What Caused Death and Injury During (and After) Ancient Battles?
What caused injury and death during (and after) ancient battles?
Soldiering has never been an easy job. In any period of history the risks are rarely any different, death and injury stalk every battlefield the world over. Egyptian and Greek warfare became sophisticated theatres of mortality and injury in their day, the means by which the enemy could be dispatched were numerous and effective. Rivalling this however, was nature; infection and disease were as big a risk to the soldier as any blade. Injury is also present in the mind of the warrior, the stress of battle, the grief, the inner turmoil caused by murder and the horrors one could witness remained long in the memory of every veteran and for some this manifested itself in mental illness. As we shall see, Egyptian and Greek warfare varied hugely in the way it was carried out, this in turn affecting how injuries could be received and therefore warrants a division between them in discussion about pitched battle injuries. It will be necessary to generalise the period of time that this essay involves, it would be impossible to accurately talk about warfare over the whole course of Egyptian and Greek history. Fortunately death and injury occur in a fairly consistent way throughout both periods and the simplification will not significantly damage the validity of any of the arguments involved. I have decided not to include naval warfare in this discussion and rather focus on land battle, partially due to the lack of space of which to do so and also due to the shortage in evidence and research on the topic. The Egyptian pitched battle was a dangerous affair, far more so than the following Greek style. Lightly armoured and with a heavy use of lethal ranged weaponry the Egyptian soldier had much to fear. Partridge separates the type of injuries sustained in battle into two main categories, blunt wounds and piercing wounds. Blows were sustained from rocks thrown from high battlements or clubs and blunt instruments;
Soldiering has never been an easy job. In any period of history the risks are rarely any different, death and injury stalk every battlefield the world over. Egyptian and Greek warfare became sophisticated theatres of mortality and injury in their day, the means by which the enemy could be dispatched were numerous and effective. Rivalling this however, was nature; infection and disease were as big a risk to the soldier as any blade. Injury is also present in the mind of the warrior, the stress of battle, the grief, the inner turmoil caused by murder and the horrors one could witness remained long in the memory of every veteran and for some this manifested itself in mental illness. As we shall see, Egyptian and Greek warfare varied hugely in the way it was carried out, this in turn affecting how injuries could be received and therefore warrants a division between them in discussion about pitched battle injuries. It will be necessary to generalise the period of time that this essay involves, it would be impossible to accurately talk about warfare over the whole course of Egyptian and Greek history. Fortunately death and injury occur in a fairly consistent way throughout both periods and the simplification will not significantly damage the validity of any of the arguments involved. I have decided not to include naval warfare in this discussion and rather focus on land battle, partially due to the lack of space of which to do so and also due to the shortage in evidence and research on the topic. The Egyptian pitched battle was a dangerous affair, far more so than the following Greek style. Lightly armoured and with a heavy use of lethal ranged weaponry the Egyptian soldier had much to fear. Partridge separates the type of injuries sustained in battle into two main categories, blunt wounds and piercing wounds. Blows were sustained from rocks thrown from high battlements or clubs and blunt instruments;
Bibliography: Arnold (1996). Arnold, D. 1996. The Royal Women of Amarna. The Met Museum of Art. Breasted, J.H., 1930. The Edwin Smith Surgical Papyrus, published in facsimile and hieroglyphic transliteration with translation and commentary in two volumes, Chicago: University of Chicago Press Filer Gabriel, R.A. & Metz, K.S. 1991. From Summer to Rome. The Military Capabilities of Ancient Armies. Westport. CT. Gonzalo M. Sanchez. 2000. A Neurosurgeon 's View of the Battle of Reliefs of King Sety I: Aspects of Neurological Importance. Journal of the American Research Centre in Egypt. Vol. 37, 143-165. Hanson, M. H. 2006. The Shotgun Method Used to Establish the Number of Inhabitants in the Ancient Greek City-States. Columbia, MO. Hanson, V. D., & Keegan, J. 2000. The wars of the ancient Greeks: and their invention of western military culture. London, Cassell. 61-2. Hanson. V.D. 2004. Hoplite Obliteration: The Case of the Town of Thespiae. In, Carman. J. & Harding. A. F. Ancient warfare: Archaeological Perspectives. Stroud, Sutton. Blackman, M & Peet, E McDermott B. 2004. Warfare in Ancient Egypt. Sutton Publishing, Sparkford. Papyrus Anastasi VII. Gardiner, A. 1964. Egyptian hieratic texts / transcribed, translated and annotated by Alan H. Gardiner. Ser. 1: Literary texts of the New Kingdom. Hildesheim : Goerge Olms. Partridge Schwartz. A. 2009. Reinstating the Hoplite. Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart Tritle L.A Winlock. H. E. 1945. The Slain Soldiers of Neb-hepet-Rē 'Mentu-hotpe. New York, S.N. Fig Fig. 2. Assault on a fortress. Tomb of Amenemhet, Beni Hasan no. 2 (From. Vogel. C. 2003. Fallen Heroes?: Winlock 's 'Slain Soldiers ' Reconsidered. The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, Vol. 89. 239-245) Fig 1 Fig 1. Petrie. W. M. F. 1898. Deshasheh: Firth Memoir of the Egypt Exploration Fund. S.N. London. Plate IV. [ 5 ]. Winlock (1945) 16-18. [ 6 ]. Partridge (2002) 123. [ 8 ]. Partridge (2002) 125. [ 9 ]. Filer (1992) 282. [ 10 ]. Sanchez. (2000) 143-165. [ 11 ]. Partridge (2000) 125. [ 14 ]. Winlock (1945) 11. [ 17 ]. Partridge (2002) 125. [ 18 ]. Winlock (1945) 15. contends that 14 of his soldiers died from rock fall. [ 19 ]. Gardiner, A. (1964) 13. [ 20 ]. Partridge (2002) 118-119. [ 21 ]. Partridge (2002) 125. [ 23 ]. McDermott (2004) 44. [ 24 ]. Blackman, M & Peet, E. T. 1925. 284-298 [ 25 ] [ 27 ]. Hanson (2006) 74. [ 28 ]. Hanson & Keegan (2000) 61-2. [ 29 ]. Schwartz (2009) 184. Xenophon does mention an instance of a man falling 3 times but finding his feet until he was eventually killed. Xen. Hell. 5.4.33. [ 31 ]. Hanson (2004) 204. [ 32 ]. Hanson & Keegan (2000) 217. Especially when compared to Battles like Marathon and particularly Guagumela, both fought against eastern armies. [ 36 ]. Tritle (2000) 71-72. [ 40 ]. Tritle (2000) 190-191. Similarities can be drawn with the games in the Iliad (23.257-897), performed after battles and harrowing events.