tlie r th J n C l. 118 0 ,
:lnJ T w y VI cou lJ h.we been J estr oy ed in th e b st q uarte r of th e th irtee nth (c ntu ry. The m o e, t
rJ.J I c.:~l l of the new s<.: ht:mes is that of C h rlst iJ.n PoJzuwe lt, "Oic m yk e nischt: \X/e1t u nJ Tro13, "
in ll . Ha nsel . ed . Siidostcllrnp,l ~I t'isc hen 1600 WId 1000 t' . Chr. (M or eland . 19X2i. 65 - 8 8 .
Po d w weit reJIl J lyzed the pm t er v fro m T roy Vl h a nd VII J nd w nd ud ed th at l<l tt' LH IIIC
po tln y wJ.s usc:J nut only in th e VIIJ ,e tt leOlcnt h ut J iso in the Vlh (iry. If une Jl.cepts
Pod zuw eit "s .:m .J l p:. i~ . o ne wou lJ ne~J ro J .Jh.' th e J est ru cti on uf th e gre.Jt l:iry-Twy VI- to
the:'t'co nJ hJ.1to f tht' twelft h c(,~ n m ry. Po J zu weit (u ndu Jc~ rhat th~ m uch hum ble r .-. ertl e'ment
"I Trov VI IJ lell - in die er ,ten jJhrzente de, I I . ja hrl l<lltd e rts " {poS3 ;.

II

In so utheas te rn An arolia tw o important sires-s- Mc rsin and Ta rsuswer e bu rned during the Ca tast ro p he , a nd her e roo there was reco ve ry.
Twd frh-cen: u ry Ta rsus was in tact ,1 sizea ble ci ry, and ;1 few pieces of LH
[IIC porr er y show rhar ir was in spo rad ic co ntact wirh th e Aegean. O n the
headwat ers of rh e Seyhu n River, rwo mile s fro m the ro ck reliefs at Fraktin,
unkno wn aggressors destroyed a H itt ite rown " d urc h cine g ros se
Brand kar asrrophe," p ro ba b ly a fte r 11 90 B. C. (t he dare dep ends on a sing le
LH mc 1 srirru p ja r fo un d in rh e destruct io n de bris )." finall y. on the upp er
Eup hrates in ea ste rn Ana ro lia o the r cenrers were burned in the Ca tasrro phe: th e excavat io ns a r Lid ar Ho yiik (150 kilo me re rs up stream fro m Ca rche rnish) a nd a r nearby Tille H oyu k, as well as rhos e a t No rs unrepe (o n the
Murat N ehri, ne a r Elazig ) show rhar th e Lare Bro nze Age structures there
were destroyed in sire-w ide confl agrations. H

C Y P RUS

Bron ze Age Cyp rus has become very int er esting, since a rc haeo logical work
on th e isla nd ha s in rhe lasr rhirry yea rs moved a t a faster pace than in eit he r
Syri a or Ana ro lia . The Ca tast ro phe in Cyprus divides l.are Cy prio te II fro m
LC 1lI (LC [II is rhu s co nte m pora ry wirh LH lIl C in Gr eece). Recent excava rions hav e show n th at the LC II peri od was o ne of gene ra l pr osp erity,
Ashl ar masonry, which had been regarded as a n inn ovati on of the po stCa rasrro phe period in Cy p rus , now see ms ro have been e mp loyed in civic
nrc h irecr u re fo r mu ch of th e th irt eenth centu ry."
Am on g the ma jor Cy p rio te cities rhar we re sacked a nd bu rne d a t the e nd
o f LC II were En komi, Kirio n, a nd Sind a.! " In facr eac h o f rhe three sires
ma y-like Tro y-h ave been destroyed twi ce in the peri od of a few decad es.
The old view wa s t hat there wer e two waves of destruct ion. the firsr ca.
Bitt el , " Klcin a sien. " 3 1 a nd 3 4.
Arch. A rz. 1<,/ <,/ 1. 35 I , repo m th .lt L~dJ r H iiyok wa , destroyed - in
d.Js 1. Vie rtel Jt: s 12. Jhs. " O n tltt' 198 9 sJ l v;.lg~ ex c.1 v3 tiol1s J t T ille' H iiYlik, whic h d isco vered
J " b rge bu rn t build ing" destruyed ca . 120 0 B.C., ;e e S. R. Bby luck, AS 4 ! ( 19 9 1); 4- 5. O n
N o q unt epc: ~e Bin d, ~ K I t'i n J.si e'n , " 3].
~ Ash lJ.r b lth.:ks h ~1VC: bet' n fo und in LC II co ntex ts.n Ar ios Dh i m i tri o~ .Jnd P.Jb e'u kJ str u .
At \hu m es, n('J r l\.1 Jron i, Ger a ld C J Jog.ln nJ .sfo unJ I n J sh b r bui ldin g t hJ.t shou ld be dJted
"'p ro bJ hly to me eJ.r1ier p:l rt of the 13 th c.:ctJtu ry. " See CJ.J o gJ.n, "l\.f3roll I JnJ the LJ te Bru lll('
Age 01C ypr us . " in V. KJr a geurghis and j . Muhly. CypTlIS dl the-Cln se nftl,,' Lale BrOlI~" Age
(N lCo , ia . 1984 ), X.
,,) Ja mes Muhl y, " T he Ro le of th c Sea Peoples in C yp rus d uring th e LC III Period ," in
KJr ageor ghi, J nd Mu h ly, Cyprus, 4 1. for J full >u rv<:y 01 the c..,.15tro phe in C vp ru , see
Va...~(} .. K .lr J ge'f) rgh l ~, The Emf of tilt! L.lf( Bruzl::" Ag(' ill C,rprlls ~ N i c.:o si J . 19 90 ;; J nJ the.:
sJ.n1e J u t h() r '~ "The' Cri, is YC: J.rs : Cy p rus, " in \'Q.u J J nd Joukowsk y, Cr i::o; i!- f e'ur s, 7':/ - .~h .
7

H .,,~l d H a u ptm J n n,

12

THE CATASTROPHE SURVEYED

INTRODUCTION

1230 B.C. and the second ca. 1190 (those dates were predicated on the
assumption that 1230 was the approximate date for the beginning of LH
IIIC). Paul Astrom has revised and compressed all this, dating the first set of
conflagrations to ca. 1190 and the second to the eighth yearof Ramesses 1II
(1179). A more radical solution, advanced by James Muhly and accepted
by Vassos Karageorghis, is to recognize only one wave of destructions in
Cyprus and to date it to the end of LC IICII In any case, at all three sitesSinda, in the interior, and Enkorni and Kition on the southern coast-there
was reconstruction after the Catastrophe, and a sizeable community
through the twelfth century.
Several smaller sites were not destroyed in the Catastrophe but abandoned. In a Late Cypriote IIC city at Ayios Dhirnitrios (on the Vasilikos
River, a few kilometers downstream from Kalavasos and some three kilometers up from the south coast) there is some trace of burning, but "the
evidence does not suggest a great conflagration or deliberately destructive
activities." 12 In addition to much Cypriote pottery, the site yielded LH mB
but no mc imports. Another site abandoned during the Catastrophe was
Kokkinokrernos, in southeastern Cyprus, recently excavated by Karageorghis. This was a short-lived settlement, having been established not
much earlier than ca. 1230. Karageorghis discovered that Kokkinokremos
was abandoned suddenly, obviously as a result of an impending menace. The
bronzesmith concealed his fragments of copper ingots and someof his tools and
artefacts in a pit in the courtyard, the silversmith concealed his two silver ingots
and some scrap metal between two stones of a bench, and the goldsmith carefullyput away in a pit all the jewelleryand sheetsof gold which hehad. They were
all hoping, as happens in such cases, that they would return and recover their
treasures, but they never did."'
That none of the three smiths returned to retrieve the hidden valuables
suggests that they were killed or enslaved.
On the western coast of Cyprus, at Palaeokastro, Karageorghis unearthed more evidence of the Catastrophe. Here the excavations produced
"a layer of thick ashes and debris attesting a violent destruction." 14 The
city was rebuilt soon after the disaster, and LH mc: 1b pottery appeared in
the reoccupation level. The reoccuparion seems to have lasted about a
generation, after which the site was abandoned. IS
" Muhly, "Sea Peoples," 51; Karageorghis. "Crisis Years," 82.
12 Alison K, Sourh. "Kaiavasos-Ayios Dhirmtrios and [he Late Bronze Age of Cyprus," in
Karageorghis and Muhly, Cyprus, 14.
IJ Karageorghis, "New Light on Late Bronze Age Cyprus," in Karageorghis and Muhly,
Cyprus, 20.
" lbid., 21.
IS Carling, AR (19&6-87j: 71.

13

SYRIA

How terrible the Catastophe was in the Levant is attested both archaeologically and in the Medinet Habu inscription. Because the Levantine
sites were in relatively close contact with Egypt, several of the destruction
levels here have yielded artifacts dated by a royal Egyptian cartouche. The
same sites produced a quantity of Aegean pottery, especially LH lIIB ware,
and thus serve to tie together the ceramic chronology of the Aegean with
the dynastic chronology in Egypt.
The large city of Ugarit, which had been an important center in western
Syria since the Middle Bronze Age, was destroyed by fire at the end of the
Late Bronze Age and was not reoccupicd.!e The destruction level contained LH mB but no mc ware, and a sword bearing the cartouche of
Merneptah. Because the sword was "in mint condition" it was for some
time taken as evidence that Ugarit was destroyed during Merneptah's
reign. As we shall see in chapter 13, however, the sword is likely to have
been in mint condition primarily because it was unusable. At any rate, a
tablet discovered in 1986 establishes that the burning of Ugarit occurred
well after Merneptahs death and indeed after Bay became Great Chancellor (which he did, on the low chronology, in 1196 B.C.).17 The last king of
Ugarit was Harnrnurapi, but although Harnrnurapi's reign certainly overlapped that of Suppiluliumas II in Hattusas, a more exact Hittite synchronism is not to be had. H. Otten supposed that the fall of Hattusas opened
the way for the destructive assaults on the Cypriote cities and on Ugarit,
while G. A. Lehmann concluded that Ugarit was destroyed before Hattusas.tf The eighth year of Ramesses 1IIis assumed by all to be the terminus
post quem non for the fall of Ugarit. On the chronology followed here, the
'conflagration at Ugarit would have occurred sometime after 1196 but
before 1179.
- When Ugarit was destroyed some hundred tablets were being baked in
the oven, and so from this site we have documents written on the very eve of
its destruction. One of these tablets "from the oven" -a letter from a
certain Ydn to "the king, his master"-mentions prm (hapiru), and requests that the king "equip 150 ships." 19 A tablet from the Rapanu Ar10 Marguerite Yon, "The End of the Kingdom of Ugarit," m Ward and ]oukowsky, The
Crisis Years, 111-22.
17 According to Freu, "Tablette," 398, "il faur done abaisser la dare de la destruction
d'Ugarir apres 1195, sans doure pas avant 1190."
18 On [he relative sequence of [he destruction of Ugarir and Hartusas see H. Otten, "Die
IernePhase des herhinschen Grossreiches nach den Texren," in Deger-jaikorzy, Griecbenland,
21; and Lehmann's remarks in the discussion rharfollowed Orren's paper (Griecheniand, 2223).
19 RS 18.14& = no. 62 (pp. &8-89) In l'RU, vol. S.

14

T Ii E

l l'-:T R O D U C TI O N

chive, an d so so mew ha t ea rlier th an th e oven ta blet s, ind icates th e kind of

threat that th e last kin gs of Uga rit a nd Alashi a faced (the tablet is a letter
fro m th e kin g of Uga rit to th e kin g of Alashi a k -" " behold, the ene my's
sh ips came (here); my cities (?) were burned, and they did evil things in my
co untry. Doe s not my fath er kn ow th at all my troo ps and char iots (?) ar e in
th e H itt ite co u nt ry, a nd 311 my ships a re in the lan d of Lycia ? . . Thus, the
co unt ry is a ba ndo ned to itself . M ay my father know it: the seven sh ips of
th e ene m y tha t ca rne here inflicte d mu ch dam age u po n us. ~ T he k ing of
Uga rir closes th e lett er w ith a plea th at th e king of Alashia sen d a warnin g,
b y a ny mean s po ssible, if he learn s of ot her enemy ships in the vicinity. This
letter is o ne of three fro m th e Rap 'anu Archive that were sent between
Alashia a nd Ugarir, a ll co ncerned with "the ene my" wh o sud de n ly sail in ,
wr eak havoc a nd ra ze cities, and th en sail away.s !
N ot far from Ugar it, th e coa stal sett leme nt at Ras Ibn Hani was destro yed a t th e sa me time as the cap ito l. Here, how ever, th er e is evide nce th at
th e site was re-used very soo n a fte r the dcstruct ion .s- Tell Subs , a no the r
coasta l site, a lso sho ws a destru ct ion level at th is tim e. 2J Th e great inland
cities of western Syria were a lso burned. G oing up st ream on the Oro nres
ca . 12 00 !I.e. o ne woul d have passed Alal akh , H arnarh , Q atn a, and finall y
Kadesh (Tell Nebi Min d, o n th e up per Oro nt es): apparentl y all four were
sackcd.>' In hi s excavat ion of Tell Archana, Leon ard Woolley immediat ely
came down upon th e massive destru ction level th at effectively closed th e
life of a nc ient Ala lakh. 2 5 " T he burnt ruin s of th e topmo st hou ses sho w th at
th e city sha red th e fate of its more pow erfu l neighbours. t' Js
Ci ties in easte rn Syria may have bee n less a ffected by the Catas tro phe.
Ale ppo , lyin g m idway between the Oro nte s a nd the Euphrates, was a ppa ren tly sccked. F Bur Ca rc hem ish, o n the Eup hra tes , may h ave esca ped .
Although included in Rarn esse s Ill' s list of places dest royed by his o ppo nents, th ere is reason to believe that Carcherni shsurvived. Archaeological
work don e th ere early in thi s cent ury did not ide nt ify a destruction level
th at co u ld be ass igned to t his period . Ta blets fro rf! Uga rir sho w that Ta lm i! II R S 20 .2 38, fro m {he Ra p 'a nu Archive . Tr ans lation from M ichael Asrour, " N ew Evid ence on [he L, S[ Days of lIg .Hi[ ," A]A 69 ( 1% 5), 255 .
11 The lette rs or e RS 2 0 . 1H,RS L1, a nd RS ~() .23 R ; these are. resp ect ivel y, nos. 22, 23, a nd
24 in Ugaritica, voi. 5.
1 .! See th e su m m ary hv Anni e C aub et ... Reoc cu pario n of the Syria n COJsr a fter th e Desrrucn o n of the ' Crisis Ye ,Jrs~' " in Ward and ]o u kowsky, Crisis Years, 124-17.
2J R . D. Ba rne tt, "Th c Sea Peo p les. " CA H , vo i. 2. pa rr 2, p. 37 0 .
! 4 See G . A. Leh ma nn , Die m yk en iuh fnih gritchische \'(,'e!t and dcr ostliche M iu elm eerr~w m in de r Ze it de r -Seel,(i/kt..r " llll'J sion clI urn 120 0 u. Ch r. (O plxdcn. 1935), 14 ~ Asto ur,
"New Evidence ," 254 ; Barnett , "The Se.t Peo p les." 3 7lJ.
" Woo lk)", A Forgotten Kingdom [H a rruundvwo rth. 19 .\3 ), 156-1>4.
1 _ IhiJ .. 1" 4 .

"' IhiJ.

c x T.\

S T R o P H E SU R V E i E D

15

Teshub, king of Ca rchernish a nd vassa l of Suppiluliumas II, G rea t King of

H art i, was co ntempo ra ry w ith H arnmurap i of Ugarir. Recentl y pu blished
tablets ind icate th at after the destructi on of Hattu sa-, th e ki ngs of Ca rchernish began to use the title " G reat King of Hart i. " 2X
\X1h at ever th e fortunes of Ca rc hemish may have been , recent exc avatio ns
have show n th at Emar, downstr eam fro m C archernish on th e Eup h ra tes ,
was destro yed by fire during th e Ca tas rro phc.>' And Ernar is th at rare sit e
fo r whic h, as Annie Caube r h as not ed , we have "evi de nce fo r bo th the
destroy ers a nd th e chro nol og y. "10 Two tabl et s foun d here rep o rt that
" ho rdes of enem ies" attacked th e city, th e a ttack evidently occ urri ng in th e
seco nd yea r of Mel ik-sh ipa k, k ing of Baby lo n (ca. 1185 B.e. ). T he dating
formula employed o n the se two tablet s shows that at Erna r th e yea r just
concluded was descr ibed as "I 'annee oil Ies taruu o nt a fflige la ville, " taruu
being tr an slat ed by D. Arn aud as " hordes," or as masses for wh om th e
scr ibes of Em ar had no proper nam e o r co nvent iona l design at ion .

TH E SO UTHERN L EVA NT

Th e Ca tas tro phe too k 3 heavy roll in Palestine and wha t in th e Iron Age
W3Scalled Israel. At Deir ' Alb (a ncient Succoth) 3 settlement wa s destroyed
aft er 1190 B. C. , since the destru ction level yielded, a long w ith m uch LH
IIIB pottery, 3 vase bearing the ca rrouche o f Q ueen Twosrer.! I Lachish m3Y
have been dest ro yed a t the sa me tim e o r 3 few yea rs lat er, LH IIIB potter y
was fo und th rough out Stra tum V I at Lach ish , w hich underli es th e destruction level, bur th ere is so me indi cati on th at Stratum VI did not end unt il th e
reign of Rarn esses Ill. If th at is so. LH IIIB wa res were still bein g produced
in th e lat e 11805 , so me yea rs a fter the y a re genera lly supposed to have been
sup er sed ed by LH 1IIe. Trude Dotha n, however, has proposed th at after
th e dest ru ctio n of Lachish a limited settlement , " pro ba bly an Egyptian
ga rr iso n ," W3S esta blished ab o ve the rum s.t -' On thi s a rgume nt, th e so ldiers o r squa tters were th ere in th e reign of Ram esses III, bur the destruction of th e city (a nd th e last im po rtatio n of LH IIIB pottery) had o ccur re d
before Rarn csses' accessio n.

,. J.

D. Haw kin s, " Kuzi-Tesu b a nd t he 'Crear Kings" of Karkamis. " AS 3S (I QSS); 99-

l OS.
.!'l

See Arnaud, " Les rextes d 'E rnar, " 87- 92.

.0 Caubet, . . Rcoccupunon , .. 129.

II H. J. Fran ken , " Th e bC. V. [ ' OIl S .1I Deir ' Alb , jor dan ," VT 11 i 1% 1): 31> 1- 72 . T rud e
Dorh.m , "So me Aspects of the Appear a nce of th e Sea Peo ples 3nJ Philistines in Ca naan, " in
Dcger-jalk otzv, (;Tit?d't'n /~l1td. 10 I, notes that the Two vrer c.irrouche provides u-, with " the
term inu s ~IJ que m for Mvc. IIIB porrcrv."
'1 Do tha n, " Se. I'eopl<s .nJ Phlhsn nes, " III I ; d . her review of Lacbish, vo]. 4, in I E] 10
{I% ll /: 5S-6 .~ .

THE C A T A S T R O P H E S U R V E Y E D

INTRODU CTION

I'h e im po rta nt centers a long th e Via M aris of Palest ine, th e rou te th at led
m Egypt to Syria (and more pa rti cularly from Gaza to Jaffa ), we re
rual ly all dest royed in the Catastrophe. Megiddo seems to have held o ut
: longest, St ra tum VII run ning witho ut inte rruption from the thi rteent h
Itury until ca . 1150 B. C. 3 3 Amo ng the earlier victims were Ash dod,
hkelon, and Akko. For Ashdod no Egyptian synch ro nism is ava ila ble,
t th e ce ra mics indicate an early twelfth -century date: the predestructio n
arum XIV p rod uced LH IIIB pottery, a nd in the postdesrrucrion Stratum
II some LH IIIC : 1b pottery was foun d. At any ra te, Moshe Doth an
.avated at Ashdo d a " des t ruc tio n layer (ca. 85 em ), co ntai ni ng as hes,
.ich indi cate th at th is st ra tu m, in Area A- B, ende d in a heavy co nflagra n. " 34 At Akko, th e destructi on ca n be dated with so me pr ecision. In
rc low est ash refu se layer" of th e destruction level wa s fou nd a sca ra b
th the name of Queen Twosret , evidence th at places th e destruction of
k o no earlier th an 1190.35 The city was rebu ilt, a nd th e excavators
ind that in the reoccuparion th e residents used a mon och rom e pottery
-sely related to M ycen aean IIIC ware . 36
In add ition to th e major cit ies alo ng the Via M ar is, all of whi ch would
ve been under Egypti an hegem on y in the earl y twelfth ce nt ury, s ma ller
rlern ents were a lso dest royed in th e Catas tro phe . These littl e towns
-uld surely have been vassa ls o r dependencies of th e ma jor cities, a nd so
-uld also h ave been p rotect ed , very ind irectly, by Egyp t's im peria l rnajy. Amo ng t he smaller sites destroyed in th e Catastrophe were the towns
Tel l jernrneh, Tell Sippor, and Tell Je ris he .J7
In the interior, the early twel fth -century dest ru ct ion at Lachish and Deir
la has al ready been mentioned. O ther in lan d sites des troyed at th e sa me
ie we re, from nort h to south, Tell el-Qeda h (H aza r), Beitin (Bethel ), Bet h
ernes h, Tell el-He si (Eglo n ?), Tell Beit Mirsim (Deb ir or Eglo n), an d
irbet Ra bud (possibly Debir).J H As everywhere else, th ese cities we re
rn ed , th e d est ru ct ion bei ng eithe r to tal or so extensive that arc haeoloIJ

William Dever, "The Late Bronze-Early Iron I Horizon in Syria -Palestine : Egyptians,

iaa nires , 'Sea Peoples: a nd Pro ro- Israelires," in Ward and ]oukowsky, Crisis Years, 101.
14 M . Do than, "Ashdod at the End of the Lat e Bronze Age and the Beginn ing of the Iron
:, ~ in Frank C ross, ed., Symposia Celebrating the Seventy-Fifth Amlit1ersary of the Fou ndof the Am erican Schools of O riental Research (1900- 1975) (Ca mbrid ge, Mass., 1979),

..

Trude Dothan, "Sea Peoples and Philistines, ~ 104. Dot han goes on to say that the
tab "may provide a term inus ante quem fo r the destruction of the Late Bron ze city." Bur it
termi nus post qu em t hat the scarab actua lly gives us.
10 lbid., 103.
17 lb id ., 108; for a tabular presenta tion of Palestinian sites destro yed and spa red see Dever,
Ite Bronze, " 100.
IS Paul Lapp, "Th e Co nquest of Palestine in the Light of Archaeology," Concordia Theo iC<11 Mont hly 38 ( 1967j : 283-3 00.
15

17

gists ass ume th at virt ua lly th e entire city was dest royed . Afte r the destructio n, most of th e sites in th e int erio r we re soon occupied by squatters : at
H azar, Succor h, and Debir the re a re traces of post-Catas trop he huts o r
small h o uses, storage silos, and crude ovens .>? Some cities near the coast,
o n th e other ha nd , we re subs ta ntially reb uilt. At Tell Ashdod and Tell Mo r
th ere is evidence for conside ra ble occupa tion after th e Catasrrophe.w
A few settlements, finally, we re spared. There is evidence for continuous
occupation from th e thirtee nt h cenruryrhrough all or most of the twelfth at
a num ber of majo r sites: Beth Shan, Taanach, Je rusalem, Shechem, Gezer,
and Gi beon. Still other sites show no destruct ion in th e late th irte enth o r
ea rly tw elfth ce nt ury because th ey were un o ccup ied at th at time: parado x icall y, Jericho a nd Ai, tw o of the cities w hose destru cti on is dramati call y
described fo r us (Jos hua 6-8 celebrates th e slaug hte r of all the inh ab itants
of Jerich o a nd Ai, a nd th e burning of th e tw o cities), were de serted tells at
the time of the Catas rro phe .v!

MESOP OTAMIA

The closest the Catas tro p he ca me to M esopot ami a was th e destructi on of

No rsu nte pe, in eas te rn Ana to lia, a nd of th e Syria n cities of Ernar andpo ssibl y- Carch em ish . Emar was dest royed by nam eless " hordes" and
perh aps th e same can be ass ume d fo r Norsunrepe. T he Euphrates river and
th e j ezira h ma y have furnished so mething of a ba rrier to p rotect th e Mesopo tamian cities from the devas ta tion experienced in the Leva nt, but it is
a lso likely tha t the kingdom of Assur served as a deterrent. Generally,
Meso potamian history in th e late thirteenth and twel fth centuries follows
th e pattern of earlier tirnes.v' Wars were common, but th ey were between
pe ren niel rival s. It was primarily the pa laces at Babylon and Assur that
co mpeted for p rimacy, with the ki ngdom of Elarn playing a majo r role from
time to time.
It is ins tructive to see wh at the kin gs of Assur were able to accomplish
before, during, and after th e Catastrop he . Tukul ti-Ninu rra I (1244- 120 8
B. C. ) was perh ap s th e grea tes t of the Middle Assyri an kin gs. After subdu in g
the barbarian s wh o lived to the east, in th e Zagros mo unta ins, he marched
.19 Norma n Gottwa ld, The Tribes of Yahweh: A Sociology of the Religion of Liberated
israel, 1250- 1050 B.C.E . (Marykno ll, N.Y., 1979), 195.
40 M oshe Dotha n, "Ashdod, ~ 127-28.
41 William Sricb ing. j r., O ut of the Desert? Archaeologyand the Exodus t Conquest Narratives (Buffalo, 1989), 80 -86.
4 2 For the histo ry of Mesopotam ia see the relevant chapters by]. M. Munn-Rankin, D.].
Wiseman, and Rene' Laba r in CAH, vol. 2, part 2; for a summary directly perti nent to th e
present srudy see Richard L. Zettle r, "Twelfrh-Cenru ry B.C. Bab ylonia: Continuity and
Change, " 174-81, in Ward and jo uko wsk y, Crisis Years.

INTRODUCTION

ough the mountains of Kurdistan and reached the district of Lakes Van

:l Urrnia. His greatest triumph may have come in 1235, when he defeated
Kassite king of Babylon; soon thereafter he captured Babylon, and his
derlings governed there for perhaps seven years. When Tukulti-Ninurta
s murdered by his son, Assyrian power was riven in faction and Assur's
ninion rapidly receded, but Assur and the other cities of the Assyrian
irtland came through the Catastrophe unscathed. Ashur-dan I defeated
oylon in 1160 and took from it several frontier cities. His successors
rarently had no difficulty maintaining their rule over the Assyrian heartd in the second half of the twelfth century, but they did have to do battle
iinst Akhlamu and Aramu warriors (both names probably refer to
imaic-speaking tribesmen) who threatened on the north and west of
.yria, Still more serious was an invasion by twenty thousand warriors
m Mushki, under five chieftains, who crossed the Taurus mountains and
led the lands around the upper Tigris. But the Mushkians were beaten
Tiglath-Pileser I (1115-1077) in a great battle in the mountains of
rdistan,
n southern Mesopotamia the Kassite line reestablished itself in Babylon
-r its interruption by Tukulti-Ninurta and enjoyed another forty years of
ninion, Apparently it was while Melik-shipak ruled at Babylon (118874) that so many cities in the Levant were destroyed, but neither Melikoak nor his son seems to have experienced serious trouble. Trouble did
ne in 1157, when the city of Babylon was stormed and parts of it were
'ned by the Elarnites. Although this incident might be reminiscent of the
.astrophe, the "sacking" of Babylon III 1157 seems to have been rela-ly limited and fits quite well within the normal expectations of Mesopoiian history: three years after having been beaten and humiliated by
iur-dan, a weak Kassite king was defeated by Shutruk-Nahhunte, the
g of Elam, and his large army. The Elamite king allowed his troops to
nder parts of the city-razing some sections in order to teach the occults a lesson-and he then removed the statue of Marduk to Elam.
hough Shutruk-Nahhunte put an end to the Kassite dynasty, he made
effort to subjugate Babylon permanently and certainly did not destroy
city. Soon after his departure a new Babylonian dynasty was estabed by a warlord from Isin. Babylon not only recovered its independence
also established some control over towns as far north as the Diyala
T.

YPT

e Mesopotamia, Egypt was spared the destruction of its centers during

Catastrophe. It was not, however, spared the fear of destruction, for
ween 1208 and 1176 the pharaohs had to battle repeatedly against

THE CATASTROPHE SURVEYED

19

invaders who threatened to do in Egypt what had already been done in

Anatolia and the Levant. Because the kingdom of Egypt survived the Catastrophe we have Egyptian inscriptions advertising what happened there
during the years in which so many other lands lost their principal cities and
palaces.
In some respects, it is true, Egypt did not survive the Catastrophe. Although prosperous and secure during the long reign of Ramesses the Great,
after the accession of Merneptah Egypt entered upon a time of troubles that
effectively ended its long history as the dominant power in the Near East.
Merneptah and Ramesses III were able to repel the attacks upon Egypt and
then celebrate their accomplishments in a princely fashion, but they were
virtually the last of the great pharaohs. The successors of Ramesses III were
hard-pressed to maintain any Egyptian presence in the Levant. Under
Ramesses IV (1155-1149) there may still have been Egyptian garrisons at
Beth Shan and a few other strategic posts in southern Canaan, but they
must soon have been overrun or withdrawn.t" The last evidence of Egyptian power so far north is the name of Ramesses VI (1141-1133) inscribed
on a bronze statue base at Megiddo.v' At home, the last kings of the
Twentieth Dynasty left few architectural or inscriptional monuments, and
in the Twenty-First Dynasty royal power in Egypt reached a low ebb.
The victories of Merneptah and Ramesses III were thus the swan song of
the Egyptian New Kingdom. Merneptah celebrated his triumphs in various places, but especially in the Great Karnak Inscription and on the
Hymn of Victory Stele (sometimes referred to as the "Israel Stele "), found
across the river, at Thebes. 45 For our purposes, however, the inscriptions of
Merneptah and Ramesses III are important not so much because they are a
final celebratIon of pharaonic power but because they illuminate the nature
of the dangers that Egypt and many other kingdoms faced in the Catastrophe. Merneptah's troubles began in his fifth year, 1208 B.C., when a Libyan
king named Meryre attacked the western Delta. Meryre brought with him
an enormous army, most of his men being from Libya itself but a fair
number being auxiliaries from "the northern lands. " They are identified by
Merneptah's scribe as Ekwesh, Lukka, Shardana, Shekelesh, and Tursha. 4 6 The Libyan warlord also brought with him his wife, children, and
even his throne, obviously intending to set himself up as ruler of the west4\ James Weinstein, "The Collapse of the Egyptian Empire in the Southern Levant," in
Ward and Joukowsky, Crisis Years, 142-50.
Weinstein, "Collapse, n 144; Itarnar Singer, "Merneprah's Campaign to Canaan and the
Egyptian Occupation of the Southern Coastal Plain of Palesrine in the Ramesside Period, n
BASOR 269 (1988): 6.
.
45 For the Great Karnak Inscription see Breasted, AR, vol. 3, nos. 572-92; for the Hymn
of Victory Stele, see nos. 602-17. Lesko, "Egypt," 153-55, has argued that the "year 5" and
"year 8" inscriptions of Rarnesses III at Medinet Habu were originally cut for Merneptah's
mortuary temple .
4" Breasted, AR 3, no. 574.

1
i

,~

20

I N T ROD U C T IO N

ern Delta. Again st the invaders Merneptah mustered all his force s, a nd on
the th ird day of th e third month of summer he defeated them at Periri, .t he
precise locati on of which is disputed . It was undoubtedly a long and difficult battle. Accord ing to th e inscr iptio n o n th e Arh ribis stele, Merneprah 's
a rmy slew over 6000 Lib yan s, as well as 2201 Ek wesh , 72 2 Tursha, and
200 Shehe lesb (how man y Luk ka and Shardana wer e killed cannot be
determ ined )."? The Lib yan king fled in disorder and disgrace.
The H ymn of Victo ry Stele, a ltho ugh pr imar ily celebrating the victo ry
over th e Libyans and their allies, sh ow s that M erneptah also conducted a
maj or campaign in Ca naa n.f'' He claims her e to have " plundered" and
" pacified" vario us pl aces, including several cities (Ashkelo n and Gezer;
Yano am to o wa s evidently a city). The land of Canaan a nd the peopl es of
Isr ael and Hurru were cha stised.f ? Unt il recentl y Merneptah 's claims to
have ca mpa igned in so uthe rn Ca na an were dismissed as mere propaganda ;
but Frank Yurco d iscovered that wall relief s, which were o nce attri b ute d to
Ramesses II and in which the capture of Ashkelon is portrayed , were
actually co m m issio ned by M erneptah. so It now seems th at Ashkel on and
Ge zer mu st ha ve declared thei r independence from Egypt at the o utse t of
M erneptah 's reign a nd were bro ugh t to heel by thi s elderl y b ut sur prising ly
energet ic ph araoh. v! The trouble presented by men of Israel mu st have
been so me thing new. H ere Merne prah was dealin g not with the cities that
had tr aditionall y been Egypt's co nce rn but with unc ivilized tribesmen.
Merneptah evid ently battl ed against them and inflict ed so me .casua lties:
"their seed is not ," he ann ounced . Since th e offense of. the tribesm en of
Isr ael was not th e withholding of tribute or th e renunciati on of a llegiance
to M ern eptah, it is lik ely to have been so me thing indi rect, such as a n
assault agains t o ne or more of th e ph araoh 's vassal cities in so uthern
Canaan.
From the reigns of Merneprah 's ephe meral successo rs we have no record
of for eign confl icts. That certainly does not mean that barbarians o n both
Ibid., no. 60 1 (in the Karn ak Inscription the figures a re slightly different ).
The text of th is stele has a lso been tr a nslated by Wilso n, ANET , 376-78.
4. For a recent treat ment of th is much-debated text see J.J. Bimson , " Merenpt a h's Israel
and Recent Theories of Israel ite O rigins," ]S OT 49 (199 1): 3-29.
so In 1977, while wo rk ing o n his doctor al d issertatio n, Yurco exam ined the reliefs that
fla n k the " Peace Treaty Text " a nd discovered that the original ca nouches (underlying those of
Seti II) belonged not to Rarn esses II, as had been assum ed, but to Me rneptah . See Yurco,
" Merenpr ah's Can aa nite Cam paign, " ]AR CE 23 (1986) : 189-2 I 5 ; and the same autho r's
" 3 20 0 -Year-O ld Pictur e of Isr aelites found in Egypt," Bib . Arch . Rev. 16 (1 990 ): 20 ff. See
a lso Law rence Stager, " Me renpta h, Israel. a nd Sea Peoples: New Light o n a n O ld Relief,"
Eretz -ls rael 18 (1985 ): 6 1-6 2. Fo r ob ject ion s to the identification see D. Redfor d, "Th e
Ashkel on Relief a t Karn a k and the Israel Stele," IE] 36 (1986): 188- 200 ; for Yurco's reply
see "O nce Aga in, Meren pt ah 's Batt le Reliefs at Karna k," IE] (fo rthcoming).
s I Singe r, " Me rnep ta h's Ca mpaign," 3.
47

48

T HE C A T AS T R O P H E S U R V E Y E D

21

frontier s had ceased to ca use problem s o r to insult Egyptian interests.

Dreadful things were beginning to happen in the 1190s, and in Canaa n
esp ecially Egypt 's vassal s must have been cryin g for assista nce. But th e last
representatives of the Ni ne teen th Dynasty-Seti II, Siprah, and Two srethad all to do to keep a feeble gra sp o n the throne.
With th e esta blishment of th e Twentieth Dynast y o u r do cumentation
resum es.V and it is ob viou s th at th e situa tio n has become more parlous
th an it had been under M erneptah. Rarne sses III faced no less th an three
attacks upon the Delta in his first eleven years. In his fifth year (1 182 B.C.) a
Libyan force that mu st have been counted in the ten s of th ou sand s
(Rarnesses claimed to have slai n 12,5 35 of th e invaders) att acked th e western Delta. T hree yea rs lat er, in 1179, a force co nsisting mostl y of Phi listines
and Tjekke r, but assisted by men wh om his scribe identified as Sbeke lesb
Denyen, Weshesh , and apparently Tursha, a ttacked from th e east :
Rarnesses bested the in vaders in a land battle at Djah i, so mewhere in th e
southern Levant, and defeated an other contingent of th e sa me co alition in
a sea b attl ~. Fin al.ly, in. his eleventh yea r (1 176) Ram esses had to face yet
ano the r Libyan invasion . T he insc riptions cred it Ram esses w ith the
sla ug~ ter of 2.1 75 _~eshwesh tr ib esmen (a nd th e capture of a no the r 120 0 )
on thi s oc casio n. > Alt ogether, th e ass aults up on Egypt in th e reign of
Ram esses III seem to have co ns tituted th e most serio us external threat
that Egypt had faced since the invasion of th e byksos in the sevente enth
century B.C .

GR EECE AND T H E A EG EAN I SLAND S

None of the pa laces of Late Hell adi c Gre ece surv ived ver y far int o th e
tw<:l fth cent ury B . c. 5 4 The nature of the Ca tastro phe here has been well
defined by Rich ard Hope Simpson and Oliver Dickinson: "By th e end of
LH Ill B almost all the great mainland centres had been destroyed by fire,
several being deserted th er eafter. T he destruction s seem to co ncent rate at
sites wh ere th ere were palaces or co mpa rable la rge bu ild ings o r fortifica .
"55 S'
,
nons.
ince a great deal of a rchaeo logi ca l work has been d on e in
sz Breasted, AR , vol. 4, nos. 2 1-13 8.
Edgerto n a nd Wilso n, H isto rical Records of Ram ses Ill: The Texts itt "Med ittet Ha bu "
Volll1~les I and II, Trans lated with Ex planato ry N otes (Ch icago : Univer sity of Chi cago Pres's,
1936 ), plate 75.
q

~4 The standard survey of the Catastro phe in Greece is Vincent Desbo rough 's The Last
Alyccn<ll'Jn s ,znd f heir Successors, An A rchaeolog ical Surw)' c. 1200-c. 1000 B. C. (O xfo rd,
1964). R. Hope Slln ~,on and O.T.r .K. Dick inso n, A Ga zet teer of Aegea n Cii-ilisation in th e
Brott~e Age, vol. I : The Af,' /tlLm d and Islands (Giitebnr g, 1979), provide an excellent site-bvSite summary.
.
IS

Hop e Simpso n and Dickinson , Ca zct teer; 379.

22

I NT R OD U C T [ 0 N
THE C A T A S T R 0 P H E S U R V EY E D

G reece hundred s of Bron ze Age sites fro m th e ma inland a nd the islands a re

kn own: The foll owin g survey w ill foc us o n th e d estruction of th e prin cip al
IIIB sites . But because we a re fo rt una te to have co ns ide ra ble m at erial evid en ce fo r G reece in the period imm edi atel y following th e C a tas tro phe, we
m ay a lso note th e several places th at became important communities (so me
of them de serving to be ca lled cities) in th e mc period .
In G reece th e northernmo st evide nce for th e Catas tro p he (see figure I)
co mes from th e settle me nt a nd " pa lac e" at lolko s. Unfo rt u na tely, th e site
has not been well publish ed , a nd o ne ca n no t be sure what h appened he re.
The p al ace (fro m which fresco fra gm ents a nd mu ch pottery was recovered )
was evi de n tly burned, p rob abl y ea rl y in th e LH IIIC peri od. lolkos may,
how ever, have co nti n ue d to be occupie d afte r the d estructi on of th e pal ace,
fo r a cons id era ble a mo u n t of IIIC pottery was found at th e s ite . Alt ho ugh
th ere is evide nce for a Proto geometric sett leme n t a t lolko s, it is not clear
whe the r habitation was co ntin uo us from IIIC to Protogeometric tim es. 56
One of the first of the G ree k p al aces to be sacke d was a p pare n tly the
Th eb an pal ace, well before th e end of LH IIIB. It may h ave been rebuilt,
o n ly to be d est ro yed for a second time a t th e end of IIIB. From the IIIe
period ch amber tombs but no building s h ave been f~und. 5 7 It. is therefore
d ou bt fu l that T he bes was a sig ni ficant set tle me n t In th e middle of th e
twelfth ce ntury.
O n th e Eubo ean coast a town at Lefkandi (or more precisel y at "Xero pol is, " a few hundred ya rds east o f Lefkandi) was de stroyed at least o nc e
durin g-the Ca tas t ro p he. No evid ence for destructi on at th e en d o f LH IIIB
has been found , but th at may be bec au se ea rly in th e IIIC period th ere was
mu ch new buildin g a t t he site (w ha tever the IIIB sett le me n t m ay h ave been ,
the IIIC se ttle me nt was co ns ide ra bly lar ger a nd d eserv es to be ca lled a c iry).
This city was " des troyed in a grea t co n flagra tio n " durin g the IIIC p er iod;
but it wa s immediatel y rebuilt a nd co nti n ued to be o cc u pie d until ca . 1100 ,
w he n it was finall y a ba ndo ned .tf
For Athen s, th e o n ly co ncl us io n now po ssible is a 11011 liquet . Sinc e th ere
are no remain s of a n LH IIIB p ala ce, we ca n not kn ow wh at m ay have
happen ed to it in th e ea rly twelfth cent ury. It is likel y, h o wever, th at th e ~lI C
sett leme nt a t Athe ns w as much s ma ller th an th e preceding sett lem ent, SInce
the IIIB houses o n th e north slo pe of th e Acropol is were un o ccup ied in t he
lat er period, a nd very few mc burial s h ave been found in th e Ago ra .>"
<, Desborough, LISI Myce" aeans, 128- 29; Hope Simp so n and Dicki nso n, Ga~etteer,
273.
<7 Hope Simpson a nd Dicki nso n, Gazetteer, 244-45; see a lso Fritz Schache rmey r,
Griechiscbc Fruhgcschich te (VIen na, 198 4 ), 119-22 (" Palasrb tasrro phe in Theben " ). , _
5 ' M . R. Popham, L. H . Sackett, er 'II., cd s" l.e(ka" di I: The Dark Age (Lo ndo n, 1980), r.
H Desboro ugh, Last ,\.fycenae,m s, 113; Hope Simpso n a nd Dicki nso n, Gazette er, 19899.

23

Perh ap s th e largest co m m un ity in At tica d uring th e IIIC period was o n

Att ica 's eas t coast. At Perat i, o n th e north side of the Porto R aft i bay, a
cem et er y of m ore th an tw o hundred chamber tombs fro m th e IIIC peri od
has been exc avated . T he town was undoubtedl y near the ce me tery but has
not yet been fo und. T he Perar i tombs furnish mu ch of what is known about
IIIC Arrica.v?
O n th e Cori nth ia n Isthmus attention focuses o n a fo rti fica tion wall
bu i!r I~te in th e thirteenth ce n t ury B.C. Ap pa rently inte nde d to spa n the
entire Isthm.us, th e ":a ll m ay never have been co m pleted. It is usu all y assume d th at It was bu ilt by Peloponnesian s wh o feared an attack fro m the
norrh .s! Almos t nothing is know n of Corin th in th is period, but at nearb
Korakou-on the Co rin th ia n G ulf- the re is eviden ce for a n LH IIIB sett l!ment (the hou ses w~re e~cavat~d by Blegen). Although it was o nce th ought
th at Korakou su rvived Intact Into th e IIIC period, it is possib le th at th e
pla ce may have suffered so me d amage and was br iefly a ba ndo ne d at the
en~ of IIIB. At a ny rat e: it was ce rtai nly reo ccup ied in III C a nd enjoye d a
penod of so me p ro spenty before a final d estruction a nd a ba ndo nme nt.62
In the northeast Peloponnese a lmos t a hundred Bron ze Age sites have
~een 63
identified , a ltho ug h m an y of th ese are kn o wn o n ly from surface
finds . At th ose Argo lid si tes th at h ave been exc ava ted the pattern is clear:
shortly aft~r 1200 t~e si te, was.eith er destroyed o r a ba ndo ne d . Pro symna
and Berbatl-both In the Intenor-were evide n tly evacuated w ith out being d estroyed. e-t a nd t he sa me was probabl y true of Lerna . T he little unwall ed se t tlement a t Z ygouries, a lso in th e inte rio r, was a p pa re n tly destroye~ at the e~d o f LH IIIB a nd wa s not reoccu pi ed in me. 65
In his ex cavati ons at M ycen ae, Wace found ~vidence for a d estruct ion at
th~ end of LH IIIB, but o n ly in the houses o utside th e cita del (" H o use of th e
Win e M erch ant, " " Ho us e of th e O il M erch ant, " erc .), Hi s exc avati on s a lso
ed
sh.ov: tha~ at th e end of LH mc th e ent ire site- incl udi ng everything
within th e cltadel-:- was burned. On the basis of these find ings, th e scho la rly co nse nsus until th e 19 60 s was th at ene mies a ttack ed M ycen ae ca.
1230 s .c . (the o ld date for th e en d o f LH lIIE ) but were un able to pen etrat e
the Cita del Itsel f; a nd th at the cita d el was not sac ke d until th e end of th e
, ."
HI

S~yridon la kovides~ " Peran , ein e Nekr opole der Ausklingenden Bro nzezeit in Att ika "

~ . G. Buchh o lz, cd ., AgJische

Bronzezcit (Da rrnsrad r, 1987), 4 37- 77.

Desborough, LIst Mycm aeans, HS.

'

z For the ea rlier view See Desborough, Las t '\'fyce"aean s, 85-86. jerernv Rutter' di ' .
ranon "Th L
H II d'
,
I
S sser
,
e
are e a rc IIIB a nd IlfC Periods at Korakou and Go nia" (University of
Pennsylvan ia, 1974), poi nted Ol!r rhar a lth o ugh no evide nce for desrruction a r Korakou was
found,. rhe. argumentum ex silentio has littl e significancc since the sire provides no strat igraph IC recor d of rhe rransltlo n from IIIB ro We.
:; Hope Simp son a nd Dickinso n, GJ::etleer, 27- 74 (nos. A 1 thro ugh A 94'1).
Desborough, Last Myce tlJeatls, 77 .
OJ Jbid ., 84; bu r d. Podzuwei r, " Mykenisc he Weir," 70.

"! v v-"," :

26

T HE CATA STR OP HE S U R V E Y E D

I N TR O D U C TI O N

Moving to th e isla nds o f th e Aegean, we find th at evide nce for the

Ca tas tro p he and its afte rma th is limited but o ccasion all y q uite info rmative. Recent ex cavati on s o n th e island of Paros have sho w n th at at a citadel
now known as Kouk oun ar ies there wa s an exten sive LH lIIB complex,
possibl y de serving to be de scribed as a "palace. " The complex was sacked
and burned, and th e excavato rs found not only a grea t deal of ash but also
th e skeleto ns of so me of the victims . Accord ing to D. Schilardi, director of
th e excavati on s, " p relim inary study indicates th at th e de struction of Kouk ounaries is slightly later th an the disasters wh ich afflicted the mainland.
The pottery sho uld be classified in the transition of LH mB2 to LH m e. " so
After th is d estruction in th e earl y twelfth century, the settle me nt wa s rebuilt in m c and was protected by a fort ification wall . S ! In genera l, however, the Cyclades were not hard hit in the Catast rophe, at least in its earl y
stages. The few major My cenaean sites on islands in the central and western Aegean (Phylakopi o n M elos, Ayia Irini on Kea, a nd G ro tt a on Naxos)
seem to have survived until late in the mc period.V
For Rhodes and th e othe r islands of the so uthe ast Aegean evidence
comes almost exclusivel y from tombs, and it is therefore uncertain what
did or did not happen to settlements ca. 1200 B.C. Th e co ntinuity of the
cemeteries, however, suggests t he essential cont inui ty of population from
IlIB to IlI e. 83 O n the other hand, there is reaso n to believe th at ver y new
settlement patterns ap peared in th e twelfth cent u ry. The to mbs suggest th at
the city of Ialysos, o n th e northern co ast of Rh odes, en joyed a fivefold
increase in population, and co ns id erable prosperity, while so me sites in the
so uthern part of th e island were abandoned .84 O n Kos, a settlement has
been excavat ed-the Serag lio site- and here th ere see ms to ha ve been
continuous occup at ion until well down into th e IlIC peri od .s>

C RET E

What happened o n C rete during th e Cata stro p he is a matter of vigo ro us

debate. There is reason to bel ieve that during th e Ca tastro p he the isla nd
suffered as much as did th e G reek mainland, but how much evid ence there
80

From D. Schi lardi 's rep ort on Kou kounaries, inclu ded in H . Carling's " Archaeology in

Greece, 1980-81, " in AR (1 980 - 8 1): 36 .

HI See the summa ries by H . Ca rling , AR (19 88- 89): 90 ; and E. Fre nch , 68.
&2 Hope Simp son and Dicki nson, Gaz etteer, 305, 3 14, 325-26; to whi ch add Carling, AR
( 198 6- 87): 47 .
.
&. H o pe Simpso n and Dickinson, Gaze tte er, 348.
&4 Colin M acd on al d, " Pro blems of the Twelfth Century

Be

in the Dodeca nese ," AB SA 81

( 1986): 149 - 50 .
,; Desb o rou gh , Last Mycenaeans, 153 a nd 22 7; H op e Simpso n and Dick inson , Ga-

zetteer, 360 .

27

is her e for ph ysical destruction is di sputed . T he palace at Kno sso s, po ssibl y

the mo st splendid and ex tensive palace of th e Late Bronze Age, was at so me
time de stroyed , but the d ate of Kno sso s's destructi o n has co nvent io na lly
been set in th e ea rly fourteenth century B. C. rath er th an in th e ea rly twel fth .
How credible th e co nventio nal chro no logy is ca n best be judg ed after a
surv ey of th e rest of the isla nd in the LM lIIB and IlI C peri od s.
It has long been kn own , on the ba sis of evide nce from sites other th an
Kno ssos, th at eco no mic and cultural activities o n C rete did not decline
drastic ally after 1400. In Pendlebury's wo rds, a rchitectur e and potter y
from Cretan sites other than Kno ssos ind icate tha t in LM III " M inoa n
cultu re continued unbroken but o n a lower level. " 8 6 But the picture of
fourteenth- and thirteenth - century Crete has become mu ch ros ier th an it
was in Evan s's and Pendlebury's books. It is now clear that the Cretans of
both the LM IlIA and IlIB periods were "prosperou s and enterprising." 8?
In fact, thanks to Philip Betancourt's survey, we can now say that th e
thirteenth century was the golden age of th e M ino an ceramic industry. f f
The pots- especially the kraters and the th ou sands of stirrup jarssuggest a lively expo rt of some liquid (wine, o live oi l, or possibly an oint ment or perfumed o il).89 Some of th e pot s demon strate what had alway s
been suspected any way: Line ar B cont inued in use on C rete until ca. 120 0
B. C. In addit ion to inscrib ed LM IIIB pots found in C rete itself, st irru p jar s
exported from C rete have been fo und at five mainl and sites, and o n the jar s
are Line ar B legend s th at were painted o n before firing."?
- In western C rete there ap pears to have been an important thirteenth cent u ry center at Khan ia (classi cal Kydonia ), now bein g excavated by a
~reek-Swedish team. A great deal of LM IlIB porter y wa s evidentl y
shipped from this site. A number of vases found at Kh ani a bear inscription s
"' J.D.S. Pendleb ury, The Archaeology of Crete (Lo ndo n, 1939), 243 .
8 7 A. Kama, The Late ,\-linoan HI Period in Crete: A Survey of Sites, Pottery, and Their
Distrib ution . Studies in Medi terr an ean Archaeology, vol. 58 (Go tebo rg, 1980 ), 313. Kama,
w bo acce pts the orthodox dati ng (ca. 1380 ) of th e " final dest ruction" of th e Knossos palace,
fou nd litt le sign of decli ne the rea fte r in the isla nd as a w hole. C f. he r co nclusion at p. 326:
" Art a nd life in Crete a re best summa rised as having continued at a reason ab ly high level after
LM 1Il A 2, and the relati ve mater ial well bein g of the average C reta n d id not det er iorate in th e
wake of th e destr uction of Knossos."
8 & Philip Betan co urt , The History of Milloall Pottery (Princeto n, 19 85 ). At p. 15 9 Betan court observes th at in terms of volume, "the third Late Mi noa n per iod is a time of inc rease d
production and expa nde d com mercial enterprise. My cen aean po tt ery reaches both the Near
East and the West in increasing q ua ntities, vivid test imon y to the thri ving Aegean econom y.
Crete, well WI th in the M ycen aean sp here, has a good share in this pro fita ble trade." Tab let
K700, wh ich invent o ries over 1800 stirru p jars , "is a good exa mp le of the new 'perfo rmance
expected from LM III potters." As for th e q ual ity of the pots , " technica lly, LM lIIB is the high
pomt of M ino an po tti ng a nd pyro rech no logy " (I" 17 1).
89 Ka n ta, Lute Minoa n HI Period, 296 .
9 <) Bet an court, History of Milloa" Pott ery, 173 .

.
r~I:.

';,~ '-,:

'.

28

I N T R O D U C TI 0 N

.,

referring to a toanax, a nd pe rha ps we ma y assume th at the walla:" in

question resided so mew here on the island."! Whether there was a palace in
Kyd onia itsel f is unclear, a ltho ugh Linear B tablet s of LM IIIB d ate h ave
recentl y been found there. n Ar an y rate, Kyd on ia was dest ro yed ca . 1200
B. C., presumably sh a ring the sa me fate that overtook cities and palaces all
over the ea stern M edirerranean. v'
There is evidence th at at th e beginning of LM IIIC numerous sites in
central and east ern C rete were abandoned. Amnisos, th e harbor town for
Kno ssos, seems to have been mostly un oc cupied in LM mc, although a
fountain-house and a sh rine did continue in use. 94 At Mallia there ma y
have been so me burning, but mo st of th e site seems to have been simply
abandoned soo n after 1200.9 5 On the eastern tip of the island, the evidence
from Palaikastro indicates abandonment at the end of LM IIIB, with transfer to a site on Kastri hill in IIIC 9 6 Finally, excavatio ns in 1987 revealed
that from LM I to LM IIIB there was a large settleme nt at Aghios Phanourios, near Mirabello Bay, and that this city wa s a lso de serted early in
the twelfth century?"
The mo st noticeable feature of habitation shifts in C rete, however, was
the sudd en preference, ca . 1180, for relativel y large se ttlements in remote
a nd well-protected pla ces. A recent survey of the Late Bronze Age site s in
eastern C rete concluded th at during LM IIIB th ere were a great man y
settlements , with man y pe ople living either in hamlet s o r in isolated
houses. In LM Ilf C, on the other hand, such small sites are unattested: in
thi s period people lived in larger villages o r in towns. The IIIC sites, continu ing into the Iron Age , cov er a pproxi mately o ne hect are.?"
T he mc towns were typicall y pla ced high in th e rnounrain s. Three exca vated site s, all in east ern C rete, have co m mo nly been referred to as " cities of
refu ge," since th ey we re a p pa ren tly founded by people wh o so ught secur ity

9' Lo uis Goda rt,

La cad uca dei regni micenei a C reta e l'in vasion e dorica , in Domen ico
Musti, ed ., Le origine dei Greci: Dori e m ondo egeo (Ro me, 1990), 174 - 76.
92 Lou is Go darr and Yan nis T zed ak is, "Les no uveaux rexres e ll Lineai re B de la Ca nee, "
RFl C 119 (199 1): 129-49.
9.3 Go da rt , "La ca d uca,
185.
9 4 Veic Sturmer, "Das Ende dec Wohnsiedlungen in M alia und Amni sos," in T ho mas, ed .,
M

Forschungen, 33- 36.

.
95 Stur mer , " Ende ," 3 4 , says th at at rhe en d of LM IlIB all parts of the city "endgiilrig
verlassen werden . "
96 Kanra, Late MinoJll III Period, 192.
., Ca rling, AR (198 8- 89 ): 107.
9 . Don ald C H agg is, "Su rvey a t Kavo usi, C rere : TIle Iron Age Sertlernenrs, " AlA 95
(199 1): 29 1: " Iro n Age sices are fewer in number, bur are la rge sett lements, cert ai nly villag es
o r sma ll town s, and o ccupy new locations.. . . O ne qu estion is wheth er there is a sign ifica nr
popu la tion de crease at the end of LM II1Bor rar her , a nu cleati on of serrlernenr in che Kavo usi
highlands in L\ I IlIC . .. The Iron Age settleme nts a re la rge in size, usuall y abou c 1 ha, and
o ccu py loc ations in close proximity CO a ra ble 50,1 and wat er sup plies.
M

..

" 0

-=.'

~f

~I:.

;ie
':.J~

;j

.or
..~...
.,,

'~'..,
- ,,;.

.J.: .
,o

3
J
:~f

~i1

.~ .

~~

:.,

;~

J:~
~

:'~
1I'

?~

"1

.~

~~

1
~i

1{

;3

~
-.l

.~

THE C AT A S T R 0 P HE SU R V EY E 0

29

from city-sac kers. Karphi is a mountain aerie so me six airl ine mile s inland
from Mallia, o n a peak thirteen hundred feet ab ove th e Lasithi plain (w hich
is itself twenty-eight hundred feer a bove sea level j.?" For understandabl e
reason s nob ody lived th er e in the LM IIIB period, but in th e mc per iod
there wa s a sizea b le town at Karphi.t ?" A second " city of refuge " was
Vrok astro, little more th an a mile from the western co rn er of Mirabell o
Bay, but high o n a pre cipitou s pe ak. Th e town on Vrokastro peak was
constructed at the sa me time that th e settle me nt at Agh ios Phanourios, in
the plain below Vrokastro, was ab andoned. w l The third of the LM IIIC
mountain sites in eastern Crete is Kavou si, whi ch is actuall y a double site
(the " lower" settleme nt near Kavo usi is Vronda, while Kastro is perched
still higher o n th e mountainl.l v- Although excavations here are still continuing, it is once ag ain very clear that these twin sites were esta blished at the
beginning of LM mc
For the building of towns in such appalling loc ations a powerful motiva tion must be imagined. This flight to the mountains early in the twelfth
century was ver y likely precipitated by a particularly frightening instance
of the Catas tro phe nearb y: whatever secur ity the C reta ns had relied upon
in the IIIB peri od wa s no w gone, and the population wa s left to defend itself
as best it could . One can hardl y avoid th e conclusion that the regime by
which the eas te rn half of th e island had been rul ed a nd p rotected in th e LM
IIIB period was ro ute d and a nnihilated sho rtly a fter 1200 . If Evans was
correct in dating th e final destruction of th e Kno sso s palace to ca. 1400,
then o ne mu st ass u me th at in the fourteenth and thirteenth cen tu ries B. C.
central and eas te rn C rete had been ad minis tered from so me palace yet to be
discovered ; and th at when thi s o ther palace is d iscovered, with its sto cks o f
provi sions and its Line ar B tablets, it will prove to have been destroyed in
the early twelfth ce ntury.

SUMM ARY

Destruction by fire wa s the fate of th e cities and palaces of the eas tern
Mediterranean during the Catas tro phe . Throughout the Aegean, Anarolia,
Cyprus, and the Levant dozens of these pla ces were burned. Although
9" Pend lebury er .11., " Excava tions in rhe Plain of Lasirhi . III," AB SA 38 (1938-3 9): 5 7145 .

. roo Desborou gh, LISt M ycetl,:eans, 175, co ncluded char Karp hi was founded in "the
midd le Or lat rer pa rr of LH . IlfC." Cf., ho wever, Kan ra, Lute J\;! i>lUa n III Period, 12 1: "Ir is
now clea r that th e town of Ka rphi was first in ha bited during a relativel v ea rlv stage in LM 1II

C"

101

Carling , A R ( 198H- 89): 107 .

'''~ For the mosr recent report o n the se two sites see G . C Gesel l, L. P. Day, and W. D.
Co ulsen. "The 1991 Seaso n ar Kavou si, C rete, " Al A 96 ( 199 2): 353 .

30

I N TR OD UC TI O N

man y small communities were not destr oyed, having been simpl y aba ndoned in the early twelfth cent ury B.C., the great centers went up in flames.
In fact, in all the lands menti on ed it is only in the interi or of the so uthe rn
Levant that one can find at least a few significant centers that were no t
destroyed by fire at least once du ring the Catastro phe.
In the aftermath of destru ction man y centers were rebuilt , and a surprising number of them were on or within sight of the seacoast. Tiryns, Troy,
lalysos, Tarsus, Enkorni, Kirion, Ashdo d, and Ashkel on are th e bestknown of these rwelfth-cent ur y coas tal settlements, but ther e were ma ny
othe rs. Another expedient, favored especially by the survivors of the Catastroph e in eastern Crete, was ro locate new town s high in th e mountains.
Sma ll, unfortified settlements were far less commo n in the middl e of the
twelfth centu ry than they had been a cent ury earlier.
Egypt escaped the Catastro phe, inasmuch as no Egyptian cities o r palaces are known to have been dest royed, although after Ramesses III pha raon ic power and prest ige ent ered a sharp decline. And in Mesop otam ia
the Catastrophe seems ro have don e little damage: the kin gs of Assur
remained strong through the twelfth centu ry, and Babylonia 's t roubl es
were of a conventional kind. But in all other civilized lands, the Catastro phe was synonymous with the burning of rich palaces and famou s cities.

PART TWO
ALTERN ATI VE EXPLA NATI O NS
O F THE CATAST ROPHE

PART THREE
A MILITARY EXPLANATION
OF THE CATAST RO PH E

Chapter Nin e
PREFACE TO A NHLlTARY EXPLAN ATIO N
OF THE CATAST RO PH E

H E CATAST ROP HE can most eas ily be expl ained , I believe, as a

result of a radi cal innovatio n in wa rfa re, whi ch su ddenl y gave to
"b arbarian s" th e milit ary adv antage over the long esta blished and
civilized kingdom s of th e eas tern Mediterr an ean . We sha ll see that th e Late
Bronze Age kingdo ms, both lar ge a nd small, depended o n a rmies in which
the ma in compo nent was a cha riot co rps. A king's military might was
measure d in horses a nd cha riots: a kingdo m with a th ous and cha riots was
man y tim es st ro nger th an a kin gdom with o nly a hundred. By th e begin ning of the twelfth century, however, the size of a king's cha r iorry ceased to
ma ke mu ch difference, beca use by th at time cha riotry everyw here had
become vulnera ble to a new kind of infantry.
The infantries th at evidently defeated even the greatest cha riot a rmies
during th e Cat ast ro phe used weapons and guerr illa tactics th at were cha racte rist ic of barbarian hill peopl e but had never been tried en masse in th e
plains and against the cente rs of th e Late Bro nze Age king do ms. Th e
M ed inet Habu reliefs indi cate that the wea po ns of Rame sses' oppon ents
were javelins and lon g swo rds, wh ereas th e traditional weapon of th e
chari ot corps was the bow. N either th e long swo rd nor th e javelin was an
inventi on of th e late th irte enth centu ry: a lon g slashing swo rd had been
availabl e in temp er ate Eu rope for centuries, and th e javelin everyw here fo r
millennia . Until sho rtly befo re 1200 B.C., however, it had never occ urred to
an yone th at infant rymen with such weap on s coul d o utrnatch cha riots.
On ce that lesson had been lea rned, power sudd enly shifted from the Great
Kingdom s to motl ey co llect ions of infa nt ry wa rriors. The se warri ors hailed
from barbarou s, mountainou s, o r otherwise less desirabl e land s, some
next door to th e kingdo ms and some far away.
Befo re attem pting to demo ns trate these generalizatio ns, I must ma ke
some ap ologies. Warfare in th e preclassical world is a subject o n which we
evide nt ly will never kn ow very much . We have some idea w ha t warfa re was
like in fifth-century G reece, and a few Rom an battl es ca n be reconstru cted
in detail. Byext en sion , we can imagine at least the o utlines of batt les fough t
by Archaic Greeks and Rom an s. But beyo nd ca . 700 q uest ions begin to
multipl y, and a bo ut th e seco nd millennium we are gross ly igno ran t. Afte r
survey ing what is kno wn an d can be know n abo ut war fare at Ugarit, Jean

98

A M i ll TAR Y E X

l A NAT ION

No ugayro l co ncluded th at " rna lhe urcuse me nt, nous nc savo ns pratiqu ement rien su r l' arrnee qu ' Ugarit pou vair alors rnettre sur pied. " I O n man y
qu esti on s o ne on onl y guess, and since gue ssing seems unprofess ion al,
historians do as little of it as pos sibl e. T he result , however, is that for lack of
evid ence on e of the mo st impo rt ant things ab out the preclassical world is
lar gely ignor ed. There is goo d reason to think th at the evolut ion of warfare
made and unmade the world of the Late Bronze Age. Even thou gh we
ca nno t be certa in a bo ut th is evo lutio n , an d espe ciall y ab out its deta ils, it is
tim e th at we begin to guess .
The descri pti on of Bronz e Age and ea rly Iron Age warfare would o rd inar ily be th e task of the military historian. For so me tim e, however, mil itar y history ha s been of little int erest to professional sch ol ar s. During its
go lden age, in the late nin eteenth and earl y tw entieth centuries, the sub ject
was utilitari an and pragmat ic, written by and fo r men wh o h ad consid erab le military experien ce. O ne stu die d it in order to wi n wa rs . The stu dy of
ancient m ilitar y history culmi na ted in G er ma ny, w ith th e first volu me of
H an s Delbni ck's Geschich te der Kriegskunst and th e magisterial works
of Johannes Kro mayer and Georg Veith. ? Since World Wa r II milit a ry
history has been-qu ite understandabl y-in bad o do r in mo st academ ic
circles.
Even if military histor y remained a vigo ro us di scipline, it is doubtful th at
rod ay's sch ol arl y officer s would find Bronze Age a nd early Iron Age wa rfar e
int elligibl e eno ugh to ex trac t from it lessons useful for cadets . Since the re is
no X eno pho n, Ca esar, o r Vegetius to serve as a Wegweiser to th e Nea r Ea st,
th e mil itar y h istory of thi s region is frus trating ly o pa q ue. Written records
co nta in hundred s of referen ces to wea po ns an d military p ersonnel , but
more often th an not the meaning of th e wo rds is un certain . Even in H ebrew,
which is relativel y int elligible, it is not entirely cle ar wh en th e word parashim means " hor ses" and when it means "caval rymen. " In Egyptian, Hittit e, Hurri an , Ugar itic, Akkadian, and Mycen aean Greek th e situ a tion is
far worse. H ere the stu dy of milita ry history is stuc k at th e lexi cograph ical
stage, since th ere are un certainties abo ut even th e most basic and elem en tary terms. Th e gene ra l plight of scho la rs attempting to illuminate a ll th is
d arkness is described by Timo thy Kendall , co nde m ned to extract from th e
N uzi tabl ets what they had to say a bo ut mil itary matters: "The N uz i texts
perta ining to military perso n nel and supplie s co nt ain a vast nomenclature.. . . As o ne begin s to read th ese texts, he immediately finds h imself
confronted by th is stran ge new vocabulary and to his di scouragement he

J. No ugay rol,

" C uerrc et pJix;' Uga rir," Iraq 25 (1% .1): 117.

Delbrii ck.. Gcscbichte der Kriegsknn st im Rahmen dcr politiscben Geschicbte , vo l. 1:
Dus Altertnm I Ber lin, 1900); Kro mayer JnJ Veith, Antik Scb lochtfclder , 4 vols. (Berlin,
190.3- 31 ); .m d HL'<->nl'(?St.'1I miff K riegs ftOjhnut g der C riechen und Romer (M unich , 1928 ).
The re \ V-J S nothing remc relv compa rable in English o r Fren ch .
I

PR E F A C E TO A Mil l TAR Y EX P l A NA T I ,) r-;

99

soon di scover s th at a fair number of th ese terms h ave been ina deq ua tely
treated or littl e underst o od even by th e ed ito rs of th e most up- to-date
Ak ka d ia n lexi con s. " 3 Even wh en all the words a re under stood, problems
rem ain. Len gth y inscription s advertis e ph araohs' victo ries at Megiddo and
Kad esh, but th e co ur se of th e battles can ba rely be recon structed ou t of th e
bomb ast . Perh ap s o ur most informative and least misleadin g so urces of
in fo r matio n o n milita ry matters are M ycenaean vase paintings a nd N ear
East ern royal reliefs , but [he latter tend to clu ster in a few peri ods and
pla ces (esp ecially New Kin gdom Egypt and imp eri al Assyr ia }:'
Sur prising ly littl e illumi nation has co me from in corpore evide nce . In th e
Nea r Eas t, first of all, archaeo log ists have fo und co ns ide ra bly fewer
weapo ns and pieces of armor than have their counterparts at work in the
Aegean or in pr ehi storic Eu rop e (the d iscrepancy perh aps reflect s the dif feren ce between tells and tombs as so ur ces of the mater ial record ). And for
both th e Aegea n a nd the Nea r East, wh at ha s been found ha s recei ved less
atte ntion than it d eserve s. Altho ugh spec ialists have ca ta log ed the weapo ns
of th e Bro nze and ea rly Iron Age, they have seldom vent ure d to spec ulateo n th e basis of [h e particul ars-about th e evo lutio n of wa rfa re during th is
peri od. And few o ther sc ho lars ha ve found the ca ta logs of an y inte res t at
all. Unti l 1964, when Anthon y Sno dgrass publish ed his Early Greek A rm ou r and Weapon s, discussion of th ese o bjects was largely restricted to
out-of-print d issertations written in Ge r ma ny early in this century." Th e
situatio n today is very much be tte r. The Bron ze Age swords of th e Aegean
we re ca ta loged by Nancy Sand ars in the earl y 196 0s, and the spearheads
and arrowhea ds by Rob ert Avila in 1983. 6 Th e swo rds of preh istoric Italy
ar e a lso now classified a nd pu bl ished , and A. F. Hard ing h as ca ta loged
th ose from Yugosla via ." Seriou s study of Ne ar East ern we apo nry peaked in
1926, w hen two little books -Walthe r Wol f 's o n Egypt, and H an s Bon ) Kenda ll, Warfare and Milita ry Matters in th e Nu zi Tablets (Ph. D. dissertation , Brandei s
Univers ity, 1975 ), 74 .
The Egyp tian reli efs a re best seen in W. WteszinskI 's collecti on o f p hot ograp hs and in the
line d raw ings bas ed on them . Although " pu blished " be fore World W, t II, th e pho togr a phs
were quite inacces sible until th eir tece nr rep rinting , by Slarkine Reprints, in two bo xed sets.
See now WJ:Ite r Wrcszinsk i, Atlas ;;ur JltJ gy pt ischen Kultur geschichte (Geneva and Paris,
1988 ).
< Sno J grass, Early Greek A rmour and Weapom: Fmm the F.",I of the Bronze Age to 600
B.C. (Ed in bu rgh, 1964 ); for the dissert arion s see Sno dg rass , Amts and A m"",r of th e Greeks
(Itha ca N.Y., 196 7), 13 1. Sno d grass's Early Greek Armour and Weapo"s itsel f bega n 3S a
dissertation.
, Sunda rs, "The First Aegea n Swo rds and Their Ances try," Al A 65 (1961 ): 17- 29 ; "Later
Aegea n Bronze Swo rds ." AlA 1>7 (1963): J 17-53. Avila, Bnmscne Lanzen- "",I Netls pitzen
der griecln schen Spatb ronz czeit, Pdhistotis che Bron zefunde, pan 5, vo l. 1 (M u nich, 1983 ;.
.,. V. Bianco Pe roni, Die Sclnoerter in ltalien: Le Spade nell 'Italia continentale, Prahisronsche Bronzefun d e. part 4, vol. 1 {M unich. 19 i Oj; on the publication of the Yugos lavian
swo rds see Ha rding , M )'n -'nJeul1s and Europe. 163 .

100

A MI L I TAR Y E X

r L A :-J A T l O S

net 's on the rest of th e Near East - sketched a n elementar y typ olo gy,S
Detailed typologies of Ne a r Easte rn ax es, daggers, swo rd s, a nd spea rs h ave
since been publ ished but have been seldo m used o r even ment ioned..
Ch ario rs have been of greater interest, and it is encouragin g to note th at
recently th eir technical aspects hav e received exp ert attention . 10 An understa nding of th e milita ry applications of the chari ot, o n the other hand, lags
far behind .! Seve ra l assumptions a bo ut th e role of th e ch a rio t on th e
ba tt lefield see m to be quite mista ke n, a nd we have apparentl y ign or ed the
extent to w hich warfar e in the Lite Bro nze Age wa s "cha riot warfare. "
In additio n to the ar ch aeological a nd rypolo gical studies of weap on ry
and a rmor, we now have det ailed a na lyses-severa l of th em in d oct oral
d issertation s at American universiries-c-of text s dealing with military matter s. Focu sin g especiall y on the technical terminology used in the do cuments of thi s o r that kingdom , the se studies provide kingd om -b y-kingd om
surveys of things military at Mari, N uzi, Hatri, Uga rit, Israel, Egypt, Pylos,
and Kno sso s.t Hans Bon net , Die Waffeu d er \6lker d es alten O rien ts (Leipzig, 192 6); Walthe r Wolf ,
Die B<?Iuuffntmg des altugyptische n Heeres (Leipzig, 192 6). Alth o ugh bo th su rveys rem ain
usefu l tod ay, neither sheds any light on the ch anges in wa rfa re that occ u rred fro m the Late
Bro nze Age (Q the Irun Age o r even acknowl ed ges that changes o ccurre d at tha t time . Wolf 's
form at is br o adl y ch ro no log ica l, but stops with the Nin eteenth Dynasty. Bonnet's presentation is wea pon -b y-weap on . T hus although he was co ncerned to sho w the differences betw een
cha rio t lan ces an d in fantr y spea rs, Bonnet now here d iscussed th e ro le of th e cha riot in battl e.
How the natur e of anc ien t wa rfa re was chan ged Wit h t he ad vent of chariorry, a nd wh at
cha nges were assoc iated with the o bso lescence of chariorry, are thus que sti ons tha t could not
be a nswered o n thl. bas is of his infor mation.
M uch of thi s was do ne by Rache l Ma xwell -H yslo p, who began her typ o logical resea rch
in th e late 19305. See her "Daggers and Swo rds in Weste rn Asia ," Iraq & (1946): 1-65 ;
"Western Asiatic Sha ft- Hole Axes," lraq II ( 1949): 90- 129; and " Bronze Lugge d Axe - o r
Adze-Blade s fro m Asia, " Iraq 15 (1953): 69-87. On spears see Alessan d ro de Maigrct, Le
lan ce nellA sia anter ic re nell 'Eta del Bron zo (Ro me, 1976 ),
10 Mary Lirt uuer and joosr C ro uwel, W heeled Vehicles and Ridden An ima ls in the Anci en t
N ear East (Leid en, 1979); C rouwel , Cha riots and Other Means of Lund Transport in Bron ze
A ge G reece (Ams te rda m, 198 1); Stuart Piggo tt, T he Earliest Wh eeled T ran spo rt: from th e
A tlan tic to th e Casp ian Sea (Ithaca, N .Y., 1983 ).
I I Good begin nings have bee n made by Elen a Cas sin, " A propos du char de guer re en
M eso poram ie, " in J. Vernant, ed ., Problemes dl! la guerre en G rece an cienn e (Paris, 1968 ),
297-308; b y Lirta uer an d C ro uwel, Wheeled Veh icles, 9 1-93 ; and by P. S. Mo or ey, "The
Eme rgence of the Light, Ho rse-Dr awn Chario t in the Nea r East c. 2000 -1500 B.C., World
Archaeology 18 (1986), 196- 2 15.
12 Alan Schu lma n, Milit ary Rank. Title an d O rganizatic in the Egyp tian New Kingdom
(Berlin, 1964 ; Ph.D . dis sert ation , University of Pennsylva nia , 1962); Albert Gloc k, Warfare ill
Muri and F
./Try Israel (Ph. D. Disse rta tio n, Un iversity of Michi gan, 196 8); Michel Leje une,
"La civi lis.me n mycenien ne et la gue rre , " in Veman r, Problemes de La guerre , 3 1-5 l ;
J. Nou gayrol, " C ucrre er pai x :. Ugarir, " Iraq 25 ( 1969), II 0- 23; Jack Sasso n, The .\ l ilitaT)'
Estab lishm en ts at Mari (Ro me. 1969); Tim oth y Kende ll, Warfare and M ilitJ')' M ail ers in th e
Nuei Table ts ( Ph.D . disse rrario n, Bran deis University, 1975); Adele Fran cesche rri, " Arrni c

REf A C E T 0

A .\ 1 ' LI TAR Y E X r L A N .... T I O N

10 I

Th e synt hesis of these specialized stud ies, an d th eir conversion into a

diachronic account of mil ita ry history, has hard y begun. While survey s of
classical mil itar y history appear with so me frequency, the first a nd last
milit ary history of the ancient Nea r East was Yigael Yadin 's. In the lon g
tradit ion of a military practitioner writing military history, Gen er al Yadin
did a signa l ser vice to the aca demic world in writing a colorful a nd lucid
sto ry- a dia chroni c account, that is-of warfare in th e anci ent Nea r
Easr. l' His Art ol Warfare in Biblical Lands was not o nly a rem arkable
pion eering achi evem ent but rem ains funda ment a l for anyo ne inte rested in
th e subje ct. It is not annotated , howe ver, hav ing bee n written as much for
the gene ra l public as for pr ofessional historians; and, given its eno rmo us
ran ge a nd th e impenetrable nature of its sub ject, it has not su rp risingly
turned out to be wrong or mi sleading on many points. Israeli inte rest in
milit ar y history has produ ced a number of books, narrower in topic th an
Yadin 's but more popular in app roach, recountin g th e victori es o f ancient
kin gs in Israel and judah.!:' M ore recentl y, Nig el Stillma n a nd N igel Talli s
have co llabo rate d to produ ce a thoroughl y expert su rvey of wh at is known
ab out ancient Nea r Eastern weapons and milita ry o rga niz atio n (their for mat, unlike Yadin 's, is not d iachronic out kingdom -b y-kingdom , o r peopleby-p eople j.t - Alth ough Stillman's and Talli s's book is not annot ated and
has th e flavor of a military manual, th e qu ality of th eir scho la rship is high ,
and it is unfortunate that thei r survey h as not been reviewed or ac know led ged in scho la rly journals.
Since a gen eral su rvey of pr eclassi cal milita ry history is so novel and
difficult an und ertak ing, it is not surp rising that th e subject is ign ored even
in so me book s wh ose sub ject is ostensib ly " wa r in the a ncient world. " ! h
Schol ar s vent ureso me eno ug h to write o n Ne a r Easte rn m ilita ry hi story
mu st expect to be em ba rrassed by occ asional pratfall s. A case in po int is th e
fairly recently pu blished Warlare in the Ancient World, edited by General
gue rra in resti micenci," Rendico n ti dc ll'Acca d . d i A rcheologia. Lett ere e Helle Ar ti di N apo li
53 (1978 ), 67-90; M ichael H einer. Th e Int ernal O rgan iza tion of tire Kingd om of Ugari t
(W iesbaden, 19S2), esp. cha p. 6 t't'The M ilitary O rganization and the Arm y of Ugari r" ); Philo
H ouw ink ten Ca re, "Th e Histo ry of Warfa re Accord ing to H itti te Sou rces : The An na ls of
Harrusilis I, parr J, An ato lica 10 (19SJ ): 9 1-1 10. a nd parr 2, Anat olica II (1984 ): 47- &3;
and Richard Beal, The O rgan ization ofth e Hitt ite Military ( Ph .D. d isse rt atio n, Unive rsity o f
Chicago, 1986 ).
r., Yadin, The Ar t of WJrfare in Bib lical Lands; 2 vols. (New York, 1963 ).
\4 See for exam ple C ha im Herzo g and Mordecai G icho n, Battles of the Bibl e (N ew York,
1978).
15 N . Stillma n and N . Tallis, Armies of th e An cien t N ear East, 3000 BC to 539 BC (Wo rt hing, Sussex . 1984 ).
I t> Y. Ca rlan's, War in th e Ancient ",()T Id: A Soci al History {Lo ndo n, 1975 ) is limited to the
clasvica l wo rld. In J. HJ.rm.JnJ, I..J gu erre ant iqu e. de Sumer J Rome (Paris, t 973 ) the re are
reference') to the N ca r East, bu t no syscemanc treatmen t.

102

A ~II L I T A R Y E X P L .~ N A T I O N

Sir John Hac kert."? Each chapter of th is very useful book is written b y a
scho lar of high distincti on. The eight chapters beginn ing with Archai c
G reece and endin g wit h th e Later Roman Empire cover ground that has
been trod for centu ries and is now qu ite exqui sitely mapped, but the two
cha pte rs o n the pre -Persian Nea r East-by pr ehistor ian Trevor W;'ukins
and Assyriologist D. J Wiseman-e.xplor e wh at to a great extent is still a
terra incognita.! " Here one enco unters, amid a variet y of archaeo logical
illumination s and Assyriological clarification s, a few imp ossible items:
bows with a range up to 650 meters, Bron ze Age chariots pulled by fourhorse te am s, and Assyrian chariots with iron und ercarriages. Nevertheless,
the overviews furnish ed by pioneers such as Watkin s and Wiseman far
outweigh the occasiona l mistake o n parti cular s.
H aving no crede ntials as a military histor ian , I shall undoubtedly furnish future scho lars with ample o ppo rtu nity for mirt h and cor rection. But
a gene ra list of the rank est o rde r, w ith no inh ibitions against guessing when
eviden ce fails, should be in as goo d a position as an yone to reconstru ct the
gen er al evolut ion of war fare at th e end of th e Bron ze Age and beginning of
th e Iro n Age. Becau se the Catast rophe was followed by a dark age, productive of neit her written no r pictorial evidence, th e militar y histo ry of th is
peri od is especially obscure . In both the Aegean and the Nea r East, the
peri od between the reign of Rarnesses III and Ashurnasirpalll is pictorially
almost a total blank, relieved only by the stelae of "Neo-Hi rtitc" kings in
north ern Syria.!" Yet there is reason to believe th at the decad es around and
aft er 1200 B.C. were among the very most important in the evolution of
war fare in the ancient world. Th e nexr chapt ers will accor d ingly atte mpt to
ske tch in at least its broad ou tlines how war far e cha nged at the end of the
thirteenth century and the beginning of th e twelfth .
Some inn ovati on s in weaponry at the end of th e Bronze Age have been
noti ced , especia lly by scholars who wo rk closely with the material record.
Archaeologists have known for a lon g time that at th e end of th e lllB period
H ackert, ed., Warfare in the l IT/d ent World (l o ndo n, 1989).
Watkins, "The Beginn ings of Warfare," 15- 35; and Wiseman, "The Assyr ians," 3653 . Th e bibliography includ ed fo r WatkinS'> chapter (Wolrfare, 250 ) co nta ins three items:
Yadi n 's Art of Warfa re, Breasted 's Ancien t Records of Egypt, and Luck enbill's A ncient Recor ds of Assyri..zand Babyl onia . In co nt rast, ten work s-all studies in military history mea nt
for th e' professional scho la r-c-are listed for Laz- nbv' s ch a p ter on the Greek ho pIire.
I <J O n the ab sence ot ams n c evidence o n militJry matters i ll the Aegean during this period
see Desb o ro ugh, The G reek D",k -Ages, 306: - lIetwccn the early rwelfrh centu ry and the
eighth there exists no figure or figurine of J warrior. no r J Oy represenr arion ot such in VJ~
pai nt ing, with the' single ex ceptio n oi the two confron ted archers J [ Lefkandi." Nor are things
much better fo r
N ear Els e Th e lack of evsdence there al mo st per su aded Yrdin to " w rite
off" the Iro n I pC-ClUJ as .. J kind of transitional pcrioJ a buu e wh ich nothing on warfare co u ld
be' known" {Art o( Vi/ur(Jre, 1,'01. 2 ,l~ 1 ~ d. p. ..:!.4 7: "Our so le ..ou rce fO[ the first parr o f the
perIOd is the ma ny reliefs of Rarneses HI.n"
.7

me-

PRE f A C E T 0

A _\ 1 III T .\ RYE X P l A N A T I O N

103

severa l ite ms of defe nsive armo r-greaves, certai nly, .i nd a smaller shieldprol iferat e in the Aegean, as d id the Na ue Type II swo rd (o n the Near
Easte rn side, where the tr an sformat ion in wa rfare was radi cal, there has
been less attent ion to it). Jeremy Rutter has in fact not ed th at in the postpalat ial Aegean "the cha nges in virt ually all forms of offensive and defensive wea po nry . . . are rem ark abl e for th e co mprehe nsiveness of th eir range
and th e rap idity with whi ch they are effected. "20 But altho ugh these material changes have been recognized , their histor ical significance is to o little
appreciated, a pparently because the nature of warf are in the Lat e Bron ze
Age is so imp erfectly und er sto od . Tentative suggest ions have occas iona lly
been mad e. Nancy Sanda rs, for exa mple, alluded to "a new for m of attack
introdu ced with the flange-hiked swor d," ! 1 and Jam es Muhl y o bserved
th at the appearance of greaves and slashing swo rds po ints to " the introd uction of a new style of fighting. T he tactics now were not just to thru st but
also to cut o r slash, especiall y at the legs of your oppo nent. "22 If the
cha nges in weapo nry and tactics a re fully explo red, and especiall y if their
imp act up on cha riot wa rfar e is imaginatively assessed, I believe that they
will furni sh as goo d an exp lana t ion for the Catastrophe as we are likely to
find.
HI Rutter, " C ultu ra l Novelt ies in the Post- Palatial Aegea n World: Indices of Vitality or
Decline?" in Wa rd and joukowck y, Crisis Year; , 67 .
I. Sund a rs. Se, Peoples, 92 .
12 M uh ly, "The Role of th e Sea Peoples," 4 2. Carling , w ith who m the idea o riginated ,
ternpo ra n lv a bando ned it w hen the Dend ra greaves {dating ca . 140 0 } we re fo und; see Carling,
"A N ew Bron ze Swor d from C yp ru s," A nt iquity 35 ( I % I ): J 22 .

T H E C H A R I O T W AR F A R E

Chapter Ten
T HE CH ARIOT WARFARE OF T HE LAf E BRONZ E AGE

H E THES [S of the present study is that th e Catastro phe ca rne about

when men in " ba rba rian" lan ds awoke to a truth that ha d been
w ith them for so me time: th e chariot-ba sed force s o n whi ch th e
Grea t Kingdo ms relied co uld be overwhelmed by swa rming infa ntr ies, th e
infant rymen being eq uip ped wit h javelins, lon g swo rds, a nd a few esse ntial
pieces of defensive a rmo r. Th e ba rbar ia ns-in Libya, Palestine, Israe l,
Lycia, northern G reece, Italy, Sicily, Sa rd inia, a nd elsewh ere-t hus found
it with in their mean s to assa ult, plunde r, a nd raze the rich est palaces a nd
cities o n the hor izon , a nd th is they p roceeded to do .
In o rder to place this thesis in pe rsp ecti ve, it w ill be necessar y to recall
so me familiar facts about cha riots on the battl efield and to br ing a few
o the rs o ur from ob scur ity. Altho ugh to the gene ral public th e cha riot has
always seemed one of th e more inte resting th ings about antiquity, few
histo rians have devoted much time or thou ght to the subject. In th e last few
year s, however, Mary Lirrau er, Joost Cro uwcl, and Stuart Piggott have
given us schola rship of th e first o rde r on cha riots and ch ario rry, T he ir
wr it ings o n the subjec t com bine a mastery of th e ancient evidence w ith an
eq ues trian's expert ise on ho rses, horn essing, and hor se-dr awn vehicles.! lt
has thus become possible to glimpse at least th e o utlines of a phen o men on
hith ert o almos t unrecogni za ble-char iot wa rfa re.

T H E B EG IN N ING S OF C HARI OT W ARFARE

Altho ugh "a rts and wagons had been used in M eso pota mia from th e beginning of the third millenn ium B. C. , these were ponde rou s, solid -w hee led
vehicles, an d were much mo re easily d raw n by o xen th an by eq uids, T he
cha riot was a tec hno logical tri umph of th e ea rly second millennium. M ad e
of light har d woods, with a leat he r-mesh platfo rm on which the dr iver
co uld sta nd, the ent ire vehicle weighed not much mo re tha n thirty kilogr'1I11S. The wheels were, shall we say, the revolut iona ry element : the heatbent spo kes pro vided a stu rdy wh eel that weighed o nly a tenth as much as
the disk w heels of the third millen nium. With suc h a vehicle one co uld
I For their rrcarrne nrs of ch ariorrv in th is pe riod see Lirtau e-r and C rouwcl. W'ht.cI('~1
veb iclcs. 74-98; Cro uwe-l, Cho riots-; f'1gg, O{[ \ Earliest \f/ht!~h'd Transport, 91- 104 .

lOS

begin.to exploi t th e horse as a draft a nima l: whereas an ox ca rt traveled

only tw o miles in a n hour, a team of cha riot horses co uld cover ten.
Th e recent scho la rship on techn ical aspects of the cha riot perm its us to
esta blish approxi ma tely whe n cha riots beca me militar ily sig nificant . The
era of th e war cha riot, as [ have elsew here a rgued in detail, began in the
seventeent h cent ury B. C.! Befor e that tim e, cha riots seem to have been of
little o r no importance on the battlefield, even tho ugh they had been used
for ra pid tran sportation , for amusement , and for royal displa y as early as
1900. lr is likely that in Mesop otamia, at least, kings had all along ridden
to th e batt lefield-on stately, heavy wagon s in the th ird millenn ium and in
cha riots afte r the development of the spo ked whee l. T he cha rio t of the ea rly
seco nd millenn ium , however, was appa rently o nly a presti ge vehicle a nd
not yet a military instrument. Th at is not to say that in the time of Ha mrnurabi of Babylo n a kin g did not occasio nally shoo t an a rrow fro m his
cha riot with hostil e int ent. Perhap s there were even battl es in which a royal
ento urage of four or five char io ts may have made a tiny contribution to the
ou tco me. But in the Age of Harnm ura hi, as ana lysis of the M ari docum ent s
has shown," battl e still meant th e clash of two infa nt ries. By the sta nda rds
of lat er antiq uity these infantries of the M iddle Bronze Age were not very
formidab le. ln Twelfth-Dynasty Egypt, the a rmy seems to have consisted of
Alternating for ma tio ns of arch ers a nd close-formation spearmen." The
arche rs used the simple or self bow, wh ich must have had an effective ran ge
of o nly fifty or six ty meters, and their arrows ap pa rently helped o nly to
"soften up" the enemy 's formation of massed spearmen as it app roached
their ow n. After th is prelim ina ry phase, the battle prop er began , with the
opp osing phalan xes a ttacking each ot he r with axes and thr usting spea rs.
T hen came a revolu tion in ancient warfare. Since no docum ents describ e
it, we have no o the r recourse but to imagine it: a tradition al infantry
mar ch es o ut to do battle with a n oppos ing infa ntry but instead finds itself
attac ked by several scor e of a rchers mou nted o n cha riots a nd a rmed wit h
co mpos ite bows, the-a rche rs shoo ting a rrows wit h impunity until the t radit io na l infa nt ry forma tio n is brok en a nd tour ed. Each cha riot ca rried two
young men with excellent reflexes: th e charioteer d rove the hor ses wh ile
the cha riot wa rrior shot a rrow after a rrow aga inst the relatively statio nary
enem y fo rma tio ns, th e chariots keeping JUSt outs ide the ran ge of the opposing infa ntry's bow men. Essenti ally, th e cha riot beca me militarily significa nt wh en it was combined with anoth er intri cat e a rt ifact, the com posite
bow, which also had been kn own fo r a lon g time but had until then been a
1 Drews, The Co ming c[ the G reeks: Indo -Eu ropean Conquests in the AegcJn aru! the
Ne ar East (Princeto n, (988), especia lly 74- J2lJ; see also Cassin, "C ha r de guerre," 298 :
Lin au er and C rou wel, \t/heeled veh icles, 6J-h S; ;mJ Moo rey, " Emergence." 205 .
, G lock. Wur(urc In Mari and Ear!v IsrJC1. 144.
, Silliman and Tallis, Armies 54 . .

106

A .\1 I L IT A RYE X P LAS A T I () S

luxury reser ved for kings or th e very rich. Early in the sevente ent h cent ury
ir must have occ ur red to so meo ne (w ho perh ap s had himself enjo yed using
his cha rie r and composire bow for hunt ing ex ploits ) that severa l sco re of
cha rio ts. each mann ed by an expert d river and a " hunte r" ar med wit h a
composite bow, wo uld be ab le to overco me a conventional ar my of
infa ntryme n .
TIle earliest cha riot wa rfa re seems ro have occ ur red in Asia Min or. Tro y
VI may have been estab lished soo n after 1700 B.C. by chariot warrio rs, and
there is evide nce th at by ca. 1650 chari ots were used by th e king of Hatti ,
by Um ma n M and a at Aleppo, and by th e lryksos w ho to o k over Egypt .'
Th e iJyksos, an asso rtment of Semit ic, Hurri an , an d Arya n advent ure rs, set
up at Avar is a regime known to Ma nerho as Egypt's Fifteent h Dynasty. As
a nothe r pion eer of th e new wa rfa re, Hatru silis I not o nly mad e himself
G rear King of all H atti-e- a remar ka ble acco rnplishrnenr-c-bur a lso raided
as far as Aleppo and Alalakh . By 1600 chari ot wa rriors were in co ntro l ar
M ycenae and elsew here in Greece , and nor lon g thereafter cha rioteers to ok
o ver no rthwestern India.

C H ARIO T R I E S : NUMBER S AN D C O ST S

C hariot forces in the middl e of th e seventee nt h century were relatively

sma ll and possibl y numbered no mor e th an a hundred vehicles." At this
time, th e cha riots were presu mably used against infantries of the old sty le.
As cha riot ries proliferated, th e tar get of a chariot a rcher was increasingly
the hor ses a nd crew men of the op posing cha riotry , a nd it becam e irnpo rra m for a king ro have mor e cha riots th an his o ppo nent had . T hurmose Ill's
acco unt of his victory at rhe Battl e of M egiddo shows th at by rhe middl e of
S In Co ming of the G reeks, 10 2-5 . I pr esented evide nce for the use o f wa r cha rio ts by
H a rru silis I a nd b y the " Grear H yksos " r ulers of Egy pt in th e seco nd h al f of the sevenree njh
cenrur y, but ove rloo ked two ot her very ea rly insta nces of its use. First. it is certai n rhu r ch a riots
wert' used by Yarim-lim III of Alep po . one of Ha rru silis's adversar ies. Yarim-lim's ch.i rio rs,
evi de nt ly o ne hu ndred in number, ar c ind ica ted by the: "Zuk r nxi text, n an O ld H ittite tablet:
" Z uludi s, the co m ma nder of th e M"n d, .t to op s, (a nd) Z uk r.u slsis. the co mm ande r of the
he.ivy-a rm ed ( ?) t roo ps. of the Rul er (?) of Alep po ca me dow n from Alepp o with his
foot -soldie rs and his cha riorecrs ." For th is rr.m sl.irio n see H o uwin k tell Care, " Histo ry of
\"'J.rf.l re " 5g; fo r the num b er, see Bc.rl. Org(l tlI:;:at lll ll , 58 . Seco nd, it no w seems pr o ba ble (as I
ar gu e in " My th !'! o f Mida s") tha r rhe Tread was the first area to he taken uver b.. cha riot
warrior s {soon after 1700 R.C ~ .md rh.ir they built Troy VI.
'... See: Be: JI. Cvrganizatinn. 343 . An epic tex t, "T he Siege o f Ursh u. " mention s fo rces of
th irty a nd ei gh ty cha rio ts in the c..rnpai gn o f H a rtu silis I aga inst Ursh u : in the w ar s between
H arrusilis a nd Yanm- lim III of Aleppo t wo hundred ch .rriot fighters (im p lyinl( .1 hund red
chu riors ) ure me ntio ned . A t pp. 432-45. how ever, BCJ.I discu sses a tex t referring to a pair of
officers w ho wer e called "' O ve rseers-ot.o ne, rho us3 nJ, c.: harior.figh ters. " In priva te co rres po n de nce B ~J I infor ms me rha r th e rexr Ja res ro th e reign of either H arrus ilis I or .\1 u rsil i ~ l.

T HE C H A R I () TWA R FAR E

107

the fifteenth cent ury B.C. a G reat King co uld deploy at least a th ou sa nd
cha riots. At the beginning of t he next cent ury th e G reat Kingdo m of Mi tanni seems to have had at its disposal a cha riotry numberin g several thou sand, since the Nuzi tablets indicate that o ne of th e minor vassals of th e
Great King of Mirann i could all by himself have supplied his lord with over
thr ee hun dr ed cha riots.' At th e same time, however, an Atta rissiyas (whose
nam e has often been compa red with th e Achaea n" Atre us" ) caused trou ble
in western Anato lia with o nly a hund red cha rio ts."
Chariotries in th e thirteenth cent ury likewise ra nged fro m a few hu ndr ed
to a few th ousand . At Kadesh, th e H itt ite king is said to have deployed
thirty-five hundred cha riots, twent y-five hundred of these bein g his own
a nd o ne thou sand being supplied by vassals." Since Rarnesses II emerged
from th e batt le with so me dignity, if not with victo ry, the Egypti an char iotry was prob ably a bout th e same size. I II Ar th e end of th e century the kings
of Harri and Egypt a re likely to have been a ble to field chari otries of severa l
thousan d, since even a Hittite vassal- the king of Ugarit-seems to have
had close to one thou sand chariots. I I
Perh ap s a more typical pala ce at th e end of the thirteenth century maintain ed a cha riotry numbered in th e low o r middle hundreds. Thi s, at least ,
seems to have been the situation at Pylos. Alth ough the excavators at Pylos
did not turn up "chariot tablets" such as those found at Knossos, th ey did
recover approximately thirty "wheel tablets" det ailing the disposition of at
least two hundred pairs of wheels. Ano t her text ment ions the pur chase of
wood for 150 ax les.!- Since th ese spare pa rts co nstit uted th e palace's
, Kendal l, W"T("Te, 67 . Since the " mayor " of N uzi was a n u nde rlin g of the kin g o f Arra paha , who in rur n was the vass a l of the:Great King of Mir .tn ni, we may suppos e rh .ir the
N uzi forces were 3 very small fraction of the ro r.il that the Grc:Jt King cou ld muster.
K On the Madduwa rtas tex t and its dare see Hans C iircrbo ck. "The Hitt ite, 3nJ the
Aegea n Wor ld : Pa rt l. The Ahhi yawa Pro blem Recon sider ed ." AlA 87 ( 1983): 13.1-34 .
For th e texts see Ala n G a rd iner. The K.,desh In script ion s 0{ Rame sses JJ (O x fo rd, 1960 ).
P 130-3 5 an d P 150-55. Bcal, (l Tg,m h"tioll , 702, acce pts the figu res as reason a ble for the
H ittite a rmy at fu ll stren gth.
10 Ra rnesses does no t sta te how many ch ar iot s he hJJ at Kadesh , but his predecesso rs seem
to ha ve ma inta ined thou sa nds of chariots . Arnenh o rep II. wh o admittedl y W:J.S very fond of
ho rse'S. brough t bac k 730 ch ario ts from o ne Asi.rtic ca mp aign and 10 9 2 from anothe r. See
W ilson 's tr an slati on o f his a nnul s in A.N F.T, 24 6 a nd 247 .
I I Twice in Uga rin c texts we find referen ces to f WO thou sand horse s. or at leasr to hn alpm
(in lsr ael.un 'eleph was-like J. Roman cenrury -c-so rneri me s mere ly a "div isio n" fath er than
a precise num ber ]. Cf. Asto ur, " New Eviden ce , " 257, a nd B. Cutle r a nd j. M acd on al d .
" Identi fica tio n of the Iw'ar in the Uga rin c Texts, " Uf H i 1976): 255. A ta ble t a na lyzed b y
Hd rzer./ntt:rnaI Or gmtizat ion, 194 ,lisrs reams o f ( harlo t ho rses, dod Hein er co nclud es that
" at least 100 pairs of hor ses were cou nted origi na lly in this text . " He ltzerv estimat e is " rh.ir
the cha rio rry of Ugarit num bered at least 700- 1000 chari ots . " This is .rlso the esrim.rre o f
Noug.iy ro l, "Guerr e er pai x J Uga rit . " 117n.47.
12 Lejeu ne, "1. 3 civilisatio n m vcen ienn e e r 130 uu er rc. " 49 .

lOS

A MI L I TAR Y E X P L A N A T I () r-;

reserve, we are probably justilied in imagi ning that the Pylos palace co uld
put several hundred char iots into the field.
The Knossos archi ve gives us o ur most derailed information about nurn ber s of chariots in a Late Bronze Age kingdo m. Here the char iotr y may
have numbered as man v as a thou sand . The relevant tablets at Knossos a re
ail from no more than 'e ight scr ibal hand s, and these scrib es seem to have
" specialized" in keepin g a full and meticul ou s record of th e char iots availabl e to th e pa lace. I-' T hat all th e relevant tablets have survived, h owever, is
not ver y likely, and o n some surv iving but damaged tabl et s the num eri cal
not ati on s o n the right -hand side a re illegible . Th e figures we have a re
therefor e o nly a minimum for the cha riot strength of the Knossos pala ce.
According to Michel Lejeune's co mputatio n, 14 the Knossos tablets refer to
mor e th an 150 complete (*CURR ideogram ) war chariot s that were alread y distributed to indi vidu als, and to ano ther 39 chari ot s of the sa me
type "e n magasin. " Most of th ese *C URR ch ariots appear in the 140 tab lets of the USc series," each tabl et in this series being the record of a single
cha rioteer to whom an assignm ent of hor ses and equipment has been
made. IS Other tablets indic ate the numbers of incomplete ch ari ot s, o r
cha riot parts, stored in the magazine. H ere, arranged in multipl es of four, 16
were approximately 550 chari ot boxes ("C APS ideogram), and at least as
many pairs of wheels (apparentl y an y set of wheels was immediately ada ptabl e to an y chariot box)."? With so man y replacements stored in the ma gazine, it would seem that the field strength of Knossos's chariotry must have
been so mewhere between live hundred and o ne thousand.
O the r information o n the Knossos tabl ets, however, suggests th at th e
number of chariots that could take the field may have been far lower th an
th e number "on paper. " Of th e tablets in the Sc series, rwenry-eighr are
13 J. . P. Olivier, Les scribes de Cnossos (Ro me, 196 7), ide nti fied th e sc ribes and rheir places
of wo rk. Mi chel Lejeune, "Chars er roues .3 C no ssos : Structure d' un invenraire," ;Winos 9
(1 96 8): 9-61 , used O livier 's co nclu sio ns as a poin r of departure for a rho roug h Analysis of
how rh e sc riba l bureaucracv wo rked . Lejeun e d escribed the responsibilitie s of th ree offices
(" Bu rea ux I, II, III" ) in rhcmarter of chariots. Ar p. 15 Lejeu ne notes rhar rhe scribes w ho
w o rked in these offices "p araisse nt avoir eu ChJ f S er roues co mme affectati on unique ," Beca use rh ese sc riba l ha nds sho w up in no urh er rabl ers, John Chad wick sug gested rh ar rh ev
w ere app renti ces and that the "c ha rio t tab lets" are merely scribal exer cises; see hi s "T he
O rga niz atio n of the M ycenaean Arch ives," in A. Ba rron ek, ed., St ud ia MyanaeJ. Proceed ing s 0{ th e Mycella.wl Sym posium , lim o, Aprtl1960 (Brn o : 1968), 1- 15 , Why A pal ace
w o uld have kept such srude nr exe rcises in a n archiv e, wh ile preservi ng non e o f m
ech a rier
records kept by professio nal scribes, is difficult to imagine.
Lejeune, " Chars," 47; a nd "Civrlisa rio n," 49 - 5 1.
I s Lejeune, "Civilisa tion ,- 50.
,- Jo hn T. Killen. " No tes un rhe Knossos Ta blets," rn John T. Killen er .11.. Stlll liL'$ '/I
My,-en,u'.z,' arul C1J55 1cai Greek Present ed to John Chadwlck ~ J 19- 23.
I: l.ejeun e. "Civilisatio n," -4 9, says rha r rhe ma gazine hel d "plus de mille paires de ro ues:'
bu r rh e figur es he presents at " C hars. - 4 7, indi cat e a rural of 550 .

'4

T H E C H .\ R IO TWA R FA R E

109

pr eserved well eno ugh that Mycenologists can co nfide nt ly invent or y wh at

th ese twent y-eight charioteers did and did not have. The pattern is not very
enco urag ing: One charioteer has hor ses but no vehicle, another has a
vehicle but o nly o ne horse, and still ano ther has both hors es and a vehicle
but no defensive arm or. In fact, o nly six of the twent y-eight cha riotee rs
(that is, 21 percent ) had all of the equipment necessar y to rake the field. I II If
o ne believes, with Chadwick, th at th e " cha riot tablets " are merely scriba l
exercises, o ne could suppo se that the actu al condition of the Knossos
cha riotry was much better than the tabl ets indicat e. But comparison w ith
records elsewhere suggests that the figures for th e cha riotry at Knossos are
real , for they are no wors e than those for Alalakh and Nuzi and somewh at
bett er th an those for Assur in Nco -Assyrian rimes.!? Another possibility
may be that both at Knossos and elsewh ere th e tabl ets indicate not wh at a
cha rioteer actu ally had but wh at th e pala ce furni shed to him. A tabl et
item izing the chariot and single hor se of a particular chari oteer would in
that case indi cate o nly that the chari ot eer received a chariot and one hor se
from the palace , and we would presum e th at he had another horse of his
own.s" But this solution is speculativ e, and it is certainly pos sible th at at
any given tim e only a fraction of a kingdom's chari otry would be in condition to fight. If indeed a Great King co uld co unt on only some 20 percent of
his cha riotry to be battle-ready, th en we must suppose that wh en
Muwarallis put twenty-five hundred of his own chariots into the field at
Kad esh th e "paper strength" of his cha riotry was over ten thousand.
Whatever discrepancy there may have been between the size of a chari ot ry o n paper and that of one in the field, it mu st be o bserved that even the
lar gest Late Bronze Age chariot ry was small, relative to the size of the
population it had to defend . Although a thou sand chariots at Knossos
might initi all y seem an impressive number, th ere mu st have been well over
o ne hundred thou sand C reta ns whose security depended o n thcm.>' Th e
prop ortions were no less steep at Pylos: if we assign the Pylos char iorry a
field strength of five hundred vehicles (an o ptimistic number), there was
probabl y not more than o ne cha riot for every two hundred so uls in Mes-

" Alexa nder Uchirel, "Charioreers o f Kno ssos, " M inos 23 ( 19 88): 48 - 50.
,. lbid., 53-58.
Alon g rhis sa me line. Uch irel. in ibid ., 48 , sugge sts rhar rhe "F.QU I e-hn 1" ofTabler Sc
226 " ca n po ssihly mea n rhar he (i.e. the cha rioteer, ti~r"~io ~qJ) "has' o ne ho rse of his own. a nd
a not her o ne is su pplied by th e stare."
z Pen dleb ury, Archae o logy 0{ C rere, 303 n.3 . o bse rved rha r a r irs heighr in borh Byzantine
a nd mod em rim es rhe Isla nd's pop ulati o n was a bo ur ha lf a milli on . Evans csrirna red rha r
Knosvos itse lf ha d o ne hundred th ou san d peop le. Kanra, LJt L' Mino,m III Period, refra ins
from es rim.ni ng huw many people lived in C rere during that period bur nores (p. .122) rh ar
" finds . especi a lly those belon ging to l.M 111 B. a re rhick lv spread 311 liver rhe island , Ir is
evide nt rhar the re WJ:S J: population ex plosio n in C rete ar this rime. "

"0

110

A Mll.I TAR Y E XPLAN ATI ON

senia .! ! In Egypt, even if th e ph ar aoh had as m an y as forty -five hun dr ed

cha riots, th e numbe r of his s ubjec ts was possibl y a th ou sand tim es
grea te r.>'
T he limitati ons on th e size of a ch ariotry wer e imposed mo st of all by th e
eno rmo us expen se of ma inta ining o ne . So lo mo n is said (1 Kings 10 .2 9 ) to
have paid 150 she kels of silver for eac h o f his cha riot ho rses, and 600
shekels for eac h cha riot. T ha t was a co nside rab le o utlay, since it wa s a lso
sai d (2 Samuel 24 .24) that for fifty shekels of silver David bo ught a team of
oxen and a th resh ing flo o r, and sinc e Exodus 21.32 fixed lia bility da mages
for the deat h of a slave at th irt y shekels of silver. T he Pap yru s An ast asi
ridicule s th e youn g Egypt ian who mo rtgages his grand fa the r's p ro pe rty to
b uy a char iot pol e for three deben, a nd a chari ot for five. Co mposite bow s
were also notoriously expens ive. Such a bow w as a very effective weap on,
hav ing double o r tri ple the ran ge of a self bo w, bu t its ma nufactu re was
costly and diffic ult (the layer ing and laminati on of wood, hom, and sinew
was done at lo ng inte rva ls, and a p ro perl y age d bow wou ld leave a bowyer 's
sho p five or ten yea rs after he had b rought in th e raw mater ials fro m whi ch
it was madcl.>'
Defe nsive a rmo r for th e ch ariot crew (and so me times even for the
hor ses) was a major exp en se. As Yad in pointed o ut, the develo pment of th e
.mail corslet resulted from the use of cha riots in bartl e.s> Until the Hi ttites
ad de d a shield-bea rer to th e crew, co rs lets wer e th e on ly p rot ection that th e
dri ver a nd the wa rrio r had . In th e Mahab harata bot h crew me n regul arl y
wea r a co rslet. So Urtara, fo r ex amp le, clowni ng fo r th e benefit of his sister
an d her friend s, "put o n his co at of m ail up sid e down, and the wide -eyed
maidens gigg led w hen th ey saw him .. . . Urtara him sel f tied the co stly
a rmo r on Brha nnad a. Himself wea ring a superb coa t of mai l wh ich shone
like the sun, and rai sing his lion standard , he o rde red th e othe r to h a ndle
his chario t. " 26 In the N ear East and th e Aegean co rs lets ar e attested fro m
the very beginning of th e Late Bronze Age (scales fo und in th e Sha ft Graves
at My ce nae may ha ve co me from a co rs let), the time at whic h cha riot
22 Betancourt, "The End of [he Bronze Age, n 4 2, not es [hat popu lation estima tes for
Messenia ar rhe rime rhe pala ce was d estroyed range betw een 50 ,0 00 and 120,000.
ss On rhe basi s of dara in rhe Harris Papyru s, John Wilson, The Cultu re 0( An cielll Egypt
(Chicago, 195 1), 27 1, gues sed th ar the populatio n of Egypr in th e twelfth cen tu ry was a bo u r
4. 50 0,000.
Wallace M cl.eod, "An Un published Egyp tian Co m posite Bow In th e Bro o k lyn M useum, " AlA 62 ( 195 8); 40 0.
2'; Art of \Vurlure. vol . 1. 84 . tor a co mp rehe nsive p rcscnrario n o n rhe Lare Bron ze Age
co rslet see Ca rling, "Pan zer," in H .G . Buchho lz and J. WIem er, Kriegsu-esen, Teil ! ; Archa eologi.i H omcrica I E (C orringen, IY77 j, 74 - 118 .
2" MllhJbhilr.lt.z 4 f4 7) 3 5 . 1 ~ - 2 1. Th e rr.tn slario n co mes (rom j .A.B. van Buire nen, The
Mol"olb"olroll" (C h icago , 1Y78).

,4

T HE C H A R I O T WARF AR E

11 1

warfare began . T he "c hariot tabl ets" fro m Knossos itemize th e d istrib ution of 'I pa ir of knee- length co rslets to eac h cha riot crew.- ? T he co rslet may
also app ear in ceremo nial cha riot scenes o n LH lil A and lIlB potter y: men
in o r alongside th e chariots ca rry swords in tas sled sc abba rds and wear
long and dot-covered "robes " that C arling has tentat ively identi fied as
co rslet s.sf Mu ch of wh at is know n abou t Late Bronze Age cors lets was
learned a t Nu zi, Co pper sca les from co rsle ts were fo und there in grea t
q ua nti ty, an d the N uz i tab lets ma ke frequent reference to co rslers.t '' T he
typ ical Nuzi chariotee r's co rslet, o r sa r iam (a Hurrian wo rd , bor rowed by
H itt ite , Akka d ian, a nd N orth west Semitic s peakers), was a lo ng, cumbe rso me, and exp ensive affair. Its basis wa s a leat her (usua lly goa tski n) tuni c,
parti ally sleeved and reaching down to th e knees o r to midcalt. Approximately five hund red large co ppe r scales wer e sew n to th e torso and skirt of
the saria m, a nd another severa l hund red sma ll sca les we re sewn to the
a rms. The head and nec k of the ch ari ot crew ma n was p rotec ted by a
gurpisu, a leather he lmet cove red w ith lon g strips of bro nze or coppe r
(since th e gurpisu extende d to th e co lla r, th e crew ma n wa s entire ly covered
exce pt fo r the face, th e lower a rms , a nd the lower legs). Th e several Nuzi
co rs lets th at can be reco nst ructed a re estima ted to have weighed betwee n
thirty-seven and fifty-eight pounds.! "
At Nu zi and occasio nally in other kin gd oms th e ho rses also wor e coats
of m a il.' ' A ver y few Egypti an cha riot hor ses ar e show n wearing such
things, a nd an ivo ry ca rvi ng fro m Cyp rus shows- o dd ly- a hunting scene
in wh ich both the cha riot arche r and h is horses a re d raped with sca le
co rslets..ll Possibl y th e M ycen aean kingd om s regul arl y issued horsea rmor: Ca tling has a rg ued th at two of th e Linear B ideograms refer to
horse-coverings of so me so rt rather th an to crewme n's corslers.e-' T he
horse-armor was und oubtedly very costl y, and how effective it was is difficult to guess (ho rses wearing heavy clo aks were less vul nerable, but surely
also mu ch slower ).
Apa rt fro m the expe nse of purchasi ng a ll th ese items, and of hiring a ll th e
necessary specia lists (cha rio tee rs, chariot wa rrio rs, trainers, groo ms, vete rinar ian s, carpenters), th ere was th e ma tte r of food: Stua rt Piggott has
es tima ted th at eigh t to ten ac res of good g rai n-land wo uld ha ve been reCa rling, "Panzer." 10 7ff.; Fr.mceschern, " Arrni e gue rra, " 77 and 80.
Carling, "Pa nzer, " 96.
The fullest discussio n of the Nu zi evidence IS in Kend all, Wolrfare, 263-8 6.
Ibid., 278 ; d. Ca rling, " Panze r," 89- 90.
Kend all, Warfare, 223 -25 and 242 - -15 .
J2 fo r the Enkorrn hro ry see H.G. Buchhol z and V. Karageor ghis , Prehistoric Greece and
Cy prus (Lo ndo n, 1973 ), no. 174 9.
I I C J rling, " Panzer," lO R-I~ .
2"

"
'"
'"
"

112

T H E C H A R I O T WA R tAR E

A M I LI TA R Y [XPLA ~ A TI O !'l

qui red to feed one team of cha riot ho rses.J" If H arnmurnpi of Uga rir d id
indeed h ave more th an two thou sand horses, th ey mu st h ave represented a
sizea ble fra ctio n of that king 's weal th, and th e cos t of m ainrain ing th em
wo uld h ave been en or m ou s: in addition to all th e professional an d specia lized personnel, th ey would h ave required-on Piggott's form ula almost ten th ou san d acres of gra in-land .
Given the ex trao rdina ry ex pen se of m aint ainin g a chariorry, it is no
su rp rise to find th at th e chariorry was a palace's ch ief co ncern . Keep ing
tr ack of th e cha r iots and cha rio tee rs requ ired a sm all bureaucr acy of cle rks
a nd q ua rtermasters . T his is show n most clearl y at Knos sos, but in Egypt
too th er e are references to the "scribe of the stabl e, " "s cribe of horses, " and
."sc ribeof th e char io rry, " 3 5 Ever ywh ere the charioteers have names, wh ile
in fantrymen are m erel y numbered . In the Greek world , th e palace fu rnishe d every thing : each ta blet in the Knossos Sc ser ies was devoted to o ne
cha rio teer, bei ng a reco rd of th e vehicle, team , ha rnes s, a nd corslet (o r
co rs lets) allocated to him. In Egyp t and the Levant, the charioteer m ay have
"ow ned' his own char iot , wi th th e palace sup plying arm s, armor, and
horses..l 6 Nougayro l though t tha t at Uga rir th e m aryamlll w ere "s a ns
do ure proprierai res de leur s ch a rs " bu t tha t other in dividu als ma y h ave
been furn ished with vehicles b y th e palac e..l 7 In Egyp t it likewise was a
ch arioteer's responsib ility to pro vide his own ch ariot, while the ph ar aoh
.supp lied th e horses..l H
T h rough our the civilized wo rld in th e th irteenth ce ntury c hario teers and
cha rio t warriors were thus a privileged elite. T he ki ng and the me n in his
chariot corps were closely interd ep enden t, the king supplying mu ch or all
of th e expe nsive equipment tha t the cha riot crews need ed a nd th e cha rio t
crews p ro vid ing for the kiug's a nd the kingdo m's security. Ofte n the men of
th e chario rry were given land by the king, to be held in fief. At Uga ri r la nd
a llo tments were ma de to the maryannu, an d ap parently a so n inh erited
both th e allo tment a nd his fath er's m ilitary oh liga tio n. v" Ar range me nt s in
th e Myce naean wo rld were prob abl y muc h th e same, but de tai ls are l ~ck .
J < Piggott, "Hor se a nd Cha riot : Th e Price 01 Presti ge. " Proceedi ngs ofth e Seven th lnterna ticmal Co ng ress of Cel tic Stu dies, Held at O xford from 10th to IS th july. 1983 (O xford,
\ 986 ),27.
J S Ala n Schu lm a n, " Egyp tia n C ha rio rry : A Re-Exarninari on," jOltrn,,1 of th e American
Research Ce nter in Egypt 2 (1 96 3 1: 95. Lejeu ne, "Chars et roues," 14- 15, ide ntifie s in th e
Knossos pal ace three sep a rat e "bur ea us " wh o se scribes spe cia lized in th e chario t invento ries
a n d ar e not k now n (fro m the ir dist in ct ive ha nds ) to have inscribed anything other th an
" cha riot tab lets. '"
1('> At Nu zi, fo r ex a m p le, Kendall, V/ar fJre , 130, co nc lude d th at many cha rioteers o wne d
the ir ow n vehic les hut we n: suppl ied w ith hors es by th e pala ce.
1 7 N ou gayr o l, "Guer re et paix a Uga rir," n. 47.
,. Schu lman, "E gypt ia n C ha n o try, " 87, crnn g Pa pvru s An asrav i III. Y>. 6, 7- 8.
'" A. F. Rain ey, "The Military Perso nn el a t Uga rir," j N ES 24 ( \ 965 ): 19-21.

113

ing .! " At N uz i th er e were " im per ial" chariotee rs wh o se livelih ood was
appa rently supplied by th e G rea t King of Mira nni, and local charioteers
who depended direc tly o n the " mayor" of N uzi; bu r bo th gro up s were part
of an a ristocra cy closely co nnected to the pa lace.:'!

How

C H ARIO TS WERE U SED IN BATTL E

H ow ma ny chari oteers th ere were , how much th ey cos t to maintain, and

wha t their socia l statu s was a re matters less co ntrover sia l th an how th ey
fou ght . T he strictly military aspects of Bron ze Age cha rio rry have been
addressed piecem eal, and th e gener al ch aracter of chario t wa rfare remains
un ex pl ored. This cha pter will co nclude tha t before the Catastr o phe chariots were in a ll kingdoms used as mobil e firing plat fo rms for arch ers armed
with co mposi te bow s, but th at co ncl usio n is q uite un orth odox.
M ycenaea n chari o ts, first of all, are ofte n tho ught of as having had littl e
ut ility of any k ind o n th e b attl efield. This view is popul ar espec ia lly amo ng
archa eo logists. Th eir ind ifference to th e cha riot is not ent ire ly s urprising:
w hile hu ndr ed s of Late H ellud ic swords a nd spearheads have bee n fou nd,
and even a nu mber of bo ar 's tusk helmets, no M ycen aean cha riot has yet
been b rought to light , nor are the chan ces very good th at future excavatio ns
will prod uce one. Mos t archaeolog ica l stud ies of Mycenaean wa rfare have
th erefor e readily acce pted H om er 's assurance th at the My ce naea ns fough t
on foot and have assu med th at w ha tever was do ne wi th the chariots was of
littl e o r no con sequence.r- Myceno logi srs, on th e ot he r h an d , have had to
co nfron t th e Linea r B scribes' labor io us inventories of cha riots a nd have no
.-til

C f. M . Detienne, .. Remarqnes sur Ie char en C rece, '" in Vern an r Probiemes de la guerre,

3 14.
41 Cf. Kenda ll, W,Irf.Ire, 128 : "The local cha rioteers seem also to have be en a pri vileged
lot. A very great man y lived in or a ro und the palace, a nd thei r duties ofte n co nsisted of no
more th an standing gua rd JS wat chm en at the pal ace po r-tals. '"
of! Lor imer's H om er J mJ the A1onwnent5 devot ed pp . J05 - .2M to th e cha riot (in cornpariso n, her trea tm ent 01infantry wea po ns fills 173 pages ) a nd dea lt p rim ar ily w ith if' desi gn an d
consr rucrio n. Ab out its use in Mycen aea n war fare. she regrett ed (p. .lIt) tha t "we know
no rh ing ar JII'" a nd J id not specu late abou t it. W hen Lorimer w ro te, of co u rse, Linear B W.lS
ent irel y illegib tc and the cha riot ideograms o n the Knosso s rahl ers we re seen by all scho la rs as
da tin g ca. 1400 R.C. It was therefor e pos sib le to believ e that a lthou gh chariots ma y have been
importa nt in LH I and II, by the e nd of lIIB they were as incon seque ntia l as H omer ma kes
them . In recent schnlars hip, it is not ewo rt hy th at in the exq uisitely derail ed A rcbneologia
Hom crica series th e two volumes devot ed to Kriegsu -esen do not even include J chap ter o n th ~
cha rio t, and Josef Wiesn er 's Iu bren lind Reiten treats the cha rio t as p rima rily .1 prest ige
vehi cle. In HolrJ ing's ,\ f yl-entleans ..m d Europ e..th e ch a pte r "Warbrc. Wea pons a nd Armour'"
(pp. ISI - S7) be gins by noti ng " th e use of the ligh t ch ariot , proba bly .1., in Ho mer , to
trJn sport the warrior to the scene of battl e rath er th an for use as a ge nui ne \'v.ir chariot" (p.
15 I I, hut ..aY!ol norhing more ab out it.

114

A .\1 I LIT A R YE X P L A ~ A T I O N

T HE C H A R I O T WAR FA R E

d o ubt at a ll that the cha riot was used for military purposes.:'' Rut the
ta blets do not say how the cha riot was used in wa rfare, and Mycenol ogists
have not speculated o n this matt er. A few histo rians have trie d to fill the ga p
left by o ur ar chaeol ogical a nd docu me nta ry evidence, but with vary ing
resu lts. Occasiona lly the Mycen aean cha riot is und erstood to have been
used to p ropel a thrusting spea r.:':' Mo st ofte n it is see n as noth ing mo re
th a n a ba ttle taxi : the M ycenaean G reeks fo ught on foot but we re tran s,
ported to a nd from the ba tt lefield by cha riots. Th e pos sibility th at the
M ycenaean cha riot was an a rcher's mobile platform ha s not, so far as I
kn ow, bee n seriously co nsidc red .r "
No r is it widely believed th at the Hi tt ite cha riots were so u sed . M ost
scho lar s wh o have ex pressed them selves on the ro le of the Hi ttite ch ariotry
hav e sta ted th at in Harr i the offensive we:1pon of a cha riot warri or wa s the
lan ce-the thrustin g spea r-s-a nd not the bow. T he Hittite cha riots, th at is,
like med ieva l knights a t a joust, mad e :1 fur ious rush at the o ppo nent 's
vehicl es, the cha riot warri or at rernp ting to thrust a lan ce th ro ugh one of the
enemy crew men.v' Th is belief is fou nded o n the Egyp tian represent at ion s
of th e Battl e of Kadesh: in the reliefs, so me of the Hittite cha riot crew me n
ca rry lan ces, but none ca rries a bow. Seve ra l scho la rs have in fact suggested
th at the Hittites carne up sho rt in the Batt le of Kad esh becau se their cha riot
la ncer s were held at a distance by Ra rnesses' cha riot archers."?

4 .1 Le jeune, " La civilisa tio n mycen ieun e er la gue rre, " devot es mo st of h is discu ssion ro the
rabl ers' re fe ren ces to cha riors ; so also J o t's Fruncesche tt i, "A rmi e gu erra in res ri rnice ne i."
.... G reenh.ilgh, Early G reek WJr fJ re. 7- 12, argues rhur " the long rh ru sring-sp ea r wa s th e
m a in weapo n of [he M ycenaean cha rio t -wa rrio rs :IS it wa s of [he H irtires, wit h w ho m th e
Ac hae a ns appe a r to have been in d o se to u ch " (p. I 1); d . also his " The Den d ra C ha rio tee r, "

A nti quitv

5~

( 19MO): 20 1- 5.

H Sch.rc hcrrnevr, " Srreitw .rgen un d Srreirwagenb ild im Alren Orient und hei de n my ke n isc he n C riec he n, " Au throp os 46 (195 1): 70 5- 53, ma y have ass ume d that meM yc en aean

cha riot war rio rs were bowmen bur d id nor argue th e poin t and in fucr said nothin g abour how
M ycenaean cha riots m--:-l j' have been used "irn Streit."
-I f, For the Hi ttite cIiariot warrior 's dependence on J thrus ting spear see, for exampl e,
y" d lO, WJr(Jre, vol. I, 80 a nd 108-9; Sch ache rrney r, " Srreirw agen ," 7 16; f. Srubbi ngs ,
" Arms 'lOJ Armou r, " in Wace and Stubbi ngs , ed s., A Cornpanion to Hom er (Lo n do n , 196 7),
52 1. The in te rp re ta tio n of Sti llm an and Talli s, AnlJies, 6 5, is slig htly diffe ren t: " Aga inst
enemy ch a rior ry, the H itt ite ch .irio rry woul d charge in to dose combat . T he H irnre s woul d
attempt [0 get close to th eir u ppo nents ( 0 disc harge their spears o r thrust with them . "
-17

O Ld H e ckm an n, " Lanzen uno Spee ce de r a ga ischen Bronzeze ir un J de s Ube rg.mgs :LUr

Eiscnzeir," in H . ~ G . Buchholz . Agdische Bronzezeit, 340 , describes the Hit tite chariot WJ r~
rio rs .I S IJn cer s :.m J then co nde mn s th is " J ussic:hrslosc TJ krik. Simibrl y. ;JJi n (A rt of
ft

\Y/~"fJrr.

Vt )1. I. 1(9) S;JW KJJ esh ~,Jn EgYr ri ~ln vicw ry b el:3u~e chJ rlo t bnn rs wt' re a poo r
..eco llJ to l:h.ulo t .uc hers : "'T he we;Jk ness of rht' H irrirc ch;Jrio t W3S imm ediar ely eviden r
wh t'n rh e Egypti,lO cha riots ~um eJ wi rh rhe lo ng r;Jngt' l:o m posite bow, \\"'~nt O\:e r to rhe
cu un rer.l(tJc k. " Ir is mo re likel y rh;Jr rh t' H ttr irt'\ knew 11llW to use ch J rio rs, J.nJ gor rh~ bt'tter
of R;Jlllcs<;es ,l( K;JJ esh.

11.5

Even th e Egyptia n char iot is not a lways seen as a mobile firing platfor m :
accor d ing to a n a rticle publ ished b y Ala n Sch ulnu n in 1980, both in Egypt
and elsew here the cha riot wa rrio r W ,1S indeed an a rc her, but o ne who shot
his bow fro m the gro und .t " In thi s view, th e cha riot dri ver d rove his horses
to a goo d vantage point, at whi ch th e a rcher wo uld dism ount from the
cha riot, sho ot his a rro w, rem ount the cha riot, a nd ride off to anothe r
lo cat io n a nd another shot .
- .Schulma n's view can be immed iat ely re jected. It arose from two considerations, both of them tru e: first, in H om eric bat tles the chariot functio ns
o nly as a ba ttle tax i ;.9 and second , Egyp tian evide nce shows th e cha riot
wa rrio r as a n arche r. Instead of seeing th e Ho meric and the Egyptian
evide nce as incom pa tible, a nd choos ing betwe en the m, Schulma n merged
th em , produ cin g the taxied arche rs. But the practice he describes has no
su ppo rt wh atever in eithe r liter ar y o r a rchaeo logica l evid ence, is un im aginab lc in practice, and is co ngrue nt o nly with Sch ulma n's own recent
a rgument that chariorry was too inefficient ever to have been o f a ny militar y imp o rran cc.J''
Let us go o n to cons ide r th e po ssibili ty th at for the thirteenth -century
cha riot war rior, especially in H art i hut a lso in G reece (as N estor claim s at
Iliad 4.297-309), the offensive weap on was th e thru sting spear. Here again
we may be catego rical: the noti on th at eithe r Hittite or Mycenaean cha riot
warrior s co uld have relied up on th e lan ce as their primary offensive
wea pon is for practical rea son s out of th e q uestio n. Like the chari ots of
M ycenaean G reece, Nuzi, and Assyria, the Hi tt ite cha riot certainl y ca rried
a lan ce. T h is wea po n would have been esse ntia l agai nst enemy foot so ldiers
.. Schu lma n , " C ha riots, Ch a rio rry, and th e H yk so s." Juurn al o( tlt,- Society for the Stud y
of Egyp tiJIl An tiquities 10 (1980), 105- 5.1.
.. lbid., J 25- 28.
.<;(1 Alt ho ug h his ea rlie r co n rrrh urions a re va luab le, Sch ulm an 's 19 XO article rejected no r
o nlv rh e co ns en sus bur a lso his own o rigin al concl usio ns abo ut th e importa nce of chunorry in
Ne:' King do m Egypt. In " C ha riot s. Cha rior r y, an d th e H ykso s, " Sch u lma n a rgu es ~thJt
" o ut sid e o f ce rr .nn siru a rio ns where ir d id h JVC J limited tacti cal valu e . " rhe ch a rie r W.1S of
littl e sign ifica nce in an cient wa rfa re. The articl e igno res rhe b cr rha r from the beginni ng of
an riq uiry ro th e end the J.IT of war far e wen r rh ro ugh rJJ il."J I evolut io na ry a nd rcvolu rio nary
ch ange s, In m aking th e a rgum en t ab out the Lir e Bron ze Age , the a rt icle relies up on class ical
sou rces , suc h .n A m.in 's Tact JcJ. wh ich claimed rh.ir ch .irior s wer e of litt le p rac tica l value on
rh e bnrrle ficld, Sch ulm an 's use of suc h lure so u rces i-,based on his su rp rising assu m pt ion rh ur
"li tt le of th e conditions , p ractice. and weap on ry of WJ r ha d cha nge d be tween th e rime- oi rhe
H vk so s an d t hat of Arno n - (p. I 19). Schu lma n a rl',ue, th at if cha rio ts had littl e milita ry val ue
to rh e G reeks JnJ Ro mans. t hey wo uld hJve been iu ~r as in effecrive in rh e Lat e Bron ze Age.
since LJr c Bron ze Age ;Jrmi~s we re "J~ skilled in w.1rhre J S wt' re its p rJ criti oners in Cla"i(.11
.1n riq uiry " (p. 119). W hile looking to clJsslca l J.urho rs fo r ;In ;lSsessmen t of chJ.riot wJrfJre
Sl:h u lm.m fo und L.ltt' Bro nze Agt' so urces sus pect : .. Altho ug h ir is tr ue t hJt the K.lJ esh texrs
\pl.'c i fy rh;l( 2500 H itt ire ch a r iots , each bt';Jring rhr eL' mc n \ u rp riseJ rhe EgypriJn army. we
L':l n hJ.rdl y ;!cct' p r sUlh J figu rt' .15 orh er rhJIl ,l g,rus\ e.'lri JAAt'r:Irin n " [po 1.12;.

116

A M ILI T A R Y EXPLA:'-: ATIO;-';

or cha riot crewmen wh o had fallen to th e gro und (a relief from the O ld
Hittite pe riod shows a warrio r in a cha riot th rusting his spea r toward a
prOst r:He ene my)." ! But that a wa rrior on a spee ding cha riot co uld have
thrust 3 lan ce against an opposing cha rio t is quite simp ly impossi ble, as
Lirtau er a nd C ro uwel have clearl y show n, dem on str atin g the phy sical facts
with measurements and diagrarns.V A cha riot warrio r could not have
thrust a spea r over th e head s of his own horses or out the back of th e
moving ca r. Th at a cha riot warrior 's offensive assignment was to th rust a
spea r later ally, as two chariots passe d, is also unim agina ble.
Finall y, we must co nfro nt the thesis that in Late Hell adic G reece the
cha riot 's rnilitarv usc was co nfined to tr an sporting in fantryman to a nd
fro m a battl e.53 'As we shall see in chapter 11, so me of the infantrymen
kn own as "c ha riot runners" may have ridden with the char iotee r a nd the
arche r until th e enemy ca me within ran ge, at whi ch poi nt t he apoba tai
wou ld have leaped to the gro und, .md th is practice may have been charac teristic of Late Helladic chariorries. Furt he rmore, as Litrauer an d C ro uwel
have poi nted o ut.>' several recentl y discovered she rds of LH mc pott er y
do portray cha riots ca rrying a d river a nd an infantryman. It is possible,
th erefo re, th at in the middl e of the twelfth centn ry B.C. th ose cha rio ts sti ll
to be fo und in G reece were inde ed little more th an the person al co nveya nces of warri or s wh o fought on foot a nd th at Homer reflects thi s pra ctice.
But how cha rio ts were used afte r th e Ca tastro phe a nd how they were used
before must be regarded as two very different ques tions. During the cent ury
a nd a hal f prior to th e Cata stro phe life in th e palace-st at es seems to have
bee n so secure that Ca tling des cribed th e period as the pax My cenaica .55
Since it is unli kely that in thi s period military chariots were often put to the
tes t, we may be dealin g mo re with hypoth etical than with ac tua l use.
" Je ann y Vorys Ca nby, " Hittite Art," Bib. Ar ch . ( 1989): 114.
M a ry Lirra uer an d J. H . C rou wel, " Ch ari o ts in Lite Bron ze Age G reece. " Antiquity 57
(198 .1): 187- 92.
-"3 Th is view h J S p revailed fro m H omer to the presen t. For recen t argumen ts tha t H o rner' s
pictu re of M ycenaea n chariot warfare was essentially co rrect see Josef Wiesner, Fahren und
Reiten (Ar chaeo lo gia Horneri ca I F [Go rtingen, I % 8 J); M a ry Lirra ue r, "The M ilita ry Use of
th e Chariot in th e Aegean in the Late Bron ze Age: AlA 76 (1972 ): 145- 5 7; Littauer and
C ro uwe l, " Cha rio ts in Late Bron ze Age G reece ," 187- 92 ; C ro uwel, Cha riots, 126- 27.
Wie sner , Litr a uer , a nd Cr o uwel su pposed rha r cha riot s func tioned as barri e ta xis throu gho ut
th e LH III pe nod . j. K. Anderso n ar gued <>niy that they were so used in the Da rk Age, af te r the
great pe riod of cha rio t warfa re had ended . See Anderson 's " Ho meric, British an d Cy renai c
C h ari ot>," AlA 69 ( 1% 5): 34 9-52, a nd "G reek C hari ot-Bo rne and M ou nted Infa ntry ," AlA
79 (1975): 175- 87.
~ .. LiU.1U1:r, " l\ tiliury Use," 1 45 -4h ~ l .irta uer a nd C ro u wel, " Cha riots in LIte Bro nze Age
G reece. " I 89-90; the signi fican ce of the sherds was tirsr not ed by Ca rling, "A Mycen aean
Puzzle from LdbnJ i In Euhoeu," AlA 72 ( I %8 ): 4 1-49.
es C arling , "A Myc en aea n Puzzle," 46, proposed tha t th e pe riod of peac e lasted for " a bo ut
J century J nJ J h.ilf " an d ende d with the di sasters ca . 12.0 0 .
>2

T Hf C H A R I O T W ARFARE

117

How, when the pal aces were still stand ing, the M ycenaean pal ace lor ds
intended that their cha riots sho uld be used in 3 battl e, if :1 ba tt le were ever
to occ ur , is a ques tion th at can not be answe red by read ing H om er. For the
H ome ric pictu re is misleadin g, as Hom er himself was th e first to ad mit.
Wh en Nes tor gives his adv ice that the ch.iriors be d rawn up in a line, so th at
th ey might char ge against the Trojan s, eac h warr ior thrustin g with his
spea r aga inst the enemy, the old ma n justifies his adv ice with th e remin iscence (WIl d 4.308) th at th is is how the " rnen of ea rlier rimes" tproteroii d id
battle. We have already seen th at men of ea rlier times did not-and cou ld
not have done-battl e in the way Nesto r here prescr ibes, but the reminiscence is neverth eless important becau se it reveals H omer's ow n co ncession
th at his Achaean s at Troy were not using their cha riots in th e way th at
cha riots were sup posed to be used. In the days when men rea lly d id dep end
o n chariots, H om er is here co nceding, th ey did no t usc them merely for
tr an sport to an d fro m the battl efield. If we may tr anslate th is into our term s
perhaps we may propose, alon g the lines suggested by J. K. Anderson, th at
th e way in which th e Greeks of the IIIC per iod used th eir cha riots was not
how th e cha riot was used , or was meant to be used, in the 1118 pe riod- the
generatio ns before the Catas tro phe.
The clai m that Hom er d id not know how M ycen aean cha riots were
meant to be used in battl e may be regarded by some as a rash calumny and
needs so me defen se. Altho ugh Hom er's Ach aean s have most ofte n been
identifie d with th e occu pa nts of the M ycen aean palaces, th ere is good
reason to believe- as I have a rgued elsew here-tha t the saga origina ted in
the less civilized, mo re bellicose, a nd illite rate part s of Ach aea (especia lly
th e mountainou s coa st of Th essaly and Phth ioris ); a nd th .-r the Achaeans
or " Argives" wh o sac ked Troy (a nd whose fath ers had sac ked Thebes)
spo ke No rth Greek rather than the So uth Greek of the Linea r B tab lers.w
No o ne has yet refuted the a rgument, put fo rward by Paul Ca uer a hundred
yea rs ago , that Hom er's Achaeans ca me from the north, and since Venrri s's
deciph er ment of the-Greek in the Linear B tablets th e a rgument is in fact far
stro nge r th an it was-in Ca uer's day. Evide nce also co nti nues to mount that
before th e Tro jan saga circulate d among Ioni c-spea kers it was preserved in
th e Aeo lic dial ect of their north ern neighb o rs.t ?
I would suggest, then , that Hom er was basically ignora nt of cha riot
warfare because the heroic trad ition o rigina ted in a society of infantrym en ,
in which the cha riot was indeed nothing more th an a prestige vehicle.
5. Drew s, "A rgos a nd Argive>in the Wold," C1'7 4 ( 1979): 111- 3S. See now H . W. Singer,
" Ni ne ag a inst Troy," MnemOSY1le 44 ( 199 1): 58- 59.
.' 7 Rich ard Jan ko, Homer, Hesiod, and the Hymn s: Diachronic Development in Epic
Dictlcm (Ca m bridge, 1982;, S9-92; M . L. W"'t, "The Rise of th e Greek EpIC: lliS 108
(1988): 159-67; Pau l Wa th d e t, " Les d arifs a na log.q ues en -soo i dms la tr adition <p ique:
REG 104 (199 1): 1-14 .

118

A MILITARY EXPLANATION

Homer's Achaeans were not themselves charioteers or chariot archers but

instead were responsible for putting an end to chariot warfare and to the
domination of the horse-tamers. They were, that is to say, infantrymen of
the new type-Heet of foot, skilled with the javelin or throwing spear, and
also carrying long swords-who spelled the doom of the great chariot
forces of the Late Bronze Age. Integral to the thesis of this book is the tenet
that in Greece chariot warfare virtually disappeared during the Catastrophe and that throughout the Dark Age it was nothing but a vague memory.
The LH mc period seems in this respect to have been closer to the Dark
Age than to the pre-Catastrophic Bronze Age: obviously there were still a
number of chariots in the Argolid, on Euboea, and elsewhere in LH mc
Greece, but the day of chariot warfare was over, and the day of the infantryman had arrived. That Homer knew very little about chariot warfare is
precisely, it seems to me, what one should expect of a bard who stands at
the end of a tradition that originated in a society of infantrymen.
The thesis that during the palace period Mycenaean chariots served
primarily as battle taxis is untenable not because we have evidence to the
contrary (we do not) but because it makes no historical sense. The enormously expensive chariot and chariot horses, as Greenhalgh observed,
would hardly have been risked by the palace in such a frivolous way, when
the wounding of a horse "could easily put the whole apparatus out of
action."5B The rulers of Pylos and Knossos devoted their resources to the
maintenance of a chariotry of several hundred vehicles, keeping a large
inventory of spare wheels, axles, and boxes and assigning a small bureaucracy to the supervision of the men, horses, and material. It is not reasonable to suppose that the rulers did all this merely to ensure that several
hundred of their infantrymen could ride in comfort or dignity to the battlefield. Chariots as status symbols or as convenient means of transportation
would have been a private concern: men with ample wealth may have
chosen to spend some of it in purchasing a chariot and team and in raising
the grain to keep the horses healthy. But a palace would hardly have-been so
preoccupied with its chariotry if the chariots were nothing more than the
personal luxuries of a few hundred foot soldiers. The rulers must have
believed that the chariorry they were so diligently maintaining would in a
crisis provide the regime and its subjects with protection and security. They
must have believed, that is, that the kind of chariot warfare that had once
been effective was still effective. In the event, of course, they were wrong.
But if the pax Mycenaica provided few opportunities for putting' the old
warfare into practice, the rulers of the Mycenaean palaces CJn hardly be
blamed for imagining that the next war would be fought along the same
lines as the last one.
SR

Furly Greek WarfJrl!. 17.

THE CHARIOT WARFARE

119

There is, finJlly, a decisive argument that before the Catastrophe chariots in Mycenaean Greece were not used, or meant to be used, merely as
battle taxis: prior to 1200, chariotry was not merely an adjunct to a
Mycenaean king's military forces but the very basis of his army. Here
I must anticipate the conclusion of chapter II. That chapter will show that
in the centuries prior to the Catastrophe the armies of eastern Mediterranean kings included no offensive infantry formations: the only offensive foot soldiers in these armies were skirmishers or "runners" who
fought in support of the chariot squadron to which they were attached .
Our picture of heavily armed infantry units as the bulwark of the Mycenaean palace-states comes not from the archaeological evidence (and certainly not from the Linear B tablets) but from the Iliad, and for the period
when the Pylos and Knossos palaces were still standing it is demonstrably
wrong.
How, then, were war chariots used in the Late Bronze Age kingdoms of
the eastern Mediterranean? The answer will be no surprise: as mobile
platforms for archers.>" Throughout this area, when artists depict chariots
on the attack, the chariot warrior is regularly shooting his bow from a car
traveling at full speed. That is also how the war chariot was used elsewhere.
Sanskrit scholars have known all along that the Aryan chariot warriors of
India were bowmen, and recently it has become clear that in China too the
war chariot carried an archer.v"
Closer to home, there is no doubt that in Babylonia the chariot warriors
of the Kassitcs depended on the how."! The Nuzi texts are unusually informative, since they detail the issuing of equipment to chariot crews; along
with helmets, corslets, a whip, and a sword, bows and a quiver of thirty or
forty arrows were standard.e- From first-millennium Mesopotamia, Assyrian archers in war chariots are familiar from Ashurnasirpal II's Nirnrud
orthostats, from the bronze doors at Balawat that commemorate Shalmaneser llI's victories and from the war reliefs from Sargon II's palace at

Chorsabad.v'
In the Levant, as in Mesopotamia, the war chariot carried an archer. The
fact that the bow was the weapon of the chariot warriors who opposed
Thutmose mat Megiddo is clear from that king's account, onrhe Gebel
59 Moorey, "Emergence," 208, likewise concludes that "from the outset archerv was
fundamental to the role of the light horse-drawn chariot as a war vehicle."
'
Ml Jacques Gerner, . . Note sur le char en Chine," in Vernant, Problemes de laguerre, 310; E.
L. Shaughne-ssy, "Historical Perspectives on the Introduction of the Chariot into China,"
Harvard journal of Asiatic Studies 48 (1988): 195 JnJ 199.1 thank Professo r Sruart Piggorr
for this reference.
(.\ Cassin, "Char de guerre," 304.
02 KendJII, Warfare, 210-12; at p. 256 KenJJII CItes J rabler referring to J lot of twenty
thousand arrows tqanatu).
H YJJin, Warfare, vol. 2, 3B6-B7, 402-3, 416-17.

120

T HE C HA R I O T W A RF A R E

A MILI TAR Y EXPLAI'AT IO;-':

Bark al Stele, of the tribute that his def eated e nemies brought him.>' " All
th eir horses whi ch were with th em , th eir g rea t c ha rio ts of gold and silve r, as
well as th ose which were plain , all th eir co a ts of mail , their bow s, th eir
a rro ws, and all their weapon s of warfar e. It wa s these with whi ch th ey had
co me from afar to fight against my ma jest y, and now they were brin gin g
them as tr ibute to my m a jest y." In his Karn ak annals, Thutmose specifies
th at he captured 9 24 cha rio ts a nd 502 bow s from the en e my. Uga r itic texts
ma ke freq ue nt mention of bo ws and arrows, and it will be recall ed th at t he
Tale of Aq hat revolved a bo ut a n extraordinary co m pos ite bow. One Uga ritic tabl et rep orts that tw o cha rio ts br ou ght in for repairs "a re without
quiver s," a n o bv ious impl icati on , as BeJI notes, " t ha t o ther chariot s did
have quivers. "65 Anoth er Uga ritic tabl et records the deli very of eithe r
harn esses o r teams of ho rses, of a rmo r for men and horses, a nd of forty
bow s a nd a thousand arrows.e- Alth ou gh we have few gra phic re prese nta tions of the war chariot from th e Levant, an ivory plaque from M egiddodar ing from ca. 1200 B.c. - sh ow s ca ptives marching in fron t of a Ca na a nite c ha rio t, the cha rio t bein g eq uippe d with quiver and bow case. A
ninth -century orthostat from th e Neo -Hirtire palace at Carch ern ish sho ws
a cha rio t archer in the act of shooting , whil e his chariot roll s over an e nemy
alr eady brought down by an a rro w.v?
It is well known that Egypti an cha rio ts carried archers. Th ese ch a rio ts
wer e outfitted with J bow cas e a nd occ asio na lly a quiver attached to the
cha rio t box at a diagonal , th e mouth being at a level with the arch er's right
hand . An Egyptian papyru s not es th e departure of a chariot for Syri a, th e .
. ch ari ot having aquive rsro ckedw ith eigh ty a rrows .s" Egyptian inscription s rarely go into sufficient detail to clari fy what happened in J battl e
(w h a t happened in th e battl es a t M egiddo a nd Kadesh will he loo ked a t in
detail in th e following sec tio n), but such refer en ces as there are indicat e th at
cas ua lites werenormall y inflicte d by c ha rio t a rchers.jv lerneptah' s acco unt
0' his victo ry over th e Lib yan s. in 1208 , for example, claim s th at " the
cha rio t wa rrio rs wh o wer e upon th e ch ari ot s of his ma jesty p laced th em .selvesin PlJ~slJ~ii-.2f__~he..m (i .e., the broken Lib yan in vaders), th ey_~~i !1g
.Qvert h row n b y arrows, ca rried off, a nd sla ugh tered . " 69 The ph ar aoh s
th em selves to ok pr ide in th eir sk ill as cha r iot archers, Arnen hot ep II
bo ast ed of th e rapidity, ran ge, a nd acc ur acy of his shootin g, claimin g th at
from a speed ing chariot he had hit four ta rge ts, set thirty-four feet a pa rt,
. 4 Wil, on 's tran slati on, ANET . p. 2.JH .
..~ Be:J), Orga nizatio n, 57H.
..... Helrzer. lnt ernal Urganiza tion, 113.
., YJJIO. Warfare, vol. 1, 243; JnJ vo l. 2, 366 .
M!. Pap yr us Kulla 1.1-2; d . Schulman. "C h ariots, Ch ariorry, and the Hyk sos ," 124n. 5 7.
t>~ Mc ruep ta h's Karn ak Inscr iptio n. J S tra nslated in Sch ulman. " Egyptia n C h ario rrv, " p.
xS . For the full inscription . see Breasted, A R. vol. 3. 110 S. 569ft .

12 1

with such force that the arrow s wen t clean through each target' s three
inch es o f co ppe r.?" E gyptian chariot a rche rs in battle appear not o nly in
w all reliefs-c-as of Se ri 1\ battles, of Rarncsses H's battle at Kade sh in 1275,
!)r of Rarn esses Ill 's victo ry ove r th e Lib yan s in 118 2-bm also in relief s
etc hed o n th e sides of the fiftee nt h-ceu t ury cha rio t found in th e tom b of
T hu t rnose IV and o n a painted pan el of a chest fro m 'Iutan kh amun 's

tomb ."!

I.

Th e fact that H ittite ch ar iot warr iors we re bow men is not genera lly
reco gni zed, but it is ne verth eless de mo nst ra ble. As noted ab o ve, the belief
th at th e lan ce wa s the sta nda rd weap on of th e Hittite chariot warri or
deri ves from Ram esscs the C rea r's rel iefs of the Battl e of Kades h. i? In th ose
reli efs th e Egyptian chariot s ca rry a rc he rs b ut non e of th e Hittite char iots
ca rries a n a rc he r, and in fact o n ly the ch ari ot of th e Hittite king has a bow
case. In eac h of th e o t he r Hittite c ha r io ts is a crew of three. One of the three
hol ds th e rein s, a second man regul arl y ca rr ies a sh ield, and the third man
so metimes holds a lan ce. The Egyptian sc ulp to r, however, nowh ere depi cts
th e Hittite cha rio ts in action (t hey a re eithe r headin g toward or retreating
fro m th e battlefield). And as Richard Beal points out, as often J S not th e
third man in a Hittite chariot is sho w n with out a weJpon of any kind. Since
in th e inscr iption Rarnesses does mention th e a rche rs of the Hittite chari ot
corps.i " Beal argues that the reliefs ar e "clearly a misrepresentation. " 7 4
Th e Egy ptia n sculpto rs have here chosen to portray the enemy armed o nly
with defen sive weapons. In battl e sce nes th e ph araoh 's artists wer e car eful
never to depict In Egyptian co rpse o r ind eed a n Egyptian in danger, As
portrayed in Egyptian art, o nly Egy ptia n t ro op s tak e the offensive, th e
o bliga tio n of th e artist bein g to propagate th e myth of the pharaoh's invincibility.f" Noting th at the relief of the Battl e of Kades h sho w s on e Hittite
cha r io t warrior apparentl y a bo ut to th row a n a rro w at the Egypti an s, Beal
See Wilson 's t ra nslatio n of Amenho tep's Giz eh stele, ANET, 244 .
Th e [V. 'O vo lumes of 'rad in 's Wurfure pr ovid e excellent illu strations of these and .other
sce nes cited ; see Warfare, vo l. 1, 104- 5; 192 - 93,216-1 7; 24 0-41 ; and vol. 2, 3 H -3 7.
:-.: It also derives, as Mo o rey {"'Emergence ," 20 3) poi nt s o ut , [reun such an.ich ron isric
so urces J S Xenophori 's Cyropued;u .rnd miscon ceived "analogies dra wn fro m tank warfare. "
" In the inscri prion [G ard iner. Kadesb , 1'160- 65 Jl1J 1'2 00- 205 ) a demoral ized Hittite
p roc lai m s that " o ne is una ble to ta ke Up;1 bow" when not." beh olds the glori ous Ra messes:
and RJm c, <;, es him self boasts that " w hoeve r ... hot in m y di recti on , thei r arrows scattered as
they rea ched me ." See al so Breas ted. A R. vo l. 3. nos. ] ] 7 .ind 3 43 . The latter is J cap tion fo r a
s cene o f .1 gr ollp of p rrso ners: "Lis t o f tho se co u n tr ies which his rnaresry ..lew. while alo ne by
h imself: corpses, hor ses, and chario ts. bow s. swords , all the wea po ns of warfa re."
'74 Beal, O rgtllli:;u t ;on. 575 .
7 < lbid ., h 17. john Wilson , "Th e Royal M yth in Ancie nt Egyp t," Pro, udin-", of the
Am.'n"f ull l'hilosnphical .\'{J,:'-efy 100 ( I ~5 6): 4JlJ-42. St udent s of anc ient wea ponry have also
xuvpecte d th.ir th e Egypt iJ n ar t ists disto rTt"J th eir .l pp' l11e nt ,," wea po nr y. Srilli n .in and Tallis,
Arnncs , 57, not e that in the Ne w KingJc1111 " rn In .IIl Y battle scen es on ly cncmic.. .rre ever
s ho w n Jt:JJ o r WOII IIJI:J .lIlJ som et im es III1 ,lr l1lOUn.:d J ud withou t W':~lPOIl"" . "
70

71

122

A M J L J TAR Y E X r LAS A T JO N

suggest s th at for Rarnesses' a rt ists an enem y bow may have been " ideologically unp ortrayable , ~ and co ncludes that " the evidence seems to sho w th at
bows a nd a rrows were th e primary weap o ns of the H ittite cha riotry. r r
Th e battl e reliefs of Rarn esses' father, Seti I, confirm this co nclusio n.
When Seri campa igned against the Hittites, he evidently was o p pose d by
Hittite cha riot a rchers, for the Karnak reliefs that celebrate his victory (see
plate 1) depict Hittite cha riots equipped with bow cases, and in each
chariot is a Hittite warrior with a quiv er o n his hack an d a bow in his
hand.?? In sho rt , Hittite ch a riot warriors fou ght exactly as did th eir counterparts in Egypt, the Levant, Mesopotamia, and India. In all the Near
Eastern kin gdom s of the Lat e Bron ze Age, th e cha riot served as an archer's
mobil e firing platJgrll).
From M ycena ean Greece, unfortunatel y, we have no pictori al repre sentat ion s of a cha riot battl e. For th at reason , and perh ap s becau se no com po site bow has ever been found in a M ycen aean tomb, Aegean a rchaeo logists have traditionally and stubbo rn ly insisted that the bow had no
military imp ortance in th e Lat e Helladic period . 7 8 That view, however, was
invalidated forty yea rs ago . Before the Linear B tablets were read , a nd
when Hom er was still ta ken as a reliabl e guide to th ings M ycen aean , it was
understandable that scho lars imagined the Myc enaeans as conte mptu o us
of the bow. H. L. Lorimer summed up and lent her great autho rity to the
cons ensu s: the composite bow was strictly O riental and Min oan, and
althou gh th e M ycenaean s may now a nd th en have seen such a weapon
" the re is no indi cation th at th ey learned how to use it." For Lor imer, the
composite bows invento ried in Linear B tabl ets were of co urse ~ Minoan ~
rather th an M ycena ean , since she wrote befor e Ventris's deciph erm ent. On
similar grounds she d ismissed th e imp ortan ce of the bow in th e O dyssey:
the centra lity of Od ysseu s's great co mpos ite bow in the story of his return
was " natura l when we co nside r the strong Creta n tinge of mu ch of the

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Reliefs and Inscriptions at Karnak, Volume 4: Th e Battle Reliefs of King Sety I, O riental
Institute Publicatio n no. !O7 (C h icago, 1986), plat es 34 and 35.
7' The Kriegsuesen fascicles of Archaeo /ogi" Hom erica thus far publi shed dea l wi th the
swo rd, spea r, dagger, a nd e-ven the club, but no t the bow . In their discuss ions of M ycena ean
warfare most J rCh~le(}log'iL.;tI su rveys either dism iss the bow in J few sente nces o r o mit it
altoge t her. No t to mu ltipl y exa mp le'S, I cite o n ly Jan Bouzek, The Aegean , An atolia. and
Europe: Cultural ln tcrreiation s in the Second Mi llennium R.C. (Gorebo rg and Prague, 1985 ).
In the very la't paragrapb 01 his fiftypage survey of Late Hella.hc arm o r an d weapons, and
after a meti cul ous analysis of swo rds, spears, daggers, knives, and axes of the period, Bouzek
finally reaches (p. 142) the sub ject of bows and ar row s: Arro wheads are mentioned o nly for
the sake of co m pleteness. . . . In any case the how onl y pla yed a ma rgina l part in warfare
J uring the period in qu e..no n."
"4 Lorimer, Hom ." and the Monuments, 280 and 1~9 .

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12 4

ru r

A 1\11 LIT A RYE X I' L A;-.J ,\ T ION

We k no w now th at th e ta blet s from th e Knossos " Armoury " conta in a

primi ti ve form of Gree k an d so m ust ack now ledge th at th e Mycen aeans not
o n ly h ud learned how to use a co mposite bo w Out k new how to rn.ik c o ne,
a nd did so by the hundreds. Th er e is o t he r evide nce th at the bow wa s th e
prirn.rry we:lpo n of M ycen aea n cha rio t wa rrio rs. Knee- leng th corslets we re
evide nt ly p rovid ed fo r cha rio t c rew s, a nd these mu st ha ve been mea nt fo r
p rote ction agai ns t ene my mi ssiles (in 3 co rue sr of thru sti ng spea rs o r rapier s th e lon g co rslets woul d hav e offe red littl e pro tec tion and wo uld have
gr ea tl y im pede d th e wearer's mov ement ). Alongside th e "cha rio t ta b lets"
fo und at Knosso s were ta blets recordin g la rge lot s of a rro ws: 60 l Oin on e
bat ch and 26 30 in ano ther, eno ugh fo r eac h of two h undre d chariot arche rs
to rece ive forty. Near by we re fo un d stores of bron ze a rrow heads, w hich
we re meant for d istri bu tion to M ycen aean rath er than (as Evans th ou ght )
Minoan warriors. Tablets also refer to bow making a nd to bowye rs (to-ko-sotoo-leo, which "h a un per fett o corrispo nde nte in greco in to~OFoQyo l). ""0
The di stribution of ill co rpore a rrow hea ds from pr eh is tor ic Greece a lso
sugges ts th at the bow was far more im po rta nt fro m 16 00 to 1200 1J.e. th a n
it had been in earl ier tim es o r wo uld eve r be again . Wh ereas no met al
a r row heads have been found in EH o r MH co ntex ts, bron ze a r row heads of
vario us kind s appear sudde n ly wit h the Sha ft C raves and cont inu e th rou gh
th e LH I1IBperiod; then th ey va nish agai n , w ith only 3 handful a t resred for
th e w hole of the Dark Age. HI
Th us there is 3 great deal of evide nce th at in the armies of M ycen aea n
G reece - as of kin gdom s every w here dur ing the Late Bron ze Age- t he
co m pos ite bo w wa s th e p rin cip al offensive wea po n. That H om er h ud so me
very wrong ideas abo ut how 3 co m po site bow was made (d. especia lly th e
descrip tion of Panda ros's bow a t Iliad 4 .1 05ff. ) can no lo nger mean , as it
did fo r Lorimer , th at suc h a bo w W3S " un- Mycenae a n." Rathe r, it shows
how mu ch of M ycen aean warfare ha d been forgotten in the ep ic t radi tion.
In a de ta iled ph ilological stud y De nys Page co ncl ude d th at H o m e r's limited rep ertory of for m ulas fo r bows a nd a rro ws is " the d isintegr at ing rel ic
of a m uch wider a nd st ricter syste m," a nd th at " the evidence of fo rrn ula r
usage is sufficient to carry th e bo w and a rrows bac k to a remote past. ,, ~ !
Alt ho ugh th e M yccnaean s m ay o nce have s ung a bo ut the exp loits of
c ha r io t a rc he rs, no wri t ten acc o unt of cha rio t wa rfa re h as been fo un d a t
Uga r it, H attu sns, o r th e M ycenaean pal aces. It is so me thing of 3 par ado x
I'l l ) Adele Fr.mcesch ern , " Arnu e gue rra in resri m ice nei, ' S I ~ for a pe rcept ive a rguruenr t ha r
t he bow wa s of m uch greater m ilitary im pu rtnnce in LH III G reec e th an Home r imJ~ined and
t ha n has gene ra lly been assu med. see Renate Ti)II(.~. K J. ... rcnbein. Pfeil und Bogen im alt en
C riechenland (Boch um, 19S0 ), 24- 26 .InJ 4 1-42.
1f1 Sno JgrJss , Arms .ttld t\rnwllr, 40 . For J car.ilo g a n d rypnlogy of the:" Lire He ll.id ic
.irrow he.rds see Avil.t, L.lfI U lI- und r /tjlspi t:'I'fI.
"1 Page, Hivtu rv <111, / the Homeric Ilid41 {fic:rkd ey .1OJ Los Angeles : 195Y;, 27 S-7Y .

C H A RIO T WA R FAR E

125

th at from the th ou sands of La te Bro nze Age tab lets from the Aegean and
the Near E3St, so ma ny of whi ch refe r 10 c hariots, one lea rn s so littl e a bo ut
how th ese vehicles we re used in battl e. Mu ch more C3n be learned fro m
Indi a . Th e h ymn s of th e Rig Veda o rigi na te d in th e lat e ce nt u ries of th e
seco nd mill ennium, when in Ind ia too cha riots dom in ated th e battlefield ;
a nd here, unl ike in G reece, o ra l t rad itio n ke p t th e wo rld of the cha rio t
wa r rior a live far into th e first mill ennium , whe n fina lly th e h ym ns we re
wri tten dow n. One hymn , recited o ve r the chario t crew ju st befo re they
went int o ba u le, begi ns by invoki ng divine blessing up o n th e wa rrior's
ar rnor.r-' " H is face is lik e a thu nde rclou d , w hen th e a rmo ure d warrior goes
int o th e lap o f ba t tles. Con q uer with an unw ound ed bo dy; let th e powe r of
a rmo ur kee p yo u sa fe." Th e invo cati on focu ses in turn up on th e ho rses, t he
chario t, the reins. a nd th e whip but dwel ls especia lly up on th e bow :
With the bow let us win cows, wirh the bow let us win the contest and violent
batt les with the bow. The bow ruins the enemy's pleasure; with the bow let us
conq uer all the comers of rhe world.
She comes 3 11 the way up 10 your ear like a woman who wishes 10 say something,
embracing her dear friend; humming like a woman, the bowstring stretched
tight on the bow carries you safely across in the battle.
These two who go forward like a woman going to an encounter hold the arrow in
their lap as a mother holds a son. Let the two bow-tips, working together, pierce
our enemies and scatter our foes.
In the still lat er Mahabharat<l , ch a rio t a rche rs a re 3gain co ns picuo us. As
th e Tn garta c ha rio ts ro lled aga inst t he Marsyas " t he sun di sappea red
behind a rrows shot back a nd fo rt h, but the co mpact sky was lit up as
th ou gh by fireflies. The gold -b ack ed bows of th e a rche rs, wo rld fam ou s
he roes wh o shot right-handed a nd le ft, go t tangled w he n they fell. " H4
Virata , he ro of th e fourth book of th e e pic, wro ugh t havoc with th e
Trigarr as:
Virara, having felled five-hundred warrio rs in the fight, hund reds of horses and
five great champ ions. made his way variously among the chariots, till he encountered Susarrnan of Trigarra on his golden cha riot on the battlefield. The two
great-spirited and powerful kings str uck out at each other, roari ng like two bulls
in 3 cowpen. Th e chariot fighters circled each other on their cha riots, loosing
arrows as nimbly as clouds let go their water streams.v'
H l Rig Vt"J..1 h.75 ( j im li l asycl'a hhdU.111p r.:Jti ka m }, t ran slated into English as '"10 Arm s, n
bv WenJl' Don iger O ' Fl.rherry; Th e Rig Ved,, : A n A,'IIJ,, /ogy (Ha rrno uds wo rt h, 1~ 81 \, 236-

3 ~.
H M..zhJhhur,'lu 4 (4 :-; 31.6-7 (rr .m s. J.A.l\ .
" lbid ., I S- 20.

','I n

Buircnen :.

126

A MI L IT A RY E X P LA N A T I () N

From H ittite, Aegean , and even Egyptian sources there is noth ing remotel y
resembling these vivid picture s of chariot battles in Indian literature .
In summa ry, whatever evidence we have for cha rio ts in battle indi cates
that th ey were used as mobile platforms for ar cher s. T his seems to have
been tru e from the beginnin g of cha riot warf are in the seventeenth cent ury
until th e Catastro phe. H omerdid not know how war chariots were used in
the LH lllB period, but that is not surp rising since neither d id he know
anything of the pala ce regimes that served and were served by the chariotries. In the Near East chariots continued to carry arch ers, armed with
comp osite bows, down to the eighth century, although by th at time chariots played o nly an ancillary role in battle.
We have onl y a little inform ation about th e o rga nization of cha rio tr ies.
The smallest tactic al un it seems to have been a group of ten cha riots (w henever chariots are requ ested, they are requ ested in multiples of ten). Schul man assembled evidence that in Egypt, at least, five of th ese unit s-or fifty
vehicles- no rmally mad e up a sq uad ro n. Th e autobio graphy of Mery pta h
describ es th at wo rthy' s service in sq uadro ns named " the Phoenix " and
"Manifest injustice " (a mo ng Meryptah 's position s were " sta nda rd-bea rer
of th e cha rio t warrior s" a nd "first srabl crnaster" ).H6 Each squad ron had its
own co mmander, as shown by the N uzi ta blets , and several squad ro ns
tog eth er made up a " host of chariots. " It may be that th e color of the
chariot boxes varied from sq uad ron to squ ad ron . Lejeune pointed out that
the Linear B scribes co nsistently (except o n one tablet ) not ed the colo r of
the cha riot box-vermillion , purple, red-and suggested th at the colo r
was an " eleme nt de signalement. " 8 7 It may also be wo rt hy of note that
th e Nu zi tablets (as well as occasio nal tablet s from elsewhere) designate
vehicles as bein g eit her of "the right" o r of " the left. "88 T he designation is
possibl y relat ed to th e fact that on Egyptian and Assyrian reliefs we see
both right-handed and left-handed chariot archers, with th e qu iver co rrespondingly mounted o n the right or th e left side of th e cha riot box. Alth ough we have no evide nce o n the matter, we must suppose that all the
archers of a given squadron shot their arr ows from the same side of the bo x
and th at a squadron itself could therefore be described as belon ging" to the
right" o r " to the left." In the Mahabharata o ne of the deadli est heroes is
"the valian t Partha, the enemy-killing left-h and ed archer," wh o would not
tum away even if faced by all the bands of th e M aruts.e"
Finally, we mu st tr y to visua lize the chari ots in battl e. Th ose schola rs
wh o have-correctly-im agined chariots as mob ile firing plat forms
(rather th an as battle taxis o r propellants of thru stin g spea rs) have gener,. On a ll thi s see Schu lm an , " Egyptian C hariotry," 75-8 4.
107 Lejeune, "Chars et ro ues, " 29 .
.. Kenda ll, Warf.Jre, 130- .31.
"" M.,habharata 4 (47) .37, 10 (tr ans. J. A.B. van Buitenen).

TH E C H A R I O T WA RFA R E

127

ally pictur ed them as parti cipat ing in the preliminar ies and the con clu sion
to wh at was essentially an infantry encounter. In T.G.E. Powell's recon struc tion, at th e outset of a battle chariots provide a thin screen for an
infantry form ation, th e chariots moving latera lly across the front of the ir
ow n infantry a nd the chariot a rchers shoot ing- at a right a nglc- their
arrows against th e enemy 's infa nt ryme n. Th e cha riot s then remove themselves whi le the infant ries enga ge, and after the battle is wo n th e cha riots
return to pur sue the enem y fugitives.'?' Trevor Wat kins, on th e o ther hand,
suggested th at chariots were held in reserve until the infantry battl e had
reached a decisive stage. At th at point the chari ot s would be com mitted, in
order to tip th e scales of th e battl e."! Thes e recon structions, I am co nvinced , are qui te far from the mark ; as will be a rgued in the nex t ch apter,
the assump tion th at Late Bron ze Age battles were essentia lly infantry co ntests is without foundation.
Leavin g the infantr ies o ut of the picture, at least temp oraril y, we mu st
apparently imagine that opp osing chariot for ces would hurtle to wa rd each
other (chariot warr ior s a re regularl y shown sho oting over the head s of th eir
hor ses), th e sq uad ro ns mainta ining an assigned o rde r and th e a rchers
90 Po well, "So me Imp lica tio ns of C ha riot ry," in I. Fost er and l.. Adco ck . eds. Cultu re and
Environ men t , Essa ys in Honour o( Sir Cyril Fox (Londo n, 1% 3),165-66:

It is clear th at in the opening stages uf the battle exc hang es o f arrows w ere made from
chariot s moving up and down th eir ow n fro nts, but pro ba b ly at a ran ge wh ich di d not
serio usly end ange r the ho rses. Th is WJ S the phase for display a nd iu rim id ario n, reco gniz able again in the Iliad, and in Irish epic. Later in til t"battle, if the o pposing side W3S ro uted ,
ch ario ts were again emplo yed fo r pursuit. To conceive of the:likeli ho od of massed chariots
ch argi ng an enemy fo rm at ion , wh ethe r a lso in cha riots o r o n fo ot , is to ign o re p ractic al
con sider atio ns. Wounds easily to be infl icted o n ho rses wo uld ens ure chaos, and cerrainly
allow o f no recovery. As wa s said ear lier, the chariot in its Egypti an and Asia tic role
provid ed J mob ile vant age po int fo r arch ery, In the Egyp tian rel ief s o f cha riot s in action
there is no hea d -o n clas h, the sce ne is al ways that of pursuit, .m d Egyp tian JrrOWS pierce
the ene my and his ho rses from beh ind . . . . C ha rio ts we re neve r so expe ndable rh ur o ne
vio le nt co llisio n co uld have been allow ed to risk .ib.mdon rnenr on th e field .
Pow ell's d escnpr ion assum es tha r Late Bronze Age battles were esse ntially infa ntry enco u nt ers (I sh a ll try to show in ch ap ter 11 th at they were not ) .1IIdigno res th e fact thor in th ese
battles chariot s an d ho rses were ind eed lo st, by the hundred s. Wh :lt conrribution co u ld have
bee n made by ch ariots that moved "up and down their ow n fronts, but proba bly at 3 runge
w hic h did nut se rio us ly enda nger the ho rses," is di fficult to im agine since, in Powell 's view, the
two in fantries were eve n brther a part than the two prom en ad ing ch.rriomes . It is tru e that in
Egypt ian a rt "the re is no head ..t lll clash , the sce ne is al ways o f pursu it," b ut rhar is ve ry likel y
beca us e in Egyp tia n ideolo gy e ne mies regular ly nee and Egypti an s pursu e. Th e mad, as
indicated above , can not be used J-"i 3 guide to the cha riot tactics used before the Carastrophe.
9' So Wat kin s, " Beginnings of War b re: 3 1: "Chariorry was a hi ghl y pre st igio us, hu gely
ex pe nsive and very vulne rab le P30 rt of ;lny a rmy, It wo uld not he used in barth: unti l the:cri tica l
mo ment hJJ a rrived, then its task was to b unch ;J drive wh ich wou ld induce .1 b rea k ing of
ranks in the opposing infant ry li nes . O nce the ride of J tu tt le IIJd been ru rued the ch.morry
migh t then also h urrv and hunt do w n the disper sed enem y,"

128

A MILITARY EXPLANATION

beginning to discharge their arrows as soon as the enemy came within

range (perhaps at a distance of two hundred meters or more). The archers
must have shot ever more rapidly and vigorously as the opposing forces
closed the distance between them. Of course many horses were killed or
wounded: the whole point of the battle (as Egyptian reliefs show clearly
enough) was to bring down as many of the opponent's chariots as possible.
The typical chariot force was probably deployed in a formation broader
than it was deep. On a flat plain, only the archers in a front rank of chariots
could have had an uninterrupted view of their opponents. And a charioteer
driving his horses at the gallop could not have followed too closely upon a
chariot in front of him, since he would need to be able to maneuver around
any sudden casualry, lest his own team should pile onto a comrade's immobilized vehicle. Perhaps a host of chariots was typically deployed in three or
four ranks, ranged behind one another at intervals of twenty or thirty
meters, but it is not impossible that on occasion all the chariots were
deployed in a single rank. Since (as we shall see in the following section)
Thutmose himself rode in the center of the frontline at Megiddo, we must
infer that front-line chariots were not conspicuously at risk, and that in
turn suggests that the chariot formation was wide and shallow. It probably
was important to extend one's line far enough that it could not be outflanked by the enemies' vehicles.
What happened when the opposing chariot forces charged against each
other will be imagined in various ways. Horses, unlike men, cannot be
driven to charge directly into their opponents, and so we must imagine that
in a battle between two more or less equal chariotries the two lines slowed
as they closed and then somehow slipped around or through each other
(when a large chariotry met a small one, on the other hand, the small force
would perhaps either have turned tail long before closing or would have
been entirely enveloped, brought to a standstill, and thus destroyed). Perhaps a chariot force may have divided as it approached the enemy, the
vehicles on the right pulling farther to the right in order to flank their
opponents, while the chariots on the left (all carrying, perhaps, left-handed
archers) pulled to the left. Contrarily, the objective may have been to drive
wedges into the enemy line, a compact squadron splitting apart the enemy's unbroken line, and the successive ranks funneling into and stretching the gap. It is barely conceivable that all along the line the formation was
loose enough that the two opposing lines could completely intermesh and
thus pass through each other, but in that case the casualties would have
been enormous.
After the surviving teams had made their way past each other, the archers may have faced the rear of their vehicles and fired once or twice at
their opponents as they receded. Then the two forces, if they were still
cohesive, must have wheeled around and begun their second charge. this

THE C H A RIO TWA R fAR E

129

time from the opposite direction. Finally, when one of the forces had been
heavily depleted or thrown into disorder, the survivors would have made
no more return charges but would have tried to esc3pe to a citadel or a
guarded position.

THE BArrLES AT MECIDDO AND KADESH

There are two battles in the Late Bronze Age abour which at least a lirtle is
known. The Battle of Megiddo was commemorated by the victor, Thurmose III, on the walls of the temple of Amon at Karnak.v- In his twentysecond year (ca. 1460 B.C.) Thutmose led a great army into the Levant in
order to establish his supremacy there and was opposed by a coalition of
Canaanite kingdoms under the leadership of the king of Kadesh. On the
ninth day after passing the Delta frontier fortress at Sile, Thutrnosc's army
was at Gaza, 150 miles distant; by the standards of antiquity and the
Middle Ages, he had moved very quickly,"! Learning that the Levanrine
forces were massed at Megiddo, Thutmose's officers worried that if the
Egyptian forces proceeded northward in a long column along the central
road, the vanguard would be attacked and overwhelmed before the rear
elements could catch up and be deployed. Thutrnose decided, however, to
maintain the single column, and to put himself at the head of it: "[Every
man] was made aware of his order of march, horse following horse, while
[his majesty] was at the head of his army."
Arriving at the Qinavalley, Thurrnose spread his force in order to span
the entire valley and in early afternoon came within sight of Megiddo and
the Canaanite forces. He decided to pitch a camp, however, and to delay
the battle until the following day: "Prepare ye! Make your weapons ready,
since one will engage in combat with that wretched enemy in the morning." After a night's sleep, Thutmose was advised that "the desert is well"
and that all-was in readiness. At dawn Thurrnose rode forth in his goldcovered chariot. His battle line, according to the inscription, extended
from the Qina brook to a point notthwest of Megiddo, "while his majesty
was in the center, Amon being the protection of his person (in) the melee."
Since Thutrnose's chariotry must have included more than a thousand
vehicles (it routed a Levanrine chariotry of at least that size), we may
suppose that his battle line was indeed a long one. If the chariots were

91

See Wilson's rransl.nion of the inscription. ANET. 234-8.

"' Willi3m Murnane. The Road to Kadcsh: A Historical lnterpretation o(the Battle Reliefs
o( King Sety I at Karnak !ChIC3g0. 19S5). 145-50 (appendix 2. "Movements of Armies .md
Timings of Travel in Egypt and the Levant"), notes rhar the armies of Assyrian kin~s <InO of

Alexander the Crear moved at a rate of between thirteen and tiftcen miles a day.

130

A MILITARY EXPLA~ATION

deployed in a single rank, the line would have extended for almost two
miles.
The battle then commenced. We have no details about the charge and are
told only about its outcome:
Thereupon his majesty prevailed over them at the head of his army. Then they
saw his majesty prevailingover them, and they tled headlong [to] Megiddo with
bees of fear.They abandoned their horses and their chariots of gold and silver,so
that someone might draw them (up) into this town by hoisting on their garments. Now the people had shut this town against them, (but) they [let down]
garments to hoist them up into this town.
Possibly the Canaanite chariotry did not complete even its initial charge
against the Egyptians, turning before the two lines neared each other and
fleeing to the city. There the crews leaped from their chariots and began
climbing the walls, undoubtedly protected by a covering barrage of arrows
shot by bowmen stationed on the walls, and assisted in their climb by ropes
and garment-lines let down from the top of the walls. The inscription
regrets the fact that at this point Thutmose's men began collecting the
enemy's horses and chariots ("an easy prey") instead of pressing on with
the attack and killing the enemy as they were being hoisted up the walls of
the city. Because of this shortsightedness, a siege of Megiddo was necessary.
Thutmose ordered the construction of a fortress to the east of the city, to
serve as the Egyptians' base during the siege, and divided the perimeter of
the city into sectors, assigning a commander to each. The siege was successful, and the enemy princes eventually came out of the city "to kiss the
ground to the glory of his majesty and to beg breath for their nostrils." The
booty that Thutmose brought away from the campaign included 1,929
cows, 20,500 sheep, and many costly and beautiful things . More pertinent
to our interests are the military personnel and material:
[List of the booty which his majesty's army carried off from the town of]
Megiddo: 340 livingprisoners and 83 hands; 2041 horses, 191 f0~ls, 6 stallions,
and ... colts; I chariot worked with gold, with a hodyof gold, belongingto that
enemy. [I] fine ch.inot worked with gold belonging to the Prince of
IMegiddoj . . . and 892 chariots of his wretched army-total: 924; 1 fine bronze
coat of mail belonging to that enemy; [ll fine bronze coat of mail belonging to
the Prince of Meg[iddo, and] 200 [leather] coats of mail belonging to his
wretched army; 502 bows; and 7 poles of meru-wood, worked with silver,of the
tent of that enemy.
The second Late Bronze Age battle about which we know at least a little
is the battle that Rarncsses II fought against Muwatallis II of Hatti in 1275,
when the young Ramesses was in the fifth of his sixty-seven years on the
throne. The battle was fought within sight of the city of Kadesh, in northern Syria, and we know about it because Rarnesses II assiduously adver-

[HE CHARIOT WARFARE

131

tised his version of it. He ordered it to be portrayed, with reliefs and

inscriptions, not only on his mortuary temple at Thebes (the Ramesseurn)
but also on temples at Luxor, Abydos, and Abu Sirnbel.":' More complete
texts of the inscription have also been found on two papyri, one of which
runs to eleven pages. As Rarnesses recounted the battle, it was a victory and
was won almost entirely by his own skill and bravery, his army having
panicked and fled. In fact, the battle seems to have been at best-for the
Egyptians-a draw, and several units in Rarncsses' army made their presence felt.">
Great battles were uncommon through most of the thirteenth century
B.C. The kings of Assur and Hattusas may have fought in the 1230s, but the
matter is quite unclear. % In the Aegean, there seems to have been very little
military activity from ca. 1375 to ca. 1225. For Egypt, the Kadesh campaign was apparently extraordinary, since we know of nothing remotely
similar for the rest of Rnrnesscs' long reign. In his twenty-first year (1259)
he and the Hittite king arranged a peace treaty, after which the Levant
seems to have been mostly quiet until Ramesses' death in 1212. The Battle
of Kadesh may therefore have been by far the greatest battle fought anywhere in the eastern Mediterranean during either the fourteenth or the
thirteenth century, and we are fortunate to know something about it.
Rarnesses' army spent exactly one month in traveling more than five
hundred miles from Avaris, in the eastern Delta, to the vicinity of Kadesh,
which was one of Muwatallis's most important vassal states in Syria. We do
not know how many chariots and how many infantry Ramesses had assembled, since in describing his force Rarnesses' scribes say only that "His
Majesty had made ready his infantry and his chariotry, and the Sherden of
His Majesty's capturing whom he had brought back by the victory of his
strong arm; supplied with all their weapons, .ind the plan of fighting having
been given to them. "97 The army moved in four divisions, named after the
gods Amon, Ptah, Re, and Seth, with Rarnesscs himself in the leading
division of Amon. Upon reaching the vicinity of Kadesh, and having been
given the false information that the Hittite army was far to the north,
94 For thereliefs seeWreszinski, Atlas, vol. 2. plates 63ff. (Luxor), R2ff. (Ramesseurn), and
I76ff. (Abu Simbel), Fortranslation ofthetextsseeAlan Gardiner, The Kadcsh Inscriptions of
Ramesscs II (Oxford, 1960). Gardiner's translations supersede- those of Breasted. AR, vol. 3,
nos. 306-51.
9\ Forreconstructions of the battle seeBreasted, The Battle of Kadesh (Chicago, 1903):
'radm. Warfare, vel. 1, 103-10; Kitchen, Pharaoh Triumphant, 53-62. These reconstructions seem to me misleading only in the assumptions that the Hittites failed to achieve u
dear-cut victory because their chariot warriors were armed with lances instead of composite
bows (Yad iu, naturally enough, founJ this to be the major "weakness" of the Hittite
cha norr-y) and because Muwarallis failed, for one reason or another, to commit his immense
infantry.
9h ltamar Singer, "The Bartle ot ?..
[ih nyu andtheEnd oftheHittite Empire," ZA"S (I 98S,:
100-123.
"17 Gardiner's translation, Kadcsh, P25-30.

132

A MILITARY EXPlAl'ATIO~

Amon division crossed the Orontes and proceeded north to a campsite.

When the second division, Re, began fording the river, the Hittite king
launched his chariots upon it from a concealed position near the city wall:
"Bur the wretched Chief of Kharti stood in the midst of his arrnv which was
with him and did not come our ro fight through fear of His Majesty. But he
had sent men and horses exceeding many and multitudinous like the sand,
and they were three men on a chariot and they were equipped with all
weapons of warfare."?"
In what follows we can deduce that the Re division, caught astride the
Orontes, consisted of both chariotry and infantry, neither of which withsrood the onslaught. The Hittite chariots "came forth from the sourh side
of Kadesh and broke into (?) the army of Pre' in its midst as they were
marching and did not know nor were they prepared ro fight. Thereupon the
infantry and the chariotry of His Majesty were discomfited before
them. n99 With the Hittite chariots in hot pursuit, many of the Re chariots
fled toward the Amon division, which was setting up camp under the
supervision of Ramesses himself. The enemy chariots "hemmed in the
followers of His Majesty who were by his side," but Ramesses quickly
"assumed the accoutrements of battle and girded himself with his corslet. n 100 After ordering couriers ro rake a message ro the third division
(Ptah), commanding it ro speed to assistance, Ramesses mounted his chariot and entered the fray, perhaps with little more than his own chariot
squadron:
His Majesty went ro'look about him and he found 2,500 chariots hemming him
in on his outer side, consisting of all the champions of the fallen ones of
Khatri..., they being three men on a chariot acting as a unit, whereas there was
no high officerwith me, no charioteer, no soldier of the army, no shield-bearer,
my infantry and my chariotry scampering away before them, and not nne of
them stood firm to fight with them.""
Rarncsscs claimed not only to have rushed into the thick of the Hittite
squadrons bur to have wheeled abour and charged no less than six times:
Then said His Majesty to his shield-bearer: "Stand firm, steady thy heart, my
shield-bearer. ! will enter in among them like the pounce of a falcon, killing,
slaughtering, and casting to the ground. What careth my heart for these effeminate ones at millions of whom! rake no pleasure?" Thereupon His Majesty
st.r rted forth quickly and entered at a gallop into the midst of the battle for the
n lbid., PbS-70.
". lbid., P70- 75.
100 lbid., BSO-B90. For reliefs of the camp scenes and the main chariot hattie see
Wreszinski, AII,Is, vol. 2, plates 6.\ 70, 82, 84, 88, In.
101 Gardiner, Kadesb, )'80-90.

THE CHARIOT WARfARE

133

sixth time of entering in amongst rhem.I was after them like B"'31 at rhe moment
of his powcr.ivWhatever the truth may be about Rarnesse-,' personal heroics, he and his
fellow charioteers from Amon division and the fugitives from Re evidently
held the field long enough ro enable the Prah chariots ro arrive. At that
point the Hittite chariots too were reinforced, by a thousand chariots of
Muwatallis's allies.
While the battle had been raging, certain of the Hittite chariot crews had
dismounted to begin plundering the Amon camp, which apparently had
been abandoned by its defenders. Bur as the Hittites were engaged in
looting, warriors whom Rarnesscs called "the nearim from Arnor" and
whom Yadin described as "Canaanite mercenaries serving in the army of
Rarneses Il" came to save what was left of the camp and fell upon the
Hittite crews, killing them all.")]
How many casualties there were on either side, and whether either side
was in fact victorious, we do not know. Rarnesscs claimed victory, bur the
Egyptians apparently lost little rime in moving sourh, perhaps to avoid
another surprise attack.
The size of the Hittite army can be pieced together from several statements in the inscriptions. Rarnesses reports that the chariorry that
Muwatallis initially launched against the Re division and that followed up
with an attack upon the Amon camp, consisted of twenty-five hundred
vehicles, each carrying three men. Late in the battle, perhaps after the Ptah
division had arrived on the scene, Muwatallis launched another thousand
chariots, these apparently being allied squadrons.'?"
We also have precise figures for the Hittite infantry. Ramesses' reliefs,
and the accompanying legends, indicate that Muwarallis had one large
body of warriors before him and another behind him. Breasted read the
two figures as eight thousand and nine thousand respectively, bur Alan
Gardiner corrected the reading to eighteen thousand and nineteen thousand.J''" Gardiner's readings are probably to be preferred, although there is
not yet a clear consensus among Egyprologisrs.t't
Whether numbering seventeen thousand or thirty-seven thousand, the

1<" Ibid., P2IS-22S.

I'"

lbid., RII; d. Yadin, Arl o(War(are, vol. 2. 267.

Ibid., PI50-IS5.
ros lbid., R43 and R44.
llJ6 For discussion see Bell. Organization, 356-57. Beal consulted Murnane on the reading and at n. 1116 quotes from Murnane's response: "'"I don't think Gardiner is necessurilv
wrong (and he Seems to have hecn accepted in this by more recent scholars) but I would still
say that there is some uncerr.unrv." Murnane's own The Road to Kadesb deals with events
le;1ding up to Rarnesses' campaign, but not with the campaign itself. Kitchen, Pharaoh
Triumpbont, 53. accepts Gardiner's readings.
1(,4

134

A MILITARY EXPLANATIOl-:

Hittite infantry at Kadesh was substantial, and it is therefore all the more
noteworthy that it took no part in the battle itself, the Hittite king sending
only his chariorry (approximately ten thousand, five hundred men) to the
attack. Not only do the inscriptions say that Muwatallis sent his chariots
into battle, while he stayed at Kadesh with the infantry, but the reliefs tell
the same story. The reliefs of the battle on the Ramesseum and the Luxor
and Abu Simbel temples portray a massed infantry standing guard near the
city of Kadesh, toward which the routed Hittite chariots flee.107 It would
therefore appear that Muwatallis used his massed Infantry as a defensive
force, forming a cordon around the city gates and the approaches to
Kadesh,
The size of Rarnesses' army is nowhere stated, but chariotry appears to
have been its offensive element. Except for the Amorite ne'arim, who probably (as we shall see in chapter 11) were "runners" attached to the Amon
division, no footsoldiers under Ramesses' command arc known to have
engaged the enemy. When the king, with the Amon division, was informed
that the Re division had been routed, he seems to have counterattacked
with as many of the Amon chariots as could be got ready, charging and
turning about to repeat the charge six times. Whatever infantry formation
was included in the Amon division was evidently not part of its offensive
force and in fact was not even sufficient to defend the camp. One may
suppose that in Rarnesses' army, as in Muwatallis's army, the chariotry's
charge was not coordinated with the charge of an infantry formation.
107

For the three reliefs see Yadin, Art ofWarfare, vol. 1,238.

Chapter Eleven
FOOTSOLDIERS IN THE LATE BRONZE AGE

T IS SURPRISING to discover how little information survives about

Late Bronze Age inf~~tries. No infa?,tryman's archive ha,~ been foun~
to compare with the chariot tablets from Knossos, the horse texts
from Ugarit and Hattusas, and the many Nuzi tablets dealing with the
chariot corps. As a result, in each of the text-based studies that have been
done on things military at Nuzi, Hatrusas, Ugarit and Mycenaean Greece,
the space devoted to infantry is only a small fraction of that devoted to
chariotry.' A general study of Late Bronze Age infantry has yet to be made.
In lieu of information, it has been widely assumed that Late Bronze Age
infantries were much the same as infantries in other periods of antiquity.
More particularly, it has been supposed that in battles all through the Late
Bronze Age infantries played the primary role, with the chariotries in
support. These assumptions do not seem to be borne out by the meager
evidence that we have.
In better-documented periods of antiquity, the infantry was central to an
army's attack, and horse troops were peripheral. Horse troops operating
independently were useful for reconnaissance, for harassing an enemy line
of march (as the Syracusan cavalry harassed the Athenian hoplites on their
retreat in 413 B.C.), or for small-scale action, but in a pitched battle horse
troops regularly served to support the infantry', attack. Persian, Greek,
and Roman battle tactics required that the movement of infantry and horse
troops be coordinated, the infantry normally forming the center of a battle
formation and the horse troops being posted at the infantry's right and left
flanks or being held in reserve for commitment after the infantry battle had
begun. Occasionally, as Hannibal did at the Trebia River, a commander
might order his cavalry to initiate the battle, in order to draw the enemy
infantry into a position of his choosing. But whatever role was assigned to
the horse troops was chosen with the infantry battle in mind, since in
classical antiquity an army's center of gravity was invariably its infantry.
This "normal" balance has also been assumed for the Late Bronze Age.
The thesis that Mycenaean chariots hauled infantrymen to and from a
battlefielcf is based on the assumption (common in archaeological circles)
1 Chapter III of Kendall's \Varfare is a lexicon of military terms from Nuzi; approximately
SOpercent of the terms refer to horses, chariots, and the chariot corps. In Bears Orgattization
there are 36 p3ges {58-9J} on the chariotry JnJ only two (103-4) on the infantry. Lejeune's
and Franccscherti's text-based studies of Mvcenae.m warfare deal primarily with two topics:
chariots .mcl the o-lea tablets.

iJ6

A .\ 1 \ LI TAR Y E X I' L. A N A T \ II N

th at th e My ce naea ns fo ug h t on foot . So me scho la rs h ave in fact su pposed

th at in the N ear East as w ell ch a r io ts we re mi lita rily usefu l o nly as infa ntry
tr an sp orts. T h us Jacques G ern er. co m pa ri n g th e m ilitary ch ario ts o f C h in a
w it h th o se of ules civilisatio ns oc cid en ra les," fou nd it noteworth y th at in
C h ina th e cha riot wa s acr ua lIy used ill batt le: he assn rued th at in the Wes t it
se rved o n ly as a ta xi fo r footso ld iers, es pecia lly th o se needi ng a fas t ge ta wa y fro m the buttlcfield.v Even Egyptol o gi st s h ave been in clined to see th e
infa n try as basic to New Kin gdom w ar fare. As noted in ch ap te r 10, Schulm a n recently propo sed tha t in New Ki ngd om Egyp t th e cha riotry played a
m arg in al ro le while th e infa nt ry bore th e brun t of th e fighting (he assumed
t ha t th ere were fifry infa ntry m e n for eac h cha rio t). In R. O. Faulkne r's
reconstru ct ion o f Ne w Kin gd om wa rfa re, cha riots a re more im po rt a nt but
neverthele ss funct ion p r ima rily as a sc ree n fo r a massed infa ntry : " In a field
ac t io n it se em s to h ave bee n th e ch a riotry wh o to o k th e firs t shock of battle ,
th e infantry advancing behind th em to ex p loi t a ta cti cal su ccess o r to
stem th e ene m y's adva nce if m atters went a wry, so mewhat as in mo d ern
warfa re the infantry o perat e behind a sc ree n o f a rmoured vehicles."] Similarl y, the th esis th at H ittite cha rio t wa rr iors fo ug h t wi th the thru sting
s pe a r gene ra lly presupp o ses th at th e p ri mary o b jec tive aga ins t w h ich th e
Hittite cha r io ts d elivered th eir fro n ta l charge wa s a n enem y infantry
form ati on .
The co n clusio ns reach ed in chapter 10 a bo ut the natu re of c ha r io t warfare lea ve little ro om fo r th e cla sh of clo se-order infantry fo rmatio ns . Ba ttles betwee n east ern Med ite rra nea n ki ngdo ms of th e Lat e Bron ze Age, like
th o se de sc ribe d in th e /'..uihabharata, m ust h a ve consis ted p rima rily of tw o
cha riot fo rces cha rg ing ag a ins t and past each othe r a n d th en ci rclin g bac k
to ch a rge each o the r a ga in, the a rche rs a ll th e while shoot ing ag ai nst th e
o p po sing squ a dro ns. H o w a m ass for ma tio n of offensive infa ntry co u ld
h ave co ntrib uted so met h ing to such a battl e (o r even h ave kept abreas t of it )
is no t sel f-evid e nt, a nd tha t it d id ca n no t be taken for gra n ted .
We have see n th a t at Kad esh th ere w as no e nco u nte r between o p pos ing
in fantri es, nor d o es th er e see m to ha ve bee n o ne at M egidd o , the o nl y o the r
Lat e Bron ze Age bat tle abou t which so m e d etails are known. In describin g
hi s army 's march to M egiddo, Thutmo se III noted th e pres ence of an
infa ntry," but he d oe s not me n tio n it in co n nect io n with th e b attle itself,
a nd h is boory list impli es that th er e was no infa ntry e ngageme nt (t he
Egy p t ian s, it w ill be recall ed , slew fewer th an a hundred men an d captured
.1 Ge rne r, " No te su r le cha r en Chine, " J 10 : " Les indicatio ns qu 'on possede po ur lcs
civilisations o cciden tale, laissenr pcnser qu e le char sert norrnalemen t J U trans port des
co mba rta nts ;}pied d 'oe uvre et leur permet !Oi besom est de pre ndr e 1.1 Iuite. C c n'es t p J.S en
cha r q ue sc der oulenr o rdiua irernent les co m b.irs, l.e co mbat en cha r est J U con rraire de reglc

en Clune."
Faul k ner, "Egvpn.m "l ilitary O rganizano n," ./1-:04 39 (1 9S3 ;: 4.L
, AN t: T. 2.15 (tra ns . John W i!>on ).

r o o r S O L. DI E R S

137

o n ly 3 4 0 , w h ile seizi ng 92 4 cha riot s a n d 2041 h orses). Appa rently Th utmo se 's in fantry was not put to wo rk until th e seven-m o nt h sieg e of
Megid do be ga n . O n th e Ca n a a n ite side th ere sur ely a lso wer e in fant rym en ,
but d ur ing th e ba tt le th ey m ay ha ve been stat io ned at Mcgiddo itsel f,
servin g as defen sive bow me n at op the w alls a nd-u nti l th ey p ani cked a nd
clo sed th em -before th e ga tes of th e c it y.
Refe rence s to less famo us ba tt les al so co nsp icuous ly ign ore infantry
enco u n te rs. In th e Nuzi text s ar e such remini scen ce s as "when th e ch a rio ts
of Hanigal b ut ga ve battle at th e to WII of Lub ti" o r " w h e n th e ch a riots gave
battle in Silliawa.I" Possibl y infa nt rym en als o g ave battle a t th ese times
and pl aces ; but if th ey did , t hei r co nt rib uti on was a p pa ren tl y to o sma ll to
h ave bee n ap p rec iated o r mentioned . lf one is lo o kin g fo r th e kin d o f ba tt le
fam iliar fro m cl assical a n tiqu ity-e- heav y in fantri es fight in g h and- to -hand
in th e cen ter, w ith horse t ro o ps en ga ged o n the w ings-one w ill sea rch in
va in th e d o cum ents a nd picto rial representati ons th at h ave come dow n to
us fro m th e Lat e Bronze Age k ing d o m s prio r to th e C a tast ro phe . T h e
notion t ha t La te Bronze Age ch a rio t rics fo u gh t in su p po rt of m assed infan try fo rma tio ns is a misappreh e nsion a nd a n a nac hro nis m.
T he re is n o d oubt th at so me N ear Easte rn kin gs rai sed su bsta nt ia l in fantries wh en th ey went to wa r. A lthou gh w e h ave no figures fo r Ne w Kingdom Egypt, it is probably sa fe to assume th at o n a major ca m pa ign the
pharaoh to o k a lo ng severa l th ou sand in fantrym en. Egyptian footso ld ier s
were eith er " shooters " (bow me n) o r nahhtu -aa, a term that liter all y mean s
"s trong -a rm boys" a nd d eno tes h and-to -h an d fighters. 6 Th e "sho o ters,"
perh a ps a ll na ti ve Egypti an s, were gro uped in co m pa n ies of 20 0 o r 25 0
men , th e co mp anies bearin g n a mes s uc h as " At e n App ea rs fo r Him " o r
" Pacifier of God s.? "
The G rea t King of Hatti w as o fte n accomp an ied o n ca m pa ign by man y
mo re m en o n foot th an in cha rio ts. Hi s vassa l, the k ing o f Kizzu watn a ,
brought to hi s lord a force of o ne th ousand in fant rymen a nd o ne hundred
ch a riots ; eve n if each of th e cha riots h ad a three-m an c rew, the in fant ry
would h ave o ut n u m be red th e men of th e cha r iot ry by more than three to
one. A sim ila r ratio is attest ed in the forces of tw o kingdoms th at fough t
against th e Hi t tires." And a t Kadesh, as we ha ve seen, M uwaralli s was
accompan ied by a n infantry form ation of a t leas t sevent ee n th ousand a n d
p ro ba bl y th ir ty-seven th o usan d me n. T h e Hittite vassals of ea stern Sy ria
mu st h ave bro ug h t th ou san d s of troops to th eir confrontati on w ith
Tu ku lti-Ni n u rta I o f Assu r, since h e claims to h ave ca p tu red twen ty-e ight
th ousa nd o f th em ."
, Kendall . W" rf" re. 114 and 132 .
,. Stillma n .1nJ Tallis, Armies, S.
7 IbiJ. See also f aul kner. " Eg
y ptian :>.l ilit a l) O rga n izatio n. " 45.
II Beal, () rg iJm =J t i m l , 70 2..
q D. D. Luc kenbill. Ancien t RIt( nrds of A..>syrJil and H.llry/oHid. ve l . I. nov. 164 Jn J 17 1.

138

A M IL ITARY EXPLANAT ION

T he crucial qu est ion is not how man y foot sold iers there were in Egypt o r
in Hatri but what th ey did. H irtirologists have recognized that despite its
II
size th e infa ntry seems not to have counted for mu ch in the typical H itt ite
1I,'tI,'{...L .~ batt le. Oliver Gurney concluded th at in most battles the Hitt ite infa ntry
~ played on ly " a subo rdinate part ," and Beal found th at " the key part of th e
j ! to. ' ~"( ,,,
H ittite armed forces was the cha riotry." 10 Th e reason why the tabl ets say
1; /) "'-'Y of!
so little abo ur the infantry, I believe, is that in the typical battl e there was no
i! c~'''f.
engage ment of massed infa nt ries.
~'
We have evidence for infantries going o n the attack in the Late Bron ze
I
Age pr ior to the Ca tastrophe but not in co njunctio n with a chariotry. A
li
,,
co nt ras t emerges, it seems, between warf are against civilized enemies and
warf ar e aga inst men from the hinterland , who m I sha ll call barb ar ian s.
Th e kingdom s, a nd cities genera lly,were sited in fertile plains, which co uld
be dom inated and defended by cha rio ts. When o ne king attacked ano the r
the co nfro nt atio n was therefore a cha rio t battle. Similarly, a ki ngdo m
!i
cou ld depend o n its cha riots against bar bar ian s who raided its perim eter.
Th Egyptia n reliefs.illusrrabte battl es ihn w.hichdRdamhesski
es thde Great leddhis
I
cha rro rry agai nst vano us tri esmen w 0 inva e t e ing o m or its epende ncies. Reliefs o n a temp le at Beit-el-Weli show Ram esses in his cha rW~7 iot, shooting his arrows a t a crow d of Nu bian infantry bowmen . II No
t I ,e. lei"'>
Egyptian infantry men are show n in the reliefs or menti on ed in the inscripJ.. .s
tion s, and the relief depicts only Ram esses and two oth er Egyptian chariot
, Ii h c.e./l.S
archers, shoo ting into the crowd of retr eat ing Nubian s. A seco nd relief at
Jc ...vt.
Beit-el-Weli portray~ Ra rnesses' victo ry over Shos hu, o r Bedouin, trib esijo e
men . Th e Shoshu warrio r typically carries a single spea r (evidently a
li et,.,:
thrusti ng spea r) a nd a sho rt weapon whose function has not been ident i'1
tied } ZLike the N ubia ns, the Shoshu warrio rs carry no shield and wea r no
1! '
metal armor. Here too, it may be th at Ramesses depended in part o n
offensive infantrymen ,. but they arc not show n or mention e.d.
I',' ,
O n th e o the r hand , 11\ o rder to carry the batt le to mountamou s o r ro ugh
11'
terr ain , where chariot s could not go . a king necessar ily depended o n an
i I ,:
infa ntry. '[here is o ne clear case of an Egyptia n infantry force co nfro nti ng a
barb ar ian infantry pr ior to the Catas tro p he, alth ough .it is hypothetical
:I
rath er than real. Our so urce here IS th e Papyrus Anastasi, o ne of the most
il
illumi na ting pieces of evide nce we have for the milita ry Situatio n on th e eve
of th e Ca rastrophe. t ' Thi s papyrus, dated to the end of the Nineteent h
Dyna sty, is a letter w ritten by a royal official named H o ri to an ambi tio us

be.I: .

:I

:.;,''
I

II

u~

!I:

U"J:' J'

tt

"'7

{;:>'It*'..J1
at.s

!I

iI

Gurney. Th e Hittites (Harmondsworth: 1961 ), 106; Beal, Orgolniz,;ztio11, 698.

Yadin. Art ofIVolr{olre, vol, 1, 234- 35.
IL For rhe lief see ibid., 232-33; YaJin suggests that the second wea pon of rhe Shoshu
tribes me n may be a sidle sword . One Sh03U warrio r carries two short spears. presum ab ly
10

II

javeli ns .
11 See Wilsm\ rr.rnslntion of rhe papynl~ in AN ET, 475 - 7~ .

FOOT SOLD I ER S

139

but inexp erien ced and untu tored young man . IIIthe co urse of ridiculing his
co rrespondent's ignor an ce of pra ctical affairs, Hori purs before him a hypoth et ical military situa tio n, aski ng him wh at sort of food sup plies he
would need were he quarterm aster for an army of five thou sand men sent
to cru sh a rising of the nc'arim in D jahan (the significance of this casus
belli we sha ll exa mine in cha pte r 14). Hor i details wh at this hypoth etical
exp edition ary force would co nsist of: "Th e bowmen of the army whi ch is
before thee amo unt to 1900, the Sherde n 520 , the Qeheq 1600, the Me shwesh (100 ), and the N ubia ns 880- TOTAL 5000 in all, not co unt ing their
officer s." Since food for the horses is not part of the problem, we may
assum e th at the nineteen hundred bowm en are o n foot rath er th an in
cha rio ts. And since the other th irty-on e hundred troop s-all ba rba rianare di fferent iated from the bowmen, they are presum abl y hand -to -hand
warrior s.
Th e Pap yrus Anastasi docs suggest that at the end of th e thirt eenth
cent ury B.C . the Egypti an s could field an infa nt ry force of five thou sand
men, most of these being profession al skir mishers. Th e pap yru s does no t,
however, suggest a close-o rde r for ma tio n (each of the nat ion al contingents
a pparently has its ow n officers, and th e type of battle en visaged must be a
guerrilla since it will be fought against disor ga nized tribe smen ). And since
no cha rio ts acco mpa ny the five thou sand infa nt rymen the pap yru s certainl y does not contradict o ur th esis that prio r to the Catastroph e chariots
were not used to suppo rt mass formation s of offensive infantry. In battles 6 .../y I!: ~r '
fou ght close to hom e, o r agai nst another kingdo m, a palace co uld rely <4 t'r,'k"/ ;;;
entirely upon its cha riot force. Onl y o n th ose occas ions whe n a kingdom Wolillj,'!
fo ugh t aga inst barb arian tribesmen in the tribesmen's own hab itat wo uld be
/ 4 "" 1'>footsold iers bear most o r all of the burden .
CD",, (,,;.......
Alth ough we may generalize th at in the Late Bron ze Age men of the cities
and kingdo ms normally relied o n cha rio try, an exception may-be inferred
for th e kingdom of Assur, on the northeastern fro ntie r of the civilized
world. In the thirteenth cent ury, as was noted in cha pter 2, the kings of
Assur freque ntly fought aga inst barbarous enemies o n their no rthern and
eastern borders, and here the mo unt ainous terr ain must have required the
empl oyment of a sizeabl e Assyri an infantry. When Gutians, from Guri in
the Zagros Mountains, came down into th e plain to raid Assyr ian dependenc ies, Sha lmaneser I (1274- 1245) left his infantry behind and swiftly
rode o ut- with o nly a th ird of his cha riots-to ro ut the Gu tian s, " wh ose
numbers arc co unt less as the sta rs of heaven , a nd wh o know how to
plu nder." 14 Bur when Tukulti-N inurta I (1244- 1208) boasts of invading
Guti itself and of sla ugh tering " the armies of the Kuri (in th eir ) mountai n

R. 1- ";

J.4

Luckenbill, An cia'll Records of Assyr i,;l Jnd Babyl onia, vol. I, no. 117.

140

A MIL I T A R Y E X

LA NAT I ON

fastnesses," 15 we mu st ass u me th a t th is was d one by a n in fantr y capab le o f

han d-to- h and figh tin g. Perhaps th e Assyr ian s' long ex pe rience in in fa ntr y
warfar e wa s not unre lat e d to th e fan th at th e k in gdo m of Assur was o ne o f
th e few to su rvive th e C ata strop he .
In ki ngdo ms o ther th an Assur d epe nde nce o n an o ffensive infa ntry mu st
have been unusu al. In the Aegea n, the pa laces in th e pl ain s m ay have be e n
o cc asio na lly rai d ed by m o u nt ai neers ea rly in th e Lat e H ell ad ic per iod ;
a lt ho ug h th e pla ins co u ld be defen d ed by cha r iot s, ret ali ati on w o u ld have
been u nd ertak en by infantr ies. T he famo us " Ca p ta in o f t he Black s " fresco
from Kno sso s see ms to have show n a t ro o p of black spe ar men , le d b y a
" M ino a n ~ ca p ta in . I '; W ha t re ma in s o f th e Pylos "B a ttle Scene ~ (see pl at e
2) shows the pal ace's wa rri or s overco m ing a gro u p o f sav ages clad in
a n ima l sk ins. I ? T his is no t a barrle be tween in fan tr y fo rmat io ns but a
guerrilla in whi ch each o f th e pa lace 's me n duel s w ith a n o p po ne n t. Sinc e
t he Pylian s we a r bo ar's-rusk helmet s, th ey a re o bv io usly wa rrio rs o f h igh
sta tus (the tu sk s of mo re tha n seve nt y bo a rs we re required to make a sing le
helmet ). But wh eth er t he Pylos fresco re flec ts co ntemporary life o r recall s a
legend ar y eve nt, we do not know - and a t a n y rat e it is d oub tful th a t in the
pax My cenaica th e p alaces we re o fte n t hrea te ned by bar ba rous o p po ne n ts.
T he Hittite kin gs ha d more o ppo rt u n ities to use an inf ant ry. Fro m tim e to
time they campai gn ed ag ains t ba r ba r ia ns who fled into h illy o r m oun ta ino us country, and on such occas io ns the Hittite king bo asts of havi n g
pursued the fugitives o n fool. It ma y be th at the first phase of s uc h a war
fea tu re d the Hittite chari o t ry, a nd the seco nd phase-in ro ug h ter rai nthe infantry. Even for t he H ittites, howev er, inf antry figh tin g wa s unu su al.
In hi s stu dy Richar d Beal ident ified th e Sumerogr am ER IN. MES Gi R. tJ L A as
t he st rict eq uiva lent of o u r word "infa nt r y" (as in th e ex p ress io n " t he
cha ri otry a nd th e infa n try " ) b u t fo u nd o n ly seve n inst an ces of th e term in
th e Hittite texts.! " Referen ces to infa nt ry in d o cu ments from o the r Lat e
Bro n ze Age kin gd oms see m to be eq ua lly sc a rce.
In a ny case, w ha t evid enc e we have sugg es ts that p r io r to the C a tas t rop he infa nt ry ba tt les oc c ur red o n ly in pl aces t ha t char io ts co uld no t go . In
t he pl a ins a nd in "no rm al " ter ra in, w here the ch ariot fo rces we re a t hom e,
,\ lbid., no . 152On th i-,fresco see Arthur EV.lJl"~ The ['oJlole/? ofA1illo :;at !\.JIUSSO:;;. ve l. 2., pa rt 2 (Lond o n,
1Y2Xl. 7S5 - 57 and the acco mpanying co lo r plate (p late xiii ]. T he black sold ier ru nning,
beh ind the AL"~t.3n " captain " seems to ca rr y 3. single spea r. T he da te of the fresco ca nno t be
ascertained (ir W .I S founJ near-s-but not in- thc Ho use of the Frescoes). Evans no ted that the
fn gl11t:nl s " d iner in chn ructer " from those In th e fresco crock and " seem ro have he lou ged to J
so mew h.n la ter dare.,.
17 Fo r th e fLTr,m ellts in th eir o ri ~in ;l l st.ire J OlI fo r Pier de jo ng's reco nstru ctio n see ~b hel
L in g, Th e [><11.,,--(' of N estor at P)'/o j 111 \X!{'st er n ,\ ft'5>senioJ. vol. 2 : The ir escnes (Pr ince ron .
1%9 ), pl.u c \ 1 '12 H 04,: for Lon):\ comment , sec pp. 42 -47.
I f>

x BeJ.!. O rgJlIl ~oJtinl1 . 103 - 4 .

H JOTSOL DI E R S

141

."
.f/~
...

.-:-:-;-:-"'
.y...:~~~~:-:-:-:-:-:.:.:.:-:.:.:
..:-:-:-:-:-:-:-;--.-;.,;-;.:-:
.
r LATE

2. Reconstr ucted " Battle Scene" fresco from Pylos

th e cha rio tries th em selves did the figh ti ng. In the Late Bron ze Age char io ts
did net serve- w hether as a sc ree n in the fro nt or as pin cer s o n th e fla n ksto s up po rt mass infa nt ry form a tio ns.

" R UNNERS" : TH E ROLE O F I N FANT RYM EN I N

C H A RIOT WA RFA RE

O n di e co nt ra ry, before the Ca tas t ro p he foor so ldie rs see m to have s u ppo rt ed th e cha rio tr y, O n th e ma rch , fo o tso ldiers ca n be assumed to have
se rved as a n esco rt for th e cha rio ts movin g in co lu m n a nd as a gua rd for the
nig htl y enc a m p ment (in w hi ch a cha rio t a r my, its horses a ll un yo ked a nd
tethe red , wo uld have been excep tio na lly vulnera ble), In th e afterma th o f 01
vict ory, in fantr ymen wo u ld p ro ba bl y have pur sued fug itives w ho tled to

144

FOOT S O L D I ERS

A .\ 11 L I T A RYE X P LA S A T l O S

145

iots ; o r th e cas ua lty might be a n ent ire cha r iot .md its crew, on e of th e
horses havin g been killed o r wounded, o r perh ap s the veh icle itself havin g
been immo bilized b y a broken wheel o r ax le. The d isp at chin g o f th ese
s tra nde d cas ua lties , it is clear from Egypti an picto rial evidence (see plat es J
and 4 ), w as left to foor soldiers. Armed w ith a sho rr spea r and d irk . th e
skirm is he r wa s indeed indi spen sabl e fo r " II ph ases of a chariot battle. W,
mi ght say th at w hereas in G reek and Ro ma n tim es horse troops sup po rted
th e infa ntry fo rma tio n, in cha riot wn rta rc in fant rymen as indi vidu a ls or in
sma ll squ a ds s u p po rted the horse troop to w h ich th ey we re attach ed .
Alt hough ve ry lit tle ca n be learned a bo ut the se runners, we ca n hardl y
avo id su p po sing th at ever y cha rio t co rps held th em . Although detected in
Egy p t by Sch u lma n, the y ha ve not yet been spo tt ed in the lexicographi ca l
fog th at enve lo ps mil ita ry m atter s a t Knossos, Pyle s, and orh er sites wi th
limited pictori al evidence on w ar fare . It is nevertheless possible that th e
ahu in fourteenth -century N uz i was a cha rio t runner. Lit erall y, the ahu wa s
a " b ro the r," but the designation w as in fact used for a certain kind o f
warri or a nd most likel y for a ce rta in kind o f foorsoldier attached to th e

P LA T E

3. A sliardann skirmisher slaying

,1

Hittite charioteer at Kadesh . Abydos

relief

fortification ). Po ssibl y o n so me o ccasions s ki r m ishers rode in to battl e o n

th eir co m ra d es' cha r iots (the G reek apobates comes to mind her e ) a nd
di sm ounted when their veh icle s began to clo se with the en em y. Alt ernativel y, sk irm ishers ma y ha ve m oved as a troop. In reliefs, sq uad s o f four
Egyptian infantrymen are so me times s ho w n m ar ching al on gsid e a cha rio t
as it proceeds toward battl e, th e four ca rryi ng s h ields and eithe r spea rs o r
sick le sw o rd s. The Arn orite ne'arim wh o sav ed the Amon ca m p in 12 7 5
s .c, see m to ha ve rea ch ed the ca mp as a co m p a ny.
The unusu all y real isti c Abyd os reliefs of the Kad csh battl e show th at
Egy p tian runner s mu st h ave worked clo sel y with their chario t sq uad ro n,
their fun ct ion being to deal w ith th o se of th e enemy w ho were o n fo ot. In a
cha r iot battle, the enemy o n fo ot wo uld have included not o nly the o p posing runn er s but als o cas ua lties from th e cha rio ts themselves: s kir m ishe rs
mu st thus have been resp on sibl e for " fin ish ing off" an enemy c ha rio t cre w
w hose vehicl e had been imm obili zed . We ca n assu me rh.rr in a ny cha riot
barrlea r.ipidlv moving cha r io t ho st would lea ve its casua lties in its wak e.
Th ese m igh t be indi vidu al men , wounded o r sim p ly fallen from th eir cha r-

A shurd.m.i skirmisher cut t ing off the hand of a slain Hittit e ch a riotee r at
Kadesh, Ahydos relief

PLA T E 4 .

146

A M I L I TAR Y EX P LAN A T I O N

cha riorry. Kendall 's anal ysis sh ows th at th ese warriors were neith er cha riot eer s nor cha riot wa rrio rs but were attached to cha riot units, a nd th at
there were two suc h brothers for every cha norcer.>
It is certain that the Hitt ite kings used cha rio t runners, but littl e can be
said a bo ut them . Beal's su rvey turned up seve ral referen ces to troo ps wh o
we re to " run before" the Hittite king. 27 No Hittite term tor "c ha riot
runn er " emerged from the texts, although the piran huyatalla (" fo rerunne r" ) may in seve ra l passages have so me such rneanin g.> It is a lso possible
th at th e shariluuoa troop s, wh o seem to have been a tertium quid alongside
" infa nt ry " and cha riotry, were skirrnishe rs.?" T he importance of runners
in Hitt ite cha riot wa rfa re was after all grea t enou gh th at Rarne sses II
ment ion ed them immedia tely afte r the cha riots th emselves. T he " poetic"
acco unt of the Battle of Kad esh declar es th at Rarnesses ..fou nd twent y-five
hundred cha rio t-teams sur ro unding him in his road, to geth er with a ll the
runn ers belo ngi ng to the foes of H atti a nd the numerous count ries which
we re with him . " 30 Th ese Hittite runn ers must be co nt ras ted wi th the s to lid
ranks of infantry th at sta nd mot ionl ess, in the reliefs, around the fortress of
Kadesh.
In Linear B tablets no term has yet been int erpreted as th e equ ivalent of
ski rmis her o r runner. Th e profession al warri or s emp loyed by th e Pylos and
Knossos palaces, however, may very well have been intended to serve in
th at ca paci ty. There may be a bit of pictorial evidence for My cen aean
runn ers (o r, more accurately, walkers). O n a late thirteenth- or ea rly
tw elfth- century krater from Tir yns two warri or s, each armed with a sho rt
spea r a nd a sma ll, round shield, pro ceed on foot in front of a ch ari ot. 3 I It is
~ h Kendal l, \VtITfarc. 73. finds that " the ' b rothers' an d r11~ cha rioteers h.r..'e the same
co rm na nding o fficers, a nd that the form e r are ge nera lly tw ice .1S" num ero us .l~ the: lar rer. "
! ' B<., I. O rganization. 23 4- 3 5. 1.3 7. 23 811.723. an d 555 .
I N For references see ibid.. 554- 59; Ik:tl's own preference is to translate the ter m J S
" lea der " o r " vanguurds ma n."
~ . . Bea t. ibi d.. 125 - 27, cires a number o f tex ts rh.rr refer to "rile infant ry, the ho rse rroopv,
.ind rhe sha rik llwd ." but no te xt sU~e's. rs the ba sis for rhe d ifferent iatio n. Cf. Beal's su mma ry: .. If the sa rik u u sa- we re neit her infan try no r ho rse tr oops, w hat wert: th ey? . . . O n th e
basis (.I f pr esenr evide nce ir is impossib le to SJy wh at so rt o f rroop s rhey were ," In p rivate
co rrespo nd ence Beul wel com es the id enrificatio n o f the sharik uu -a tro o ps >IS cha rio t runne rs
bur regr t.' rs th ar "ir canner be prove n o ne way o r another. "
h' Kadcsh po em . lilies 84-8 5 . " tr anslated by Schu lma n, " Egyp tia n C hario try," 90 n. 11 1
(d. p. 89 n. 106 ); the Egypt ian term used he re is pbrr, accompanied by an ideog ra m of :I
running ma n armed with shield a nd spe.u . In Gardi uer 's rranslan on (KJdt!5h, P85) the wo rd is
rr.msl.ued no r AS "runners " but .1S " cha mpion s. " In his nore o n th e line G.lf uiner exp lai ns :
" PI,TT m eans hrera lly 'runner,' but \'It''' , i 54 1. 14-I X sho ws that ir WJs A ge ner a l term for
do ugh ry w arrio rs," O n the H ittite runn ers see .11500 Stillman a nd Talli s, Annie's , 41 .
n Vcrm eu!e and K.lrJ.geo rghi\ . M y t-t'l hll'u H r ;t.'/()rt~11 \~ISt! PJill tillg, 108- 9, w ith plat e X , I .
Althou gh the .m isr did not sho w th e warrio rs wi th ;lny o ther we apo ns, he mJ y have inten ded
rhe .:; p e; l r\ .I S rh mw in g-vpea r-, o r i ~I \'d i n s ; the sha ft is ~ri p p(' J with the fingerrip s of .1 coc ked
lu nd, T he .tut hor v J;He the vase [0 the tr.rnvirio n between LH JUB .1I1d me.

F OOTS O L D I E RS

147

also poss ible that the apobates kn own from first-m illennium athletic co ntests was the distant descendant of a seco nd- millenn ium chariot runner. V
Let us summa rize what ca n be dedu ced abo ut the role of infa nt rymen in
the Late Bronze Age kingdom s of the eastern M editerranean. Infant ry
battl es of a guerrilla type were evide ntly fou ght in ba rba ria , o r in locales
impas sab le for cha riots. Kings a lso requ ired a n infantry for such sta tionary
assignm ent s as the siege or defense of a city. When the cha rio try was on the
march, foorso ldie rs would have prov ided a n esco rt an d gua rded the encampment . During the battle itself footso ldiers were appa rently employed
in one of two ways. Man y of them seem to have served as a co rdon, a haven
to which wor sted cha riots could flee. O thers served as hand-to -hand
skirmishers-or runners-who fought in immedia te su ppo rt of the cha riot squa dro n to which they were attac hed . Th ese vario us respon sibilities
were all impo rta nt , but they were neverth eless ancillary: infantrymen supplement ed th e cha riotry, rath er th an the o ther way a roun d. Prior to th e
Catastro phe there is no evidence for a clash of close-o rde r infantry form ations o r to r cha rio t warriors suppo rt ing their co mra des on foot.

THE R ECR UITMENT OF INFANTRYM EN IN THE LATE BRONZE A GE

Th e recruitment of footsoldiers by the eastern M editerranean kingdoms is

consis tent with the secondary role that infant ry played in the Late Bronze
Age. Th ere is, first of all, no evidenc e for a genera l ca ll-up of adult males in
these kingdom s: nothing, that is, to par allel the citizen militias of Archai c
Greece and Italy o r the tribal militi as of Israel and Ju dah in the earl y Iron
Age. Before the Ca tastro phe, kings dep end ed upo n professional s rather
th an upon mo bilized civilians, and man y infantrymen were appa rent ly just
as professional (even though of relat ively low status) as were the chariot .
crews. Assyria, agai n, may have been exceptio nal. Since Assyr ia was a
fro nt ie-r kingdom , the tradition of a tri bal milit ia may have prevailed there
in the secon d millennium, as it app arentl y did in the first (although th e
pr act ice cannot be demon strated from th e few Mid dle Assyrian docum ent s
that survive). At a ny rat e, in those kingdom s fo r wh ich there is substantia l
evide nce the gene ra l popu lation was never mobili zed.
So me kings ordered a conscriptio n o n occasio n, but th e num ber of men
called up was sma ll. Levies in Egypt tr ad ition ally took o ne of every ten
tem pleservitor s for military serv ice, but Rarnesses III pr ided himself o n
II N. B. C rowther, "Th e Apob arcs Reco nsidered t Demo srhencs Ixi 23 -9)." j ll S III
! 1991 ): 174- 76 . bri ngs rogerher J II th e Greek tex ts referring 10 rbis o bscure athlete, wh o

lea pt fro m J. cha riot ro acco mplish several feJrs of ru nning .tud wa rfare . Crowrher (p. 174 j
notes that fo urth -ce ntur y At heni an s irn.rgmed rh.rr rht' u/)011lt,11 wh om t hey were watchi ng
were replica ti ng rhe WJy that "G reeks :1110 burbn ri.mv In Homer ma de wa r Jg Jinst each
ot her ."

148

t~d'1ll. j'>

",,/t.X- AOJ--

jyf l-'.v1

A MIL I T A R Y EX

Brea sted. AR. vo l. 4 , no . 35 4 ; d. G ar din er. Egypt, 293.

Ed gerto n an d Wi lso n, H isto rical Recor ds o f Ramscs III , p lat e 29 : "T h e ar my is nssem b led . an d rhey ar c the bu lls of rbe lan d : every pi cked m a n [of J a il [Egypt\ a nd the runn e rs."
\,:: Be.il, O rgJ 1I iZJtio 1l, 220-40.
I n O n H itt it e levies see ibid . Ll3- 46.
r- Helrze r, In ternal O rg<1"i: JtlO" . 108- 11.
h i !\1. Die trich a nd O. Lo retz, " Die Sch a rd an a in d en Tex ren vo n Ugarir, " in R. St ieh l an d
G . A. Leb m.m n. cds .. Annls c und Un ioersalge scb ichte : Festschr ift H ans Erich St ier (M unst er.
19 7 2), .; J, sugges t "Nah kimpfer " as a rra nsla rion of tnn rn, a te rm rhar ar Uga rit is a lm ost
interc ha ng ea b le wi th sha rda n .
,.. . Hclrze r, Int ernal () rg. m i ~ J tion , 105 - 8 .
H

\4

f 0 0 T S () L

L A N A T I () N

hav ing fo rgo ne even thi s mod est exacno n.P For his toorsoldi ers he will
have relied up on rhe professiona ls whom he hired . T hese included both
"picked men " of Egypt and bar bari an s. T he Egyptia ns were appa ren tly nor
employed as runn ers, since a Mediner H a bu in scription differentiarcs rhe
two grou ps.>'
Th e H ittite kings depended pr imar ily up o n th eir regul ar a rmy, th e professio na l infa nt rymen known as UK U.US a nd sba rileutoa . When a serio us
ca mpaign was plann..d, thi s " standin g ar rny ' W:lS ro uti nely sup plemented
by troop s sent, u nder treaty, by pacified dis tricts on the front ier, espe cially
to th e north of Harti (where thou san ds of Kasknns, renowned for thei r
valo r, were to be found).3) Onl y in emerge ncies was it necessary for the
G reat King to levy tro op s from th e civilian populati on of H arri itself; a nd
when such levies were held, the recru its were disch a rged as soo n :IS
possiblc.v'
In Uga rit, Helrzer fo und so me eviden ce for co nscripnon.F indi vidu als
fro m va rio us villages being issued bow s by the palace o r being assigned as
rowers o n the king's ships. But agai n, th eir role W:lS mar ginal, a nd fo r th e
most part the king of Uga rir relied up on his professio nals-the mdrglm gu ards and the tn nm (the latter seems to have meant so mething like " ha ndto -h an d w:lrri or s" ).lHThe entire milita ry force at Uga rir, acco rding to
Hclrzer 's calcularion , was o nly 20 77 men , with o ne-twe lfth- or about 175
men-serving in :lny given month. Altho ugh this figure may be much too
low (He lrzcr him self not es that the king of Uga rir may have had a thou sand
cha riots), Hclr zer 's winnowing of th e tabl ets has at least show n that th ere is
no evide nce for any massed infantry in th at city. Th e single lar gest co nti ngent in his list a re th e mdrg!m-gua rds, who acco unt fo r over half (1050
men) of his roral.! "
In the M ycenaean kingdo ms there may have been no consc riptio n at a ll.
At Pyla s, wh ere the re were severa l hun dred cha riots, the cha riot crews
mu st have been al most as num erou s as th e infa nt ry. As indicated above, the
estima tes fo r the pop ulat ion rul ed b y the Pylos palace-range fro m 50 ,0 00
to 120 ,000 peo ple, b ur nowhere d o we hea r o f th ou san ds o f Me sscnia ns

l)

I L RS

149

being ca lled to th e colo rs. Th e five o-lea ra blets enume ra te 77 0 pediieue, a

wo rd thor is pro babl y to be eq ua ted with classica l G reek pedieis a nd
sho uld ther efo re mean " foorso ld iers" (altho ugh it mu st be said th at some
M yceno logisrs have recentl y deni..d that the o-ka ta blets have a nything to
do w ith milita ry matt ers).'!" At :lny rare, th e 770 men listed in th ese ta blets
wo uld be by far the la rgest number of men arresrcd for militar y pur poses
at Pylos, and the etbnica desig nati ng them suggest th at they were not
Messcni nn nat ives."! That th ere were no militias in the palace-star..s of
rhirr cenrh- cenru ry Gree ce ma y seem a her etical view, since th e M ycen aean
!awagetas is usually thought of as being a Hom eri c "s hepherd of the host"
and so as mar shal of a vast a rray of infantry format ions . But in all of the
tablets the only reference to th e Iau/agetas in a contex t that might co nceiva bly be milita ry is a n ent ry menti on ing " the cha rio teer of the latoagetas. "4 2
At Knossos, cente r of a ki ngdom rulin g well over 100 ,00 0 peo ple, the
largest num bers of men recor ded in the Linear B tablets a re 900 and 428.
Here roo, as Jan Driessen has arg ued, what few infa nt ryme n a re attested
a re very likely professio nal a nd non-C rera n.O
O ne must suspect th at in those Nea r Eastern kingdo ms in which conscriptio n was practiced the ca libe r of the levied troo ps was not very high.
Even in battl e the conscript may have been mor e a civilia n than a so ld ier. In
Egypt, as noted, o ne our of ten temple servit or s might be con scripted for
military du ty, and persons so infrequently levied a re not likel y ro have had
prior milit a ry experience. Hi ttite records indi cate th at the men co llected in
a royal levy might be assigned ro a variety of menial task s: serving as a
too rsoldie r was o ne, but alte rna tively the dr aftee migh t be ass igned to ca rry
ice o r har vest a vineya rd.":' At N uzi, the typic al sab shepi (" foo tso ldier ")
was ap pa rently a co nscript: in o ne of the few referen ces to such a troo p, the

'U

O n th e pcd iieu e in the o-ira ta blets see Le jeu ne , " Ci vilisat ion. " 31. A lexa nd er Ucbi rel,
" On th e ' M ilitary' Cha racte r of th e O KA Tab lets ." Kadmos 23 (19 X4 ): 136-63. argues rhar
the o-lea tablets have nothing to do with military matters and instead refer to "so me sort o f
a gr icu lt ur al wo r k. pro bably plou gh ing" (p. 163). Uchirel's a rg ume n t has been str o ngl y e ndo rsed by ja mes T. Hoo ke r. "Title s a nd Functi o ns in th e Pylian State. " in Killen . Stud ies in
M ycen ocJn and Classical G reek Present ed to John Chadw ick, 264- 65. If the o-i:a men we re
" fo reigne rs, " ho wever, as they seem to ha ve been , it is likely tha t their occupan o n was
"o mething mo re spec ial ized th an wor king in the field s.
<I J. M . Driesse n a nd C. Macd on al d , " Seine Mil itary Asp ects of the Aegea n in th e Late
Fifteen th a nd Early Fourteenth Centu ries e.c .," A IJSA 79 ( 19 X4): 49.
-I ': Lejeun e, "Civilisatio n," J 1 and 49 .
" \ D riessen . .. ~1 il i r;]ry Aspecrv," 5 1- 52 an d 55 - 56 . lind ... no evide nce for " native " infantrymen in th e serv ice of the Knc ...sos pa lace . If th e design at ion s of the severa l gr o ups of
infa ntryrneu mentio ne d in the ta blets a re indeed eth nic, th e m en we re ver y likely of fo reign
o rigin , " since these design.mons ca nno t he co nnected wit h C reta n pl ace-names menti on ed in
the Kno vsr.m a rchi ve O f late r " (p. 5 2 j.
-l4 Beat, O rg J tI;:,u I '-Oll . 140 - 4 1.

150

I.
i'

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tabl et specifies th at of seven foot soldiers o ne was a full er, two were smiths,
and one was a templ e official.4 \
How such recruitment might have been co nd ucted in th e Late Bro nze
Age is not indi cated, so far as I know, in a ny of our records. In th e M iddle
Bron ze Age, we cat ch a glim pse of how things might have proceed ed at
M ar i. TIle officer in charge of recruitment there d ecided, as Watki ns o bserved.v' th at so mething must be don e " po ur -enco urager les autres ~ a nd so
sent to King Zimri-Lim a mod est prop osal: " If my lord wi ll agree , let me
execute a cr iminal in th e priso n, cut off his head a nd par ad e it all aro und
th e to w n. . .to mak e the men afraid so that th ey w ill assemble qui ckly."
How co nscripts were used in Lat e Bron ze Age warfar e is uncl ear. At Uga rit,
as mentio ned , they were so metimes issued bo ws, a nd perhaps we may
imagine th em employed in either assa ulting or defend ing a fixed positi on.
Possibl y so me of the th irty-seven thou sand infant rym en who sto od wi th
M uwata llis at the gat es of Kadesh were co nscr ipts , a ltho ugh Rarn esses'
inscri ption does say th at the se men were all thrwarrior s, a term th at mean s
som eth ing like " valia nt " a nd was applied to exp eri enced troops. N o text
mention s the tr a inin g of co nsc rip ts, and we may su ppose th at th ey we re
assigned du ties of a ro uti ne nature. Th ere is no reason to th ink th at co nscripts were expected - o r able- to engage in hand-to-h and com ba t.
We may turn , the n, to the profession al foorso ldier s, wh o ap pea r und er a
va riety of designation s. In th e first cent uries of th e Late Bron ze Age mos t
prof essional foorsoldiers may have been natives of the kin gdom in which
the y fou ght. In late fifteenth-centu ry Nu zi there is littl e eviden ce for fo reign
infa ntry me n. In Eighreenth-Dynasry Egypt th e in fant rym en wh o su pported th e chariotry were pro babl y Egyptian ntnu, which liter all y may
have meant "yo ung men " but whic h Schulm an tr an slate s as " elite tr o op s."
On the Konosso stele, Thut mose IV described his force s as he attacked a
Nubi an prin ce who had rebelle d : "The chariot ry was in ba ttl e-lines bes id e
him, his infantry was with h im, the strong-of-a rm co nsis ting of th e nfru/
who were (usually) beside him o n both tlan ks." 47
"Even at th e end of th e Eightee nth Dynasty the ph ar aoh 's chariot runner s
were proba bly still nat ive Egyptians. O n a ches t from the to m b of
Tut ankhamun , fro m the middl e of th e fourtee n th cent ury, is a painting of a
battle in th e Leva nt . TIle pharaoh, actin g as both chariot eer and chariot
warri o r, domin ate s the scene, shooting the enemy's chariot horses. Bu t the
wor k of d isp atchin g th e crews of those chariots th at have been imm o bilized
is Perfo rmed by foo tso ldiers who attack with sho rt thrustin g spe a rs; a nd
4 ,~

F O O T S OL D I E RS

A M I LI T ARY E XP LA N A TI O r-;

',

Ken d all, V'/aTfare, 148 ; It

IS

'

ire dirscussso
' n ot' N"
' f a nrry ( I n
syrnp torna nc t hat clie e ntire
Ull S in

be co ntained on rhis one page.

4f, \'<'
a tk ins, .. Begm nings ," 2 7; fo r rhe rext se e A rchives Royaies de Mar;, vol, 2, no . 4 8.
47 Trn nda rio n fro m Schu lma n . "E gypti a n Cha rio rry," 76,

15 1

fro m their ga rb, hair, and weapo ns o ne wou ld su ppos e th e men to be nat ive
Egy prians.w
Among fore ign p rofessio nals, the lowest level seems to have been th at of
the hapiru (o r 'prw ), free-la ncers who were hired merely for a season or
ca mpaign. Egypti an , Uga ritic, and Hittite text s all make menti on of hapiru, both as hired tro op s a nd 3S tr oublesom e elements agai nst whom actio n
ha d to be tak en . Th e " Hebrew " tr adition s in ea rly Isr ael ind ica te th at
man y o f the hapiru who fou gh t for the ph ar aoh were hired fro m th e less
sett led population s in th e so uthern Levant. Etymo lo gica lly, the wo rd hap iru seems to have had no specifically milit ary conn ot ation, meanin g so methin g like "v agrants ~ o r "t hose who have crossed bo undarie s," and clearly
not a ll bapi ru were wa rrio rs. 4~ But in the Late Bro nze Age many hapiru
were associated with mer cenary milit ar y service, and app arentl y th ey were
hired for han d- to-h and rather th an for lo ng-ran ge co mba t. T he Sumeria n
ideo gra m th at is ofte n used a longside or in place of the wo rd hapiru is
Sft GAZ, which seems o riginally to have meant " he wh o com mit s aggressio n," or "one who knocks down," or even " killer. "50 T he bapiru , or
SA.GAZ, seem to have fo ught in con junction with cha riots but were not
th emselves chariotee rs or char iot a rc hers.\ )
A p referable so ur ce of seaso ned infa nt rymen fo r tem por a ry servi ce was a
vassa l state or a province o n the fro nt ier. As indicated a bove, th e H itti te
kings (who rar ely hir ed hapiru) seem to have assembl ed th e co nsid era ble
infantry need ed for a major campa ign by requirin g every su bject distri ct to
send to the G reat King a certa in number of tro op s. If o ne were to believe
Rarnesses th e Great's acco u nt of th e Bartle of Kadesh, the ki ngs of
Ha rt i d epended very mu ch up o n mer cenar ies. Accor di ng to Rarn esses,
Mu watall is st rippe d h is treas ury ba re in or der to hire manpower fo r the
showdo wn at Kad esh . Alt ho ugh Rarnes ses provid es us wit h a grea t list of
plac es th at sup plied troop s to M uw atallis, it is not clea r which of th ese were
Hittite vassa ls a nd which were simply areas from which volunteers or
mer cen ari es may have come. At a ny ra te, few of M uwa rallrs's th irt y-seven
thou sand infant ryme n were co nscripts fro m Hatt i: Ra rnesses refers to bo th
grou ps of M uwarall is's infa nt ry men as " tb r wa rrior s," a wo rd th a t may
mean "cha mpio ns" o r " valia nt me n" bur that more objectively seems to
Jr co lor illustration set:' Yad in, A r' o( W~rfiJr{,~ vol. 1. 11 6- 17 .
Of J sco re of st ud ies on t he lrapiru th e:rno sr recenr is hy NJJJ VNa 'a m an, " H ap iru and
H eb rews: The Tran sfe r of 3 Soci a l Term ro t he Lite ra ry Sce ne, " ]N l S 45 (1986 ): 271-88 ; see
also H , C az elles, "The H ebr ews," in D. Wi sem J n, ed .. People> 0{ O ld -Testame nt Times
(O xfor d, 1973 ), 1- 28,
' " M 3ry G r3y, "The Ij j boruHebr ew Prob lern in t he Lighr of rhe So urce ,..,131er;31Avarl.ible
a t Preven t," Heb reur Unio n College Annual 29 (1 958 ): LJ7fi'.
'>I W. H eick. Die Bt.
'ziehtmga t Agvpten :.u vorderasien im J. urrd 2. [abrt.nc end P. Chr.
(W iesb.IUl"l1, 1961 1. 5 21- .1 1, pro po sed rh at th e rcrrns marva un u J nJ 'pr u - sto od resp ec nve lv
to r chan orr y .mJ mt~ nt r y r roft's (,i o n ~k
G

4'"

152

~t;.,n "ffA"};"'>

FL'.4N-l-I""IA :/J,

Jolt"",,; ~

"p

.s 4.c.r J

0.1\ "

I-Iv.je .40>-\1 JOil ""~j'-.S

FOOTSOLDIERS

A MILITARY EXPLANATION

distinguish seasoned veterans from conscript troops. 52 Egyptian kings also

depended on frontier vassals for auxiliary troops. The Amorite ne'arim
who fought for Ramesses 11 in 1275 B.C. may have been furnished by his
vassals in the Levant.
In the thirteenth century, however, many kings preferred to secure the
services of valiant barbarians on a permanent basis. In return for a plot of
land, and for some other compensation, the warrior would be available for
annual campaigns and might perform guard or sentinel duty at other times
of the year. The advantages of having such men 111 one's service were, for a
Near Eastern king, considerable. For natives of Egypt and other kingdoms
of the Near East life was normally pacific, and consequently they were not
such keen hand-to-hand warriors as were men from less settled lands. In
the royal reliefs, the native Egyptians engaged in hand-to-hand warfare
fight in squads of four, the four standing shoulder to shoulder and so
presenting a solid wall of oblong shields. The barbarian skirmisher, on the
other hand, fights on his own; with no comrade to right or left, he depends
on his own round shield. Mobility rather than solidarity was essential. For
offense, the native Egyptian skirmishers wielded either thrusting spears
or long metal staves, with which they beat their opponent to the ground.
Such weapons were suitable for the compact squad, since a man was not
likely to injure his fellows if his weapon was parried or misdirected. The
barbarian was a far more efficient skirmisher: ferocious in his horned or
feathered helmet, he used his long sword to threaten opponents in a wide
perimeter.
Although the Egyptian pharaohs procured many of their professionals
from Nubia and Libya, some of the best (and perhaps the most picturesque) skirmishers evidently came from Sardinia. Both in Egypt and at
Ugarit a term sometimes applied to foreign professionals skilled at handto-hand combat is shardana.t> As I have argued in chapter 4, the word
originally must have meant "a man from Sardinia." That phrase, however,
although entirely meaningful when spoken by a Sardinian native living in
Egypt, would have meant little or nothing to a native Egyptian, who had
never seen a sea, an island, or a map. The proper noun therefore may
sometimes have been used as a common noun denoting a man's function in
society and his physical type. In Egyptian inscriptions the phonetic rendering of the word shardana is occasionally illustrated by a determinative: a
warrior wearing a horned helmet (between the horns is a small disk) and
usually carrying a small round shield and either a sword or a spenr.v' As
Heick concluded, whenever we see warriors in horned helmets depicted in
S2 On the thr warriors see Heick; Bcsiehungen, 531-32; Heick translures the term ,1.')
"Garde" or "Held."
q Dietrich and Lorera, "Die Schardana in den "lexren VOIl Ugant," 39-42; (;, A.
Lehmann, ,"lykclltsdJe Welt, 33-34.
)4 Heick. "Die Seevoiker," 9.

153

Egyptian reliefs we may reasonably "sic als Sardin identifizicrcn.t"> However, we must also suppose that for a thirteenth-century Egyptian scribe the
word shardana had a semantic field quite different from that of our word
Sardinian. So far as the provenance of such warriors was concerned, the
Egyptian scribe perhaps knew only that they came from a barbarous place
"in the midst of the sea."
The first Sardinians attested in Egypt were raiders who ravaged the Delta
in 1279 and were defeated and captured by Ramesses the Great. They had
come "in their warships from the midst of the sea, and none were able to
stand before them."56 Once impressed into Ramesses' service, the Sardinians evidently served him very well. They were an important and conspicuous part of the army he took to Kadesh in 1275 B.C.: in the Abydos reliefs
(see plates 3, 4, and 5), some Sardinian runners-warriors wearing horned
helmets and carrying dirks or short swords-are slaying the fallen Hittite
chariot crewmen and cutting off their hands, while others serve as personal
bodyguards for Ramesses. By the end of the thirteenth century, as the
Papyrus Anastasi suggests, a great many Sardinians (there are 520 in Hori's
imaginary force) were employed by the pharaoh. As noted above, in the
Medinet Habu reliefs we see warriors in horned helmets doing yeoman
service for Rarnesses III against the Philistines, and the accompanying
inscription divides the pharaoh's army into "the infantry, the chariotry, the
troops, the Sherden, and the Nubians." 57 At the same time, some warriors
in horned helmets had been recruited by the Philistine side. At least some of
these, too, were shardana in the narrower rather than the generic sense,
since one of the Medinet Hahu reliefs identifies as a shardana a captured
chief who wears a horned helmer.V At.er the eventful battles of his early
years, Ramesses III still employed many shardana and other barbarians
(especially from Libya), since in the Papyrus Harris the dead king addresses
"the princes, and leaders of the land, the infantry and chariorry, the Sher-

Heick, "Die Seevolker," 9.

From the Tanis stele, as translated by Gardiner, Egypt, 259.
57 Edgerton and Wilson, Historical Records of Ramses III, plate 29.
S8 Sandars, Sea Peoples, figs. 68 and 79. There is no reason, however, to suppose that all
warriors in horned helmets came from Sardinian stock. Sand.irs pointed out (ibid., 106-7)
that the homed helmet has an ancient pedigree in the Near East, going back to Naram-Sin of
Akkad. Perhaps it would be safest ro think of me horned helmer as appealing to a variety at
European, Mediterranean, and Near Eastern warriors: 3 professional warrior who wished to
look and feel formidable could hardly do better man strapping on his head the horns at a bull.
Most if not all Sardinian warriors serving in the eastern Mediterranean may have worn the
horned helmet. But Sicilians may also have worn it, since in the Medinet Habu relief of the
naval battle in 1179 B.C. the enemy wear horned helmets, and the accompanying inscription
identifies Shekelesh hut not Shard.ina among the enemy. We need not identify 3S Sardinians
the soldiers on the Mycenaean "'Warrior Vase," simply bee.ruse they wear horned helmets, nor
the sirml.irly accoutred Ingot God at Cyprus.
55
56

154

F O O TSO LD I E R S

A MILI TARY EXPLA :-:AT IO :,/

155

Uga rit.s-' and in so me se nse th ey und ou btedly were fore ign er s. Yer o ne of
the few sbardana menti on ed by nam e is " Arna r-Add u, so n of M urbaa l. "
T he names of fat he r a nd son arc bo th Semiric . Ano t he r shan /ana seems ro
have in herited fields at Uga rit.s-' the normal pr act ice being th at th e shardana recei ved land fro m th e king in return for m ilitar y ser vice, It thu s
appea rs that at Ugarit some of the shardana may have been fairly well
ass im ilate d int o th e genera l pop ulation. At Ugarit some shardana served as
m drglm -guards a nd as tn nm; th e latt er te rm, ,is noted a bove, evidently
means " ha nd- to -ha n d wa rrio rs. ""..
~ .
T he king ~:>f H arti seem s to have recru ited muc h of his sta nding army- J
~~" I
th e UKU.US a nd t he sha rik utoa-s- ircnn men living near o r beyond th e ~/
fron tier a nd especia lly alon g th e Pont ic ran ge in th e north. H er e lived th e
kbar bar ou s Kaskans, a so urce of danger as well as manpow er. After subjug atin g some of th e Kaskan lands, Hattu silis III b rou ght back wa rriors to
serve w ith his UKU.U.s.65 T he ki ng of Ugari t ma y a lso have ke pt a t roop of
Kaskan s, Liveran i at a ny rare suggested th at w hat seems to be a reference ,
in a Ugaritic tex t, to the " capo dei K3Ska" ca n best be ex plained o n th e
ass umpt io n th at " si tr atta d i un gruppo di so lda t i mercc na ri, ' w,
Fo r th e Aegea n wo rld, th ere is lirtle evide nce o n o u r topic. Wh :lt the re is,
however, sugge sts th at pri or to the C atast rophe th e Myc enaea n pa laces
might have dep end ed alm o st ent irely on "for eign " professionals for thei r
infant ry forces. T he "Captain of the Blacks " fresco at Knoss o s m ay have
po rtrayed an Aegea n cap tain leading a co mpany of black tr oops (o ne
thin ks of th e N ub ia ns w ho fou ght for the Egyptia n pha rao hs). T he " Barrie
Scen e " fresco fro m Pylos (see plate 2) show s thr ee pa lace wa rrio rs who are
surely pro fessio na l bu t w ho seem to fight in th e same style-an d wi th the
sa me weapons-as th eir " wi ld" oppo ne nts. TIle six groups of men na med
in th e o-ka tabl ets from Pylos a rc likely to be six et hnic design at ion s.v?
Alth ou gh non e of th e design ation s sugges ts a proven an ce from outside th e
Aegean, there is so me reas o n to see th ese men-if th ey ar e indeed so ldiers,
as th ey are usuall y t ho ugh t to be-as " foreign " professionals, Dr iessen ha s
ar gued that at Knossos the design ation lccsenuu/ ija is an cestr al to th e
cla ssical G reek xenoi, a wo rd t ha t literall y mean s " stra nge rs" but mu st
ofte n be tr an slat ed as " m ercena ries." Since three o r poss ibly four of th e
Pylo s o-ha gro up s show up in the Knoss os a rchi ve, Drie ssen co ncl udes th at
th e G ree k rule rs of Knos so s brough t in "fo reigne rs" o r mer cen ari es to

k..

P LA T E

5. Sbardana bodyguards 01 Rarnesses1I, ;1t Kadesh. Abydos relief

den , th e num ero us a rche rs, a nd a ll th e citizens of t he land of Egypt."

Further o n in th e papyru s he boa sts th at he had " Sh crden and Kehe k
w itho ut nu mber" in his service and th at con di tio ns in his king do m were so
peaceful th at "the Sherden and th e Kehek in their villages . . . lie at n ight
full len gth w itho ut any dread. " .19 And in th e reign of Ramesses V (114945 ) th e Wil bour Pa pyru s identi fies sha rdana as p rop rietors of lan d gra nted
to them by the king .60
In th e Levant, Sardi nians appa rently serve d as mer cen aries a lread y in th e
Ama rna perio d . In co rrespo nde nce den ouncin g Rib-Add i of Byblo s, shardana arc mention ed three tim es, a nd th ey a re q uite clearl y so ldiers." ! In the
Uga rit t ablet s th ere are severa l references to shardana, although by ca .
120 0 B. G. the ter m may here too have den ot ed functi o n rather th a n provenance. H elrzer regards the shardana as " for eigners in th e royal se rvice of
' " Breasted , AP., vol. 4, nos. 39 7, 402, and (;IS rransl.ired in Ga rdi ner, Egypt. 293) 4 10.
Ga rd in er, Egypt. 2.96- '17 .
.
.. I He lck, "Secvo lker." S. co ncludes " dass sit' So lda re n sind , O b sic im Dienst d e'S Rib add i
srchen odc r zu eine r j ~y p t io;;~h en Einh eir geboreu. ist n ichr erkennbar."
h I)

Internal O rganiza tion , i27.

oJ On bo th rhese individu a ls see H el rzer, lnternul O rganization, 126.
M Dietrich and Lo retz , "Scha rdana ," 41 .
h i Beal , Org aniza tion, 121- 13 ,235. an d 2..1 7 ; see al..o E. La ro che , " Lerrr c d 'u n prefer au
rOJ hirrire," Ret-ue bittitr et asian iqu e 0 7 (l9()O): S I- St> .
nh Live ra ni , Stor ia di Ugant , 154 .
,.- Driessen . ...\ 1ilitary A Spt-'CfS, " ~ q .
62 .... Helrze r,

156

A MI I.I T A R Y E XP L A !'l A T ION

maintain the kingdo m's secu riry.r" Th e place-n am es th at can he got out of
(o r read into ) the terms sugges t that the xcnoi C H ill' fro m backw a rd are as of
the Aegean." Since the foreigners sho w up o n tabl ets registering land
ullotmenr s, it may be " tha t sma ll gro up' of for eigners were admitted to the
Pylian kin gdom and were allotted sma ll fiefs of land for cultivatio n. In
return, they had to contribute ,1 certa in a mo un t of flax and ren der milit ar y
serv ice in the Pylian a rmy. " ~,, At Knossos th ere is no dir ect evid enc e for th is
pract ice, hut Driessen thinks it likely th at th ere too the palace b ro ugh t in
for eigners "who rendered milit ar y serv ice in return for fiefs of land."
So far as o ur limited evide nce goes, th en , we may supp ose th at M ycen aean infantrymen were normally p rofessionals an d came fro m the less
pacific part s of the Aegea n. Elsewhere I have argued th at in th e Lat e Hell ad ic period the lower classes in the palace sta tes of Boeot ia, the Pelo pon ncse and Crete still spo ke the pre-Greek lan guage th at had been current
throu ghout the a rea in Ea rly and Middl e Hellad ic tim es: mo st s ubjects of
the palaces, that is, would at best have had o nly a limit ed acquaintance
with th e Greek language spo ken by th e lords of th e palaces and their
chariot eer s. I would therefore her e sugges t that whe n the Pylian kin g, for
exampl e, hired professional infant ryme n, he hired North-Greek speakers
from the mountains beyond Boeotia. It is likely th at the mount aineers were
more warlik e th an the Messenian natives, wh ose relation ship to the palace
seem s to have anti cipated that of the helots to th eir Dor ian masters in the
Iron Age.
Such indi cation s as we have of numbers sugges t th at the typical foreign
contingent was com posed of several hundred (a nd not severa l thousand )
men. In the Papyru s Ana sta si army, the lar gest forei gn cont ingent we are to
imagine is tha t of the Qeheq , a Libyan tri be, wh o would accou nt for six teen
hundred of the five thou sand-man force. When Uga ritic texts make reference to sbardana, the references ar e not to hundreds but to gro ups of four
a nd five, a nd Helt zer calculates their total as abo ut sixry.?' The Linear B
tabl ets are unu sually informati ve on th is point. T he o-ka tabl et s from Pyla s
- show th at two h undr ed okara men for med the lar gest conti nge nt, the
sma llest being a gro up of seventy urup iiaio. t ? T he Pylo s pa lace did not ,
however, have ;I II two hundred okara se rving tog ethe r but bro ke them up
,,' Ibid. 50- Sli.
t.'" Driessen. ibi d ., 50, sugg ests that the JUJJsn wer e tro ops w ho ca rne fro m Iaso s, that the
Un fpiic.J;fl were tTOOpS from Oly mp ia. 3nJ rhar J.II the troop 'i "were origina lly
non -M csscni .m ~ lin n. 5 Driessen passes on the su gges no n rha r two of the o ther conti ngent...
ma y hovc (o rne from Cc rcyra .rnd Skyros ). I wo uld suggest o nly rhar Urupijdjo is more likely
to poin r to Mr . O lympus t han to Pclo porm esian O lymp ia; rhe la tt er na me seems to be derived
from rhe fo rmer, JnJ there i"i no reaso n to suppo se rhar ir is muc h o lder than the sa nctu a rv.
-o Ihid .
'

"'

H d rzer.I,ltem~1 O rg~nh~l ion.

72

Le jeu ne, " Crvrlis.mo n, " J4- -HJ.

106-

and 126.

HlOTSOI. D I ERS

157

into sma ller gro ups a nd pos ted them in severa l locati on s. In th e Knossos
a rch ive, ta blet B164 refers to a t least 368 men , a ppa rently all of them
"foreigner s. "7 '
When M er yre of Libya -s-a bo ur to .u rack Egypt in 1208 B.C.supp lemente d his Libyan force by recru itin g warriors from " all the northern lands, " he was foll owing a tr aditi onal pra ctice. Wh .lt W;I S not tr adi tio nal is th at the runner s who m he secu red were not cast in ,1 suppo rting
ro le to cha riotry, since Mcryre ha d no cha rio try of ;lny significance. Instead, the sk irmishe rs we re them selves assigned the ta sk of destroying the
Egyptian cha rio t a rmy. T ha t ha tt ie belon gs to the Catastro phe and we shall
rerum to it in ou r fina l chap ter, but Mer yrc's scheme and the Catas tro phe
ca n o nly be und er sto od aga inst the background of wh at infa ntry for ces
were availabl e to th e Lat e Bron ze Age kin gd om s.
To sum ma rize: Insofar ;IS ou r evide nce illumin at es such thin gs, it ap pears that pr ior to the Ca tas tro p he an easte rn Medit err an ean king might
send infantrymen into the mountainous hint erland to punish barbarian s
who had misbeh aved . Such co mba t was probably a melee rath er than a
conflict' of d ose-order format ion s. When two civilized kingdo ms went to
war, the hand -to -hand fight ing was subo rd inated to and integrated with
the chariot battl e. In cha riot warfare there was no engageme nt of mass
formation s of infantry, and wh at hand-to-hand fighti ng was required was
the responsibility of professiona l chariot runners, o r skirmis he rs. In the
thirteenth centu ry th ese men were rarely native s of th e kingd om s in which
they fought and tend ed to come from barbarian lands such iIS Nubia,
Libya, and Sardinia o r from the more backward parts of G reece and the
Levant. Their se rvice as skirm ishers was und oubtedl y hazardou s a nd de manding and mu st have req uired a great deal mor e sta mina, skill, recklessness, and perh ap s ferocity th an co uld be found in the typical resid ent of
Uga rit, Messeni a, o r Memphis.

IN FA NTR Y FO RCES I N TH E CATASTROP H E

Durin g the Catastro phe, so me rul ers tr yin g to d efend th eir cities and palaces app ar entl y mad e significa nt cha nges in their armed fo rces. As we shall
see in detail in chap ter 14, th e agg resso rs were runn ers a nd skirmishers,
and they th erefore had to be co nta ined a nd co untered by infant rymen . For
the first tim e in four centu ries, at least a fcw ba ttles in th e plain s and in
defen se of th e palaces them selves seem to have been primaril y infantry
clash es.

158

A MILITAR Y EXPLA NATION

'7

In 1208 B.C. Merneptah seems to have relied greatly on his cha riotry to
def eat the Libyans, but he a lso celebrated !iIS hand-to -hand warrior s a nd"a
"rn iliria " (m l lfy t ) of Egypri an s.?" Wh en Rarn esscs III fights aga inst th e
Phili stin es in 1179 not o nly a rc his hor ses like falc ons but his in fantry a re
" like bull s read y on th e field of battle." And to counter the Libyan in fant ry
in 1176 Ramesses leads forth not on ly his chariot ry but a lso " the migh ry
.
men [w ho m he had ] tr ain ed [to ] fight." 75 In bo th batt les Ram esses him self
~ v-!iAS
was of cou rse a peerle ss a rcher in his royal cha riot , as New King dom
ph ar aoh s had always been . But he is also, sur p risingly, a footso ld ier wh o
"f?..,'1'
c ", ,z ltfO>1 tigh ts hand-to-hand. O ne relief sho ws Ramesses d ism ounted from his
J , /'
cha riot a nd overp owerin g th e ene my, a nd th e accompanying text lauds his
c. 'O~ pr ow ess "o n his two feet."76
~,..t-Se.f. 7 In th e land battle aga ins t th e Phil ist ines, Rarne sscs' foo tso ld iers a re
'/ , co ns picuo us, some of th em in tr ad ition al Egypti an headdress a nd othe rs
wearing th e shardana helmet (sec plat e 6 ). The latter, as they a lways had ,
tend to fight on th eir own, as indi vidu al s, each slrardan a auxi lia ry taking
o n o ne o r more of th e enemy with his swo rd or thrusting spea r. Th e
Egy ptians, on the othe r hand , fight in th eir tradition al squa ds . Th e a rtis t
sho ws th em in gro ups of four, a ll four m en mo vin g and striking in co nce rt .
Although the divine Ram esses and other ch ariot warriors a re sho wn on th e
right-hand side of the La nd Battle Relief, each of the five regist er s of th e
relief is primarily a depicti on of th e valor of Ramcsses ' hand -t o-h and warriors. Egypt probably ow ed its surv ival to Ramesses' recruitment o r tr aining of thousands of foot soldier s wh o could take the offensive aga inst the
raiders. Although his barb ari an profession als could fight in gue rrilla fash ion , the Egyptian s need ed to be placed in or ganized units, eac h man being
thus suppo rted and assisted by h is co m ra des in a close-ord er form at ion .
In the sea battl e (see plat e 7) th e main burden fell o n nat ive Egyp tia n
in fantrymen. In o rde r to ca tc h hi s o ppo nents before they landed, Ram esses
assem bled a grea t many bo ats and mann ed them with Egypti an arc he rs
(so me of the se, of co urse, co uld have bee n chariot ar ch ers) an d hand-tohand warrior s. The latter we re Egyp tia ns, a rmed with th e usual sh ields an d
sta ves, an d wer e respo ns ible for dealin g w ith th ose of th e enemy wh o tri ed
to bo ard the Egyptian boat s. In Rarnesses' vaunt , hi s boat s were filled from
bow to ste rn with warrior s: "The milit ia (m ll f }'!) , con sisting of every pi cked
man of Egypt, were like lion s roarin g up on the mounta in top s." ? H ow he
I

e..v:<! e-sce. :

T4,
(' !

er'

".k"J

Ro.mVVl-!iue.
0.J-ro.~ ejj ?

7 ..
' i

Breasted . A R. vol. 3. no . 578 .

Ed ~erroll .md Wil, ,,n . i iisn mcal Recurd s

0"Rumscs III. plates 3 1 and 80-83 (pp. 77 -

7 S ~.

' . Edgerton Jnd WIlson , ibrd.. plate 6S ; d . Breasted . A R. vol. 4 , no. \Il6 .
':'- Edger to n and \Vil..o n. Hi storic.tl Recor d n( Ram ses 1/1 , plate 46. pp. 54- 5'5. ln a nore
nn [heir rransl.iriou of Iw ,l yt ,Js " rtuliri.i" rhc a uthn rs observe [hat "l11n fyt -eern s ro be In
cu nrr J ' [ Cil tbv:"

.:

f OOT S , l L D I E R S

161

recru ited these " picked men of Egypt " we can no t kn ow, but it is impo rtant
to nore th e unu su al cffort to augme nt the p rofession a l infant ry.
In G reece tOO, it ap pea rs, th e co mmun ities th at ca rne th ro ugh the ea rly
horrors of the Ca tast ro phe began in the IIIC pe riod to crea te forces of
loorso ldiers. Since we have no w ritt en document s from th e pe rio d , we m ust
he re dep end entirely o n picto rial evidence. Professional skirm ishers, first of
a ll, seem to have en joyed an unwonted status in IIIC comm u nities. Individual war riors, relati vely well a rmor ed , ap pea r on k ra rers of LH lll C dat e at
T iryns and on pots at Na uplia and Letkandi . Lirta uer and C rouwel have
pointed o ut that these warr ior s, ca rried in cha riots , a re foorso ld ie rs, appa ren tly en route to a barrle.> As suggested in cha p ter 10 , the Hom eric
descr iptio n of cha rio ts as battle tax is may be a reminiscence of thi s twe lfthcen tu ry develo pme nt. Po ssibly in Ill C G reece the hor ses a nd vehicles th at
su rvived fro m the pre-Catastrophe cha riot fo rces bec am e nothing mor e
tha n pr estige vehicles fo r the p rofession al wa rriors w ho unt il the n had been
runners in the cha rio t co rps. Th e cha riot o n these lIIC vases, at a ny rate,
suggests that its passenger is a to orsoldier of un usu al status, and we may
sup pose that he was an ind ividual ski rmishe r, capa ble of ho lding his own in
a man -to -man encou nter with a ny ba rb a ria n ra ider.
But in addition to the indi vidu al sk irmishers, who ma y have been rega rded as the promuchoi o r " cham pio ns" of their comm un ities, the IIIC
towns may also have fielded for ces of non p rofessio nal foo tso ldiers. In
o rder to sta nd their gro und in han d-to-hand com bat against the barbar ian
raid ers, these men wo uld necessar ily have been p ut into a clo se-o rder
co mpa ny. Lines of foot so ld ie rs app ea r o n the Wa rrio r Vase a nd the Wa rrio r
Stele fro m Mycenae, both of which date either to the lll C pe riod o r to the
very end o f lIIB.79 O n the krarcr, the " fro nt " pan el (see plate 8) shows six
bea rded so ld iers wea ring horned helmets, a sleeved co rslet th at reaches to
the wa ist, a fringed leath er skirt, and greaves (whether these are to be
understo od as bein g made of b ron ze o r of lea ther cannot be determined).
Each of th e so ld iers ca rries a six-foot spe:l r and a round shield. Th e five
so ld iers o f the rear pan el bran dish sho rter spea rs a nd wear " hedgehog"
helmets but ot he rw ise resembl e their co un terpa rts o n th e front. O n the
W3rrio r Stele there a re again five infant ryme n, almos t identical to th ose o n
the reverse of the vase, b ra nd ish ing spe3 rs. In both repr esent ations the
infa ntrymen a re in clo se o rd er, ma rching with spea rs o n their shoulde rs, o r
::"k Lirrau er. " Military Use, " 145- 46; Lit ruuer arid C ro u wel, "Chari o ts in Late Bro nze Age
G reece," 189 - 90 ; for the representation s sec Vermeule .ind Kar.igeo rghis, M ycenae an Picto rial Vase Painting , nos. Xl. Ia - b. X1.1 6. Xl. iX, XI.2X.
:-'i T he rep resenr ancns a ft' USU.1l1y dared ro the ~~l r1y IIIC per iod. Verrneule and Karageo rgh rs. rbid., 130- 34. with plates X I.42 .1110 X I.-H , .1 s~i ~' 1 th em to thei r " tran sitional"
period . N' r an argument rhar rhe rcprcscnrarions dar t' to rhe end of the IIIII peri od see john
)~"J un~a. "T he EnJ of M ycen.ie.m An ." II I Thomas. Fnrschungcn, ,-, ]- 7:".

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163

present th e sce nes on the Warrior Vase and Warrior Stele as examples of
"rypical " M ycena ean pra ct ices of the Lat e Bron ze Age. Similarly. the Medinet Habu reliefs of Ramesses Ill's battle aga inst the Philistines and the
Libyans sho uld surely not be used as a guide to Egypti an milit ar y pr act ices
in th e reign s of his Eighteenth- and Ninereenrh-Dynasry predecessors.
These represent ati on s were made a fter th e Catastro phe had run much if
not most of its har rowing course, a nd th ey must not be to rn from th at
chro no logica l co ntex t. The Myce nae vase and stele, whether d at ed to th e
end of IIIB o r to HIC, were at any rat e made severa l decad es a fte r Troy VI
and Th eb es had been de stroyed , a nd a fte r M ycen ae and Tir yns we re fort ified and th e Isthmus wa ll was begun. T he Medinet H a bu reliefs show w hat
th e Egyptia n army look ed like in 1179 B.C., by whic h tim e palaces and
cities had been destroyed a ll through G reece, Anarolia, Cy p rus, and th e
Levant , and Egypt see med ab out to becom e the next vict im. The represen tations therefore do not show us the militar y cha racter of the eastern
kingdo ms at their ze nith but instead reveal how so me kingdoms that had
thu s far survived th e Ca tas tro p he were resp onding to their dire situation.
Professional skirmishers were never more valu ed and perhaps provided
mu ch of th e def ense against their predatory kin smen . ln add ition , forma tions of native infant rymen-e-sc difficult to find in o ur pre-Catastrophe
document ati on-were now being armed and tr ain ed , as the few centers
still flourishin g so ug ht to escape the fate th at had by th at time overtaken so
much of the eas te rn Me diterranean world .
P I.ATE

8 . :'Warrior Vase" from Mycenae, Side A

abo ut to throw th eir spears in a " ce remo nia l vo lley" (the stele is certai nly
and th e vase is probabl y funera ry). It is perh ap s po ssible that th e a rt ist
- inte nde d o ne of the groups to represent fo reigne rs, since the horned hel met s are an exot ic element, wh ereas th e " hedge hog" helmet appea rs o n
- man y LH [IIC sherds. But it is mor e likely th at bot h gro ups are intended to
- represent nati ve troops: the wa rrio rs in horned helm et s pa ss in fro nt of a
wom an wh o is either biddin g the m farewell o r mourning, and eithe r a
farewell o r a funer al sugges ts that th ese a re men fro m the locality in wh ich
th e vase was cherished .
Th e scenes sugges t that the a rtist an d his patron s were familiar with
inf antry fo rma tions and more particul arl y with formations of spe armen ,
all th e so ldiers bein g uniforml y accoutred and armed a nd all havin g a n
assigned positi on within the relati vely dense form ation . These Mycen aean
inf antrymen were not about to do battl e with chario ts: the y had been
o rga nized and eq uipped- with a hand-to-h and weapo n, a shie ld, a nd
bod y a rmo r- in o rder to confront infantrymen in close combat.
Alth ou gh it has often been co mmitted, it is a methodological sin to

of es~bh

je~;.5Q. ?

Chapter Twelve
IN FANT RY AND HORSE T ROOPS
IN T HE EA RLY IRON AGE

H E LAST two cha pters have a rgued th at , fro m th e late sevent eenth
to the la te thirt eenth ce ntury, fo r th e eas tern M ed ite rranean king do ms wa rfar e was a contest be tween o ppos ing cha riot fo rces, a nd
th e o n ly o ffensive infa nt rymen w ho parti cip at ed in batt le we re the
" ru n ners " - the skirmis hers w ho ran amo ng the cha riots. Th e p resent
cha pter will review wh at we know ab o ut wa rfa re in th e ea rly Iro n Age .
Alt hou gh th er e is dist ressing ly little in form at ion fo r th e centu ries follow ing
th e C a tast ro p he, wha t th ere is suggests th at a ll ove r the easte rn Med iterr a nean the princ ipa l ro le in batt le wa s no w borne by offens ive infa nt rym en .
T h us cha rio t warfa re, w hich in th e Late Bro nze Age had d isting u ish ed
cities a nd kingdo ms fro m the ba rba rou s hint erl ands (where horses and a
cha rio t wer e a lux ur y that few, if any, co u ld affo rd ), did not su rvive in to th e
Iro n Age, a nd even the wealthie st kin gs had now to de pe nd prima rily up on
foot so ldi er s,
It is gene ra lly recogni zed th at th e chario t wa s less im po rta nt in th e Iro n
Age th an in th e Late Bron ze Age. By the reign of Ti glath -Pileser III (74527) th e light , tw o -horse chariot ra rely a p pea red o n the batt lefield, I since by
th at ti me the tasks hith ert o assigned to cha riots were no rmall y ca rri ed o ut
by ca va lry. As a result, the N eo- Assyria n cha rio t beca me a n eno r mo us a nd
cu mbe rso me veh icle, ca rry ing a va riety o f passen gers a nd dr awn by th ree
o r fo u r ho rses. Suc h vehicles h ad littl e in co mmo n wi th the war ch a riot of
th e Bronze Age a nd seem to have served as prest ige co nveya nc es fo r th e
king a nd lesser dign itari es. " In cla ssical tim es (if we except the d rea df ul Out
ineffec tive "scyt hed " cha riot s of the Per sian s) th e cha rio t was associ ated
a lmos t ent irely wi th status, pa ra des, a nd recreat io n, We may thu s sav that
in th e Iron Age cavalry " replaced " cha rio rry as an effective militar; a r m.
Pri or to the Catastro phe the re wer e, so fa r as o u r evidence ind ica tes, no
t roops of cava lry o r ca mcl ry. Th e Egyp riun relie fs, however , do include
occasio na l ind ividu al s o n ho rseback. a nd so me of th ese figures a re depi ct ed
as ca rr ying a bow and q uiver. Wito out sadd le or stirrups rid ing a ho rse was
Litra ue r a nd C rou we l, WhedcJ ve hicles, 130- 31 .
2 In rd i~ (s from rhl' lasr ccnru rv or Asvyri.m hisror) these huge' chariots are frequently
sr.m di ng \ f1I1~ se rvi ng J.:lo lofty .md wen p rote cted rb ut hJ\ i(,.JHy vrarionarv] pla rfo rrnv i rom
w hu..h J ( ('W p nv ileged ar(hC'r'i co uld shoo t their bo wv. Sec l.irt auc r a nd Crou wel, ibid .. 13 132.
I

F A N T R Y A 1': 0 11 0 R S f

I(

o0

I' S

165

difficult eno ugh , and the Bro nze Age rider was not yet a ble to co nt ro l his
mo unt and shoot a bow at the sa me tim e, Perhap s, th erefo re, the bow
car ried by a Bron ze Age rider was meant for self-defense , a nd th e few men
o n horseback were sco uts o r me ssen ger s rather th an moun ted a rche rs.>
Th e ea rliest represent ation s of archers shooting fro m the backs of gallo ping hor ses a re ninth -century Assyrian reliefs. T hese reliefs show the
cavalry a rchers o pe rati ng in pai rs: o ne cava lryma n holds the re ins of both
his o wn and his pa rtner's hor se, a llow ing the pa rtn er to usc his han ds for
the bow and bows tri ng. T he ea rly cava lry team s thu s par all el exac tly the
chario tee r and cha rio t a rcher.:' T he cava lry ar che r was u nd oub tedl y less
accura te than his cou nterpart o n a cha riot (bo u ncing o n a horse 's back was
less co nducive to a go o d sho t th an sta ndi ng-knees bent-on th e leat he rstra p pl at form of a cha riot ). But in o the r respects the cava lry team s wer e
sur ely supe rio r. T hey were ab le, first of a ll, to o perate in terra in too ro ugh
fo r wheeled veh icles. An d th eir cha nces fo r flight, w hen things went wro ng,
were mu ch bett e r: wh en a cha riot horse was in ju red, bo th crew men were in
imm ed iate dan ger, but if a cava lryma n's hor se was killed o r in jur ed the
cava lry ma n co u ld imm ediately leap o n th e back of his pa rt ner's horse a nd
so ride Out of ha rm 's wa y. Yet a not he r advan tag e o f cava lry over cha rio try
was eco no m ic, since the cost of purch asing and maint a in ing a vehicle was
co nsiderab le. T he C h ro nicler claims (2 Chro nicles 1.1 7 ) th at in th e tenth
centur y th e cha riot itself cos t twice as mu ch as the team th at pulled it.
H ow ea rly in the Iro n Age kin gs began to use cavalries in place of or
a lo ngside cha rio rries ca nno t be determined , since the re is so littl e docu men ta ry a nd picto rial evidence for th e perio d 1150-900 B. C. By the mid dle of the ninth cent ur y cavalries w-.re o bvio usly well esta b lishe d, since at
th e Battl e of Q arqar Shalrnaneser III faced man y men o n ho rseback (a nd
so me o n the back s o f ca mels) a nd since he hi mself cla imed to have 2,002
chariots and 5,54 2 cava lrymen.> For ea rlier cen turi es a ll we have ar e
Hebrew tr ad ition s, and a ltho ug h they a rc hard ly tru stw orth y it must be
no ted th at th ey rout inely assoc ia te cava lries w ith th e kings of th e pe riod.
So lo mo n was sa id to have ma in ta ined twel ve tho usand parashim; David
was bel ieved to have defeat ed eno rmo us ho rse troop s co nsisting of both
cha riots and cavalryme n ; and Sau l was repo rted to have been slain o n Mr .
G ilboa by Philistine parashim .
M ore rel ia ble Heb rew trad itio ns in fact imp ly that the substitutio n of
.1

&3 1. O rg.J1t i~:tinn . 94 : Stephanie Da lley, "Foreign Ch.m o rry and CJ\-"J1 f!' in the Armies

of Tigl .irh -Pdese r III and Sargon II." lraq 47 {I 'JRS j: .17- H .
l.irtau cr ;JnJC ro uwel. \t'heelcJ Vehicles. 1.15: "The ch.a rior complement - warrior and
of its ream. the men 's respect ive functio ns rem ai ning
the same. "
\ ,\\. Hit. "111< Ca m pa ign' 01 Shalm.mescr III a g.lln, . Aram and Israel," IE] 25 (1'175):
..I

d r iver- i ~ ... imply rr unsferr ed to the back

27.

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A ~II LI T A R )' E X P L A N A T I O N

cava lry teams for cha riots began in the Ca tastro phe itself. Poetic referen ces
in Ge nesis and Exodus to "the horse and his rider" am on g Israel 's enemies
indi cat e that at least a few king s began to put some of their archers o n
hor seback as ea rly as the twelfth century, In the "Son g of the Sea ~ the poet
ex u lts th at not o nly " Pha rao h's chari ot s a nd his host " but also " the hor se
a nd his rider ~ have been thrown int o the sea (Exo d us 15 .1 and 2 1). In the
" Blessing of Ja cob " the patriarch pr omises (Genesis 49.17-18 ) th at the
trib e of Dan " sh all be a serpent in the wa y, :I viper b y the pa th, that bites
th e horse's heel s so that his rider falls backward." >
It ap pea rs, th en , that the use of cavalry began in the twelfth century, that
by the tenth century some kings emp loyed thousands of cava lry men, a nd
that the ninth -centu ry Assyrian kin gs had at least as man y horses in their
cava lry as in their cha rio rry, Th e final o bso lescence o f cha riorry cam e with
th e disco ver y, in the eighth century, o f new techniques for reining a ridden
horse. The new meth od. apparent in the reliefs of Ti glarh-Pileser III, a llowed cava lry men to o pera te ind ependentl y rather th an in pairs, each rider
now co nt ro lling his ow n mount." With every rider a n a rcher, the " firepow er " o n the backs of a hundred cavalry horses was doubl e the firepower
dr awn by a hundred cha riot hor ses. Thus by ca . 750 B. C. the replacem ent
of chariots by cava lry was more or less complete.
But horse tro ops of a ny kind, wh ether chariotry or cavalry, were of mu ch
less importance in the Iron Age than had been their pred ecessors in the Lat e
Bro nze Age. Wh ereas before the Catastro phe warfar e was the swirl of
cha rio t squa d ro ns, with drivers charg ing, wheelin g, a nd then charging
agai n while the ar cher s sent vo lleys o f a rrows aga inst the o nco mi ng en em y
cha riots, in the Iron Age the focu s of the acti on was com bat betw een
o p pos ing infantries. Here a hor se troop's initi al mission was to deal with
th e o p po nent 's hor se tro op . but the ultimate mission was to assist in destroy ing the enemy in fantry, by en cir clin g, flan kin g, o r di viding it. Assyri an
reliefs show that cavalr ymen were also used for pursuin g and disp at ch ing
individual fugiti ves aft er the enem y in fantry-had been routed, and for this
ass ign ment th e lan ce ra the r than th e bow was the appro priate weap on .
Fro m the twelfth centu ry to the end of antiquity hor se troops did not
esta blish the battle but played a supporting role. On occasion, as at Issus o r
f, It is so me times said th at th e lines refe r to cha rio rr y, the assump tion being rhat c aval ry was
still unk now n when th e poems were written. See, fur exam ple. Co rrwa ld, Tribes ol Yah weh .
540: "The hor se .md i t~ rider which Da n attack s . .. refers al most cer tainly to horse -drawn
( harlots . . . . It is now well docum ent ed that cavalry units wen: o nly int rod uced effect ivel y
into the: Nea r East by rhe Assynans in the eighth -ninth centu ries." Th a t cavalry was inrroduced int o th e Ne ur E.ht hj" AssyriJn s in the' ninth cen tu ry is not documented at all ;.we kn ow

o nly that in t he mid dl e of the: ninth century the: Ass y ria ns had a n en ormous cava lry.
"7 Lirra ue r an d Crou w t:t. V/ ht'e/t!d vehicles, US;..: f. Dalle-y. " Foreign Cha r iorrv," 37 -J H,
who refer s to J. Spruyne , "LJ co ndu ire du ch eval chez Parche r assyrien," Plaisirs Equestres

129 tI 'lS J) : 66- 71.

I :-I F A :-.i T R )' A:-':O

H O R S E T ROO P S

167

Ad ria no ple, that supportin g role might be decisive, and we even hear o f
armies (the Parthians at Ca rrhae) th at co ns isted a lmos t ent irely of cava lry.
But the normal ex pec ta tio n of Cha ldaea ns. Persia ns, Ca rthaginia ns,
G reek s, a nd Rom an s was th at a battle was in essence a clash of in fantrie s.
Thus cha rio rry, a nd th en caval ry, made imp ortant contributi on s in Iron
Age warfare, but wh at we see in the Iron Age sho uld not be ca lled " chariot
warfare."
Th e cent ra lity of an offens ive infantry is clea r when our documentation
resumes in th e ninth century, with the inscriptions and reliefs of Ashurnasirp al Il and Shalmaneser III. Although Shnlmanesers horse tr oops were
impressive, they were evide nt ly seco nda ry to his infantry, whi ch in a major
campaign numbered more than 100 ,00 0 men . Another inscr ipt ion of th e
earl y ninth cent u ry describ es an Assyri an a rmy of 1,3S1 cha riots and
50 ,000 foorsoldiers." Th ese eno rmo us infantries were of co urse levied
from the gene ral population in Assyria , wh ere the traditi on of militia
serv ice seems to have been still flour ishing in th e ninth century." Altho u gh
neith er reliefs nor inscription s a nd liter a ry acco unts give us a clear picture
of a ninth- century battle, wh at ca n be pieced to gether indi cates that in the
armi es o f Assyria, Israel, a nd Judah an adva ncing infant ry formed the
cent er of a battle line, a nd hor se troops o pe rated o n the wings "fo r pincer
movement s a nd efforts to overw helm and turn the enemy fla nk ." 10 In the
ninth centu ry, in other words, infantry units no longer serve d merely to
escort chariotries on th e mar ch and. in battl e, to provide a haven for
chariot s in trouble but were now at the cente r of the offensive actio n. The
Assyrian in fantr y included co mpa nies of a rchers (pro tected by defensive
armor and armed with co m pos ite bow s) a nd of spea rme n, a nd a ll carried a
stra ight swo rd as a seco nda ry weapon.
But if we have reason abl e documentation for ninth- centu ry war fare , th e
three centuries from th e Ca tastro phe to Ashurnasirpal 's reign a re a dark
age. Nevertheless, we h ave just en ou gh evide nce to conclude that in this
peri od roo , in the immedi at e a ftermath of the Ca tastro phe , inf antries alread y pla yed the primary offensive role . Egypt, whi ch tells us so mu ch
about Lat e Bro nze Age warfare, has alm ost nothing to offer for the early
Iron Age. But although we have no adverti sem ents of victori es by the later
Rarn essid s a nd the weak kin gs o f the Twenty-First Dynasty, pap yri from the
!l Elnt, " Ca mpa ig ns of S ha lrnanese r," 27 ; Luck en bill, Ancient Records of Assyria and
Bab ylo nia, vo l, I , no . 65H; Stillman and Tallis, Antr ics, J 1.
., W.lltha Manitius, "Das stehende Hecr der A!'t~y r(" r kon i ge u nd seine Or gan isation, " ZA
24 ( 19 10}: 104-5, emphasized thar the militia w a s th e: nor mal fo rce fur ninth -cen tu ry As

sy n a n kings an d th at 3. sta ndin g. profess ional a r rnv was not introduced u n til the eight h
cen tu ry.
10 Stillm:tn an d T;,1 l1i" A n nies. ~O ; see als o the ir ex...ellen t presentatio n o n Ass~ run m ilitar y o rgani za tion. p p_ !6-J I.

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A ,\ llL1TARY EXP L A:--< ATIO N

reign o f Ramesses IX ( 113 7-11 2 0 ) refer to grea t numb er s of barb ar ian ses pecia lly Libya ns and M eshwesh - wh o we re c rea ting dis tur ba nce s a t
Theb es.J! Since Libya ns and Meshwcs h in Egyp t were traditionall y offe nsive infa ntrymen, pe rh ap s we a re just ified in ass um ing th at th e t ro u b lema ker s a t Th eb es were a lso pr o fession al in fan rry me n. w hom the ph ar aoh
h ad se n led in Uppe r Egy p t as a m ilitar y rese rve. Ult imately a Lib ya n, o r
mo re precisely a "c hief o f th e Me shwe sh, ~ seized roya l power a nd in au gu rat ed th e Twenty-Second Dy nasty (ca . 940 B.C. ).
Assy ria was the one Late Bronze Age ki ngdom in w hich a n offen sive
infa n t ry was im po rta nt, a nd so it is no t su rp rising to find here a reli an ce on
infan try in th e ea rly Iron Age. T he o nly we ll-d ocumen ted re ign in th e
twelft h a nd eleventh ce nt ur ies is that o f Tiglarh-Pileser I ( 1 115 - 10 77).
W he n thi s kin g march ed north into th e Elazig region o f eastern Anarolia he
d efeat ed 20 ,000 M us h kia n tribes men on "Mo un t Kashi ari , a difficult reg io n, " Il a nd for th at battle he mu st have ha d a formidable infantry, Still
furth er no rth , he sup press ed th e Ka s kans w ho ha d taken ove r the cities o f
Hart i, a nd he ca p tu red 4 ,00 0 o f their m en a nd 120 cha r iots. 13 To th e eas t,
Tig lath-P ileser had to con fro lit th e C uria ns, a tr a d itional sco urge from th e
Zagros:
T he sons of the [mo u n ra ins r ] devised warfare in their hearts.
T hey prepared fur battle, they sharp ened their weapons.
Th e enemies iniriured their war.
All the highland(ers) were assembled clan by clan. . ..
ihe Guriun seethed. .i flam with terri fying splendo r.
All the armies of the mo u nr ui ns, the Confederation of the Habhu lands
ca me to e.u h other's a id in strength. H
Since Tiglarh-Pileser ca rr ied the b attl e into th e mountaineer s' homeland,
we m us t agai n im agin e him rel yin g prim aril y upon Io orsoldiers.
Anato lian warfare a fte r th e fa ll o f th e H itt ite k ingd om is quite unkno wn .
Virt ua lly a ll th at we ha ve a re th e Ass yri a n insc ri pt ions cited a bove, w h ich
indicate th at at the end of the twelfth ce n t ur y the M ushkians a nd Kas k ans,
a t least , had very few cha riots a nd a great m an y me n o n fo ot. This is of
co u rse w ha t o ne wo uld ex pec t from ba rbar ous tr ibes me n, a nd in Ana ro lia
a fte r th e Catas tro phe there ev ide ntl y W3S no G rea t Kingdom (the k in gs o f
Ca rchcmish, as a lready noted , usurped th e title "G rea t King of Harri" after
th e fa ll of H attusas)-and perh a ps no k ingd o m s a t a ll.
" Ga rd mer, Egypt, 299 .
Lucken bill, A,, ( io lt Records of A s.~yri.:1 ,lid HJh )'lo1l1.:1, vol. 1, no . 221.
1 1 lbid., no . 22t1 .
1-1 Victor Hur owirz .md Joan \X'('~tt'nhf} I :I , "'I.KA h 3 : A He ro ic Poe m in Celebration of
Tigl .ith -Prlcser 1'.> Mus ru-Qumanu Camp aign, " }ou nlJI ({ CUI1r.:ifn rm Studies 4 2 ( t 9YOj: 5 .
11

IN FA N TRY AND Ii 0 R SE T ROO P S

169

For D ark Age G reece we ha ve the ill corpore weapo ns found in Proto geomet ric a nd Geo me t ric g raves, a few figured vases de p icting co mba t, and
o f co u rse the p rob lema tica l battl e descripti on s prov id ed by H o rner. All
three typ es of evid ence would s ugges t that th e Da rk Age G ree ks commonl y
fought o n foo t (a rro w hea d s, fo r ex ample, h ardl y appca r at :111 in Dark Age
grave s). But th at fai rly o bvio us ge ne ra liza tion was for a lon g tim e obscu red
by th e a ut ho rity of Ar istotle . Acco rdi n g to Aristotle,
Among the Greeks, g.lVernment from the beginning (after th e end of kingship;
depended on tho se who did the fighting in war. The earli est of the polities was
based on the hipp cis, since in war rhe decisive and overwhelming force was that
of the hippeis: for without organized formations a hopli re force is useless, and
amo ng the a ncients there was no experience in tactical matt ers. It W .1S for that
reason that the real strength was in the hippeis.' >
C lassicis ts u nd er s to o d Ar istotl e to mean th at until th e perfection of the
hoplite p hala nx (us ua lly th ou ght to ha ve be en a tta ine d in th e ea rly seve nt h
ce nt ury ) t he typica l G ree k battle featured th e clash of a few noble caval rymen. Since it wa s a lso understood th at G ree ks d id not ordi na r ily use the
bow, it w as imagined th at these earl y "knigh ts" fo ug ht with thrusting
spears. T h is picture, of armored and spea r-th rus ting k nights dominating
the barrleficld in ea rly G reece, was until th e 1970s widely ac ce p ted . 16 But it
does not stand u p u nd er careful scrutiny, P.A.L. G ree n ha lgh showed that
although th e Geometr ic "knights" may have ow ned horses, they did not
fight fro m horseb ac k ; atte nd ed by a sq uire , th e bippeus would ride to the
battlefield a nd th er e d ismou nt to figh t as an infa ntry ma n. 17
\Vith th e mo unted lan cer s o ut of th e way, we ca n no w begin to see w ha t
wa r fa re in Da rk Age G reece m ay have lo o ked like. Recent a na lyses of
H omer's battle d escri pti on s sug ges t th at d ur ing th e Da rk Age the typical
battle bet ween G ree k pol eis featured ma ssed infantries th at we re drawn up
in a line , o r phalanx , of spea rm en (a mass, o r a co m pan y seve ra l phalanges
dee p, W3S call ed a stix). Duel ing nobles a re essential fo r th e po et's story, but
in rea lity th e promachoi were mu ch less impor ta nt th an the ano nymous
multitu de in wh o se front ran k they sto o d . I " T he evidenc e fro m graves
" Ar istotle. Po litics 129 7b ; cf. 1289b, 1306 a.
See. fo r exa mple, V. Ehrenbe rg. Th e C rc, k Sta te (O x fo rd. 196 01: 2 1: "Single combat
whi ch-almost exclu sivd y- ruled (he tac tics of the .l g.t". . . .. urvived in the name of the
'knighrs.' the h ippeis ." cr. A. Alfiild" "Die Hcrrsch.rtr de r Reit erei in G nec henlund und Rom
rmch de m Stu rz de r Kijni ge, G estalt lind C cschic h tc : F..-, t;chr i/ t K. Sch e{old (Berne. 196 7 ):
13- 47; J. Bu ry and R. Mei ggs. A History ofC reecc, 4t h ed. (Londo n. 1975 ) 94.
,7 Greenhalgh, Early Gree k War(aTt' , 40 - h l.
I N For th e o rgan ire d, massed infantries o f Ho meric warfa re see J. Laracz, K.unp {piJr:inese.
KJmp/~J.Jrslelhm..~ un si K.Jmp(w irklidJkcit in dcr 1Ii.J5. bci Kulluto s und 1) 'TtJ i0 5 (Mun ich.
1977}; .md H ans van \~ces, " Leaders of Men? i\ l llirary Or garuzati on in the lli,rd," CQ 36
10

170

A Mill TAR Y E X P LA NAT ION

suggests that a very small proportion of the adult males in a Dark Age
community were able to afford both a sword and a spear, and defensive
armor is conspicuously lacking.!" In the Ionian poleis a relatively well
armed basileus might therefore have had a sword, a spear, and a leather
shield, and perhaps wore a helmet, corslet, and greaves all made of leather.
The men under his command would have had no more than spears and
shields. The Dori.ms were perhaps better armed: whether or not their
name was derived from the dOrtl,20 these were "spearmen" par excellence
and In the Geometric period formed a privileged military caste in Crete,
Laconia, the Argolid, and other places where a non-Dorian population was
protected and exploited by a Dorian elite. Among the Dorians there was no
tradition of either chariotry or cavalry, nor even of wealthy hippeis riding
to the battlefield.
Greek infantries in the Dark Age were hardly impressive by later standards, but the important point here is that an infantry was a community's
principal-and, in most cases, its only-defense. We have seen that the
noble cavalrymen, described from Aristotle's time to our own as the bulwark of the nascent polis, are imaginary. Nor was chariorry revived after
the Catastrophe. Although a few wealthy individuals must have continued
to use chariots for pleasure or prestige in the Dark Age, chariots were no
longer used on the battlefield. This is indicated not only by Homer's ignorance of the subject bur also by the complete lack of archaeological evidence for chariots in Greece berween the twelfth century B.C., when they
were represented on LH mc pots, and the eighth century, when the chariot
reappears both on Geometric pottery and in bronze and terracotta figu-

(1986): 2H5-303, for criticism see Singor, "Nine against Troy," 17-62. On the role of the
busilcis as pramachov see Van Wees. "Kings in Combat: Rattles and Heroes in the /liad," CQ
38 (1988): 1-24.
1'1 Snodgrass, Arms and Anllour, 38.
10 Classical Greeks derived the name of the Dorians from an eponymous Doros, son of
Hellen. Moderns have often supposed that the Donans got their name from tiny Doris, but the
borrowing seems to have been reversed: the Spartans created Doris Metropolis as a counterweight to Atheru.m influence in the late fifth century. On Doris see now D. Reusser. "Les
Donens de la Metropole, I," BCH J 13 (1989): 199-239. The derivation of "'''''ltC,,; from
bOQll was accepted by Meyer in the second edition of Ceschichte des Altertums, vol. 2, 57071: "Die Dorer. .. sind ein knegensche Stamm, dessert Name als 'Lanzenk.impfer' zu bezcichncn scheint." Hermann Bengtson, Grieclnschc Gesrhichte; 4th ed. (Munich, 1969): 52,
stared Without further ado that Dorieis is indeed a "Ku rzform " of dorimachoi. P. Ramat, "Sul
nome dei Don," l'urnla .lcl Passato 16 (] 961): 62-65, argued that doru was indeed the base
of the name, but the dum Ram at had in mind was J tree ruther than a spear (the tree being
something of a totem for the "Dorrans "). Singer. "Nine against Troy," 30, has most recently
given the etvrnolonv lukewarm endorsement.

IN FAN TRY AND H 0 R SET ROO P S

171

rincs.>' Thus the infantry militias of Dark Age Greece offer a sharp contrast

to the chariot-based armies attested for the Late Helladic kingdoms.

Finally, we must look at the Levant and the dubious evidence that the
Old Testament provides on post-Catastrophe warfare. For the first century
and a half after the Catastrophe the various tribes of Israel and Judah were
scarcely urbanized and had no centralized state. But late in the eleventh
century the tribes of Israel appointed Saul as their king, with a residence at
Cibeah. and soon thereafter the men of Judah made D;wid kingat Hebron.
The fusion of these two kingdoms by David resulted in a highly centralized
and remarkably wealthy regime, and the rr.ippings of monarchy soon
appeared. Along with splendid buildings (palace and temple) in Jerusalem
came a magnificent display of horses and chariots. Solomon was known for
his horses, and is reputed to have maintained four thousand chariot teams
and twelve thousand cavalrymen (parashim).22 If these fabulous figures are
21 See Crouwel, Chariots, 143-44; Snodgrass, Farlv Greel: Ar11lour ami Weapons, pp.
160-63; Greenhalgh, Early Greek Warfare, 38. The scenes of chariot combat on
eighrh-cenrury Geometric kruters in Attica are not reflections of J<.luJI chariot warfare. As
Snodgrass and Greenh;ll~h argue, the eighth-cenrurv artist was inspired by SJ~J, by reports of
chariots in use in the Ncar East. and by surviving Mvcenaenn representations of chariots.
L! 2 Chronicles 9.25. At 1 Kings 4.26 Solomon is SJiJ to have had not tour thousand bur
fony thousand 'l1no<'d horses and chariots, and twelve thousand par.tshnn, in this case the
Chronicler's figure is more likely to be "correct" (which is to S,lythat the textual tradition of 2
Chronicles 9.2.5is sounder than the textual rradinon of 1 Kings 4.26). The meaning of 'urwor
has been well explained by G. I. Davies. "'Urulf5t in I Kings 5:6 (Evv. 4 :26) and the Assyrian
Horse Lists," [ournsl o(Semitic Studies 34 (1989): 25-38. Davies calls attention to Assvrian
parallels suggesting thar "urwot does not me-in "stalls." ot "stables," JS most tr.mslators huve
thought, but "reams." Whether Solomon in truth h'IJ four thousand teams of chariot horses
and twelve thousand paras him is another question; if the figures are not grossly ex.lggerateJ,
they might account for the resentment rhar Solomon's subjects harbored against him and his
grandeur.
A less persuasive part of Davies's argument does away with Solomon's cavalry, leaving only
the chariots. Davies concluded that the original meaning of 1 Kings 4.26 was as follows:
"Solomon hJJ 4000 teams of horses for his chariotrv, namely 12,000 horses." The figure of
four thousand, instead of forty thousand, is justified by the Septuagint reading and by the
par.rllel accounr at 2 Chronicles 9.25. But that the Chronicler intenJeJp,fr,Tshim JS ""horses"
or "chariot horses v-c-saying, in effect, that the four thousand teams consisted of twelve
thousand horses, three to each team-is most unlikely. According to Davies's argument the
Chronicler, using so unfamiliar J term as "urwot , accommodated his re-aders by spelling out
for them what this obscure term meant (Jt p. 36n.35, Davies suggests that the conjunction be
understood as In "explic.mve W(IW" JnJ be translated not .15 "JnJ" but as .. namely"). But if a
writer wanted to cl.mfv for his readers that these four thousand 'urwot of horses were-in
plain Hebrew-s-twelve thousand horses, he would surely have used the word S14Si111. The very
worst way to clarify the exotic term 'urwor woulJ be to write rh.ir Solomon hJJ "four
thousand 'utwor of hor ses and twelve thousand p.vr.ishim." The l.irrer word must here mean
"cavalrvruen," as It does in other passages and ,IS the' Septuagint translators assumed it does
here.

172

A ~11 LIT A R Y E X P L A :-; A T l O S

close to the mar k, So lomo n acquired the great est horse trOOP that the
an cient world had ever see n. But So lomo n never went to war, and so it is
difficult to say how the se hor semen might have been deployed in :1 battle.
Certainly there was no enem y in sight ag ainst wh om such a ga rga ntu a n
horse troop might have been used.
David, unlike his son , had been a warrior and in the early tenth century
had esta blished a kingdom that was perhaps the most pow erful in the
wo rld . Renowned as a " slayer o f myriad s,- David won his victo ries with
foo tso ld iers.A' We ar e told th at when he ca ptured a thou sand ch ari ot s fro m
H ad ad ezer of Zoba h he "h oughed" a ll but a hundred of th e cha rio t
tearn s.>' The tr aditi ons ab out him quite co nsisten tly present him as ma king no use of cha riots in battle and as fightin g under the aegis of th e
infantryman's god, the Lord of Hosts.
David's infantry consisted of both pro fessional " mighry men " and a
levied mil itia .25 T he former group was relatively sma ll (six hundred Gitrites, the sa me number of judahires, and the mysteri ou s " Pelcth ire and
Kereth ite guards" ) a nd co nstituted his regular arm y. David's militi a was
sa id by the C hronicler to have numbered 288 ,00 0 men, but its actual
stre ng th is usuall y es timated a t onl y a half or a third o f that figure. 26111 e
"mighty men " were evid entl y well armed , whereas the militi amen ma y
ha ve had spears and shields but nothing else.
The farther ba ck one goes in the history of the Isr aelite monarchy, the
greater the role that one finds for the militiamen of the inf antrv, Saul seems
to have had no regular arm y of profe ssion als, an d no hor se tro ops, Trad ition s ab out his great victo ry over th e Ammonites, as well as abo ut his
defeat at the han ds of the Ph ilistines , speak onl y of infantrym en (the Philistines, o n the o ther hand, surely had horse tro op s, since Saul was hunted
down o n Mr . Gilb o a by Philistine ch ariot s and parashim i: Finall y, before
th e creatio n of the Israelite monarchy the-people of Israel, as o f J ud ah ,
Yadi n, AI1 of War{.ue. vel. 2. 285; Stillman an d.Ta llis, Armies, 3 7.
2 Samu el 8 .3 -4 (d. I C hronicles 18.3 -4).
H T his has been well tr eated by A. van Selms, "The Arm ed Forces of Israel unde r Sau l and
D avid. ' in Studie s on the Book , of Sam uel: Paper, Read at the 3rd Meeting of Die O. T.
Werk g,'meen, kap in Suid Afrika ( 1960): 55 - 66 .
, . Yadin, Art of War{.lTe, vol . 2, 279-82, argue d that the figur es from the C hro nicle r (J
Chronicles 2 7 . 1- r5 ) in th is instance wert'de rived from an accurate Source. The mili tia figures
for th e ea rly mon archy in Israel were scaled down dr astically by G eo rge Men d enh all , "The
Cen su s Lists of Num bers 1 and 26: ]BL 77 (1968) : 52-66. Whe reas Num bers 1.32. for
ex am ple, says tha t th e uu rnber of those." men in Ephraim wh o were "a ble to go fo rth to w ar"
was 40,500, Mend enhall red uced the figure to J mere 500 men, o rganized in 40 un its . But
M en d enh al l's a rgument re-s ts o n JnJlugics fro m M ar i: like mo st o the r ...ch ola rs, o f cou rse,
M end en hall JiJ not reckon With the revo lutio nary changes in the Jrt of wa r t hat o ccurred
between the seventeenth centu ry .InJ the ten th. In fact, the co ncept of.l militia W J .c, unk no w n
in seve nteen th-century M ari.
2.l

!4

I N F A N TR Y AND H ORSE TR OOP S

militia .17

173

de pended for sec ur ity ent irely o n a

It is true th at by the lat e
elevent h cent ury thi s sty le of fighting was no lon ger very effective: th e
league of Philistine cities, with a small er but well-armed and regular force,
sou nd ly defeated the tribal militias rallied by th e priests o f Yah weh and
added insult to injury by seizing th e Ar k of the Covenant. But in the twelfth
centu ry the trib esmen were evidently quite formid able .
Sheer number s were esse nt ia l to thi s early Israelite ren own : "The fort y
th ou sand of Israel " (J udge s 5 .8 ) was prob abl y an optimistic figure, but it
sugges ts th at a general mobilizati on of the tri bes living in Isr ael could a nd
did furn ish tens of th o usands of warri or s. Alth ou gh untra ined a nd hardl y
well a rmed , trib esmen so numerou s- especiall y when stirred to fu ror by
o racles from the Lord of H osts-must have been a force with which neith er
th e coastal cities of Canaan nor th e later Ram essid s in Egypt cared to do
battl e. An index of how dr astically warfare had chan ged in th e Catastro phe
is that thereafter the militiam en of Israel , witho ut an y horse troops at a ll,
were able to maintain co mplete ind ependence from the last Rarn essids and
the Twenty-F irst Dyna sty kings of Egypt. Prior to the Catas t ro phe, the land
of Israel had for a lmos t fou r hundred years cha fed under Egyptia n hegem ony, a co nditio n so unthin kable in post- Catastrophe circum stances th at
tradition seems eventually to ha ve tran sformed it into fou r hundred year s
of Israelite " bo nd a ge" in th e land of Egypt.
17

Yad in, Art of Warfare. vol, 2, 28 4.

CH .\~C;ES I N ARM OR A~D WEAPO~S

Chapter Thirteen
CH ANGES IN ARM OR AND WEAPON S
AT THE END OF THE BRONZE AGE

N A FEW DECAD ES before and after 120 0 B.C. the eastern Mediterranean world underwent a transform ation in the too ls of war. Aegean
a rchaeologists, as noted in cha pter 9, have lon g been aware th at new
typ es of weap on s and arm or came int o use at the end of the LH IIIB period,
and so me arch aeologists have recently emphasized th e range and co mprehen siveness of the innovation s. As Jeremy Rutter pointed out at the Brown
Conf erence , the rap idit y with wh ich " virtu ally all forms of offensi ve and
defensive weaponry" change ca. 12 00 sta nds in sharp cont rast to "the
conserv atism of developments in milit ar y gear durin g the palatial peri od ."1
But the findin gs of arch aeologists have not yet been translated int o history. Although there has been so me suspicion th at the inn ovati ons apparent from the material record mu st reflect the ad vent of a new sty le of
warfare, historians have barely begun to explor e what this new style and its
significance might have been.! In particular, it has not yet been proposed
th at the new types of arm or and weap onry reflect a historic shift from
chariot warfare to infant ry warfare . Th at the new ar ms and armor belon ged to foot soldi ers has of course been clear all along, but the significance of this fact has been o bscured by the assumption that infantri es had
pla yed th e prim ar y role in warfare all thr ou gh the Late Bron ze Age. Ha ving
seen, in chapters 10-12, th at before the Catastrophe chariot warfare was
the norm for the eastern Mediterranean kingdo ms and that offensive infan trie s ca me to the fore in th e early Iron Age, we are now in a position to
appreciate the historical significance of th e military inn ovation s that ar chaeologists have documented for the decade s of the Catastro phe.

175

and for him th e fact th at it was difficult to run in such a rob e W.1S nor a
serious liabili ty. App arentl y so me infantrymen in the Late Bronze Age
wore a simpli fied , mu ch less expensive version of th e charioteer's corslet :
the Luxor relief of the Battl e of Kadesh porrrays aline ot Hittite au xiliar ies
in full stride, and mo st of them wear wide -skirred and ankle-len gth
"robes.".' Possibly the rob es were made of leath er rather than of linen, but
o bvio usly they were nor covered with metal scales.
Alternatively, so me l.are Bron ze Age skir mishers went into battle wearing o nly a helmet and a kilt. A parallel here would be th e primitive tribesmen of a century o r two ago, who were as na ked in battle as in everyday life.
Th e sha rda na in service to the phar aoh s are sho wn with no defensive
a rmo r other than a helmet , and the sa me is tru e for the Pylian warri or s in
the " Batt le Scene" fresco (they wear boar's tusk helmets, and kilts ).
There is no documentary or pict orial eviden ce at all for " heavily armored" infantrymen in the Late Bron ze Age. T ha t foot soldi ers in Mycenaean Gre ece wore bronze armo r is somet imes asserted on the basis of an
ill co rpo re find: a plate-bronze corslet found in 1960 , in a cha mber tomb at
Dendra." Th e Dendra Co rslet, which dates from late in the fifteenth centu ry B.C ., has been identifi ed by several scho lars as an infantry~an 's corslet
a nd as an example of the kind of a rmor that M ycenaean infantrymen
would generally have worn in th e LH II and LH lilA period ." Such an
interpretation, however, cannot be co rrect. Th e Dendra Co rslet encase s the
bod y from the neck alm ost to the knees, and the girdle of bron ze around
the thigh s must have prevented the wearer not o nly from ru.nmng but from
even walk ing at a normal pace. It must therefore have been worn b ~ a man
wh o in battle would be requir ed to step only occa siona lly, and then in halfstrides, and such condition s point necessaril y to a char iot crewman. It is
also relevant that th e Dendra Co rslet bear s som e resemblance to one of the
co rslets that a Linear B ideogram records as bein g distributed to chari ot
crews."
In the Catastrophe, on the other hand, we have pictorial evidence for
infant rymen's cors lets. Th e Medinet H abu relief of the sea battle in 1179
shows that not onl y the Philistine and Shekelesb aggressor s but also the
Egyptian defenders were protected with waist-length co rslets and leath er
ski rts. Th e co rslets were appa rent ly strengthened With strips of metal sewn

ARM OR

It was, first of all, during the Catastrophe that the infantryman's corslet
made its appearance. Prior to ca. 1200 , corslets were design ed for the
chariot crew. Th e mail-covered, leather sariam, a robe reaching to the calf
o r even th e ankle , provid ed reason abl e protection for a man in a chariot,
I Rutt er, " Cultural Novelt ies," 67 .
, f or the suggestions of ~fu h ly and San de rs see p. \In .

1 Wreszmski, Atlas, vol. 2, plate 87; cf. Sanda rs. Sed Peoples, fig. 13.
for descript ion see Carling, " Panzer." 96-98. On the tomb see Paul Amom, The Cuirass
Tomb and O ther Finds at Dendra (Gorebo rg, 1977).
.5 Hard ing, A,1 ycetruea1f5 and Europe, 151 and 174 (sec p. 175 for reco nstru ct ion ~rawi ng~
b)" K. Mcb.trron , of Dend ra warr ior as an infan try ma n, wit h swo rd and spea r), Crouwel,
Chariots, 127 .
Bouzck, Aegeal1. 11)8 .

176

A M I LI T A R Y EX r LA~A T ION

th e leath er,' In the Aegean , roo, co rslets fo r infantrymen Jp pea r o nly at

th e end of th e Ill B or beginning of th e lll C period , Th e M ycen aean in fan trymen depi cted on th e Wa rrior Vase and Warrio r Stele wear corslets , In
place of metal st rips, these corslets see m to have co pper o r bronz e sca les."
And like th eir Philistine and Egypt ia n co nt empo raries, the M ycen aean
warrior s wea r leath er sk irrs th at reach to midthigh. But it is not ju st at
M ycen ae, and not only at th e tra nsitio n fro m lll B to lIlC t11Jt th e infa nt ryman 's co rslet ap pears in post-Catastrophe Gre ece. Figur ed IllC sh erd s
fro m severa l othe r sites show footso ld iers (altho ugh so me rid ing in cha riots) wearing hedgehog helmet s, waist-length co rslets, and leather skirts ."
Ever y read er of Hom er knows th at the Achaea ns w ho sacked T roy were
" well greaved, ~ a nd specia lists a re q uite awa re tha t metal grea ves came
suddenly into vogu e ca. 1200. 10 Again, however, we must emph asize the
o bvio us: t he wa rriors who used th e new armor were in fant rymen . Th is
inno vati o n was mostl y limired to the Greek wo rld , perh aps beca use all
throu gh the Lite Bron ze Age men in G reece pro tect ed t heir lower legs with
leath er " spa ts ~ when at wo rk (so, for example, o ld I.aert es wea rs k nem ides
as he digs arou nd his fru it trees at O dyssey 24.22 8-29 ) or at war (in th e
Pyla s "Bartle Scene" fresco [see plate 2], t he Pylian wa rrior s a re na ked
a bove rhe waist but wea r leath er spa ts). And Late H elladic sm iths had
occas ionally mad e metal gre aves: ca. 1400, th e Dend ra wa rrio r w hose
co rslet we have just discussed wore bro nze greaves. I I Wit h his plat e cor slet
prote cti ng him from co llar to knee, an d w ith greaves protecting at least th e
fro nts of his lower legs, the cha riot c rew ma n buried at Den dra wa s a rmo red as completely, altho ugh not as co mfor ta bly, as a Nuzi cha rioteer
wh ose sariam reached fro m co lla r to midcalf. Thus metal greaves may in
M ycen aean G reece have been worn now a nd then by cha rior crewrne n wh o
for som e rea son preferred plate arm or to scale arm o r. But it is u nlikely that
infa ntry men befo re ca . 1200 wo re metal greaves.
Thereaft er it is q uite a different sto ry. In Cy pru s, two bur ials dating ft om
ca. 12 00 have pro duced bronze greaves. An oth er pair has bee n fou nd in a
cha m ber to mb at Kallirhea in Ach aea, datin g from the ea rly twel fth cento

7 For d iSCUSSIOn and co lor illustr anon see Yachn, Ar' o( W.Jr(.1rc, vo l. 2.25 1 and .140- 4 1;
fo r J. d et ailed discussion of these co rslets see l.or imer . Hom er an d the .\1on>J m en!s , 199 - 20 0 ;

cr. Carling, " Pan zer."

lIB.
C al ling, ibid .. IUS; Snod grass. A rms and Arm o l/r, .11.
o C alling, ibid .. 105 .
10 N . K. Sa nda rs, "Nort h a nd So uth at th e End of the Mycenaean Age: Aspects of an O ld
Probl em, " Ox (n rd [ou ma l 0{ A rchaeology 2 ( 1983): 43- 68: Ha rd ing. M yren """" s and
Euro pe, J 78- 8U.
t t O n the grea ves see Carling, -Ikin\ \:hienen, " in Buchho lz and Wiesn er. Kr iegsu -csen , vol.
I. 15.1.

C H A N G E S I N A R " lO R A S

W E A I' 0 N S

177

rury (the sa me tomb yielded a Na ue Type II sword ). I ! Finally, yer another

pair, fo und in 1960 o n the so uthern slo pe of the Athe nian ac ro po lis, seem
also to dat e fro m the twe lfth century B.C. U All these twelfth-century Greek
and Cyp riote g reaves were evident ly locally made and were pe rhaps extempo rized by local bro nzesmiths. Although Go liath wa s said to have wo rn
bro nze greaves, they were never popula r in th e Nea r East. No r do th ey seem
to have been worn in temp erate Euro pe befo re th ey a ppea r in Greece.
Har ding not es that th e ear liest greaves thus far found in Italy belon g to the
tenth century, whi le those from centr al Euro pe a nd th e Balkans " appear to
sta rr at the sa me tim e as the late M ycenaean exa mp les." H
After th e middl e of the twelft h century, greaves disappea r fro m th e a r~vls
chaeologica l record in G reece and do not reap pea r unt il the end of th e
cI:~
eight h cent ury. Carling assumes that in the Da rk Age lea th er leggi ngs came I-;/j 0 ~ r
back into use. 15 Vario us scho lars have note d th at H omer k new little about
" ".
greaves, ot her tha n the fact that the Achaean s had them, and his vagueness
Cfil'1lmay ind icate t hat in his time bro nze greaves were o nly a mem o ry. It th us
seems that the use of metal greaves in the ea rly twelfth cen tury was a shortlived experiment , restri cted mostl y to Gr eece and Cyprus. Th e obsolescence of the bro nze g reave aft er ca. 1150 ca n most easily be ex plained as a
result of the general poverty, and especia lly the sca rcity of bronze , that
Sno dg rass has documented in The Darl: Age at Greece. Th is wo uld be all
the more und erstandable if, in an age wh en bronze wa s very dea r, the
bro nze greave was regard ed as not very "cost- effect ive." Th e bro nze
greaves from the ea rly rwelfrh century a rc not impressive pieces. Th e Kallirhea specimens were simply ha mmered our of shee t bro nze, an d Carling
noted that the smith mad e (1(' effort to mod el the greaves to th e musculatu re
of the leg. And all these ea rly greaves a re relat ively th in: th ose fro m Enko mi
a re two millim eters thi ck, but modern ex periment s have sho wn th at even a
thickness of t hree millimeters can be ent irely cut t hrou gh by a slashing
swo rd. 16
Perha ps th e most imp ortant item of defensive a rmo r th at co mes into use
at the end of the th irteenth centu ry is th e round shield , with its conica l
sur face runn ing back from th e bos s to th e rirn.t ? Hel d w ith a center-grip,

61"

rz lbid., 15 2- 5 3; for

.1

full descri ptio n of the Kallithea to m b an d its co ntents see N .

Yalnuris. " Mvk eni sche Bro nzeschurzwatfeu. " l\ IDAI 75 ( 1 l.) hO ~: 4 2 - 6 7 .
I.l 'The find was originally assigned to rhe Geometric period but has been redared
by Penelo pe M o un tjoy, "The Bron ze (jreu vev from Athens: A Case for a LH IIIC Dare,"

O puscula A tbeniensia 15 ( 1984): 135- 41> .

14 Hard ing, A'fyctt1de..
tn s and Europe, 17'J .
" Carling. " Beinschienen," ISS.
1( . lhid.. 156 - 57.
,- O n shields see Heide Borchhardr, " Fruhe gnc chischc Schi ldfo rmc n. " ill Buch holz an d
Wiesner, Kriegsu vs en , vul. 1. I- 56 .

178

A .\11 LI T A RYE X

LA N A T I 0 :-.I

thi s symmetrica l shield (" bala nced all-a round" is a commo n Hom eric
epithe t for the aspis) mad e up for irs relatively sma ll size by a supe rio r
design. Unt il rhe int rod uctio n of the round shield, toor soldiers of the east ern Mediterran ean kingd om s ca rried lar ge shields of various shapes. T he
M ycen aean s in the LH 1a nd II pe riods (a nd possib ly also in LH ili A and B,
although evide nce is lacki ng) favored the hu ge " figure eight" sh ield, which
enveloped th e wa rrio r o n thr ee sides from neck ro a nk les, wh ile providing
so me freedom of movement for the a rms at the ind entation s. An alterna tive
for th e M ycen aean s, in use also in Egypt, was the slightly smaller " halfcylinder" shield, with sides arc hing back . Although such a shield protected
a ma n fro m neck ro shins, rhe ab sence of a rm inde ntati on s must have
severely restr icted his wield ing of a n offensive weap on . T he Hirrire shield
seems to have been rectangular and relati vely flat but had scalloped sides or
"cu ro uts" fo r th e a rms. T he sta nda rd Egyptian shield was ob long with a
ro unded top, thu s offering so me pro tectio n for the neck. III All the se Late
Bronze Age shie lds, if held fronta lly and at the pro per height, wou ld have
covered most of a foo tso ld ier's bod y, far more in fact than did a round
shield. T he Hom eric sa kos- the great shield- was evide nt ly used with a
long lan ce (the encboss, both ite ms ind icati ng an intentio n to keep o ne's
dist ance in disp at chin g a n oppo nent. Th e size a nd design of these pr e('0-" .sL:~IJ Ca tas tro phe shields a re qu ite understand able if they were intend ed for
defen se primarily ag ain st missiles, a nd onl y occa sionall y again st hand-to. ;5 ~ r
hand weapons. .
Th e round shield, o n the o the r hand, was certainly meant for a hand -to .
~. I
01,
hand fighter. For him, ag ility a nd ~obi~ity counted for much, and he
:; C~
. l
l sacnfi ced th e secu rJ~ of a fu~l-bod y shield Ir1 o rde r to be fast o n.his.feet and
, ~ e.. I" r""" ...s. ro have free use of hIS offensive a rm. Th e round shields vaned 111 size from
less th an rwo ro mor e th an thr ee feet in d iameter, but even the larg est did
not cover a man below midthi gh. But beca use it was per fectly balanced, th e
rou nd s hield was un usuall y maneuverable. Th at q ua lity, toge the r with its
un ifor mly slo ping surfaces, gave th e warr ior good protectio n at the Spo t
that he need ed ir.
With o ne except ion , there are no round shields attested an yw here in the
easte rn Mediterranea n kingdoms before th e lat e th irteenth cenrury.l? Th e .
exceptio n-fro m ca. 1270-ap pea rs in a Luxor relief of the sto rming of
Depu r, a H itt ite st rongho ld in the Levant, by t roo ps of Ramesses rhe G reat.
Round shields a re carried by severa I of Rarnesscs' skirmishe rs in horned

-I ' i

Y-

f'

C H A N G E S I ~ A RM 0 RAN 0

I'" lbid ., 30 : "1m gescmt en ag.iischcn Bereich w it" im Vortlt:rt.

'n Orient ist der runde Schild
erst mit d em Ende des 1J. j ah rhund ert s cindeung nach zu v..-eisen, nach de rn [eweiligen
Ze ~ti) ru ngs hu rt l O nt . der eben mit der Seevo lke rbewegung in Z usa mrnen h. mg geb rachr
word en kann. "

r o :-.I S

179

helm ets, and the likelih ood is fairly strong rhar the Egyp tia n a rt ist int ended
these figures to represent Sa rdi nia n auxilia ries.!" T hus th ere is reason to
believe th at the ro und shield was introdu ced to the eastern Medit err an ean
bv bar bar ian skirmishers fro m th e west. Its ult imate pr oven an ce is un known . Alth o ugh roun d shields were co mmon in temper ate Euro pe afte r
1000, H ard ing found rhar o nly o ne has bee n assigned (by at least some
scho lars) a dare ea rlier than the twelfth century.I!
Alth ough Sard inia n runners were using th e round shield o n Nea r East ern battlefields in th e ea rly rhirree nth cent ury, it eviden tly remained a
specialty of the ba rba rian sk irmis he r for a nother sixty or seventy years.
From late in the thirt eenth ce nt ury o r earl y in the twelfth come seve ral
represent ation s of the ro und shield, found at Megiddo : o ne o n a sherd a nd
two more o n ivory pla qu es.s-'Th e possibilit y that ca. 120 0 the round shield
was becom ing fami lia r in the so ut hern Levant is strengthe ned by the fact
rha r all the agg resso rs wh o attacked Rarnesses II I in 1179 had round
shields. In the M ediner Ha bu reliefs (see plates 6 and 7) it is ca rried not
only by th e western M edit erranean warri ors in horned helm ets-both the
shardana fighting for Rarn esses a nd the Shek elesh fightin g against him but also by th e Philistin es a nd Tiekker. Ram esses' Egyptian infa nt ryme n,
however, ca rry th e tradition al Egyptia n shield (o blo ng, with rounded to p).
In the Aegean the round shie ld - the as pis - scems to have co me into use
rather s uddenly soo n after 120 0 a nd th en qui ckly become standa rd. The
ea rliest evidence for it in Gre ece may be the Tiryn s Shield-Bearers Krater,
dating to the tran siti on from LH IIIB to 1I1 C.!J O n the Warri or Vase (see
plate 8) a nd Warrior Stele th e spea rmen of all thr ee lines ca rry shields th at
are round excep t for a sca llop o n the bo trorn.>' These shields , ca rried by
men in close-order form ation s, a re not iceabl y larger than those ca rried by
th e skirmishe rs. The ro und shield also a ppea rs o n LH IIIC sherd s fro m
Tiryns and Nau plia, o n a vase fro m M ycenae, on two mir ror -handl es fro m
Cyprus, a nd in the ha nds of the " Ingot God" from Enko rni.s>
T he innovatio n of the infan tryman's cors let, greaves, a nd the round
shield in the armies of the eas te rn Medit err an ean reflect s th e imp ort an ce
th at was sudde nly attac hed, during the Catastrophe, ro hand -to -hand
figh ring. Th e ro un d shie ld had long been favored by Sard inia n skirmishers
bur was now in gene ral dema nd . T he infa nt ryman's co rslet was perh aps
lll lbiJ ., 28.
H ar din g, A'fyccnJeatJ s and Europe 17 7. The single earl y spec imen W;J S fou nd in west
Boh emia .
" ):'din, An of \fIu'f" rc, vo l. 2. 24 2, da res them to ca. 12t1lJ. Cf. Bor chh ar dt. "Schrld fcrmen," 30.
~ I Verm eu le and K.JrJgt.-orghi:o., M yt:t'n JeilH I'ictona! \ J st' HJmti"b, J OX -'-J J IIJ p la te X . I.
l ' rbi.L, p late X1.42.
,. lh rd ., p lates XI.I, and l b, and XI.2X: Borchhardt , "Sch ild fo rm en, " 2'1 and 3 1.
11

IX On t hese La te Bronze A g~ type s see Bor chhardr, Sch ildfo rrnen, - 6- 17 a nd H -27. and
th e fold o ut fullowin~ p. 56 .

WE A

180

CHANGES IN ARMOR AND WEAPONS

A ~II LIT A RYE X P LAN A T I o N

improvised by the defenders of the eastern kingdoms, in order to steel

themselves for a type of combat that was unfamiliar and unnerving. The
use of gre:lves may have begun :lmong either the sackers or the defenders of
the Aegean palaces (Homer associates gre:lves with the marauders at Troy,
while the in corpore evidence shows them in use by defenders of the mc
communities). Altogether, the armored infantryman W:lS in large part a
creation of the Catastrophe.

JAVELINS, SPEARS, AND LANCES

In weapons, as in armor, there were major innovations at the end of the

Bronze Age. Although the advent of a new type of sword is perhaps the
most conspicuous and dramatic of these innovations, there seems to have
been another that was equally important but has hardly been noticed. I
refer to the proliferation of a small, long-range weapon that we may call a
javelin, although it could also be called a large dart. This was not the javelin
familiar from modem track-and-field events but a much smaller missile.
The weapon that seems to have played an important role in the Catastrophe W3S perhaps only half or a third the size of to day's sporting javelin,
which is almost nine feet long and weighs almost two pounds (eight hundred grams). A closer parallel to the Bronze Age weapon would be the
Roman iaculum, which Polybius (6.22) describes as two cubits long and
thick as a finger.
The Medinet Habu relief shows that in 1179 the typical Philistine or
Tjekker warrior carried two spearlike weapons, slightly over a meter in
length and with diameters small enough that two could be rightly grasped
in the palm of the hand. In discussing the relief, Yadin reasonably concluded that these weapons were javelins.>: He did not, however, see their
presence as remarkable, and in most subsequent discussions of the arms of
"the Sea Peoples" the javelin has not appeared ar all. 27 Even highly specialized studies have overlooked the popularity of the javelin in the late
second millennium. De Maigret's classification of Near Eastern spears
recognized two types of javelin but noted no increase in their use toward the
end of the Bronze Age. On the Aegean side, Lorimer made no mention of
javelins, and in Avila's Lanzenspitzcn there is no category for javelins (as a
result, in this otherwise very useful typological study javelin heads must be
sought among either the spearheads or the arrowheads). In discussing the
importance of javelins in thirteenth- and twelfth-century warfare, then, we
cannot simply summarize expert opinion but shall have to look at the
primary evidence in some derail.
'" Yadin, Art o(War(are, vol. 2, 251-52.
r r Neither Sanders's Sea Peoples nor Strobel's Sceuollcersturrn (both of which
aggressors' weaponry at some length) mentions the javelin.

JiSLU'sS

rhe

181

It is generally recognized that in the Late Bronze Age [avelins were used
by hunters.v" One fresco at Tiryns shows a young man who is presumed to
be a hunter shouldering two javelins grasped in the left hand; another
shows two hunters, each with a pair of javelins in the right hand.!" A third
fresco, at Pylos, shows a hunter about to throw a javelin ar :l running
stag.") Since the Homeric word aiganee apparently means, etymologically,
something like "glnt spe:lr, n that we3pon m3Y originally have been used
for hunting wild g03tS. 1 1 The javelin 3S:l hunter's we:lpon W3S common in
antiquity and among primitive tribes down to our own time.'! Strabo
(4.4.3) described the Cauls' skill in hunting birds with javelins, declaring
that the Gallic hunters were able to throw their javelins farther (and apparently with no less 3CCUr:lCY) than they could shoot an arrow,
In classical times the javelin was of little importance on the battlefield:
whether hop lites threw javelins ar each other before closing is debated, but
it is agreed that in either case the "real" fighting did not begin until the
thrusting spears were brought into play. In Rome, the uelites threw their
iacula, but it W:lS the legionary's pilum (a much heavier missile) and sword
that determined the outcome of the battle. In primitive societies, on the
other hand, the hunter's javelin was also the primary weapon when a tribe
was involved in a guerrilla with its neighbors. In Herodotus's catalog
(7.71-79) of Xerxes' army the javelin is the main weapon of the Libyan,
Paphlagonian, Thracian, Mysian, and Marian contingents, and in still
another group of auxiliaries each man carried two "wolf-destroying"
spears. Thucydidcs (3.97-98) gives us a vivid picture of the Aetolian javelineers, whom the Athenians suspected of eating raw meat, picking off
"the best men of Athens" when Demosthenes led 3 force of hoplires into
the Aetolian mountains. In Arrians history of Alexander's campaign, some
of the most memorable chapters feature the heroics of the thousand Agrianes, javelin men from the mountains of Paconia. But these exploits of the
javelineer were exceptions to the rule that in classical antiquity javelins
were of limited military v3Iue. 3 .1
Toward the end of the second millennium, however, this humble weapon
seems to have enjoyed a brief prominence. For the "hunting" of chariot
horses the javelin must have been ideal: although it would seldom have
See Olaf Heckmann. "Lauze und Speer," in Buchholz, Kriegswesen, vol. 1, 289-90.
Hackmann, "Lauze und Speer," fibS, 74:1and h. The frescoes belong to the earlier and
later Tiryns palace respectively.
.10 lang, Palace ot Nestor, plare 12 (no. 16 H 43).
~I Hockrn.mn.r'Lmze und Speer," 315 .
.12 E. Norman Gardiner, "Throwing the javelin." ]HS 27 (1907): 257, noted that the
thonged javelin "is essentially the weapon of less highly civilized peoples. It IS a weapon of the
chase, :1 weapon of the Lammon people, but it plays hrrle parr in the heavily equipped citizen
armies of Greece and Rome."
n On the lightly .irmed [avelineers of classical Greece see SnoJgr3sc;, Arm.' ,m d Armour,
67 and n-so.
21\
24

182

Ii
b

r-..

1- 4'sb .cJ
'

f">

Q..x~N'lflt, I

fe{MJ4rl'"'s 4.:~

A MILITARY EXPLANATION

killed the horse that it hit, the javelin would surely have brought it to a stop,
thus immobilizing the other horse, the vehicle, and the crew. Composite
bows were appropriate for the chariot warrior, but for a runner a far
preferable long-range weapon would have been the javelin. Javelins are
thrown on the run, whereas an infantry bowman would have to shoot from
either a crouching position or a flat-footed stance (in either case offering
chariot archers a stationary target). In addition, the javelincer could carry a
small shield, whereas the archer had to use both hands to work his bow.
That javelins were in fact used against chariots in the Late Bronze Age is
clear from Rarncsses the Great's account of his valor at Kadesh: in the
"poetic" inscription Ramcsses boasts that the Hittites were unable either
to shoot their bows or to hurl their javelins at him as he charged against
them in his chariot. 34
The Agrianes mentioned above show the efficiency of javelineers against
a chariot force. When he learned that Darius had a hundred scythed chariots in the middle of his line atGaugamela, Alexander responded by placing his Agrianes (as well as Balakros's javelineers) as a screen for his heavy
infantry. The mountain men were deadly marksmen, and not one Persian
chariot got through the screen.V An argument can be made, despite the
fact that the evidence is exiguous, that something similar must have happened time and again during the Catastrophe, and that the javelin played a
key role in bringing the era of chariot warfare to an end. A horde of
javelineers swarming through a chariot host would have destroyed it: at
forty or fifty meters a team of horses would even at the gallop have made a
far easier target for a javclincer than he-small, running, and protected by
his shield-would have made for the chariot archer.
From the centuries before the Catastrophe there are occasional illustrations of what seem to be javelins carried by warriors, although these are
somewhat larger than those carried by the Philistines in 1179. A few of the
Shoshu tribesmen whom Seti I defeated early in the thirteenth century may
have brought javelins to the contest with the Egyptian chariots, since in a
relief (see plate 9) one tribesman is depicted grasping two thin spears of
moderate length in his right hand.w The same was true when Seti's son,
Rarncsses the Great, campaigned against the tribesrnen.J" In the Aegean,
javelins seem to be carried by the captain (but not by his men, who evidently carry thrusting spears) in the "Captain of the Blacks" fresco: lying
across his shoulder are two long and thin lines, which may represent the

"'""
E
;;<:
"
d
<U

c:.
E
1::

::;

<

l"
'~

1!

OIl

.~

"

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:J

"'"c
v'"
s

""

C
-0
\J

"'"
L

Vl

go

Gardiner, Kadesh, P135-40 and PI60-65.

.II Arrian, Anab, 3.13.5.
" Battle Reliefs of King Sety I, plate 3.
P For relief showing J Shoshu warrior grasping two thin and fairly short "spears" in his
right hand see Yadin, Art o{ Warfare, vol. 1,233.
\4

..'2

s'"
1

"
"

./)

'"

184

A MIll TAR Y EX P LAN A T ION

slender shafts of javelins.t" If the fresco depicts a squad of skirmishers on

their way to a battle, perhaps the captain intended to engage the enemy at
long range while his Nubian troops closed in hand-to-hand combat with
their thrusting spears. Finally, a few short javelins are portrayed in
thirteenth-century warfare: these are tassel-stabilized darts, hardly a meter
in length, carried on Egyptian chariots (see plate 1). Bonnet observed that
this "Wurfpfeil" first appears on Nineteenth-Dynasty chariots, the crews
apparently keeping several of these missiles available for use at a range too
close for a bow.!"
In the twelfth century military javelins are portrayed in greater numbers.
There is, first of all, no doubt that the javelin was the weapon that the
Philistines and Tjekker brought to Djahi in 1179. The Medinet Habu relief
portrays many of the enemy holding two small (three- or four-foot)
"spears" but never using one for a thrust. Since the fighting is hand-tohand, the javelins appear to be a useless encumbrance. But it was not only
the enemies of Egypt who used javelins in the twelfth century. Another
relief shows them in the hands of Rarncsses III's own barbarian skirmishers.v' evidently for use against enemy infantrymen (this king is not
known to have fought against a chariot army). In Greece too we can see the
importance of the short javelin as a military weapon in the twelfth century.
An LH mc sherd from Tiryns shows a warrior armed with javelins."! Since
the warrior is riding in a chariot, we may identify him as a skirmisher on his
way to the battle zone rather than as an infantryman who fought in a closeorder company. Another LH mc skirmisher is represented on a krater
sherd recently found in the Unterburg at Tiryns: the warrior in this scene
rides on a chariot and carries two javelins in addition to his round shie'd.f-'
Yet another mc sherd, this one from Lefkandi, seems to show (the scene is
too poorly drawn for us to be certain) an armored warrior holding two
javclins.f' It thus appears that by the early twelfth century javelineers were
to be found in the kings' armies as well as among their barbarian opponents. The kingdoms' employment of javelin men probably began before
See, for example, Hockmunn. "Lanze und Speer," 288-90. Snodgrass, Early Greek
11S~ suggested that the rwo lines (almost as long as the captain
himself) may be outlines of a single spe ar ; but the captain's body is visible between the lines,
and if the lines do outline a single spear. it is massive, with :1 diameter almost as great as the
captain's arm. The black man who follows rhe captain seems to carry a single spear of normal
diameter (see Evans, Palace of Minos, vol. 2, 2, plate xiii).
W Bonnet, Waffen, 105-6. For this~ thirteenth-century innovation see also 'radin, Art of
Warfare, voL I. 88, and his illustration at pp. 240-41"
..J )) See Sandars, Sca Peoples, fig. 14,
41 Vermeule and Karageorghis, MYL"eu.leJn Pictorial VasL' Painting, no. XL UL
41 Ibid.. no. XL28.
4' Vcrmeule and Karageorghu, in ibid.. no. Xl.61 (p. 136), suggest that the sherd portrays
"a sharp-fared soldier in a crested helmet with rwo light ravelin-, and an oval shield."
18

Annour and Weapons,

CHANGES IN ARMOR AND WEAPONS

185

the Catastrophe, with runners using javelins to assist in bringing down

enemy chariot teams, but the twelfth-century javelineers of Tiryns and
Lefkandi presumably threw most often at a human target.
There is a bit of literary evidence that late in the second millennium the
javelin was used against tootsoldiers. In the Iliad there are occasional
references to akontes, and when Pandaros shoots Menelaus with the bow
Menelaus's life is saved by the waistband that he wore as "a barrier against
akontes" (Iliad 4.137). A more surprising source is the story of David and
Goliath. Yadin presented an ingenious argument that the story was originally about an Israelite who killed a famous Philistine warrior whose
weapon was a javelin.v' Weall know that Goliath carried a spear "like unto
a weaver's beam," but that does not help much in a world even less familiar
with looms than with spears. Yadin explored the term 0''"'1\ 'UI.J and
found that it has nothing to do with size: it was, instead, a shaft of very
slender proportions. What was distinctive about it, however, were the
loops that it carried. Yadin concluded that the original Hebrew story described a Philistine warrior who carried a spear equipped with a throwingthong (the ankyle ofthe classical Greeks, and the amentum of the Romans).
With a thong spiraled around the shaft, a warrior could rifle a javelin as he
threw it, thus adding to its accuracy and its range. Although the story of
Goliath and his spear "like unto a weaver's beam" was eventually attached
to King David, it was also told of Benaiah of Kabzeel (1 Chronicles 11.2223) and Elhanan of Bethlehem (2 Samuel 21.19) and may well have originated in a real event."; It would appear that the use of the thonged javelin
was exceptional in Canaan late in the second millennium and was perhaps
limited to a few warriors in Philistia. In Greece the thonged javelin may
have been especially distinctive of the north and of Thessaly in particular. 46
How much in corpore evidence we have for the javelin in the second
millennium is difficult to say. Many bronze weapon-heads from the period
have been found, but in the absence of the shafts one cannot be certain
whether the heads were attached to spears, javelins, or arrows. Because the
military use of a short, dartlike javelin has scarcely been recognized, however, I believe it likely that many javelin heads ftom the late second millennium have been erroneously identified as arrowheads.
De Maigrer's classification does assign one type of socketed " lancehead" to a javelin, and on this type there should be no argument. Tipo B 7
("giavellotti a lama rriangolare acuta ") is large enough-most specimens
Yadin, "Goliath's Javelin and the O'~"K "ruzi," I'EQ ( 1955), 58-69.
On the conflarions and contradictions in the story as told in the Masoretic text see
Emanuel Tov. "The David and Goliath Saga," Bible Review (1986): 34-41.
46 Euripides' reference tBaccbae, 1205) to "Thessalian ankylomata.... indicates that his
audience associated the rhonged [avelin with Thescaly and assumed its use there in the heroic
penod.
44

45

7h,O!,J' 11
I~ rt.oy)
"" 4. I. JI
-..:
/I

~....

7 -eo G ~
I-:
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..,

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j,

186

I
I,

A MILITARY EXPLANATION

are about 10 or 12 centimeters long-that it can hardly have come from an

arrow; but since the sockets of this type are barely wider than .0Im, neither
could it have been attached to a thrusting spear. The forty -three specimens
ofTipo B 7 heads are almosr without exception from the Levant (especially
Megiddo) and date from the Middle and the Late Bronze Age.4 7 Thus it
appears that socketed javelins, with thin (and, on e would suppose, short)
shafts, were in use in the Levant all through the second millennium.
In the Aegean we also find a number of socketed weapon-heads, most
dating from late in the LH 1II period, which are reasonably identified as
javelin heads. Many of these, it is worth pointing out, were found in northwest Greece, just beyond the frontier of the Mycenaean world.:" Because
the "Epirote " specimens have faceted, solid-ring sockets, rather than the
split-ring sockets characteristic of Mycenaean spearheads, Avila proposes
that they are the southernmost extension of types that originated in the
Balkans."? We may note that socketed javelin heads have also been found in
Italy in contexts dating to the rhird quarter of the second millenniurn.c?
Despite opinion to the contrary, it is also very likely that a somewhat
! II
r smaller head, this one tanged rather than socketed, came from a javelin.
.!JUfU".i ~ Heads of this type (see figure 2) have an elliptical blade and vary in length
from ca. 7 to 13 centimet~.llJincluding both tang and blade). They were in
.:II. C'" JD..II.
use all through the Late Bronze Age>! but enjoyed their greatest vogue
during the twelfth and eleventh centuries B.C. Although found primarily in
the Near East, they were also used in Greece. These heads were certainly
used in hunting, but there is no doubt that they were also used in battle: one
of them was found embedded in the dorsal vertebrae of a man buried at
Ugarit.V Most often they have been identified as arrowheads, despite the
fact that even the shortest is approximately twice the size of the average
military arrowhead.>! In part, I suspect, they have been identified as arrow-

, 1 .J.'

he.c..J.s

De Maigrer, Lance. 154-67.

In Avila's Lanzenspitzen, nos. 143-60 are all "aus Epeiros," and all measure between
I0 and 20 em. in length. including blade and sacker. The dateable specimens come from the
LH IIIB or IIIC period. 0. Snodgrass's Types Band C (F.arly Greek Armollr and Weapolls,
119-20).
44 Avila, ibid., 67; Snodgrass, Early Greek Annour and U/eapons1 119, calls his Type B
(found especially in Epirus and Kephallenia) "a well-known Danubian type."
5U J. M. Coles and A. F. Harding, The Bronze Age ill Europe (New York, 1979): 179-80.
Coles and Harding date these javelin heads from Cascina Ranza, ncar Milan, to the "earlier
Bronze Age" (shortly before 1300).
SI More than thirty were recovered from the fourteenth-century shipwreck off Ulu Burun;
see Cemal Pulak, "The Bronze Age Shipwreck at Ulu Burun, Turkey: 1985 Campaign," A]A
92 (1 n8): 23-24.
51 The skeleton was found in Grave 75 at Ras Shamra, with pottery from late LH lilA or
early LH IIlB. See Avila, Lanzenstntzen, I 12-13.
H Since we have no catalog of Near Eastern arrowheads, I base my generalization on
Avila's findings for rhe Aegean. Most of the Late Bronze Age arrowheads in his Lanzen- und
47

4H

;: .

CHANGES IN ARMOR AND WEAPONS

187

heads simply because typologists have no classification for a small, dartlike

javelin. On the Near Eastern side, de Maigret arbitrarily established 3
length of 11 centimeters 3S the minimum for the head of a giauellotto; de
Maigret duly recognized as javelins the eleven elliprical ranged heads thar
met this qualification, but he excluded the scores that fell below 11 centimeters, leaving them to be dealt with by an eventual rypologist of Near
Eastern arrowheads. \4
More than a dozen heads of the same rype have been found in Greece,
but these Greek specimens have been classified by Avila 3S Pteilspitzen.v:
Although these heads would have met de Maigret's length requirement
(they average 11 centimeters in length), Avila assumed that "spearheads"
must be socketed and that a ranged head could only have come from an
arrow. That assumption, which is certainly untenable for the Near East, is
probably invalid for Greece too, since a Tiryns fresco seems to portray
javelins whose heads are tanged rather than socketed.w
What makes the matter especially pertinent for us is that weapons with
such a head were clearly instrumental in the Catastrophe. In the destruction level of the central city at Ugarit thirteen such weapon-heads were
found, not in a hoard but scattered in the debris. '7 They must therefore
Pfeilspit;:.en have no shaft attachment: the v-base of the blade was simply pressed into the end
of the shaft. Looking at all of these Klasse I speCImens Inos. 163 to 687G), I find that the vast
majority are less than 3 cm. long. For example, of the 318 arrowheads from twelfth-century
Pvlos. the longest is 2.58 em . and the median 1.?4 em. All ranged he-rds (nos. 688 through
773) Avila classifies as Klasse 2 arrowheads. These are considerably larger, the median being
approximately 4.5 ern. But if my contention is correct that heads over 7 cm. ca.ne from
javelins, the typical ranged arrowhead would measure a bit less than 4 em. Thesole arrowhead
found in Troy Vila. barbed and ranged, measured 3.9 em. (a similar specimen from Troy VI
measured 3.8 cm.): see Blegen er al, Troy. vot. 3: Settlements VIla. VIlb. and Vlll (Princeton,
1958): fig. 219. Supporting evidence may be available from a much later date: Mordechai
Gichon and Michaela Vitale, "Arrow-Heads from Horvat 'Eqed," IE] 41 (1991): 242-57,
report that at this Hellenistic-Roman site forty-three ranged military arrowheads are well
enough preserved to be measured....The median length is 3.6 cm., and none of these ranged
heads measures over 6.1 cm.
S4 In reference to his Tiro A 7 ii, de Maigrer, Lance, 90, notes that these javelin heads had
morphological parallels to Levanrine arrowheads of the l.are Bronze Age. The eleven heads in
this group come from Hazor (no. I, undated); Ugarit (nos. 2-4, fourteenth and thirteenth
centuries); Alalakh (no. 5, thirteenth or twelfth centuries]; Tarsus (no. 6, 700-520 B.C.);
Boghazkdy (no. 7, fourteenth or thirteenth centuries); and Assur (nos. 8-1 I, Old or Middle
Assyrian). Although no. 2 measuresJn em. in lengrh, the others range between I I and 18 em.
ss Compare de Maigret's Tipo A 7 ii Javelin heads (at Lance, 89-91, with fig. 20) and
Avila's Klassc 2f arrowheads tl.aneenspitzen, 112-13, with plate 28).
Sf"> Heckmann. "Lanze und Speer," 290: "die Spitzen offenba r mirrles cines Schaftdorns in
den vorn knaufamg vcrdickren Holzschafr gesreckr sind."
57 Mane-jose Chavane, "Instruments de bronze," in M, Yon er al., Ras Shnrnra-:-: Of/garit
Ill. Le Centre de la ville: 38<-44< Cnntragncs (1978-1984).357. Chav.me, I am happy to
note, does not rule out javelins ("'tteire po.rucs de HecheS ou de raveline").

Illll

A MI L I TARY E X P LA I-: AT IO N

C H A:-': G E S I N AR M 0 R A i'i 0

a
c

FICURE 2. Tanged, elliptical weapon-heads of the late second millennium. Scale

approx. 5 :6
a and b. From Catastrophe destruction level at Ugarir
c. From El Khadr, Israel (ca. 1100 B.C.)
d. From Mycenae (no dated context)
e. From Haza r (eleventh century B.C.)

W E A I' 0 i'i S

189

h ave been used by eit he r the agg ressors or the d efen der s in th e city 's last
ho ur s. The three head s from Ugarit th us far pu blished a re 7 . S.5 .m d 8 .7
centimete rs in len gth .; x
If on e o bjects to iden tify ing these an d othe r elliptica l, ran ged head s of
th e lat e second millen nium as co mi ng from small javelin s, one's only alternative is to argu e tha t at th is time ar chers for on e reason or a no ther
develop ed a preferenc e for eno rmo us arrow s. But va riou s co nsideratio ns
ident ify these elliptica l, ran ged heads ;I S co rning from javelins, Ma ny of th e
specimens tha t h ave bee n fo und , first of a ll, are insc ribed . T his prac tice,
whic h Fronk Cross has ca lled "J fad of the II th cent ury," >" was espe cia lly
co mmo n in the so uthern Leva nt bu t is a lso a ttes ted for Me sopotamia.':" A
hoa rd of tonged heads ca me to light at EI Khadr, nea r Beth lehe m, in 19 53 ,
and five (measur ing between 9.2 and 10.5 em. ) ar e inscri bed I!~ ' bdlbt;
whi ch C ross prudentl y tran slated as "dar t of ' Abd-L abi'r. " 61 Th e H eb rew
I!~ is no rma lly a n arrow, but because th ese hea ds see med too lar ge for a n
a rrow, C ross supposed tha t th e word (a uld a lso have bee n used for a sm a ll
missile that was hurled rat her th a n shot. Since 1953 , a nother eigh te en
head s hove been found beari ng w ha t seem to be th e na mes of th eir ow ner s;
still ot he rs, fro m Me sopo ta mia. a re in scr ibed with royal nam es. It is less
likely tha t a n ar che r wo uld inscr ibe a ll thirt y or forty of hi s a rrow hea ds
th an that a javelinee r m ight inscribe h is few javelin hea ds.
N ot only the size bu t also th e shape of th e hea ds su ggest s javelins ra th er
than a rrows. A mi litary a rrowh ead was nor mally barb ed, so tha t the victim
co uld not retract it w itho ut tear ing his flesh; but the se heads a re elliptical,
designed for easy retr act ion. The po ssibi liry tha t an a rc he r could or wou ld
wish to retri eve a spent a rro w is unlikel y, bu t a wa rrio r wi th on ly two or
th ree javelins wo uld pe rha ps have retrieved eac h of the m seve ral tim es
during a skirmish.
~B M . Yo n, Pier re Lomba rd, and M a rgo Rerrisio. "L' o rga nis.rrion de l' h abira t: les rnaiso ns
A, B er E. " in Yon, l.e centre de fa uille, 46-4 8, with figs. 27 an d 2 X (o b jects no s. 80 /2 70 ,
80 /99 , JnJ 80 /7 0). Ch.i van e, " Lcs instr um e nts de bro nze ," 357. announces rhar pu blica tio n
of the thi rteen head s, along with o ther bro nze pieces, is forthcoming.
5 '" C ross, "On Darin g Pho eni cian ln scripri o ns in Sard inia and [he rvt ed ircrran ca n. " AlA 94
(1990): .l40.
eo See. ruos r recen tly; Benjamin Sass. " Insc ribed Babylon i.m Arrow heads of [he 'fum of the
Seco nd Millennium an d Their l'h ocm cia n Co u n rerp.irt v." Uf' 2 1 ( 19S9): l4 9- 5'; ; .ind j .M.
de Tarr ag on . .. La po inte de tlcche inscrit c des Pe res BLInc.::;Je j er us.ilcm ," Rt'V. Bib, YH ( l 99 1) :
244 - 51. T hese " a rrowhead s ,. are undoubredl y fro m sho rt jJ,vd ills (ehe je rusa lem specime n
mea sures 8.1 crn.).
"' J. T. Mi lik and Frank C ro ss, " Inscrib ed jav elin -H eads from th e Perio d of th e j udg es: A
Rece nt Discovery in Palestine ," RASOR 134 ( 19 H ;: 5- 15. Two mo re hea ds from the sa me
hoa rd , d.it ed paleogr ap hically co ': <1. 1100. have since ...ur faced: see C ross. " Newl y found
lnscripriou -, ill O ld Ca na.n u rc and Earl v Pho en ici.ur Snipes, " HASOR 238 i 1 t.J ~ () ) : 4 - 7.
Unfo rtu na tely, bet we en 195 4 .m d 19HO e ro" dowu gr .rded the EI Kh adr he ads Iroin javelin
he.id-, [0 .rrrow he.ids.

190

l{(}4.20r
jO"..,~{,'11 S

~s4~.pls

C H A N C E.S 1N A R .\ \ 0 R AN 0 W P. A P 0 N S

A M I L I T A RYE X l' LA :-; A T I O N

Fina lly, there is th e evide nce from a vo tive jar fou nd in St ra tu m XI (la te
eleventh cent ury ) at Ha zer. T he ja r co nt ained (see figure 2e) not o nly
ran ged bronze heads very simila r to th o se from El Khadr, but also shaft
bu tts (the di am eter s of these butts are 1.6 cm. and 2 cm. ).b! Since it is
virt ua lly certain tha t the shaft butts and weap on head s ca me from the sa me
wea po ns, the H azer weap on s mu st be ident ified as javelins and not as
a rrows. Ne ithe r of th e two Hazer head s exceeds 10 centi mete rs in length. b .l
To sa y that all ran ged head s less than 11 ce nti meters lon g are arrowheads is
th erefo re to ignore the o nly sure evide nce we have fo r the size of ra nged
javelin head s at the end of the second millenn ium.
And these sm a ll javelins were used in G reece as well as in the Near East .
Since th e Aegean head s th at Avila classified as Klasse 2 Pfeilspitzen a re
mo rph ol ogicall y ide ntica l to (a nd , ind eed, sligh tly larger than ) th e five
inscribed El Khadr head s, we mu st su ppo se th at these too a re javelin
he ad s.v' The o ne securely dated specimen comes from a LH IIIB cha mbe r
tom b near Thebes.e> Th at a single such head would be inte rred with a
warrior aga in ind icates that we are d eal ing here with a javelin rath er th an
an a rrow. The re is lit tle doubt that toward the end of the Lat e Bron ze Age
sho rt javelins of a Levanti nc ty pe were used as military weap on s in
G reece.se
Bo th th e pictorial and the in corpo re evidence show s tha t Lat e Bronze
Age javel ins had slender sha fts an d small heads, and undo ubted ly th ese
javelins would have inflicted mu ch less tr auma than six- or seven-foot
spea rs. But as missiles fo r wo u nding cha riot ho rses o r lightly armo red men,
these h um ble weap on s were pe rhap s as importa nt as any in the arsena l of
the barba ria n ra iders. In the co nven tio na l view th at 1 ate Bronze Age wa rfare was cha racterized by den se formati on s of heavy infant ry, the uti lity
and th e impo rtance of the barbar ian s' javelins would be difficult to see. But

or

., C i. Y. Yadin; Y. Ahar o ui et a I., Hazor: An Accoltnt of t he TI",d and Fourth Season s

u aI'lltion,. 195 7- 1958 {j erusa lem, 196 1): plate COl, nos . 6. 7. 10. an d II fo r d rawing;
for a phorograph 1 ro app ro ximately 1: I sca le) see pl.ire CC CX LVII. Fur illust rarion oi th e
H azor votive deposit see Yadin, W,Jr!Jre, vo l. 2, 352, a nd not e his com ment the re: " Th e Facr
tha r the butts were fo und in the vessel stre ngt he n.. the theo ry tha r the:head s were to r javelins
and not for a rrows. "
., Th e bla de of no, 10 is bent ; if stra igh tened, the length o f the p iece would revert iro m its
c urrent g.5 em. to 10 em. Th e or her head (no. I I ) i ~ bro ke n ; irs prese rved len gth (7 .5 cm .) can
be assu med to represent at leasr three-fou rrhs of
o rigin a l.
"'.. I refe r to the fo ur he.ids in A"IIJ's KI.\Sse 2f (no s. 76 6- 69) : wh ich a vera ge I I em . in

me

len gth . O f th e fourreen speci mens Avila ca ralog s as Pf('ll,pil~en ; 70 A- 770 M and des cribe> as
"nich r nd hc r bcsrimm ba re Pferlspirzen der G runJ to rm :!.." at leasr ten wou ld be reasonab lv
ide nti fied .IS javelin heads on the h:his o t borh size ,JnJ fo rm .
.
,... Avila, Lanzrn spuz en, no . 7 6 7 (p. 112).
...,. Ihid ., II!, u nequivocally asvigns th i ~ type of head a N ear F....astern origin: " Srielspirzen
de r Klasse .!f smd uicht gric(h i'ichen Ursp rungs : rhr Ha uprver h reiru ngsgeb ier liegr irn Vo rdcren O rienr unJ erst reckt sh.:h vo n Anaroli en un d Zypern his zum heut igen Gaza srrei fen . "

19 1

if it is co nceded that pr ior to the Ca tastro phe the easte rn ki ngs depe nd ed
for offense o n thei r cha riotries, o ne can imagin e how m uc h th e javelin may
have co nt ributed to the ra ider s' success . And o n th is matter, as o n so man y
others in a ncient militar y histo ry, imagi natio n is o ur o nly reso urce, since
we have no relie f, painting. o r text that pre sents the raid ers thr ow ing
javelins at chariot horses.
Offensive weap ons other tha n th e javelin have been th e subjects of specialized study, a nd so we may mor e briefly review the ir development at th e
end of the Bron ze Age. Not sur p risingly, the spea r ( ~ s pea r ~ here rep resents
a wea pon wielded with one ha nd , a nd " lance" repr esent s a weapon so la rge
that it was normall y thrust with both ha nd s) in twelfth- cent ur y representa tions is roughly what it had a lways been: a sharpe ned head att ached to a
sha ft ap proxima tely as lon g as its wield er is tall. b7 Th e ill corpore evide nce
ind icates one cha nge in the ma nufactu re of Aegea n spea rs: the twelfthcentury spea rheads had solid- ring sockets, wherea s earlier sock ets had
split rings. Th at d ifference resulted from a cha nge in the tech nology of
bronze working: ins tead of forgi ng the spea rheads in sm ith ies, twelfthcent ury bronzewo rke rs cast them in fou ndri es. T he so lid -ring soc ket see ms
to have had no military sign ificance , altho ugh the development of fou nd ries does suggest that mass prod uctio n o f b ro nze a rtifac ts was sudde nly
im po rt ant in the Aegea n. In th e elevent h an d tenth ce nt u ries, iron spearhead s ap pea red alo ngside bronze, both in th e Near Eas t and in the Aegea n,
and th at cha nge too may have resulted in part from the need to produce
mor e spearheads th an co uld be had from the limi ted supply of bronze.
O n the Warrio r Vase a spea r is th e o nly offensive weap on the wa rrio rs
carry and so mus t have been used o nly for ,1 thrust. Hom er ca lled the spea r
a n CliXll~ o r a bOQu, and since uiXll'lT~ was for him a virt ua l syno nym for
" wa rrior" we mu st supp ose th at in the Dark Age the Gree ks depend ed
pr imar ily up on the ir spears in combat. Before the Catastro phe, the spea r
had been less im po rtant. T he word bOQu do es not a ppea r in the Linea r B
tablets. Of cou rse the Myc en aean s had spea rs, but the y seem to have had a
single word-enchos-for both the la nce a nd th e spea r.r " It is possible
that the wo rd &oQu was popularized by North-Gr eek spea kers who ca me
so ut h in the Iro n Age (in chap ter 4 it was sugges ted that a ~ (Jl Ql EU C; was,
etymo logica lly, a " spearman "). 69 Hom eric wa rrio rs occasi ona lly ca rry
two dourata, throw ing o ne and thru sti ng the ot her, but wh ether that practo:' For J d iscuss ion of thirt eenth- JnJ rwelfrh -cenru ry spea rs in G reece see HOl.:krflJnn ,
"Lanzen unJ Spee re." For ind ividu al ty pe.. vee S ooJ g.r :l.s~ , Earlv G rt'ek Arm nll r and Wt!up'm s.
115- ] 9, and Avila, Lanzcnspit zcn . At pp. I ::! R-::!9 Avtla no res the popu larity of "J ie man -

nesl.mge Lm ze " irom LH II th ro ugh lll'C.

hlo;" He ckmann, "Lmzen unJ Speere. " 3 .\4-.\5 .
hQ For ;lgenr noun... tennm.rnn g in ..n l;sct' EJ uJrJ Schwyze r. C n ech iscbe Crammaue , \ '( ) 1.

I. (M unich,

1 ~39 l :

-1 76- 77.

192

C H A;o; C E S I ~ A 1\ .\ 1 0 It A N D 11.' E A I' U S ~

A M I L I T A R Y EXPL AS ATION

tice obtained in th e real wo rld we do not kno w.?" In Israel th e spear seems
to have been the militiaman's prima ry weapo n du rin g the period of "the
Judges." Wh at the ro le of the spea r was in twel fth -centu ry Asvyria is
unknow n, but in the ninth cent ury a n Assyr ian infant ryman carrie d either
a bow o r a single spear as his prim a ry weap o n.
It is und ou btedly safe to say tha t in the early Iron Age hand-to-hand
fighting througho ut th e eastern Mediterr anean was a co ntes t of thrustin g
spea rs. Th is weapon was appropriate especia lly for infantryme n in close
o rde r fo rma tio ns, wh ethe r in Hom eric phalanges and stich es, in Do ric
plrylai and phr atri es,"! o r in th e "tens, hundreds, and thou sands" of th e
Nea r East. A spea r not o nly had a mu ch greater ran ge tha n a swo rd but was
less a pt to injure co mrades immediately to o ne's right and left.
In co nt rast to the spear, the lance seems to have become a rar ity aft er
the Bronze Age, at least in G reece. T he lance- the encho s of both Hom er
a nd the Linear B ta blets- must have been used especially fo r defen se of
th e cha riot aga inst runners (as no ted in chapter 10, it is so depicted o n a
H itt ite stele)72 and in G reece may have lost its utility when th e cha rio t
became a prest ige vehicle. H ow lon g th ese lances were is diffi cul t to say,
since the head s (and they are eno rmo us), but not the shafts, have been
preserved. At Iliad 6.3 1Hand 8.4 94 , however, th e poet describes Hector's
enchos as eleven ells (5 .08 meters) lon g. Philologists have not ed th at in
Hom er the enchos is usu ally paired with the great shield, the sak os, and
seems to reflect an older usage; th e yo unger pair is th e d oru and the
aspi s.i ?

SWO RD S

We co me fina lly to th e swo rd, in wh ich th e cha nges ca. 1200- th rou ghout
the easte rn M editerr an ea n- are nothing less tha n revolu tion ary. Both a rchaeologists and typ ologists of weapons have not ed th at it is at th is time
that a new type of swo rd , the Na ue Type II, arrived in th e eastern Mediterran ean , and it has also been point ed o ut that th is is the first t rue slashing
" 0 O ne would su ppos e rhar a wa rr io r who wish ed to rhr ow a rnissil e a r an o ppo n ent , befo re
hav ing (O eng ag e him with .l th ru stin g spe ar, woul J brmg ro the ha tt ie rwo quire di ffer en r
weJ. pon ~ . At .trly C reek Arm ou r and V/a rfJ Tl', 1Jtl-37. Snodg ras s n o el'S th.rr a few graves
from (he." Da rk Age yie lded o ne l..lcge a nd o ne ("mJ.J1 . .pcarh ead ! I1J makes rhl' gO()J :,u~c:~ti ul1
rha r rhe sm alle r head was h om a m issile.
"71 S. R. l( )JJ~ "Citizenry Divisio ns in Ancie nt G ree k Poleis : ~1 i lirJ ry Asp ect s or T heir
Origi n an J Development " (Ph .D . di sse rt arion, VanJer bilt Unive rsity, I q'lll, p rese nt s an
J rgunle O[ rhar pJry/'l ; begau J;S the primary di vision s-s- a nd ph r3t ries .is subdi vis io ns- t ,f .1
rruliria , and rhar rhe m ilita ry orga ruzario n pr efer red b)' rhc Dor ia ns WJ~ mp art ire,
" Canby. - Hirrire An ." I 14 .
:"1 Fo r di KU~\ IO n .1OJ h ,h lio gr.lp hy see Hoc klO.WII. "Lan zen u nd Spee re. " J.!.9-3 J .

.~,

.. . -:

193

swo rd th at the area knew. But th e revolut io n in swo rds and swo rdsmanship
in the eastern M edi te rranea n actua lly goes deeper than th at. Altho ugh not
literally co rrect, there is mu ch to be sai d for Trevo r Watkins's generalization th at the swo rd as such was fo reign to men of the eastern Med iterranean until " the Peopl es of th e Sea " brou ght it forcefully to their atrention .?" Befor e 1200 B.C., wh at swor ds manship th ere was in the eastern
kingdo ms was a mo no po ly o f sk irmishers whom th e kings had brou ght ill
fro m harb aria .
In a useful essay o n ancient swo rdsma nship Col. D. H. Go rdo n provide d
a techni cal terminol ogy th at ca n clarify discussion of th e weap ons of th e
th irteent h and twelft h ceutu ries.?" Stabbing weapo ns sho rte r than fourteen inches (35 cm.) are knives a nd daggers. A "s wo rd " between fourtee n
and twen ty inches lo ng (35 to 50 cm.) is more co rrect ly called a dirk, a
"s ho rt swo rd " fa lls between twenty and twent y-eight inches (50 to 70 cm.),
and a lo ng swo rd has a length of at least twent y-eight inches. Although in a
pinch a dirk o r even a dagger cou ld be used with a slashing (cun ing)
mot ion , th ese weap on s wer e of co urse designed prima rily fo r thrustin g.
Prop er swo rds co uld be serv icea b le for either function , and the sha pe of the
hlade is th e best indication of how o ne was in fact used. Blades th at ta pered
conti nuo usly from hilt to tip were genera lly meant to be thrust. Co nt rarily,
a blade whose edges ran ro ug hly pa ra llel- and th at was at least an inch (26
em.) wid e- for most of its len gth was und ou btedly designed to keep fro m
hendi ng even w hen bro ugh t dow n in a har d slash.?" Thus " a cut-andthrust swo rd is o ne that ca n be used as effectively as its form permi ts both
for cutt ing and thrusting. " 7 7'
Ca . 1200 B.C. th ere appea red in th e eastern Med iterran ean th e th oro ughly efficient cur-a nd -th r ust swo rd known to specialists as the Na ue
Type lI,7s o r the G rill::'zm g en seh wert. Let us take a close loo k at it (see
figure s 4a and d) to see w ha t a trul y "goo d sword was, and wh at it could
do. ?? Th e Na ue Type II was a lo ng (mo st of them ca . 70 cm. fro m po mmel
to tip) bro nze weapo n. The blade's edges were virtu ally para llel fo r much
of its length , o r even swelling very sligh tly to a maxim um at ap prox ima tely
twent y centimete rs fro m the tip, befo re taper ing to a sharp point (such a
blad e is therefor e called " leaf-sha ped" ). Th e blade and hilt were cast as a
single piece of metal. Th e hilt wa s a lIat tang, a littl e over half as wide as the
:"4

'Wr;ltki n \~ " Be:Jtinni n&- or \'(.f.uf.:I rc~ " 25 .

D. H. Go rdo n, "Swo rds, Rap iers and Hor se-riders." Antiquity 27 (1953 ): 67-7R .
IbiJ ., 70 .
7; IbiJ ., 7 1.
:"J( 'TIle (b s~ i fi(d ti o n der ives [rom J ulius Naue , D ie l'O m )nJischen Scbu-er te r JU S Kup fer,
Bron:e und f.js ~n {M unich, 19(3 ),
; .. Fo r a dera iled rypo log ic.rl sru dv sec Ca rling, " Bro nze C ur-a nd -Th rust Swo rds in theEastern Medir et r.m e.m," I'I'S 22 ( 195 6): 102-25 .
7<

Ch

194

C H .~ :-; , ; E S I '" A R .\I 0 R A:-; D WE A l' 0 :-; S

A ,\ 1 I I I TAR i' F. X P l A NAT I ON

blade, from the edges of which curled four flang es. Hilt-pieces of bon e o r
wood were seat ed within the flanges a nd attac hed th rou gh the tan g by
rivets. With suc h <1 hilt the wa rrior could be co nfident th at his blad e would
not be nd from th e ran g, nor his hilt-p ieces loosen , no ma tter how jarrin g a
slas h he st ruck . Th e Na ue Type II co uld be used as <1 th rustin g weap on,
since the extremity of the blad e was tap ered and o n both sides two shall ow
"bloo d cha nnels" ran the ent ire length of the blad e. But o bvio usly th is
swor d was designed pr imaril y for cutt ing (slashing ). In swords whose pri ma ry design was for thrusting, the cente r of gravity was just below the hilt .
O n th e Naue Type II the center of grav ity was much farth er down the blad e
(this was especi ally so for the leaf-shap ed blade ). In a thru sting sword th at
wo uld ha ve been a serious drawback, but it added grea tly to the forc e an d
velocity of a slashin g swo rd. With suc h a slashing swo rd a warrior co uld
cut off a n opponent 's head , leg or a rm, or cut him in two: so Diorn edes
(Iliad 5.144) severs Hy peirori's sho ulde r fro m his neck a nd back. Th e Na ue
Type II co uld also, of course, be used with a thru st, a nd a warr ior who had
a lrea dy severed an o ppo nent's limb wi th a slash would thereup on pro ceed
to run him thr ou gh with a thru st .
After its introduction ca. 1200, th e Na ue Type II qui ckly est abli shed
itself. By the eleventh cent ury it was virtu ally the o nly sword in use in the
Aegean, and excavated specimens sho w th at it was also the sta nd a rd sword
in th e Near East in the ea rly Iron Age. T he only imp rovement required in
th e half-mill ennium that followed its int rod uct ion was th e subst itu tion of
iron for bronze, after ironwo rk ing had bee n develop ed to the degree th at
iron co uld provide a sha rper, stronger, and more durabl e blade. By ca. 900
B. C. swo rds were regularl y made of iron , but th e design remained that of
th e thirteenth -century bronze Griffzungenschwe rt. v' T he geogra phical
a nd temp oral extent of thi s weapon's popula rit y attests to its efficiency. ln
the Near East, the Aegean , and Euro pe from lral y and the Balkans to
Brita in and Scandin avia, the Na ue Type II remain ed th e sta nda rd swo rd
until a t least the sevent h centu ry,
Tod ay it is gene rally agreed that the N au e Type II swor d had been in use
in cent ral and no rthe rn Europ e well before it appear ed in the eastern
M editer ranean. "! ln northeast Ital y too, as Stefan Folt iny pointed out, it is
su O n Greece. (or the entire period 1200- 600. see Snodgrass . Fur l)' Gree k Armou r an .i
WCu/, OIl S, 10 6 : "It is rem.rrk.rhlc rh.ir the pe riod sh ou ld be so thoroughly dom inated , from

beginn ing to e nd, by o ne typ e." Th e C riffzu ngensch werr W.lS virruall y the:on ly ki nd of swo rd
kn own in the Prorogeom erric peri od a nd rema ined sta nd a rd un til the sevent h ce ntury, when
hop lirc tact ics nude J. sho rt "wo rd more se rvicea ble. See al so Sno dg ra ss. Arm ,.; .t n d Armour,
30- .37,5 8, a nd 97 .
H I Widely be lieved since the turn of rhe cent ury, hu t J.r~ued exh .1tIsrively ;J nd , for the mos r
p.rrr, co nv im:ingly) hy j. D. Co wen, " Einc Ein fi't hrun g in d ie Ces, hit"hre dc r b ro nzenen
(; ri rtl u nge n...c hwerre r in Siidde ursch la nd unJ Je Tang rcnzcnd en C cb ieren." Beri cht JeT Rij
m ist h ( Jc'Tm .m i SLh l.'n Komm;'q lnn 36 { 195 5 }: 52- n. Set.' ;.llso (:0 \\'\.'11.... "The Fla nge -Hil rt"J

195

quite well repre sent ed at a n ea rly date . x ~ lr seems to have ori ginated in the
area fro m the eastern Alps to th e Ca rpa thia ns : in Austria and Hunga ry
specimens belo nging to th e subtype know n as Sprock hoff la have been
found dat ing at least as ea rly as 1450.'" Like all northern swo rds, th ese
were not forged in sm ithies (fo rging was a n eas tern Mediterranea n a rt ) but
cast in foundries, a technique rhar encouraged proliferat ion : with a 1I10ld
doing most of his work for him , a founder was able to produce a finished
sword in a relatively sho rt time. From the eastern Alps and Ca rpathians use
of the Nau e Type II spre ad northward '1I1d westw ard over most of temperate Europ e, and by the fourteenth century swords of this typ e were in use
from the Rhon e to Scandin avia (in fact, the Sprock hoff [a is att ested especially in Denm ar kl.v' Quite rem arkabl y, however, nothing compa rable was
a t that tim e to be found in G reece and the Nea r East . By the thirteenth
centu ry, the Sprockho ff la had evolved into th e fully mature Na ue Type II,
the evolut ion agai n ha ving ta ken place ent irely in bar bar ia.
For co nt rast, let us now review the ar senal of the easte rn M edit err an ean
kingd oms befo re the arri val of th e Na ue Type [I. There were " swo rds" in
these kin gdom s during all of the Late Bron ze Age, but acco rd ing to the
standa rds of a Rom an legion ar y they wo uld have left much to be dcsircd. t >
On e Egypt ian weapo n that in reliefs may at first glance ap pear to be a
slashin g sword was in fact a bronze rod and would have been more app ro priate for a Roman lictor th a n for a legion ar y. With one of these weapons
Curr ing Swo rd of Bro nze: \XT..1 S Ir First Developed in Cent ra l Euro pe, o r in th e Aegean Area ?"
Bericbt fiber den V. lntcrnationalen Kong ress {iir \ b r lind fr iihgeschifhu (Berlin , 19'6 1}:
107- 14. C arling. who in I ~ 5 6 .irgued in LIV~ ) r of .J n Aegean o rigin, five yea rs late r ag reed wi th
Cowe.i th at rhc evide nce po inted to tem pera te Europe: see Ca rling. .. A N ew Bron ze Swo rd
fro m C yprus," A 'lf iq uity .J5 ( 1% I ): 1 15 - 22.. For the co nclusions of N a ncy S" nJ"", ex pert
on the weapo ns of bo th the easter n M ed it erra nean and temperate Europe, see her S~.z Peo ples,

9 1- 94.
J<! The lr.ilian specim ens of th e Na ue Type II wer e lar gely igno red u n n l as sem bled and
publi shed b y Foltin y, "Fla nge-Hilred C utt ing Swo rds of Bron ze in Ce nt ral Europe, No rrheasr
lralv, a nd Gre ece," /IJA 6 8 ( 1964 ): 247-5R . Th e definiti ve ca ta log of prehi stor ic Ita lian
swo rds i... now V. Bianco Peroni . D ie Scbu.erter! Le Spude; thi s catalog doe s nor include Sicily
and Sardini a.
"' Co wen , " Fl.mge-Hilred Cutt ing Swor d ," 20 8- 09 .
R4 Ibid., 212, fig. 5.
KS This hJ~ nor been sta red clea rly enough by ou r sta nda rd a utho rities . In hi s ch apt er on
th e We"p"'1S of the N ea r East d uri ng the Late Bronze Age. Yadin (A rt ofW~rf" Tt', vol. I. 7 6 114} descr ibed very we ll wh at wa s the re hur did not ca ll atte ntio n tv what W.J~ no t ; he
th erefo re did nor mention the a bse nce at the srraigh r slas hing swo rd (o r its a rriva l at rhe end o f
th e Bron ze Age). Rac hel Ma xwe ll-H ys lop, - Daggers a nd Swor ds ," provide d " full "t"log of
rhe wcap o ns from the N ea r EJ~ r bur d id nor p lace [h em in a la rger co ntext. Of rhe fifty-s ix
rvpes III he r cata log, the overw helming ma jor ity (fifry-rwo o r fitrv-rhrcc of rht" fifr;.-..ix) are
dagg er... i)r dirk-,{wea po n" rhar Co l. Co rd on d efined .1' d irk... are in Maxwcll-H yvlop 'v ram ino logy <:irhe r J J gge rs o r sho rr ...wo rds ;. In .Jddltl on to 'lype 3 4 (t he Sickle swo rd L on ly Types
-HI. 4 9, .lnd 52 a re 'loworth .lnJ lton eof these .Jppe.lr h('I~)r~ the i.lst dec;l JC"s ~ )( the Bro nle Ag.e.

196

A MILITARY EXPLANATION

(which Yadin describes as "a long metal scourge or a long baton")S6 a

warrior neither cut nor stabbed his opponent but broke his bones and beat
him to death. The rod was evidently more than a meter in length and had a
diameter of two or three centirneters.F" Although a standard weapon of
native Egyptian infantrymen, it apparently found no favor elsewhere in the
eastern Mediterranean. The Egyptian infantryman used the rod with a
smiting or clubbing motion, beating his opponent while protecting himself
with an oblong shield held in his left hand. The motion required in wielding the rod was therefore somewhat similar to that required with the
slashing sword. But whereas the slashing sword could cut an opponent in
half, the rod could only knock him to the ground.
Before the arrival of the Naue Type II sword, the only slashing weapon
used by men of the eastern kingdoms was the "sickle sword" (see figure 3a),
found all over the Near East but not in the Aegean.s" This "sword," which
bears some resemblance to an American farmer's corn knife, evolved from
an axel ike weapon of the Middle Bronze Age whose edge seldom exceeded
25 centimeters in length. In the Late Bronze Age the sickle sword sparred a
somewhat longer edge but still provided a slash within a very narrow
range. The entire weapon was seldom more than half a meter long, with the
handle accounting for almost half of that length. One must imagine it
slicing into an opponent's flesh rather than breaking or cleaving his bones.
Although it undoubtedly served very well for cutting off an opponent's
penis or hand during the collection of trophies, it was evidently too small to
cut off his limbs while the battle still raged. Nor did the sickle sword have
much else to recommend it. Because of its shape it could not be used at all
as a thrusting weapon, nor could it be sheathed: a soldier carrying it would
never have both hands free. Despite its ubiquity ftom Hartusas to Egypt, it
was not an impressive weapon.
Thrusting, or stabbing, weapons of the Late Bronze Age come closer to
our notion of what an ancient sword "should" have been. In many of the
eastern Mediterranean kingdoms a warrior might wear a dagger, dirk,
short sword, or occasionally even a long rapier in a scabbard, as a personal
weapon or a weapon of last resort. The in corpore finds indicate that
daggers, dirks, and a very few shott stabbing swords were the only swordlike weapons in use in thirteenth-century Creecc.s? Sir Arthur Evans
thought that the Linear B tablets from Knossos inventoried Naue Type II
swords, but that idea has long been abandoned, and Boardman suggests
'6 Art of Warfare. vol. 2. 249.
According to Wolf. Bewaffnung. 79. the single specimen preserved intact measures 1.26
meters.
"' On the sickle sword see Ibid. 66-68; Maxwell-Hyslop, "Daggers and Swords." 4144; and Yrdin, Art of Warfare. vol. 1.206-7. and. vol. 2.475.
'~ Sandars, "LIter Aegean Bronze Swords." !30.
87

CHANGES IN ARMOR AND WEAPONS

3. Eastern Mediterranean swords of the Late Bronze Age

a. Sickle sword from tomb of Tutankhamun
b. LH II rapier from Plovdiv, Bulgaria
c. Anatolian rapier found near Boghazkoy (ca. 1400 B.C.)

FIGURE

197

1911

th at th e ph usgana (pa-k,1-I1J) we re in fact daggers." In th e Pylo s " Bart le

Scene " fresco , w hi le o nc of the p alace's men thru st s his spear into a savage,
two ot her Pylian s att ack wit h da ggers o r sho rt dirks .
A mu ch lo nger thru stin g weap on (see figur e 3 b) W3Sev ident ly ca rried for
se lf-d efense by early Mycen aean cha rioteers. In the sixteenth an d fifteenth
ce ntu ries B_C. many rapi ers (so me over 3 met er in length ) were elegantly
made, bur th e co st ly hilting W3Sso pr ecari ou s that it is doubtful t hey were
meant for serio us fight ing. 4 1 From the LH Ili A a nd IIIB peti od s in corpo re
rapiers h ave nor been fo u nd in G reece , bur vases continu e to portray ch ariotee rs car rying such weap om in ta sseled sca bba rds sus pended fro m th e
sho ulder. For t he Near East we have less evid ence for th e lo ng rapi er in
the Lat e Bro nze Age. 92 A fine specimen, howev er, wa s found in 1991 b y
toad wo rk ers near Bo gh azkoy.91 Measur ing 79 centimeters in length, the
Bog hazkoy ra pier (sec figure 3c ) has a na rrow bl ad e th at rap ers shar ply
from 7. 5 centi meters at the h ilt to 3 ce nti met ers at a quarter's length a nd 2
centi met er s at the midpo int . An Akkad ian inscription pr o clai ms that King
Tudh a liyas (Tud ha liyas II, ca . 1400 B. C. ) dedi cat ed " these swor ds " to th e
Sto rm God afte r conque ring th e la nd of Assuwa (pro ba bly " Asia, " in
western Asia Min or ). Th e dedi cation suggests th at these rapiers roo were
cos tly pi eces as well as usefu l weap ons .
T he tt ad irio nal weap ons of th e east ern Mediterranean kingdo ms co nt inued in use until the twelfth centu ry. A relief of Ra rnesses ili on the north
wa ll at Med inet H abu shows tw enty native Egyptia ns, a ll ha nd-to -hand
wa rrio rs, guard ing a line of captives. Each Egyp tian ca rries a spear in his
ti ght ha nd and a no the r weapon in his left . O f th e weapon s in the left hand ,
six ar c d irk s, six a re rod s, and seven ate sickle swo rds ."! Nor on e of th e
Egypt ian in fa ntr ymen carries a lo ng swo rd .
A few men d id use a long sword in Lare Bronze Age battles in th e easte rn
Mediter ran ean, but th ese were shardana sk irmishe rs in th e Egypti an cha tio r cor ps. M any of th e shardana ca rried (often in a scabbar d acro ss the
n

John Boa rd ma n, The Date ol the Knossos Tablet s (O xfo rd , 1% 3 j: 78-X O.

'1'1

Sa ndars, " Later Aegean Bro nze Swo rds." 117; Sand ers ar gues persuas ively (127 - 29 )

that eve n in th e lata fift een th ce n tury, by w hich time the hi Iring pro ble ms had be en ove rco me,
the elaborate thru sti ng swo rds fro m the Wa rr it)f GrJ....es J [ Knosso s were essentially status
s ym bo ls .
, Und er her Type 4 H, Ma xwell-H yslo p (" O.lggers J nJ Swo rds" 54 -55 ) inc lud ed o n ly
rwo enrr ies J arillg from be fore 1200 . bo th [rom As!;) t\.fiI10T.
'1.1 I th an k Richa rd BeJ I for call ing to my att entio n th e p relim inary p ub lic atio n by Ahmet
Un31et a l., "The Hittite Swor d fro m Bo gJ zk'; y-Hattu , a, n .\fiize (M usell m) 4 ( 199 0- 9 1): 50 -

52 . Th e ...-o m mentarv on the sword mivle.ids on ly in su ring (p. 52 ) rhur "'a... d cur-and-thrust
weap on the sword is evide ntly imp ortant as the basic weapo n of the Hittite a rmy." The
Bo gha zkov swo rd has roo na rrow .1 h bJe to ha ve served J S J cut-and- thrust weapon ; and
there is no
"'-I

C H A N G E S 1:-; A R ~t 0 It .\:.J D W E A r

A ~1 1 L I T .\ RYE X P L .\ KA T I (l ~

eY' i J e n ("c:':

for It", USC.' in the H itti tt: J rm y.

Y3. Ji n. A rt of \V,JT!J,t? \"0 1. 2. 252 - 5.3; Sa nJ Jrs, St'lJ j1cople.s. 1:: 7, fig. ~O .

o NS

199

brea st ) a dir k or sho rt thrustin g swo rd . Th e Ahydo s reliefs (see pla te 5 )

sho w wa rrio rs wi th horned helmets, quite certa inly Sa rd inians, serv ing as
bod ygu ard s fn r Ram esscs the G reat befor e the Batt le of Kadcsh in 1275,
and each of th em ho lds a di rk o r sho rt swo rd in his hand.:" Another relief
of Rarucss es th e G reat, however, this on e dep ict ing the sto rming of .i city in
Syri a, depi cts shardana br andi shing lo ng swords.?> In the followin g cen tury, so me of Ram esses Ill 's barbar ian skirmishers (see plates 6 a nd 10) a re
likewise arm ed wit h the lo ng swor d, so me of them a lmos t a meter in
len gth . Th e Egyptian reliefs suggcst th at these lo ng swo rds of th e sk irmish er s were rap iers rather than slashing swor ds. Th e art ists portray an
oc casio nal skirmisher running his swo rd throu gh a n oppo nent, but no
sk irm isher slashing off an o ppo nent's head or a rm. Although it is poss ib le
that the reliefs a rc misleading and that the lo ng swords of th e skirmishers
were indeed used for cu tt ing JS well as for th rusting, it is safer to suppose
tha t th e sbardana nor m ally used th eir wcapons-i-whcthcr dirks o r lon g
swords-wit h a thr ust. Th ere is no ind ep enden t evidence o n Sard inia n
lon g swo rds of the seco nd mill enni um, a ltho ugh a series of statu e-menhi ts
from Corsica indi cat es tha t the long swo rds then in use o n th e latt er island
wer e cur-a nd-thru st swo rds rather tha n rapi ers."?
A p reserved lon g sword w ith a conti nuou s tape r was found at Bet Dagin,
neat G 3Z3, in 1910, and is now in the British Mu seum. Altho ugh o riginally
tho ught to be a great spearhead, it was identified as " a bro ad sword," an d
more p articula rly as "a Philisti ne swo rd o f 'Sh ardanu' type " by H. R.
H a ll."X Subseque ntly jt has co me to be called simply " the Sha rda na
swo rd," and on th e basis of th is association has co nventiona lly been dated
to ca . 1200 or th e early tw elfth cenrury, Th at d arin g, however, is a pparently
incorrect. A spo kes ma n for the Brit ish Mu seu m not ifies me th at "recent
a na lytica l work unde rtaken o n thi s piece ha s demonstr ated that it is in fact
to be dar ed to th e thi rd mill enniu m Be. " 99 We th erefor e have no ill corpore
spe cimen of the kind of sword tha t Egyptia n att ists portray in th e han ds of
Sardi nian skirmisher s in th e th irteent h ce nt ury.
Th ere is one representat io n of J native Egyptia n wielding a lon g sword in
th e Lat e Bronz e Age, and it dat es to th e eve of th e Ca tastrophe. A relief at
Ka rn ak , depi ctin g th e siege of Ashkelon , shows an Egyptia n so ld ier (in
Sand a rv, ihid ., fi ~. 66 .
IbIJ ., fig. 12.
" Trump, Prehisto ry of tl: Med Iterranea n , 20 1, 2 19, 3nJ fig. 45.
" H'III, Ae geun A rchac o loey (Londo n, 19 15 ): 24 7ll .1. M axw ell -H yslop, " Duggcrs JnJ
Swo rds," 59. lisrs rhc G.lL:.I sword .I S the first ex.unple of her Type 52. f or a good illusrranon of
rhe swo rd sec Y;JJiH. Ar t of \VurfJ rc. \ '0 1. 2, 34 4. O n ;m .llo gy with t he- EgYPoJn reliefs,
:-'h , well-Hyvlop J Jte J the Gal> ,,'",,<! to 1200- 1150 .
..... Per...o n al (o rre:lopon Je n( t; : 10 J uly 92 ) (ro m ~1 r. Jon.lth:lll 'N. lilhb. in th~ Bn ti')h .\ tll
St:lIm \ rk p.lrtm t.nt o f \'(;e:",rer o AsiJric..: Antiqui tle.. .
'H

'J,

200

A ~I I l. I TAR Y EX P L A !'J A T I 0 ~

10 . Bartl e of Rame sses !II agai nst Libyan s. Line drawing of rel ief from
M edinet H ab u

PLATE

tradition al Egypti an headdress, he is app arentl y a profession al infant ryma n but not of ba rba ria n extractio n) climbing a lad der, and he is a rmed
with a lon g swo rd, bro ad at the base and tap erin g st raight t o the point.J?"
Since it flanks th e text of Rarnesses II's pea ce tr eaty with me Hitt ites, th e
relief has regularly been assigned to Rarncsses II. Tha t attributi on would
suggest that as ea rly as ca. 1270 the use of lon g swo rds had been exte nde d
fro m the barb ar ian auxili ari es to professional infantrymen of th e native
Egyp tia n population. N ow, however. it appears th at the convent ion al dat e
for this relief is too high . As was not ed in chapter 2, Frank Ym ca 's inspection of th e monument revealed th at th e Karnak relief was cut not fo r
Rarne sses II but for his so n, Mern eprah , wh ose sto rmi ng of Ash kelon is
recor ded o n his famou s " Israel Stele." W I That Mern ept ah did mak e an
'"'' Yadin. Art of Warf,}" . vel. I. 228.
")\ See p. 20 .

C HA N G E SIN AR M 0 RAN Il W E A rON 5

20 1

effort to secu re lon g swo rds for his hand-to-h and fighters is a lso indicat ed ,
we shall see, by th e "Mcrn ept ah swo rd " discovered at Ugarir.
A lon g swo rd, evide nt ly o nce ag ain 'I rapier rath er th an a slashing swo rd ,
was the weapon up on whi ch m an y of the aggressors in the Catastrophe
relied in their hand -to-h and fighting. In the Med iner H abu relief (s.:e plat e
6 ) of the land battl e in 1179 most of the Philistin e warr iors are show n with
dirk s or sho rr thru stin g swo rds. Th e relief of th e naval ba ttle , however ,
sho ws the aggre ssor s w ith lon g swo rds. Alth ough in this relief the Philistin e and Shek elesh oppo nent s ar e in utter disarray, m any still ha ve
weap on s in their right hands. One has a spea r whil e, acco rd ing to my
count , seventeen have lon g swo rds. T hese are hug e weap on s. The blad e,
wh ich tapers conrino usly, is conside ra bly wider at th e base th an the hand
th at clen ches the hilt . T he hilt a nd blad e togeth er are lon ger than a man's
a rm. Similarly, when th e Libyans attack ed Rarnesses III in 1182 and 1176
th ey dep end ed o n th e lon g swo rd. Ano ther Medinet H abu relief (see plat e
10) shows a few Libyan s using the how, while the ma jority a re armed w it h
lon g swo rds- longe r in fact than those shown in the rel ief of th e sea ba tt le
against the Philistine s. 10 2
As in the last yea rs of the Ca tast rophe, so in its first yea rs the hand-to hand weap on pr eferred by the ag gressor s was evidentl y th e swo rd. Wh en
th e Libyans attacked Mer neptah in 1208, that kin g reponed seizing as
booty o nly twelve cha riots but 9111 swords.!"! Since th at figure almost
matches the number (9724) of peni ses and hands that M ern eptah's men
ga thered as tr ophies, we mu st suppose th at for the overwhelm ing majori ty
of th e Libyan king 's wa rrior s (whether co ming from Libya o r from one of
" the northern land s" ) th e sword was th e prin cip al wea pon.
It was apparentl y to trump the raiders' thrustin g swords th at so me men
in th e easte rn M edit err an ean began , ca. 1200, to acquire cut -an d-thru st
swo rds, a nd ab ove all the superb Na ue Type II. A fair num ber of later iron
spec imens of the Nau e Type II have been found in th e Near East,"!' but
ver y few in bron ze (it must of course be sa id th at becau se few to mb dep osits
from the period have been found, few twelfth -century swo rds of 3ny kind
have been found in th e N ear East ). Carling co unt ed five in C yp ru s (to th is
relatively high figure from Cyprus mu st be added four more, found at
' 02 I'or d rawing 01 pa rt " I rhe reid see 'radin. Art ofW."jar". vol. 1, 334-35. In rhe relief
the artists depi Ll seventee n long swo rds In a boory pile. Jn J others in the hands uf Libyan or
M esh wesh wa rriors . Fo r a sketch 0f rhe swo rds in th e pile see l.o rna G . Ha ywa rd. "lot:' O rigin
01Raw Elepha nt Ivory in Late Bronz e Age G reece and the Aegean, " Antiquit y 64 (1990 ): 106,
fig. I.
l h ' Breasted , AR , vel. J, no. 589.
10 4 Carling. "Br onze Cur-and-Thrust Sword s," Ii i . notes that at Ham a ""J subvranrial
numbe r of Naue JI swo rds was found wirh rhe crematio ns of w hich the ma jor ity is of iro n. "
No ne of these iro n swo rds is earlie r than ca . 1100.

202

C H A N G E S I N A R MO R A:-':D WE ,~P O!' S

A :-'1 1 l i T A R Y E X P l A ~ ,~ T 10 K

1
3

II
!1
\\

It
!

203

Enkom i in 1967 ), 105 b ut o n ly eight in th e rest of th e Nea r Easr. !'> Of th ese

eight, four ar e und ate d and three d ate fro m th e period 110 0- 900. Th e
eighth, a nd ea rliest, is said to have been fo u nd in th e Egyp tia n Delta a nd
bear s th e ca rto uche of Seti 1I. l ll7111 e six-yea r reign of thi s pha rao h is d ated
1202- 1196 o n th e low chro no lo gy.
From th e Gree k worl d, o n the ot her hand, the number of in corpo re
Na ue Type II swo rds is impressive. As Sno dgrass has sho wn, in the Pro to geo metric pe riod th e Na ue Type II was the o n ly ki nd of swo rd u sed in th e
Aegean. lOS T he Pro togeome tric a nd Geome tric specimens, how ever, we re
of iron . Th e br o nze specime ns are ea rlier and fewer in nu m ber, but th e
num ber is nevertheless ext rao rd ina ry when we remember that fro m th e
tw o h undred year s pr ior to th e a rriva l of th e Naue Type II virt ua lly no
Aegean lon g swo rd s have been fou nd. In his 1968 surv ey Ca rling counted
twenty-seven bro nze N aue Type II swo rd s in G reece and th e islands of th e
Aegea n (includ ing C rete)."!" Su bseq uen tl y an o ther specime n , very well
p reserv ed , was fo u nd in a n LH IlfC Arcad ia n tom b, a nd still a no ther in a n
LM IIIC tom b in th e Nort h Ce mete ry at Knosso s.U " To th ese twe nty-nine
we may also add the nin e found in Cy pru s, fo r a qu ite rem a rka ble to tal o f
thi rty-eigh t fro m wh at can vaguely be ca lled th e " Gr eek wo rld ." Perha ps it
is not su rp rising th at sc ho la rs ea rly in th is cent ur y referred to th e Na ue
10 .) J. Laga rce, " Q uaere epees de bro nze p rovena nr d'un e cacherre d'ar rnu rier J. Enk o rniAl.isia (C hypre), " UgJ';t;C,' VI (paris, 196 9): .14 9 - 68 . T he four wer e fou nd , a lo ng w ith th e
hea d of a javelin, ill a pit d ep o sit dari ng fro m th e ea rl y twelft h ce ntu ry. In C a rling, "B ro nze
C ur-and -Th r ust Swo rds ," no s. 16 through 19 co me from Cyp ru s, 20 th rou gh 26 from the res f
of th e N ea r East. Ca rling's lat er su rvey, " LJ,(e Mi noa n V;}S~S and Bronzes 111 O xford. " ARSA
63 ( 196 8) : 101 - (H , inclu des o ne addi tio n fro m Cyp ru s an d a not he r from the Levan t.
to.. In Car ling, "B ronz e Cu r-a nd -Th rust Swo rds," nos. 16 - 19 co me from C yp rus, 2.0 - 2.6
from th e rest of the Nea r Ea st. C arlin g's la ter su rvey... Lat e M ino an 'vases ::I nJ Bro nzes in
Oxford," A HSA 6} ( 196 8): 10 1- 4, incl udes one addi tio n fro m C yprus a nd a nother from the
Levan t.
I '" C arlmg, "Bronze Cur-a nd -Th rust Swords," 116 . Cf. Wolf , B<!!vaffnllng , 103 . Evide ntly
th is Naue Typ e Il was so mew ha t sho rter th an mo st of the Aegea n specimen s, since its o rigin al
1e000'th (bo th th e h ilr .ind the tip of the b lade a re missi ng) is estirnured a t La . lil) e m .

Arm s and Armour, 37; d . Early Greek Armour and Weapofls, 106 .
At p. 10 3 of " Late M inoa n Vases," Ca rling ', chart shows fifty b ro nze Naue Type II
swo rd s. Of these. ten co me from " north G reece" [lllyria, Epirus, and M acedo nia ), an d fo rry
from " rest of Greek wo rld:" However , as his cat ego ries o n p. 10 2 indi cate , the ru b ric "res t of
I Hll

Cut-and-thrust swords from the period of the Catastrophe

Naue Type II from Aranyos, Hungary
" Merncprah Sword" from Ugarir
Sword from " 13 maison du Grand-pretre d'Uga rit "
Naue Type II from Mycenae

F I GU RE 4 .

a.
b.
c.

d.

10

G reek world " includes not o n ly C yp ru s hu t ..Iso Egyp t a nd th e Leva nt. If we exclu de his
thirteen Cy p riote a nd Near Easter n specime ns ( il S we ll .I S th e te n from "n o rt h Greece " ), we
na rrow his list to 27 specime ns from the Aegea n. Note that to hi s Cypriote speciin ens mu st be
ad ded the fo ur fou n d at Enk o m i in I % 7: Jacq ues l.ag arce , " Q uaere epe es, " .34 9 ff,
t t ) On the Arcad ian swo rd see K. De m ak op o ulo u , Arcbaiologika Analekta Athenon
( 1 ~ /i9 ): 22611. ; see a lso H .-G . Buchho lz. "S ch lussbe rne rk unge n," \0 H . G . Buchh ol z, ed .,
AgJi sdft! Bro ni cirit , 501 - ] , .md .ibb . 123. For the Knosvos swo rd sec C.1(li n ~, " Knossc v.
1'i 7R ," AR ( 19 78 - 7'1): 4/i.

204

A MIt I TAR Y EX P LAN A T ION

Type II as the" Mycenaean sword. n But of course the Mycenaeans were

relatively late in adopting it, and it is much better attested to the north and
the west. Over 100 bronze swords of this type are known from Italy (the
majority from the Po Valley), and over 130 from Yugoslavia. I II
What is most noteworthy for the present argument is the suddenness
with which the Naue Type II established itself in the Aegean. Of the more
than thirty bronze swords in the Greek world a few are late, dating from
after 1100. All the others "belong exclusively to the late thirteenth and
twelfth centuries B.C. n 112 Carling's first survey concluded that the earliest
swords which come from reliably dateable contexts "can be put with some
confidence at c. 1200 B.C." 113 Sanders's conclusion was the same: the
appearance of the Naue Type II in the Aegean can be dated "at the end of
the thirteenth century (probably very little if at all before 1200)." 114 These
dates, calculated on the basis of the middle chronology for the Egyptian
kings, can on our low chronology be brought down to the first decades of
the twelfth century. They therefore arrive in the Aegean during the darkest
years of the Catastrophe.
Let US state this baldly and succinctly: for the thirteenth century we have
no long swords at all from the Greek world, whereas for the twelfth we
have at least thirty of a single type. The archaeological evidence indicates as
clearly as one could ask that ca. 1200 warfare in the Greek world changed
drastically. The sword, and the ability to use it, had suddenly become
immensely important in the Aegean and in Cyprus. That a similar revolution occurred in Egypt and the rest of the Near East is not so clear, since
little has there been learned from tombs in this period. We have already
noticed, however, the Naue Type II sword with the cartouche of Scti II. And
as will be shown below, the French excavations at Ugarit have produced five
more long swords-none of them quite Naue Type II, but all designed for
both cutting and thrusting-that were made shortly before Ugarir's destruction. These specimens suggest very strongly that between the accession of Merneptah and 1185 the sword had become a weapon of paramount importance in the Near East also.
Since most of the Naue Type II swords from the Aegean were found in
"Greek n tombs it is likely that "Greeks n had acqu ired them. That the
swords were made in Greece is less likely, and at any rate they owed much
to non-Greek swordsmiths. Harding has pointed out the striking similarities between the earliest Aegean swords of this type and those from
III Cf. Harding, Mycenaeans and Europe, 163; for the Italian swords set': Bianco Peroni,
SchwerterlSpdde, nos. 89-189 (nos. 194-271 dare from the firsr millennium).
I I I Carling, "Late Minoan Vases," 101.
II.; "Bronze Cur-and-Thrusr Swords." 106.
114

"Larer Aegean Bronze Swords," 142.

C H A ~ C E 5 INA R M 0 RAN D WE A P () N 5

205

notthern Italy, and he concluded that "Italy seems to have played an important parr in the production and diffusion of the Greek weapons." 115
Nevertheless, hronzesmiths of the eastern Mediterranean can also be
seen at work in the weaponry revolution. The five swords from Ugarit,
along with several made in Greece, show that at the end of the thirteenth
and beginning of the twelfth century eastern smiths suddenly found
thcmelvcs obliged to begin producing a weapon with which they were not
very familiar. For their models they certainly turned to the Naue Type II,
perhaps-as Harding's analysis suggests-especially the specimens
brought from northern Italy. The results did not quite match the Naue Type
II, but in themselves they are eloquent testimony to the urgency of the
demands placed upon the swordsmiths.
Exhibit A on this matter is the so-called Merneptah sword (see figure
4b), which Schaeffer found at Ugarit in 1953. The sword and several other
bronze objects, along with a clay figurine of a goddess, were found "buried
in a corner of the inner court" of a house to the east of the royal palace.U>
The sword was "in mint condition, n with its edges unsharpened. Schaeffer
speculated that perhaps Merneptah "had ordered from Ugarir swords of
this type, marked with his cartouche, to arm the auxiliary troops. n 117 The
Merneptah sword was almost certainly meant to serve not only for thrusting but also for slashing. As such, it may be the earliest preserved Near
Eastern sword intended for slashing. Measuring 74 centimeters, and with a
wide blade (5 em. at the hilt and 4 cm. at midpoint) whose edges are almost
parallel for most of its length, the Merneptah sword has been likened to the
Naue Type II. Its hilting, however, consisted of a very long and slender tang,
so wispy in fact that it is bent vertically and horizor.tally."!" The bending of
the tang probably occurred during or soon after the sword's manufacture
and may well be the reason why the sword's blades were never sharpened.
Although In) good as a weapon, it was a handsome artifact, especially since
115 Harding, Mycenac<.1lls and Europe, 165; for the distribution of rhe Italian specimens
see Bianco Peroni, Scbioertert Spade, tables 69 and 70A.
116 Schaeffer, "A Bronze Sword from Ugarit with Carrouche of Minepruh (Ras Shamra,
Syria)," Antiquity 29 (1955): 226-29; for essentially the same presentation, with a few
additions, see Schaeffer's report in Ugaritica III (Mission de Ras Shamra, vol. 8. Paris, 1956):
169-77.
117 Schaeffer, "A Bronze Sword," 227. 0. 3150 p. 226: "The sword is not of a n Egyptian
rype. It is known that these big swords did not form part of the armament of Egyptian soldiers
till rhe 13th century when Rarnses II and especially his thirteenth son and successor, Minep
rah, began enlisting quire important bands of foreign mercenaries. '"
118 Schaeffer gives the length of the tang as 15 crn.. bur does nor indicate Its width. The
width of the blade ar the hilt end is 5 cm., and the phorographs suggest thar the widrh of the
tang is less than a centimeter. The extent of the:bending is clear from the photographs and
drawings and does not resemble the deliberate bend m "killed" swords ceremonially
deposited.

206

C HAN (; E SIN ARM 0 RAN D W E A PO N S

A MILITARY EXPLANATION

it bore a royal Egyptian cartouche, I assume that because it was one of his
most treasured possessions the householder buried it in his courtyard
along with the idol and the other bronze objects, in expectations of recovering the hoard after the danger had passed. At any rate, the Merneptah
sword has aspirations to be a Griffzungenschwert bur has nothing like the
Griffzung of the Naue Type II.
In the Aegean too we find that early in the twelfth century the first
attempts were made to produce a slashing sword. From the very end of the
LH IlIB and from the mc period come four of Sandars's Class F and G
weapons that were intended as slashing, or cut-and-thrust, swords. These
are clumsy specimens and show only that ca. 1200 a few Greek swordsmiths began trying to forge a new kind of weapon. A twelfth-century
Class G sword from Perati, in Attica, is reminiscent of a butcher's cleaver:
"the blade is unique, being truly leaf-shaped with the greatest width in its
lower third. "119Two Class F specimens (one complete, the other fragmentary), found at Mouliana in Crete and dating to the twelfth century, are also
slashing swords. A fourth slashing sword, dating from ca. 1200 and coming from Mycenae, is 62 centimeters long bur is also badly designed.
Sandars observes that it is "most unwieldy and eccentric, more so than the
Perati sword, and may be grouped with it and with the Mouliana F sword
as examples of inexpert experimentation." l20
How eastern Mediterranean smiths worked to produce slashing swords
during the Catastrophe is most vividly illustrated by a group of four such
swords found at Ugarit in 1929 (although not finally published until 1956,
by which time, unfortunately, the man who dug them up-Georges
Chenet-had died).121 The four are superior to the "Merneptah sword"
from the same city, since their tangs are suitably broad and strong (see
figure 4c). Because their tangs are not flanged, the Ugarit swords are not
true Griffzungenschwerter, bur in other respects they are on a par with the
Naue Type II. In length they range from 63 to 73 centimeters. Their tangs
are flat but extend through to a pommel spike, and are all more than 2
centimeters wide (that is, two or three times the width of the Merneptah
sword). The blades have parallel edges for most of their length, ending in a
taper. The four blades vary considerably in width: measured at the midpoint, they are respectively 2.5, 3, 3.3, and 4 centimeters wide. There is no
doubt that these are cut-and-thrust swords.I '?

They were never used, however. Cast rather than forged, they are fresh
from their molds and are unfinished in that their points and blades were
never sharpened, and their tangs are without rivet holes. They are part of a
collection of seventy-four bronze objects found underneath "Ia maison du
Grand-pretre dUgarit." Specifically, the excavators found the deposit in a
hollow directly beneath the spot once occupied by the threshold of an
interior doorway (by 1929 the threshold itself had disappeared, perhaps
because it was made of wood). 123
The swords are usually dated to the fourteenth century. That was Claude
Schaeffer's interpretation, based on the sherds found in the fill into which
the pit was dug.J-:' Schaeffer's assumption was that the bronze objects were
a foundation deposit, dedicated when the high-priest's house was built.
There is, however, a much better possibility: the objects constitute a hoard
buried during the final emergency of Ugarit, ca. 1185, in hopes that after
the attackers were gone the objects could be retrieved from their hiding
place.
The fourteenth-century sherds in the surrounding fill can be dismissed as
a criterion for dating the deposit, since on any reconstruction the pit must
have been dug into a preexisting stratum. The question is, When was the pit
dug? Schaeffer proposed that it was dug at the time of the house's construction, for a foundation deposit, but this is unlikely. Although foundation
deposits under thresholds are known, they tend to contain a sacrificial
victim along with a few vases and figurines (a "lamp and bowl" combination was common in the Late Bronze Age).125 That seventy-four bronze
artifacts were buried as a foundation deposit defies belief. In 1929 the
ubiquity of hoards at Ugarit was not yet recognized; but in the course of his
forty years at the site Schaeffer himself was to find that almost all of the
bronze articles discovered there had been squirreled away by the occupants
in wall cavities or in hollows under the tloors.i-e
A typological argument puts the hoard at least a century later than the
date proposed by Schaeffer. Among the seventy-four artifacts is a tripod
with pomegranate pendants. Carling noted that the tripod corresponds
closely to many such specimens found on Cyprus, all in contexts dateable
to the period after 1250. Himself an expert on Cypriote bronzework of the
period, Carling concluded that the Ugarit tripod represents an advanced
Schaeffer, Ugaritica III, 253.
Lagarce , "Quarre epees," 364n.17, reveals that in private conversation Schaeffer eventually conceded that his original dare was J. bit too early, and that the foundation deposit may
have been made . . au debut du xiii'' siecie."
125 Some thirty-five of these are characterized by Shlomo Bunirrtovirz and Ornn Zimhoni,
"'L3mp and Bowl' Foundation Deposits from the End of the Late Bronze Age-Beginning of
the Iron Age in Ererz-Israel," Fret; Israel 21 (1990); J 02.
Ill> Schaeffer, "Commenr.nres," 76.3: "rres nombreuses cachetres d'objets precieux etablies par des par ticuiier s dms des murs au sous les planchers de leurs hcbitanons."
11.l
124

Sandars, "Later Aegean Bronze Swords," 139.

lbid., 140.
III These swords are described by Schaeffer in Ugaritica /II, 256-59. For their initial
announcement, see Schaeffer, "Lcs fouilles de Minet-el-Berda er de Ras Sharnra (campagne du
prinrernps 1929)," Svria to (1929): 295 and plate LX, fig. 3.
IE Cf. Carling, "Bronze Cut-and-Thrust Swords," 121; Snodgrass, Early Greek Armour
and Weapons, 207.
119

WI

207

20 8

A ,\ 11L IT A RYE X P LA N A T 10 :-;

stage of the type and could hardly have been made much earlier than th e
end of the thirteenth cenru ry.t -'?
Finally, the swor ds them selves argue for a date during the Catas tro phe.
All four are excellent pieces. From all of the Near East the onl y known
swo rd th at marches these is the Na ue Type II, bearing the carrouch e of Seri
II a nd so dating no earlier th an 1202 . Eno ugh is now known a bo ut swo rds
at Ugarit, and throughout the eastern M edit err ane an , for us to sta te catego rically th at in the fourteenth cent ury swo rds rniths at Ugarit were not yet
casting cut- and-thrust swor ds of any kind , mu ch less swor ds so typologically advanced as these. We ma y conclude th at the four Ugarit swor ds, like
th e four recentl y found at Enkorni, were hoarded in the earl y twelfth
cent ury "d ans I'espoir d'un retou r prochein . n I ! S
It was the misdating of the four Uga rit swo rds that for a lon g time
o bscured how deficient Late Bron ze Age swo rds in the eastern Mediterr anean were in comparison with those of temp er ate Europe. Until Carling
o b jected, scholars intere sted in ancient weapon ry accepted Schaeffer's interpretati on as fact. To Lorim er th e four swo rds demonstrated the pr esence
in fourteenth -century Ugarit of M ycenaean immigrants, some of wh om
had evidently set up a sword factory. I ! " For V. Gordon Childe , C. F.C.
Hawk es, Col. Gordon, and oth ers, the Ugarir swords suggested that cutand-thru st swords were pioneered in th e easte rn Mediterranean and not in
temperate Europe. U" Even Snod grass, who found Carling's argument
tempting, still presented the four swo rds as evidence for "a parallel and
contempor ary evolution " of cut- and -thrust swo rds in the eastern M edit erranean and in cen tral Europe . 13 I
O nce the hoard swor ds from Ugarit ::: re co rrectly dat ed, it is plain to see
that changes in eastern Mediterra nean swo rds at the end of the Bron ze Age
were revolutiona ry rather than evolutionary. The first Na ue Type II specimens (in Greece, Cyprus, and Egypt) appea r almos t simultaneously ca .
1200, and a variety of local experiment s atte mpted to produce a slashing
sw ord of similar efficiency. Some of th e experiments resulted in un usabl e
swo rds, but by ca. 1185 swo rdsmirhs at Ugarit had all but perfected th eir
product. Unfort unately for Ugarit, th e time for producing th ese swor ds,
and for tr ainin g men to wield them, ha d run o ut.
117 Carling, " Bro nze Cu t-and -Th ru st Swo rds ," 12 1: "T he Ras Sharura sta nd is rypo log ical ly very advanced in the series an d . in isola rio n, would almos t c.:crr,a inly be dared a goo d
deal larer th an 1250."
I!H Laga rce, " Q u.itre epees," 36 7-6 8.
11 .,. Lo rimer. Hom er and the A1mruments . 2 1 an d JJ.
1\ ,) C hild e, "Th e Final Bronz e Age in rhc Ne a r East an d Tempe rate Euro pe," PPS 14
( J 94 8): 18.,1f.; Ha wkes, " Fro m Bron ze Al(e 10 Iron Age: Middle Euro pe, Italy, and the No rrh
and W~t, " ibid.. t 9 Stt.; JmJ Go rdon, " Swo rd s, Rapier s and Ho rse-Rid ers," 72 .
I H J:..ul y G reek Arm uur .md \Ve..zpon .s. 20 7.

Chapter Fourteen
THE END OF CHARIOT WARFARE
IN THE CATAST RO PHE

H APT ERS 10-12 present ed an argument th at warf are in the Late

Bron ze Age was very different from what it was in the earl y Iron
Age (o r, for that matter, in an y other period of antiqui ty). Befor e
the Catastro phe, a king might send infantrymen aga inst barbarians in the
hills; but co mbat between two kingd oms was chariot warfare, in which the
o nly infantrymen wh o pla yed an offensive role were the chariot runners o r
skirmishers. In the Iron Age, o n the othe r hand , warfare was syno nymo us
with infa nt ry enco unters: if horse troops rook part in the battle, they were
ancillary to the foor soldiers,
Th e archaeological evidence for armor and weap on s, reviewed in chapter 13, locates the period of transition from chariot to infantry warfare
pr ecisely in th e decades of the Catastrophe. This was evidenrly the time
when, after cha riot armies had been supreme for more than four hundred
year s, infanr rymen once again rook back the field . Although the forms of
som e weapon s-bow s, lances, spears, and javelins-are not known to
have chan ged much in the late thirteenth and ea rly twelfth centuries, their
relative impo rta nce evident ly did. Bows and lan ces, the weapons of the
chariot crew, were far more numerous befor e th e Catastrophe than after .
Javelins, o n the o ther hand, thrown on the run by skirmishers, seem to have
prolifer ated at the end of the Bronze Age, and in the Near East remained
imp ortant th rou gh the twelfth and eleventh centu ries. The spear, the
weap on par excellence of the d ose-order in fanr rym an. j s well arrested for
th e early Iron Age. In Dark Age Greece a single spear normall y accompani ed a dead man to the afterlife .
Other items of infantrymen 's eq uipme nt are even more telling. Cor slets
and greaves for infantrymen were app ar entl y an inn ovation in the Catastrophe. Round shields had been used by barb ar ian runn ers in the thirteenth centu ry but came into general use earl y in the twelfth. TIle evidence
for swor ds is most dr amati c: the materi al record shows that a revolution in
swo rdsma nship began in the Aegean , in Egypt, and at Ugarit ca. 1200 B. C.
There was suddenly a demand for long slashing swo rds, whether for the
Nau e Type 11 swor ds brought from northern Italy o r the Balkans o r for
mor e experimenta l specimens produced in the eastern kingd oms them selves. In sho rt, th e archaeological recor d of cha nges in armor and

21 0

A M I L I T A R Y EXrL A :-:A TI O~

weapo n ry pr esent s 3 decisive a rgumen t th at it wa s in th e decades irnm ediate ly befo re a nd afte r 1200 th at th ere bega n th e in fantry dom ina nce that
wa s to co nti nue to the end of an tiq ui ty.
O n the basis of th e circu msta ntia l evide nce we m 3Y therefore conclude
tha t cha riot war fare ende d in th e Catast rophe, th e rai der s and city -sacke rs
h aving found a W3Y to d efeat th e grea rcsr cha riot a rm ies o f the time. But of
co u rse there is a lso direc t evidence that thi s is w ha r th e Ca tas rrophe wa s
ab o ut . T he reliefs at M edi net H ahu sho w clea rly enoug h that th e aggr essu rs against Rarnesses Ill- the Libyan s, the Philis tines and Tickk er, and
the northerners wh o joi ned in the arrack-were infant rymen, su ppo rted
by a very few cha riots . T hey also sho w that Rarn esses wa s able to w in h is
victo ries over th e mar au der s by assembling a grea t num ber of foot so ldie rs,
drawn both fro m barb ari a and from Egypt irsel f. T ha t the aggressors wer e
infa n tryme n ha s ge nera lly go ne unrem ark ed becau se it ha s been assume d
rh ar a ncient land battles had altuays bee n foug ht p rima rily by fo otso ld iers.
O nly whe n one reco gni zes th at in the Late Bronze Age th at was not th e case
can one ap p reciate the sig nifica nce of w ha t is sho w n in th e Medine r H abu
rel iefs.
f rom th e reliefs we can a lso infer th at th e Libyan s a nd Philist ines fou ght
as skirm ishe rs, perhaps as th ey had tr aditi on all y don e in th eir tr ib al guer
rillas, rath er th un as dis ciplined tr oop s in o rga n ized formations. Th e M ed inet H abu relief sugg ests that th e Phil ist in es and Tiekher swarmed, as indi o
vid ua ls o r in sma ll groups, over th e field. Wirh a lon g swo rd as his primar y
weap on fo r han d oro -ha nd war far e, th e rai der requ ired a n "ope n ~ space, in
w hic h his agi lity a nd fleetn ess co uld be exploited , Bur befor e th e han d -to hand lighring bega n, th e cha riots had to be ove rco me, a nd it was su rely fo r
th is p urpose th at th e rai ders brought th eir javelins. Aga in, th e javelins
sugges t a swa rming tact ic, th e [avelinccr ru nni ng fo rwa rd and rh en hurl ing
his weap on a t a team of cha riot hor ses. At D jah i in 117 9 Ramesses w isel y
kept his cha rio ts in the back ground a nd relied o n th e foot soldi er s he re c rui ted . Bur in ot he r battl es th e raid ers mu sr have used javelin s to good
effect, dest roying th e ch ar iot a rm ies and end ing th e era of chariot wa rfa re.
Th e fact that th e maraud ers were " runners," and therefo re da nge ro us
for a cha riotry, ca n be infer red from the reliefs ou t is explicit in the insc rip tion s. The G reat Karnak Inscript ion, afte r enumerating th e va riou s lands
fro m whic h Mer yrc's a uxi lia ries h ad co me fo r the arrack in 1208, stares
th at th e w retc hed Libya n chief had " taken th e bes t of every wa rrio r and
every phrr of his co u ntry," , Th irt y yea rs larer, Rarn esses likewi se referred
to both his Libyan a nd his Phil ist ine enem ies as " ru n ners. " Afte r beat ing
back th e assault by the Libyan s he boast ed , " I have cas t down th e vio lators
of my frontier, pro strat e in th eir p laces, th eir ru nne rs pin io ned a nd sla in in

T H E E:--J O OF C H A R I O T W A RFAR E

my grasp ." And o f the Ph ilistines and their asso cia tes wh o a tta ck ed in 1179
he sa id , " 1have ca rried away th eir ru nners, pini oned in my grasp, to prese nt
th em to th y b . " l
Alth ou gh th e barbar ian s were able to defea t th e cha riotries of th e easte rn
kin gdom s becau se th eir weapon s and tacti cs were su ited ex actl y to th e
task, the documents a lso show rhar they owed th eir success to overw he lm ing number s. W hen th e Libya ns a nd thei r northern auxilia ries att acked
Mcr nep tah in 12011, heboa sted of ha ving sla in a lmos t ten th ou sand of
them. A gene ra tio n la te r, Ra rncsscs claimed to have killed no fewer than
12,235 Libya ns. Even afte r allowing for pharaon ic exaggera tion , o ne
wo uld sup pose that o n each occasion th e attacki ng a rmy mu st have co n sisred of at least twent y thousa nd men, a ll of them skirm ishe rs a rmed wi rh
eithe r javelins o r lon g sword s, o r bo th. In legend, " the forty thousand of
Israel" con fronted th e k ings of Ca naa n a nd at least th at man y Ach aean s
descen ded upon Troy. As th e Ca tastrophe spread and mu sh ro omed, a nd as
th e lim itat ion s of th e ch a riot armi es were everyw he re reveal ed , barbar ia ns
all ove r the Med iterra nean worl d mu st have been attracred by th e p rospecrs
of an e3SY victory and rich booty, Sma ll successes bega r great successes,
unt il even M ycen ae a nd H artusas fell. Agai nst th ron gs of ra iders no kin gdom (w ith th e po ssibl e exc eption of Assyri a ) co uld have felt secu re. Even
th e G rea t Kingdoms had traditionally empl oyed only a few thous and skirmisher s, and in a sma ll k ingdo m, such 3S Pyle s or Ugarit, hand-to -hand
fight ers were co unte d in the hundreds. Wh en the scribes of Hattu sas and
Ema r speak of th ese d ries being an acked b y "h ordes" we ca n und er st and
rhe ir peril o nly wh en we recall th at for defen se the kingd o ms had trad ition all y relied o n a sm a ll number of professiona l milit ar y me n.
fin all y, we have a few pieces of litera ry evide nce th at th e Catastro phe
result ed fro m th e victo ry of barb ar ian foo tso ldiers over th e cha rio tries of
rhe east ern Med irerran e'an kingd om s. In th e Iliad th e Tro jan War is obv io usly not desc ribed as a co n flict between Ach aean infantr y skirm ishers and
Trojan cha rioteers, b ur vest iges of such 3 co ntlicr may su rvive in th e tr adi tion " Stori es abou t th e Amazo ns a nd the Ph rygia ns wi th their fast horses,
a bo ut Par is slaying Achilles wi th a bow sho t, a nd even a bo ut the captu re of
Tro y th ro ugh the ru se of a wooden ho rse (this sto ry, port rayed o n an
eighth-century vase from M ykon o s, was evide nt ly cur rent long befo re o ur
O dyss ey was co mpos ed ).' may have a risen w hen rhe hor ses and cha riot s of
Tro y were still rem em bered . Th e descript io n of Achilles as " fleet-foo ted " is
especia lly ap prop riate fo r the arcte of 3 runn er. And the a d jective " ho rse taming," the co nvent io na l epithe t bot h for H ector and for 311 th e Tro jan s,
! Edgert on s ud W il~()n4

Hist o rical Rl-'fO, J S 01" R4m,s ,s 1/1. pl.1tC''t 2h JnJ 44 .

tJ JnJ X.-tQ.:!- .520 acvume th ar the: .nrd iencc kne w th e ~(or ~. t or rhe
vase vee \th oJ. T'0 1.m U~r . XO.
J

Bre.rvred, AR. vol. 3.

Ill) .

57~ .

2 11

OJ)'55t')' _ 4.271-N

2 12

T H E END O r

A MI LI TARY EXPLA :-iAT I O/,;

presum abl y derive s from a real renown of th e Tro jan charioteers a nd chariot warr ior s.
A far more expl icit traditi on of infa nt rymen besting cha riot armies was
preser ved in Israel. Mu ch had bee n lost and o the r things added by the tenth
cent ury, w hen the tradition s were first written d own, but there was nevert heless a persistent recollection th at " the Co nq uest of Ca naa n" had been
effecte d by Israelite foorsoldiers agai nst the chariots of the Canaa nite cities.
In our text s of Joshua a nd Ju dges, the hill-dwellers of Ma nasseh arc for a
time unabl e to take over th e plain s of Beth-S ha n a nd Esd raelon becau se th e
Canaa nites have " cha rio ts of iro n "; an d in Ju dah too the hill men are
temp orar ily prevent ed by "c ha riots of iro n" fro m seizing the plains. Alth o ugh the expression seems to be th e miscon cept ion of a w rite r in th e
Persian peri od ," th e imager y does reflect the tradition th at the conquest of
th e most fert ile pla ins in Ca naa n was cos tly beca use of the cha riot a rmies
th at gua rded them.
Two of th e oldest pieces of Hebr ew poet ry th at have co me down to us
com me morate victori es of Yahweh o ver grea t cha riot armies. Th e "So ng of
th e Sea" (Exodus 15), attr ibuted vari ou sly to Moses or his siste r M iriam, '
celebrates Yahweh's drownin g of a n Egyptian chario t host :
I wi ll sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed glo r ious ly;
the ho rse and his rider he h as thr ow n into th e sea ....
Pha rao h 's chariots and his host he ca st into the sea;
a nd his picked officers ar e sunk in th e yam suph,
Th e Hoods cover rhem ;
th ey went down into the depth s like a sto ne.
Th y right hand, 0 Lord, glo rious in pow er,
t hy right hand , 0 Lord , shatters th e enem y. . ..
Th ou did sr blow with th y wind, th e sea cove red th em ;
rhey sa nk as lead in rhe might y wat e rs.

In the prose account th at event ua lly ga ve the so ng .;] setting, six hundred
Egypti an chariots pur sue five million Israelites "fle eing" from Egypt.
W he n th e Israelites reach th e Red Sea (yam SUph ),6 Yahweh divides th e
waters-allow ing his peopl e to ma rc h th rou gh on dr y land- a nd then
ro lls the water back to cover th e purs ui ng Egyptia n chariots. O n th e ot her
Drews, "The ' Chariots of Iron' of jo shua and Judges: j SOT 45 ~ 1 9 89 ) : 15- 23 .
, Frank Cross and David Freedm an, "Th e Song of M iriam," jNES 14 (1955): 23 7- 50.
" T he yam suph was tran sla ted in the Septuagint as Erythra Thalas sa, and in the Vulgate as
M ,lfe Rubrurn, bur the trans ianon seems to have heen deduced from the P writer's routing of
"t he Exodu s" throug h the Red Sea. Man y biblical scholars , noting that in several O.T.
passag es suph mean s " p.rpyru , reed ." believe rh,ir the name yam 5uph o riginally was ap plied
to J .. Reed St.".J " 'Somewhere in the eastern Delta. Difficul ries wi th this view are pointed o ut by
B. 1'. Barto, "Th< Reed Sea : Req" ;"SCiJI in Pace, " fBL 102 ( 19 8 3): 27-.35 . Barto's own
co nclusio n IS that yam slIph uriginJlly meant "Sea of End /Extinctio n. "

C H A R I O T WARrAR E

2 13

han d, the so ng itself, which must cornrn crno rarea real rather than a rnvth ical event, spea ks repeatedl y of Yah weh th row ing th e hor se and rider ' into
the sea, th e hor ses a nd ch ariots sinking into the water like a stone or a
lead en weight. Th us th e song seems to exu l t in the ca psizing of ships in a
stor m, pe rha ps hor se tr an sp orts making their way towa rd Ca naa n th rou gh
coa sta l waters. T he o nly peri od in which " Israel" may have been the objective of chariot ar mies d isp atched fro m Egyp t woul d be th e decades fro m
M crnep ruh to Rarncsses IV, afte r whose reign th e Egyp tians seem to have
ab a ndo ned their claims to hegemo ny in Ca naa n.
Th e second poem is th e "So ng of Deborah" (J udges 5 ), which commem ora tes a great vietory over the cha riots of jabin, king of H aze r. Th e song
anno unces itself as a favori te of those
w ho ride on taw ny asses ,
w ho sir o n rich ca rpets
a nd you w ho wa lk by th e way.
To the so und of mu sic ian s at the wa tering p laces,
th ere th ey repeat th e tri umphs of the Lord .

Since the poem itself is celebratory and excla ma tory, the narrative is provided in a pro se prologue (Judges 4) th at includes some details th at are not
found in the poem but that are con sistent with it. According to the prologue, j abin, king of Hazor, had for twent y years sorely oppressed the
Israelites. The instrument of his oppression was his commander, Sisera,
wh o had nine hundred chariots of iron . At last, the men of Zebulon and
Na phta li, north of the valley of Esd raelon a nd in the immedi ate hinterland
of Hazar, thr ew off the yo ke. Led by Barak, so n of Abi noa rn, and on the
strengt h of a n oracle by the prophetess Debor ah , ten thou sand Zeb ulon ires
a nd N aphta lites occ upied Mt. Tabor (so me th irt y miles to the so ut hwest of
Ha zor ), Whe n Sisera learn ed of this, he ca me with his nine hundred chariots to the Valley of jezreel, a part of Esd rae lon below Mr. Tabo r. Unda unted, Debo ra h prophesied to Bara k th at Yahwe h would th at day (o r
possibly th at night , since the so ng suggests a night attack ) give him a great
victo ry. " So Bara k came charging down from M t. Tabo r wi th ten th ou sand
men at his bac k. T he Lor d put Sisera to ro ut with all his cha riot s an d his
a rmy before Barak's o nslaught." ? All Sisera's men perished ; not a man was
left alive. Sisera himself fled on foot and so ught shelter in th e tent of Heber
th e Kenite. There he was killed as he lay under a ru g, hiding from his
purs uers; it was j ael, Heber's wife, who killed him, driving a tent peg
th rou gh his templ es.
T he prose acco unt is followed by the so ng itself, whi ch hail s as Bara k's
warri ors men of lssach ar and severa l o ther no rth ern districts alon gside
,

J " J ~c s

4. 14- 15 iN' " rransla tron).

214

A MILI TA RY E X P L AN AT I ON

th o se fro m Z eb ulo n a nd Na p hta li. All of th ese swe pt dow n, fo llow ing th eir
m ar sh al s clan by clan , into th e va lley : Yahweh' s peasant ry (lJllpshu )
a gai ns t " t he migh ty" of Ca naa n:
Kings came, they fought;
then fought the kings of Cana an,
at Taanach by the waters of Megiddo;
no plunder of silver did they ta ke.
The stars fough t from heaven,
the stars in their courses fought against Sisera.
The Torrent of Kishon swept him away,
the Torrent ba rred his flight; the Torre nt of Kishon;
march on in might, my soul!
The n hamm ered the hooves of his ho rses,
his cha rgers galloped, galloped away,"
T he po em th e n lauds ja el, w ho "st retc he d o ut her han d fo r th e tent peg, her
right hand to hammer rhe wear y," a nd re joi ces a t th e d eath of Sise ra a nd a t
th e a nx ie ty of hi s mother, w ho peer s th rou gh th e latt ice lo oking fo r th e
cha r io ts th at never re turned . " So peri sh a ll thine e nem ies, 0 Lord! "
Joshua 11.1-1 1 pr esents a so u the rn (Ep h ra irnite o r Bcnjarninit c ) version of the same even t." Here th e ba ttl e is fought not a lon g the Kish on but
at " t he water s of M er om." It is not just th e tribes north o f Esd r aclon. but a ll
o f Isr ael that d efeat s Jab in o f H azar. It is not Bar ak but th e so ut he rn he ro,
Jo shu a, wh o is t he victorio us co m ma nde r, a nd Debo ra h is no t m entioned
a t a ll. Aft er defea ting jabin's a rmy, Jo shua hamstrings a ll th e horses a nd
bu rns the cha riots. H e then pr oceed s to H a zar, massac res a ll th e inh a bita nts, a nd bu ms th e city to th e gro un d . O n thi s point th e oral t radit ion was
- ap pa rently co rrec t, si nce 'ra d in's excavatio ns d em onstrated th at H a zar was
indeed d est royed ca . 1200.
T he few a nd preciou s poem s th at su rvive from th e ea rly Iron Age th erefo re su p port th e co ncl us io n in ferred from the a rc haeological evid en ce a nd
from Egyptian reliefs a nd inscr ipti ons : in the Ca tas tro phe, thou san d s of
barbarian skirmish er s descend ed up on the plains th at they had hithert o
esc hewed , d est ro yed th e chariot a r m ies on which t he d efense of th e pl ai ns
d epe nd ed, a nd t he n sacked and burn ed th e cities. "ro m o ur va ntage po int
.we Can see th at a ll through th e Late Bro nze Age th e eas te rn Mediterran ean
kin gd oms had been vu lne rab le to a co nce rted at tac k by barb ari an nei ghbors. But for m os t of th e perio d this arcanum im perii Was not p er ceived ,
eit he r by th e ki n gs at risk or by th e barba ria ns th emselves. O n ly to war d th e
, Ibid. , 5. 19-22.. O n the rwo accounts set" Cot rwald. Tubes of Yahu-eh , 153-54 .

T HE E S D O F C H A R I O T W ,\RFA RF

2 15

e nd of th e thirteenth ce nt u ry d id th e lat ter begin to se nse th eir o p po rt u ni ty

a nd to seize it.
We m ay dose by specula ting o n th e cou rse of hi story in th e eastern
M ed iterra nean in th e lat e th irt eenth an d ea rly tw el fth cen t u r ies B. C. For
fifty or six ty yea rs a fte r t he Batt le of Kade sh ( 1275) th e eas te rn M ed ite rranean see ms to have be e n a relati vely peaceful pla ce, In th e Ae gea n the
seve ra l pal aces, ne cessaril y including o ne o n C rete, sup er vised their popu lati o ns with little fear for th e future. Nei ther Kno ssos nor Pvlos was forti fied, t hei r rulers evid entl y tru sting in th e habit of peace th at ba s a p tly been
call ed th e pax Mycena ica. In Anato lia a nd th e Leva nt the G rea t Kingdo ms
of H a tti a nd Egy pt p rov ided st a bility, eac h G rea t King su p po rti ng and
su p po rte d by networks of vassal kin gd om s. Afte r his pe ace tr eaty w it h
H artu silis Ill, Rarnesses t he G reat's he gem on y perhap s exte nde d as far as
th e mount ain s o f Le ban on . More of a n in novati on was Rarn esses' init iat ive
to war d Lib ya: a p pa ren tly he es tab lishe d Egy p tia n stro ng ho ld s a lo ng th e
M editerra nean co ast we ll beyo nd EI Alarnein .!" The wes tw ard ex pa nsio n
of Egy ptia n a ut ho rity wo u ld have re per cu ssions, a lt ho ug h not in
Rarn esses' ow n long reign .
Th e C atas tro phe o f th e ea s te rn M editerran ean kingdo ms see ms to have
begu n a lo ng the north west fro ntier (see figu re 1). H ere a ce ntu ry a nd a half
of peace mu st have ended dramaticall y wh en Boeotian The bes a nd the
great city kn own as Tro y VI were captured a nd sac ked . In G ree k legend, the
Seven wh o first tried to take Thebes fail ed to do so , and it was th eir sons,
th e epigoni, w ho succeeded : w ha t th e gene ra tio n of Tydeu s atte m pte d th e
ge nerat ion o f Di omed es ac h ieved . From t he legends we m ay extract t he
p ro ba bilit y th at "Acha ea n" wa rrio rs (w ho th ese " Ach aea ns" were I sha ll
sugg est pr esentl y) ma d e a n ea rly a nd un successfu l assau lt up on T hebes
a nd th a t so me yea rs lat er o the r A chaea ns returned , thi s ti me ta k in g th e city.
The sa me ge ne ratio n of warri ors sacked Troy. The LH IHB pott er y fo und at
th e tw o sites permits th e co ncl usio n t ha t th e d estru cti on of bo t h Thebes
a nd Tr o y VI occ ur red to wa rd th e e nd of t he long rei gn of Rarn esses the
G reat. In th e eve nt, th e fate o f the se two k in gd om s wa s a h ar bin ger of wha t
coul d an d would happen eve ry w here in th e eas te rn Mediterran ean.
Th e C a tas t ro p he burst up on Egypt in 1208, th e fifth year of M crneptah's
reign, wh en a Libyan chie ftai n, Meryre, so n of Did, ventured to invade the
west e rn De lta. We d o no t kn o w wh at motivat ed Me ryre "s pr esumptuous
act. Rarn esses' e nc roac h me nt o n Libya m;lYhave p rovo ked h im , o r perh ap s
a drou ght ins pired M eryr e to seize some o f th e irriga te d lan d s o f th e Delt a ,

,I) Gardiner. Egypt , 270. noted rhar st elae of RJ,mt"~ses II have been found west of EI
Alam ei n . H ayw ard, " Elep han t Ivo ry. " 105 . reports rha r ".1 fo n ress was built at Za wiya r Urnrn
a r Rak h arn, a bout 2.0 km to the west (o f B.n e,\ lvl.m d, nea r .\ 1J r~ a ~1.Hru h i Ju ring the reign
of Raru csscs II." O n the p roh .rble rol e of Bare s's Isla nd in R J fil t'V\ CS' frontier po li l.~ d . D onald
White, "The Third Season at :>'1 .1t", Mnrr uh.- AJA ~4 ; 1490); lJO .

21 6

T H E E I" D OF C H.~ R I O T WA RFAR E

A .\11L1 T AR Y EXP L A N ATI O N

o r Meryre may simply have calculated that Merneptah was to o weak a kin g
to resist a determined aggressor. But whatever h is motivation, it is very
likel y that Meryre was enco ura ged in his undertaking by rep orts of what
h ad happened in th e Aegean. For we see in the descr ipti on of the battl e an d
its results that M er yre did not field mu ch of a chariotry but made up for hi s
defi cien cies in th at ar ea b y assembling ten s of th ou san ds of infantrym en .
M o st of th ese men ca me from Libya itself, but his recruitment effo rt s
ex te nd ed through out " the northern lands ~ as well. T ha t a Lib yan kin g
co uld communicat e with much of th e Mediterranean is no longer su rprising, since the recent excavation s o n Bates's Island, ncar Marsa Matruh,
h ave produced M ycenaean and Levantine pottery a nd suggest that th e
island was som ething of an exch a nge center for the eastern Lib yans.
According to th e Gre at Karn ak Inscription , M eryre so ught out runner s
from a ll the northern lands, men wh o co uld fight as skirmishers in hand-to h and co mba t. Evide ntly his a ppea l fo r mercenari es fell o n fertile gro u nd in
Sa rd inia , Sicily, so ut he rn or west ern Ital y, Lycia, a nd especially northern
G reece . All th ese lands were in co nt act with the civilized ki ngd om s of th e
eas te rn Med iterran ean but were not th em sel ves civilized. Inst ead , th ey
were barbarous places, in whi ch op po rtu nities for the better th ings in life
were severely limited . In Parnph ylia , Lycaonia, a nd Lycia, the ru gged tr act
of mountains alo ng Anatolia 's so uthe rn coast, th ere seems to have been
noth ing resemblin g a city in the Lat e Bronze Age. Whil e Mycenaean pot tery, a nd the per fumed oil contain ed in the pots, was ship ped in gre at
qu antities to the cities of the Levant a nd the Cilici an plain, the only ships
th at sto pped a lo ng th e Lycian co ast we re th ose th at sa nk. 1 1 It is hardly
su rp rising th at as ea rly as the Am arna Age men from th e Lycian mountains
tried their h an d at p iracy, raid ing the co m pa ra tively wea lthy coa sts of
Cy pru s.
The Achaeans wh o joined M eryre's ca mp aig n a rc likel y to have been
N orth -Greek spea ke rs. 12 T h e mountain s west and north of Bo eotia wer e
11 See figure 53 in Ha rd ing, M ycen,um ls and Europe, for th e conr ras t betwee n M ycenaean
po ttery find s in the Levant a nd in so uthe rn Asia Min or (aside fro m the Cilicia n plain ).
11 Hirrirologist s a re ge ne ra lly conv inced th .rt the pl ace-nam e ...A hhiya " (or, la te r,
" Ahhiyawa") 01 th e ta blets refers to th e G reek mainland. See H an s Gii te rbo ck, "The H itt ites
a nd th e Aegean Worl d , I : T he Ahhiyawa Proble m Recon sider ed," Al A g7 (1983 ): 13 3- 3 8 ;
a nd Trevo r Bryce. ..Ahhiyaw.ins and M ycen aea ns-e- An An atol ia n View point. " O x fo rd j Oljr
nal of Archaeology g (1989 ): 297- 3 10. But since th e "Gree k main land " was no t conceprua lize d until mo dern t imes, th e Hi tt ite te rm m ust h ave den ot ed so meth ing ~I i gh tly d iffere nt.
It W J.S, I wou ld sugge st, the na me used in Asia Mi nor fo r the nor th -so ut h land mJ SS rha r Asian
sa ilo rs enc ounte red wh en sa iling west fro m t he Da rd anelles . Afte r coa sti ng alo ng Th race fo r
tw o da ys, a nd round ing rhe Chalci dicc, o ne reac hes rhc Varda r (Axios) River, wh e re t he
co astline turn s ...h Jr p ly a nd decisively sout hwa rd . T his IS perh aps wh en: Abhrya began , JnJ it
run to th e tip of rhe Pclopo nnese. In ho ok 2 of the Iliad , the la nd CJ, t of the Axio s IS not
Ach.rca : rhe Paioru .ins, who co rne "f rom the w iJ e river Axi os , th e Ax ios, whose w ate r is

217

far more primitive th an the pala ce-Slat es. Wh ere :ls th e Iatr er we re civilized
and Mino ani zed (So uth G reek may in tact have di fferenti ated itself from
North G reek because of " M ino an" influences). mO SI of th e norrh wa s an
illiterate hinterland, in wh ich the dialect of th e G reek-speakers wa s rhe
co nserva tive No rth G reek. Troy, lol kos, Th ebes. and O rcho menos were
OUlpOSIS o n th e norrh wesrern fro nt ier of the civilized wo rld , a nd beyond
the se ce nters there was little di scernible prosperi ty in th e LH IIIB peri od .
Th e 1\V 0 d ialccrs-s- So urh Greek and No rth G reek- th us see m to reflecr
two rathe r d istinct cultura l zones, and wh en reference is made to "the
Ach aean s" we must specify which of th e two zones is meant. As I have
protested betimes;" ! the evidence is co nside ra ble th at the particular
Ach aean s wh o sack ed Troy ca me from th e north .
We may im agine , th en, th at late in th e reign of Ramesses II hordes of
the se northern Ach aean footso ldiers had att acked both Troy VI a nd
Th eb es and succeede d in takin g a nd sacking bo th places." :' T he Ach aean s
attacked Thebe s, according to He siod, 15 " for th e flock s of O ed ipus. ~ Prior
to th eir attac ks on th ese kingdo ms, th e northern Achaea ns a re likel y to
have served the kingd om s as skirmishe rs, and we ma y im agin e th at it was
during that service that th e northerners began to perceive how vulnerable
th e roya l cha riotries were. Towa rd th e end of the th irte enth ce ntury the
rul ers of the Argolid began building a fortificati on wall at th e Co rint hian
isthmus (having alread y enci rcled their palaces with stout wall s), indicating
som e alarm about wh at was happening in th e north. It was perhaps among
th ese north ern Acha eans that Mcryre o f Libya wa s mo st successful in his
so licita tion o f skirmishe rs. In the casualty list s, a fter th e Libyan s th em selves it was the Ek ioesh who lost the mo st men (ove r two th ou sand),
Ever since M asp ero tr an smogri fied th em into mi gra tor y nati ons, the
Shekelesh , Sbardana, and Tursba w ho joi ned Me ryr e's ente rprise h ave
recei ved th e mo st att ent ion fro m schola rs inte rested in th e Ca tastro ph e.
N ume rically, however, th ey were not very imp ortant , since Meryre rccruired fro m Sicily, Tyrseni a, a nd Sa rd inia togeth er fewer men th an Achaea
fairest 01 J II" (Iliad 2..849- 50), a re the Troj an s' wester nmost allie s, while the Acha ean s all
com e fro m beyond the Ax io s.
Hi tt ite ta blets refer to a G rea t Kingdo m in Ahh iya, a nd this was prob abl y centered at
My cen ae. w ith vassa l kin gdom s as far north as Atti ca <1I1 J Boe o tia, if no t lo lkos. But the mor e
pr im itive peop le wh o lived hetwee n th e kin gdo ms Jn J th e Axios were als o" Achaea ns." Th ere
is good reaso n to believe th.u these northern Achaea ns were th e:p erp err.iror s of the C a rast ro ph e, whil e the Acha eans of th e kin gdo ms wer e its vict ims.
11 " Argos a nd Argives," Il l - 15; CominK"l th, Greeb . 22l-24; see J bove, pp. 117-1 8.
I l As I have a rgu ed at Argos a nd Argives," 1.l2-.1l, the "Argives " led by the Seven
agai nsr Th ebes ca me from the Pelasgic Argo s a nd no r from th e Pelop o nnesc. Iliad 4 .370-99
and 6 .22 3 reca ll th at Thebes was sacke d by ..Ach aea ns" but rhar rhe king dom of M ycen ae d id
not par ti cipat e in the ad venture.
I<

\l/orks ,md

J)Jy>,

161- 6.1.

2 18

THE E~ D O F C H A R IO T WA RFARE

A MILI TAR Y EX P L A ~ AT I O :-J

supp lied to h im all by itself (it is not impo ssible th at even the Lycia ns
out numbered the westerne rs in Meryre's a rmy ). But pro spectors fo r me rce naries would undoubtedl y have found the lands o f the centra l Mediterra ne an a promisin g vein. Sicily was almost ent irely barbarous, b ut for a few
Sicil ian s o f the so utheast coast a w ind ow o n th e wider world had been
o pened : o n the promonto ry of Thap sos, jutting o ut from the shore a few
kilometers north of the Syracusan ba y, tr aders from th e ea ste rn M edite rra nean, a nd perhaps specifica lly from Cypru s, had bu ilt a tow n for th em selves by 1300, a nd the town continued th ro ugh the th irteenth cen tury.
H ere wer e spac ious a nd rect ilinea r buildings, a nd th e residents of th e town
lived the good life, wi th eas te rn a rt ifacts a nd luxu ry items. 16 O n th e coasts
of Ital y, w hic h was eq ually prim itive, M ycenaeans ha d esta blished empo ria
at Scogl io del Torino, o n the Gulf of Taranto, and at Luni suI M ignon e, in
Et ruria. Fo r th ose "Tyrsenians" wh o lived nea rb y, th ese empo ria must have
adv ertised th e possibilities that the lands to the eas t had to offer. The
co ntac t between the eastern Mediterranean and Sardinia, an d the east e rne rs' exploitati on o f Sa rdi nian co pper, ha s o nly recentl y been appreciat ed . But it now seems likely that in the thirteenth centu ry mos t Sa rdinians
wh o lived wi thin a day's wa lk of the Go lfo di Caglia ri would have seen th e
visito rs' ships, if not the visitors them selves, an d would have been well
aware of th e di screp ancy betw een their ow n co ndi tio n an d that of th ese
peopl e from th e cas t. 17
To be a wa rri o r, th en , was in th ese barb a rou s lands no bad thing. since
sk ill as a skir mis he r might transp ort a man to a be tter life in a bett er pl ace.
M en fro m so ut hern Sa rd in ia wen t off to Byb los and Uga rit, and event ua lly
to Egypt, a nd it is unl ikely th at man y 01 th em ret u rn ed ho me or w ish ed to
d o so. In t he eastern kingdoms th ey co uld enj oy th e p leasu res of ur ban life
and at th e sa me time be men of sta tus and property, with lands assign ed
them b y th eir kin g; in return, th ey were o bliged o nly to gua rd the palace
d uring pea cetime and to run in suppo rt o f th e fabled cha rio t force s on th ose
I" Ho lloway, frilly and the Aegean. 8 7 : "It required men a nd ideas to rransform a Sicil ian
village into an em por ium w ith so me urban co nfiguration, and this appears to have been the
wor k of C yp rio te residents in the 14t h and l J rh cen tu ries." See also H oll oway, " Italy a nd th e
Cen tra1 M ed irerr anean in the Cri sis Years," in W"d and ]ou ko wsk y, Crisis Yeurs,41 .
" In the tw elft h century Cypriotes wer e prob a bl y wo rkin g met a l on the so uthe rn co ast of
Sa rd in ia (see D. Ridgway, " Arc haeo log y in Sa rdi n ia an d Sou th Italy, 198 3-88." p. 114 ). But
the disco very of LH IIiB ware near C agl ia n now sho ws jhar alre ady in the thi rt ee nt h ce ntury
easremers w ert" reside nt there , pe rha ps " casting co pper tor expo rt in the' ingot shape lon g used
in th e ea st." See Ho llow ay. " It, ly an d th e Ce nt ra l M ed irerr .mean ," 4 1. Co ntac t wit h the
interior is difficult to estima te. For a much later period Ferrucio B JCTCC;l . "The Phoenician and
Pun ic C ivilizario n in Sardi n ia, " in M iriam Batm uth. ed. Studies in S;.lT.llni.m Arcboeology,
vol . 1.145 . has shown that from Nor~ a nd other sires o n the C agliari bay "se rrlem enrs bega n
to sprea d towar ds the S.HJ ini.m hinterla nd w ith I n average pe nerra no n of ab out rwenrv
kilometers trorn the coa..ts."
'

219

rare occasi o ns w he n th e cha riots gave hatt ie. It is not surp rising th .it yo ung
men in Sa rd inia a nd elsew here aspired to serve as sk ir mishers in the cha riot
corps o f a wealthy king. All that o ne needed was co u ra ge , speed , strength ,
and an initial investm ent in th e necessary eq uipment : a swo rd or spea r, a
sh ield, and a n intimidating helmet.
When Meryre ad vert ised for sk irmishers in M erneprah's early year s,
th ose wh o responded had undoubtedl y lon g hoped to be p rofessi onal
warriors, wheth er in Egypt its elf o r in o ne of the o the r kingdoms that
tr ad itio na lly hired mercenaries. What was new in 1208 was th e m er cen a ries' en listment in a n a rmy in w hich th ey were not to play se co nd fidd le to
a cha riot co rps. As not ed above . M er yre had very few chario ts- a deficiency that a decad e or two ea rlier wou ld have p revented him fro m even
conside ring a war with M ern ept ah . But by 120 8 M eryre th ought it possible that wi th a huge for ce of sk irm ishers he co u ld defeat th e lar gest cha riot
army in the world. Fo r th e hand -to -hand fighting his men wer e certainl y
a rmed with long swo rds , since the Karnak Inscriptio n reco rd s that ove r
nine th ou sand o f th ese bronze swo rds were retri eved as booty. For use
against the Egyptian cha rio ts Mery re mu st have had men ex pe rt with longra nge weapons of so me so rt , and th ere is goo d reason to th in k that these
we re javeli ns rath er than bows. In th e p rim itive lands fro m w hic h his
au x iliari es ca me th ere wo uld have been man y men w ho we re sk illed w ith
the hu nt ing javel in b ut w ho had never imagined th at th eir ski ll might on e
day be in d em and .
M eryr e's infa ntry was defeated, and it was an other ge ne ra tio n before
an oth er Libya n fo rce attacked th e Delta. But Me ry re 's fai lu re, like th e
Achaean s' successes at Troy and Th eb es, see ms to have p ubl icized th e
possib ilities of t he new kind of warfare. On the easte rn side of the Delta,
there was trouble in Ca naa n at about the sa me tim e that th e Lib yan s
attack ed o n the west ern side. H o ri, the author o f the Pap yru s Ana stasi , asks
his yo uth ful co rres po nde nt to imagine him self in charge of supplies for an
arm y sent to Djahan (o r, possibly, Djahi) " to crush th o se rebel s called
N earin ," I ' The ne'arim of Ca naan were han d -to -hand warriors a nd had
d istinguished the mselves at the Battle of Kade sh in th e se rvice of Ra m esses
th e G rea t. Now, however, at the end of th e Ni netee nt h Dyn asty, th ey have
eviden tly becom e a p ro blem, a nd in th e scena rio d raw n by H o ri an army
co nsisti ng entirel y of infant rymen, mo st of whom are barbarian sk irmishe rs, is sent OUt to dea l with t hem . In this co nnect io n we mu st note th e
recent ly di scovere d evid en ce that Merneptah did in fact campaign in the
Levant and that amon g his o ppo nents were warriors from Is rael. The men
of Israel will ce rta in ly have fought on foot ,
The " reb elliou s ne'arim " of the south ern Levant did not yet pose a threat
" Trans. Wilson, AN ET, 470.

220

A MIL I TAR Y E X P LAN A T ION

to Egypt itself. There was no king here who organized the tribesmen of
Canaan for a campaign on the scale that Meryre managed in Libya. In
Hori's imaginary army there are only five thousand men, suggesting that
the Levantinc warriors against whom they are sent also number in the low
thousands. But although not yet a danger to Egypt, the warriors of Philistia
and Israel were certainly capable of defeating the vassal cities that were
allied with Egypt. Although Merneptah may have maintained Egypt's traditional hegemony over the southern Levant, it is doubtful that his feeble
successors were able to do so. Seri II had trouble enough asserting himself
in Egypt, having apparently to deal with a usurpation by Arnenmesse. At
Seti's death, the throne devolved first upon his son Siptah-still a childand then upon Twosret, Sen's widow. Neither could have intervened in
Canaan, and it was evidently in Twosret's reign that the sacking of the great
cities of southern Canaan began.
Although we cannot be certain who sacked the cities on the Via MarisAshkelon, Ashdod, Akko, and others-there is no reason to look for the
culprits in some distant place when there are obvious suspects close by.
Undoubtedly the sackers were "Philistines," but that term ought to stand
for the population that had traditionally lived in the hinterland of the
penra polis. Armed with the javelins and long swords shown in the Medinet
Habu reliefs, the Palestinian tribesmen must have made short work of the
chariot armies by which the pentapolis was defended. Further north along
the coast, the Tjekker must have closed in on and eventually taken the city
of Dor, And the warriors of Dan seem to have made a name for themselves
by their success, probably with long swords, against both chariots and
cavalry.
In the interior, centers such as Deir 'Alia (Succoth), Lachish, and Hazar
were most likely sacked by "Israelites," seminomadic tribesmen who for
generations had scraped out an existence in the hill country flanking the
valleys of the Jordan and its tributaries, and in the desert fringe to the east.
Until the Catastrophe, the best that either Philistines or Israelites could
hope for was service as ne'arim or hapiru in the employ of a petty king. But
now they were in a position to kill the king, loot his palace and his city, and
bum them to the ground. Not all the Canaanite cities between the Jordan
and the Mediterranean were razed. Shechem was spared by the Israelite
tribesmen, the Israelites foreswearing hostilities against the city, and the
Shechemites granting to those Israelites who submitted to circumcision the
rights of connubium and of participation in the venerable cult on Mt.
Gerizim. Gibeon was also spared, having come to terms with the invaders:
in return for their lives, the Gibeonites were said to have pledged themselves and their descendants to serve their conquerors as hewers of wood
and drawers of water. According to Israelite legend, when the other Canaanite kings took umbrage at the Gibeonires' accommodation and attacked

THE END 0 F C H A RIO TWA R FAR E

221

the city, Gibeon's Israelite champions came to its rescue and slaughtered
the Canaanite force, while the sun stood still over Gibeon and the moon
halted in the vale of Aijalon. It must have been a long and terrible day in
Canaan.
The successes that skirmishers armed with swords and javelins achieved
over chariot armies, and the consequent sacking of famous cities, must
have generated excitement wherever service as a mercenary footsoldier had
once seemed attractive. The motivation for the sacking of a city is not likely
to have been anything so rarefied as religious fanaticism, ethnic hatred, or a
class struggle. The perpetrators of the Catastrophe had more material
objectives: cattle, gold, women, and whatever else caught the eye. The
precious objects squirreled away in pits or wall-caches at Ugarit, Mycenae,
Kokkinokremos, and other places testify that what the residents of these
places feared was an attack by looters. And since at none of the razed cities
have archaeologists found "in the open" anything of material value, we
mav conclude that what the residents feared would happen did happen.
just as the cities of southern Canaan are likely to have been plundered
and razed by warriors from the countryside of Philistia and Israel, so it is
likely that some cities in other regions were sacked by raiders who came
from a hinterland not too far away. In eastern Syria Emar, possibly along
with Carchemish, was sacked by "hordes," and in that part of the world in
the early twelfth century such nameless hordes must have been Aramaicspeaking tribesmen. In Boeotia, as suggested above, Thebes had been
sacked by raiders from its hinterland. On the Anatolian plateau, Hattusas
evidently fell to Kaskans from the Pontic mountains:
In some areas there was no warlike population of barbarians within
striking distance. In western Syria, so far as the tablets from Alalakh and
Ugarit indicate, there were only peaceful and unarmed villagers. The danger here was posed by raiders who came from the sea, among whom may
have been freebooters from Lycia, the northern Aegean, Italy, Sicily, Sardinia, and other maritime regions of barbaria. The tablets from Ugarit
warn of the peril posed by marauders who came in ships, and the tablets
"from the oven" suggest that Ugarit itself fell to raiders who appeared with
little warning. A force of several thousand skirmishers, possibly crammed
into no more than thirty or forty boats, would have been sufficient to defeat
whatever chariot force sallied out against them from the gates of Ugarit. At
any rate, Ugarit, along with all the great cities on the Oronres-i-Alalakh,
Hamath, Qarna, and Kadesh-was sacked and burned.
In the civilized regions of southern Greece there likewise was little to fear
from people who lived close by. Within the large palace states administered
from Pylos or Knossos there were no warrior populations, the subjects
there being pacific and helotized descendants of the pre-Greek inhabitants.
Although the palaces in Boeotia may have fallen to raiders from Locris,

222

A !vi I LIT A RYE X P L A ~ A T ION

Phocis, and inland Thessaly, who came on foot, more sites in the Aegean
are likely to have been attacked by raiders who came by sea, many of them
undoubtedly from coastal Thessaly and Achaea Phthiotis. From the citadel
of Koukounaries, on Paros, one looks down a steep decline to Naoussa Bav.
Fifteen minutes after wading ashore, veteran sackers of cities would have
been atop the citadel. The huddled skeletons found there in recent excavations indicate that the population had little warning and no chance to
escape. Pylas and Knossos, without walls, were entirely vulnerable, and we
may imagine that the inhabitants fled at the first alarm. At Troy, Tiryns and
other places some sort of siege may have been conducted, but in the end the
citadels were taken. Mycenae is not likely to have been surprised, since the
citadel is a two-hour walk from Argos Bay, but against several thousand
raiders there would have been no real protection. Even if the attack came in
broad daylight, and even if the rulers of Mycenae were able to mobilize
several hundred chariots, the swarming javelineers would have been elusive
targets and deadly marksmen against the chariot horses. After storming a
city or a citadel, killing or enslaving those inhabitants who had not been
able to flee, and ransacking the buildings for every bit of precious metal,
elegant cloth, and usable artifacts, the raiders would have prepared the
place for burning and then set fire to it. Such must have been the fate of
dozens of the wealthiest cities and palaces in the eastern Mediterranean.
After most of the great palaces had fallen, attempts were made once
again upon Egypt. Ramesses III had to face incursions by Libyans, now
grown persistent, in 1182 and 1176. These were certainly massive assaults,
since Ramesses claims that in the first of these two wars his troops killed
12,535 of the invaders. And by this time the Philistine and Tjekker warriors, even without a king to mastermind and finance the venture, posed a
threat to Egypt itself. In his eighth year (1179) Ramesses dealt with this
threat on his eastern border. His inscription would have us believe that the
enemies whom he defeated in that campaign were a vast coalition, a canspiracy of all lands, that had been responsible for devastating the entire
Near East from Hatti to Canaan and from Cyprus to Carchemish. Such
claims greatly enhanced his own victory and need not be taken literally:
from their letters we know that the rulers of Hattusas, Emar, and Ugarit
were themselves uncertain about the identity of the hordes intent on sacking their cities, and it is unlikely that Ramesses had any better information
on the subject. What Ramesses undoubtedly did know is that the kind of
destruction that the Philistines and Tjekker had wrought in the southern
Levant, and the kind of warfare that these tribesmen practiced, had already
come to most of the great cities and palaces farther north.
The Levantine aggressors in 1179 were armed with javelins and long
swords, wore helmets and corslets, and carried round shields. In order co
defeat them Rarnesses had to improvise, and his battle plans seem co have

THE E ~ D 0 F C H A RIO TWA R FAR E

223

relegated his chariotry to a subordinate role. Ramesses assembled a considerable number of hand-to-hand fighters, both barbarian skirmishers
(shardana) and native Egyptians. The latter stood shoulder-co-shoulder in
dose-order formations, carried oblong shields, were armed with the traditional rods or sickle swords, and were hardly :IS effective as their foreign
auxiliaries who fought :IS free-lancers. But infantrymen of both kinds,
helped out by the archers in the chariot corps, were sufficient co win the
battle at Djahi.
Whether on that same occasion or soon thereafter, Rarnesscs destroyed a
great force of Philistine, Tjekker, and Sicilian skirmishers who were caught
on their boats a short distance offshore. The skirmishers had not expected a
battle while still in their ships and were virtually annihilated. With remarkable foresight Rarnesses had assembled a fleet and assigned to each ship a
detachment of archers (most likely the archers who in other circumstances
and other times would have shot from chariots) and hand-co-hand warriors. The Egyptian ships were able to cur off the enemy, who had no usable
long-range weapons. The Philistine and Sicilian warriors would have had
javelins, but javelins on these crowded ships were of no value at all, since a
javelin must be thrown on the run. The Egyptian archers, on the contrary,
were able to shoot their bows far more effectively from the deck of a ship
than from the platform of a bouncing chariot. Even worse for the aggressors, while the Egyptian archers could leave the rowing co the oarsmen
whom Ramesscs had impressed into service, the Philistine and Sicilian
warriors had to do their own rowing. Perhaps the Medinet Habu relief does
not exaggerate the extent of Ramesses' victory at sea in 1179.
Even Rarncsses' victories, however, illustrated how drastically warfare
had changed in the three or four decades of the Catastrophe. The Egyptians' salvation owed little to their chariotry. Most important were the
hand-to-hand warriors, whether Egyptian or barbarian, that Ramesses
had assembled at Djahi. The archers who had been positioned on the decks
of Ramesses' ships had also taken their coli, but the "naval battle" may
have been something of a fluke, contingent on timing and luck. The future
belonged to men who could stand their ground in hand-co-hand combat.
Those who survived the Catastrophe resorted to new strategies against
the probability that the raiders would return. On Crete the small and lowlying settlements were abandoned for "cities of refuge" in the mountains.
The Arcade-Cypriote dialect suggests that many South-Greek speakers
from the Peloponnese and central Greece fled in two directions, some to the
mountains of Arcadia and others to the island of Cyprus. The flight to
Ionia, on the other hand, seems co have occurred several generations after
the Catastrophe ended.
If towns built in the twelfth century were nor in the mountains, they were
on the seacoast. On Cyprus, as well as in Phoenicia and Greece, large

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AMI L IT A RYE X P LAN A TI 0 N

coastal towns were built and fortified, and the coastal cities of the Via
Maris were rebuilt and strengthened (with refugees from Crete probably
seeking asylum there). The size of the twelfth-century towns indicates a
belief that there was safety in numbers. The coastal location may have been
preferred for several reasons. It provided, first of all, the optimum vantage
point for spotting hostile ships long before they reached the shore. A city on
the coast, even if it housed few hand-to-hand fighters, was also able to take
some effective offensive measures against raiders who came by sea. As
Rarnesscs' sea victory had shown, one very good way to confront a seaborne horde of hand-to-hand skirmishers was to keep them from reaching
land . On board their ships the skirmishers were vulnerable, since they had
no bows (the man fortunate enough to own a composite bow would have
found it warped and deteriorated after several days in an open boat). It is
therefore possible that a few of the coastal towns continued to count on
archers, now shooting from coast-guard ships instead of from chariots. It is
more likely, however, that coastal locations were chosen for defensive reasons: a city on the coast might be able to withstand a siege, while a city in
the interior could be entirely cut off.
But no civilized society could defend itself without putting into the field
infantrymen equipped for hand-to-hand combat. Against the new peril
new weapons were required, and new pieces of armor. In Greece especially
we can see that the Catastrophe created the armored footsoldier, protected
by a helmet, corslet, greaves, and a round shield. A short thrusting spear
was most important as the weapon of men who took their position in closeorder infantry formations. For professional skirmishers, who might confront the enemy in man-to-man combat, a long sword was required against
the long swords of the predators. The manufacture of cut-and-thrust
swords began in Merneptah's time, as the unusable "Merneptah sword"
from Ugarit shows. The Aegean productions found at Mouliana, Mycenae,
and Perati are clumsy experiments, but better designs were soon found.
Had there been time to hilt them and edge their blades, the four unfinished
swords from the high-priest's house in Ugarit would have been formidable
weapons. In the mc Aegean, however, what those who could afford it
wanted was the terrible Griffzungenschwert that had long been traditional
in northeast Italy and the Balkans. The carrouche of Seti II on a specimen
found in Egypt shows that there too some of the pharaoh's warriors acquired the very best slashing sword that could be found.
Although weapons and armor were important, even more important
were men who could use them, and on this matter the Catastrophe introduced profound changes. In the Late Bronze Age kingdoms warfare had
been a specialist's concern. Civilian conscripts were apparently used only
for defense, and massed offensive infantries were conspicuously absent
when Late Bronze Age kingdoms (except, perhaps, for Assyria) went to

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225

war. After the Catastrophe, political power belonged to those societies in

which warfare was every man's concern, the adult males of a community
serving as its militia. The Warrior Vase from Mycenae suggests that in the
twelfth century at least some men of Mycenae were learning how to march
and fight in close-order formations, depending on the thrusting spear and
on the new elements of defensive armor. But neither at Mycenae nor in
most other civilized communities could a "warrior ethos" have developed
in the immediate aftermath of the Catastrophe, and military prowess ten ded to be associated with the less civilized frontier societies. It is likely that
the "Dorians" were North-Greek speakers who became proficient as doseorder spearmen. In the Iron Age Levant, communities such as Philistia,
Israel, Moab, Ammon, and Aram (in eastern Syria) depended on mass
infantries. We need not believe, with the biblical author, that in David's
kingdom there were 1,300,000 "able-bodied men, capable of bearing
arms." But the militia was apparently counted in six figures, and we can
perhaps take the author's word for it that when David wished to curse
joab, the best he could think of was "may the house of Joab never be free
from running sore or foul disease, or lack a son fit only to ply the distaff." 19
Typically these frontier societies coalesced into "nations," the nation being
a coalition cohesive enough and large enough to defend itself against any
foreseeable aggression.>"
The solidarity of an Iron Age community, whether of a polis or of a
nation, stemmed from the recognition that in war the fortunes of the
community would depend on every man playing his part. Against mass
formations of close-order infantry, the formations being controlled by an
efficient chain of command, disorganized hordes of running skirmishers
would have been outmatched. The kind of solidarity required in the Iron
Age was, with rare exceptions, unnecessary and therefore unknown in the
Late Bronze Age, since prior to the Catastrophe a king's subjects were
amply protected by the king's chariots and chariot runners. The military
revolution that occurred in the Catastrophe was thus a prerequisite for the
social and political changes that made the world of the Iron Age so different
from that of the Late Bronze Age.
2 Samuel 24.9; 2 Samuel 3.29.
On nationalism in the early Iron Age see Liveraru's diSCUSSIon of ""il fartore gennlizio e to
Sraro 'nazionale,'" in his Antico Oriente, 654-60.
19

10

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