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Wikipedia Article Ancient Warfare

Chariots:

[null As civilizations around the planet rise and fall, and when powerful empires come and go, and new civilizations vying for control of lands and resources, over time new technology is created by groups of people in their societies to advance their way of life and become technology superior than their neighbors, who may not be so friendly and helpful to them, such as the Egyptians and the constant feud with the Kingdom of Nubia.

Technology advances can differ overall, with different aspects of life improving in the civilizations, such as new iron hoes helping agriculture expand and help feed more people, but in the main case of technology advances on this topic of ancient warfare, the best advance was the use of Chariots in their armies in battles and wars against the enemies of the state. One way they fought with the chariots in battle was how, “depictions from Egypt sometimes have the reins of the horses tied around the waist of the charioteer, not to impede the ﬁghter in his moves, but it must have been quite uneasy to shoot the bow and drive the cab that way. In the meantime, the Ancient Near Eastern civilizations seemed to have preferred the chariot-archer doctrine than the chariot-spearman one” (UF 41). The use of chariots has had a key role in battles in ancient times, helping turn the tide of that battle and eventually, allowing the state with the chariots to win the war. Reading this excerpt, it is shown that early chariots attempted to only have one person to drive and shoot from it, with these people attempting this would be Pharaohs would not need any help from anyone else while in battle, which was hard for any person to do and therefore hard to achieve and most chariots would have two people in the carriage, with one person driving and focusing on not crashing. The other person was usually an archer that would fire towards the opposing army and take out enemy troops. There was a time where there was a spearman instead of the archer but with the fragile state of the carriage and how easy it was to hit at close range, that type of chariot warfare faded away and archers took a prominent role in the growth of chariot warfare. As decades pass and technology grows, the chariot became obsolete and outdated, with new ideas rising and taking its place of importance in warfare.]

“Evolution of War Chariot Tactics in the Ancient Near East” Fabrice De backer Ugarit Forschungen 41, edited by Manfried Dietrich and Oswald Loretz.

Strategy:

Over time, strategies in the ancient times change and adapt from the different leaders and groups facing off against each other. As the years pass and wars break out between civilizations, new strategies are used in battles by the generals.

This is revealed and shown with the account written down about the Battle of Qadesh,  in which the Hittite leader of the army plots to outsmart the opposition, which happen to be the Egyptian forces, and gain the upper hand on them, which is shown in the excerpt that explains, “In the course of this palaver they accidentally reveal the fact that the Hittite king with his host are camping far away in the north, in the neighborhood of Aleppo, being afraid to venture farther south in their abject terror of Egyptian arms. Sturm quite rightly sees in this incident an integral part of the Hittite plan of campaign, intended to mislead the Egyptian generals and lull them” these details how the past battles and the strategies back then change from two armies clashing head to head in combat to fooling and outsmarting your enemy to gain an advantage before attacking their forces in battle. This strategy used against the Egyptian army, written down by Dr. J. Sturm as he has the detailed study on the battle, as other literature written about the battle are not as useful as Sturm’s is and brings the battle into new light on how the Egyptians lost the battle to the Hittites, which show how well planned the Hittite leader was against the opposing army and his opposing general. Instead of meeting in a head-on battle and potentially facing large losses to the Egyptians, in which included chariots which during the time period were deadly in battle, in part to the Egyptians using them as mobile transports for archers to attack enemy armies. This detailed depiction of the Battle of Qadesh provides the insight of how strategy and mind games work over a straight frontal attack in circumstances, and shows how as war grows and changes, so do the strategies used to win the battles.

“Canaanite and Hittite Strategy in the Second Half of the Second Millennium B. C.” by S. Yeivin Journal of Near Eastern Studies

Vol. 9, No. 2 (Apr. 1950), pp. 101-107

Tactics:

[null As armies meet in battle and clash, new ideas and tactics are thought and used in new battles. New ideas include Cavalry units to support infantry or in some cases be the main battle group of the army. Chariots were also used in different roles as well, which is shown in the article when said, “With the increasing employment of Cavalry as fast mobile shock or artillery platform, the chariot seems to be much more used as a command and shooting platform.

Since the Early Dynastic Period, the chariot is designed to support Infantry by providing extra-height to the ofﬁcer, thus seeing much more of the battleﬁeld” (UF 41 pg 6). With the increased roles that the chariot can play in battles, they grow in importance on the battlefields and the tactics they open up for the generals to use. With versatile units under a leader command, new tactics can change the tide of battle and over time the tide of the war as well.

Another development of tactics is using chariots in a practical way. This means that the chariots were not just used to ram the front lines and try to break the infantry. The horse would not follow through and as generals learned, it would be more sensible to use the chariots as long range mobile vehicles or scare the enemy into fleeing battle once a fleet of chariots are seen coming at the lines.]

Weapons:

Examples for weapons that change over time such as the kingdom of Egypt, with examples being, “The principal weapons in the late Predynastic and Protodynastic Periods were undoubtedly the bow and arrow, spear, axe and mace. These are frequently shown in relief depictions of hunting and battle scenes.” (Egyptian warfare and weapons).

In the early beginnings of empire, the weapons of choice were not advanced enough to allow for new tactics to be created. Over time, as new weapons are created and used in battle, such as the chariot, show that the improvement of new technology improved warfare, making it more violent, and also making the battles deadlier and human losses grow as more armies were needed in wars and battles, the number of men increasing in the army ranks as well.

Siege:

[null Ancient siege warfare varied from each civilization and how each city was defended differently and had to approached with different tactics. One way to ensure an army used all its troops in its siege is shown when its explained how a chariot can be used in a siege, saying that, “During the sieges, the chariots, and mostly in the Neo-Assyrian armies, were surely employed to patrol and protect the ﬂanks and the rear of the besiegers’ lines and camp.” (UF 41 pg 5). This shows that generals had to find new tactics to incorporate parts of their army that wouldn’t work in the siege, as shown with the chariots on patrol duty and ensuring the army was safe from a flank attack from the enemy army. This strategy ensures that all forces are used and contributing to the battle effort and helping gain victory for them and all pulling their weight as well.]

Egypt:

In Ancient Egypt, as the dynasties expanded and grew upon the last that fell to gain new territory and control new people for the empire of Egypt. One of the ways the dynasties were different were the new technologies used in the later dynasties against the enemy. One example is the armies of Ramesses’ II faced off against the Hittites in the Battle of Qades. Both armies have cavalry units supporting their infantry and scouts to get updates on the movements. These advances differ from two groups attacking head on for control of an area and facing losses on both sides.