The Egyptian Army: Weapons and Armor of the New Kingdom

As we've seen in the previous episode, Egypt adopted a lot of its military innovations from the neighboring kingdoms and city-states of the time. Desperate times call for desperate measures, or better said, weapons good enough to send your enemy's soul to be judged by Anubis. In this episode, we're going to be taking a look at the weapons and armor of the New Kingdom that were so feared across the Levant. But first, what are the two best ways to survive a Bronze Age battle? Well, obviously number one is not to be born in the Bronze Age, but a close number two is armor. Compared to the earlier periods of Egypt, we start seeing more depictions of armored infantry by the 19th Dynasty. Besides the ever-present kilt, known as the shenti, hardened linen bands across the chest and shoulders start to appear, finally giving soldiers some form of upper body protection. It wasn't only for the close combat infantry, some archers are depicted armored in a similar or more elaborate fashion, while the rest were half-naked, just like they used to be. The life of a poor nefru was tough, okay? High-quality kilted and patterned linen corslets were issued to higher-ranking troops and officials. Funnily enough, Ramses II equipped his shardan, a royal guard, in this style that you see now. Heavier armor, in the form of scales sewn onto cloth or leather, existed and it was reserved only for the best of the best, such as the chariot bowmen or high-ranking officers. Initially, charioteer armor was based on very heavy scales, just like the marianu of the time, but over the century it evolved into a great combination of protection and mobility. Apparently it was pretty brightly colored too, because if there's one thing Egypt loved, it was to show off that they can get away with anything. When it comes to helmets, unfortunately for us, the archaeological evidence is pretty poor, but from what we do know is that they were made out of leather and padded with cloth. Bronze helmets also existed and also had the same inner padding, although they were reserved only for the higher-ups. While it was already present in Egypt for a long time, the simple striped headcloth, the kluft, appears on all soldiers in the 19th dynasty and that pretty much completes us that iconic ancient Egyptian look. Shields were still wooden, covered with hide, but they became larger and more rectangular by the 19th dynasty, and you can see some elaborate designs or more exotic animal hides on higher troops. Even though we don't really have evidence of Egyptians forming shield walls in earlier periods, technically now they were capable of doing that when necessary, but I think we'll cover this topic pretty soon. We've seen the evolution of the armor in its final form now in the 19th dynasty, but what about the weapons that the Egyptian army was using? Spears were still dirt cheap to produce compared to other weapons and you could basically use one with pretty much no training and it was easy to equip a massive amount of infantry with spears, as history has proven time after time. The only difference from the early and middle kingdom was that the spearhead was made out of bronze now. Here we can see a beautifully cast spearhead from the new kingdom. In the new kingdom we see a distinct javelin size, very popular in use amongst foot soldiers, and the only difference, besides the sides from the earlier period, its head was bronze now, that's about it. Axes were extremely common in the Egyptian army, basically on the same level as the spear. There were many evolutions of the axe, such as the older cannonite duckbill type axe, which didn't survive long, I wonder why. The epsilon axe and a similar design like this were widespread across the eastern mediterranean in the bronze age, as an example it was used in Mycenaean Greece. In Egypt it was a simple weapon, this was not meant to pierce armor, it was just an easily mass produced weapon that was given to lower soldiers and was effective only against unarmored or extremely lightly armored opponents. However a heavier head also appeared, which would be a bit more effective against armor, and we see some evidence of two handed epsilon axes in both Greece and Egypt. Later on we see the final form of the new kingdom axe that was effective at penetrating armor thanks to its head design. Both one handed and two handed depictions exist, though the vast majority of reliefs show one handed axes with a shield. Stone maces of the older period played a very important ceremonial role, as we can see the symbolism of the pharaoh smiting his enemies with a mace on many reliefs since even the pre-dynastic well into the era of the new kingdom, but as an armor piercing weapon they've been pretty much completely replaced by axes. Evidence for metal mace heads in Egypt are pretty low, if existing, we are very unlucky on that front, but let's assume you're still using a stone disc mace or just a stone round mace at this time. If you were unlucky enough for that to happen, there are two answers. Number one, you're time traveling because there are basically no depictions of the older maces being used in combat by this time. Or number two, you're pretty much out of luck fighting against somebody who is definitely going to have a better weapon. But what happens when we put a blade on top of a mace? A mace axe. Yeah, that's pretty creative isn't it? It's a really interesting weapon with limited archaeological evidence from a big site in Waset. The blunt part could have been made from bronze, it would have had a blade attached on top. We have depictions with both one-hand and two-handed versions, you can clearly see the pharaoh smiting his enemies here with a one-handed mace axe. If the two-handed version is even remotely accurate, like discussed and depicted in a few military books, this could have been an extremely devastating multi-purpose weapon against armor, shields, and let's be honest, fleshy parts as well. The most iconic weapon associated with ancient Egypt, the Khupesh. But funnily enough, the design for this sickle sword appeared a lot earlier in Mesopotamia and Canaan, and because of the Ixos, as we've seen in the previous episode, it spread to Egypt and gets the appearance. Frequent scenes of soldiers equipped with one, or decapitations, or pharaohs smiting their enemies were there for a reason. This sword could really chop, okay? We see both light and heavy versions of the Khupesh as the sickle sword went through a lot of change over the years. We don't have specifics of Egyptian swordplay, so unless a certain god of wisdom and magic would give us a manual on ancient Egyptian sword fighting and I'm totally not praying or begging by the way, we can only go based off of theories, reconstructions, reenactors, and whatever you're gonna call it. It's suggested that the Khupesh was effective at disarming enemies, and not just literally by cutting their arm off, that's kind of obvious, but by hooking their weapon with the outer side of the Khupesh which was not sharpened, and then you could disarm them. You could do the same to enemy shields, you hook them with the tip and you pull them down. How practical this was on an actual battlefield? You decide. The Khupesh was made to be used in combination with a shield, it was balanced downwards just like an axe at the end, and it provided great force when used for an overhead strike, it was a fantastic slashing weapon, let me tell you that, and it was perfect for a quick lunge too, if the tip was sharpened. Let me just put it this way, if you were wearing armor that was appropriate for the time period, and you were on the opposite side against somebody wielding a Khupesh, boy do I have bad news for you. Now here comes the weird part. The Khupesh just falls out of use mostly, if not completely by the 20th dynasty. We just stop seeing it in archaeological records or depictions for the most part. We're still unsure why, there are a lot of theories why it went out of use. Some of the popular ones suggest that due to the general collapse of the trade routes, it was harder to get the necessary tin for bronze, and making an iron Khupesh just wasn't the same, as early iron smithing was pretty bad compared to the established bronze tech. It could have also been pretty complicated to make with different materials. Performing worse against heavier enemy armor could have been one of the more logical reasons, let's be honest here, it did have the capability to go through some level of armor though, but it was obviously not enough to face heavily armored opponents. Even though it fell out of use, it is an everlasting symbol of ancient Egypt. And here's where the subjects and mercenaries come in. The many Sea People tribes that raided the Eastern Mediterranean during this time, they were equipped with Nawetu type swords, which were widespread from all the way into Europe, real deep, to the Aegean islands. Depending on the angle, yeah it could have been used for cutting, but they were superior at actually stabbing and going through armor. These swords stuck around for a while in the region, but it didn't see like a massive usage by the native Egyptians. However, short cannonite swords were also great for stabbing and eventually they were adopted en masse. Bronze daggers were pretty common as a sidearm and unlike the earlier copper daggers, they were cast as a single piece so they could withstand a lot of use without breaking in two, which was the major flaw of earlier Egyptian daggers. One of the rewards that could be given to you by the pharaoh in the gold of honor ceremony was a highly decorated dagger. The composite bow was the deadliest weapon in the Egyptian arsenal. Compared to a self-bow, it had a greater effective range of up to potentially 300 meters, a greater accuracy, draw strength and armor piercing power. It could be left strung for a very long time compared to a That came at the complexity of crafting and maintenance. It required combining and layering wood, horn and sinew and then it needed to be glued together. The longer the glue took hold, the better. Technically, composite bows could also suffer really bad in poor weather conditions if they're not properly sealed and maintained. But let me tell you something, all the trouble of making this bow was absolutely worth it as not only was it good at killing low armor targets, but it could also go through the scale armor that was popular at the time. This bow helped forge Egypt into a major power. Not only were they locally produced, but they were also imported or acquired as tribute from various cannonite city-states. Initially, they were only given out to the best of the best, which would be on the chariot bowmen, but by the time of the late 19th and early 20th dynasty, due to the extreme efficiency of the Egyptian war infrastructure, it was possible to have entire units of archers equipped with a composite bow. The self-bow could still be found in use despite its inferiority, but at least it was stronger than the earlier period bows and much quicker and cheaper to make compared to the composite one. Slings were still in use by poorer Egyptians because hey, even if you hit rock bottom economically, it doesn't mean you can't hit somebody else with a rock. Also, foreign mercenaries and tributary troops were using slings such as the various semitic nomads of the Sinai. Simple and deadly against poorly armored foes with proper aim. Now here's the interesting part, the ammunition wasn't just limited to rocks, we have evidence of unbaked clay or even bronze ammunition, yes the highly coveted bronze such as this preserved piece from the site of Enkomi at Cyprus, the former kingdom of Alashia. Lead was initially scarcely used, but eventually, with more advances in metallurgy and more lead deposits, it would become the standard ammunition type for the sling, although that happened at a much later date. Chariots deserve a video on their own and that's something we'll get to in due time, but since we're here, let's take a quick look at why they were so crucial to Egypt's success. Egyptian chariots were quite different compared to the other chariots of the time. They were extremely fast and maneuverable even on rougher terrain and they provided excellent support for the infantry corps. They could outmaneuver the heavier chariots, out skirmish them, and effectively protect the infantry flanks from being collapsed on by the heavier marionu design. They were designed for the best of the best, the highest ranking nobility, and thus they were equipped with the highest quality scale armor, composite bows, and spears and a kopesh as a backup once the ammunition was out. We see chariots depicted often in art, either in hunting or battle scenes. They were another symbol of the pharaoh's might and another iconic, central component of the Egyptian military machine. Well, there we are. We saw the weapons and the armor of the New Kingdom, just as promised. For the next episode, trying to keep it spoiler free as much as I can, but I think we're finally gonna get to see the ancient Egyptians in action, somewhere, that's all I'm gonna say. I hope enjoyed the video as much as I had fun making it. If you liked it, trust me, I loved it, but yeah, if you wanna support me, please continue to do so. It's greatly appreciated, any like, any sub, it just fuels me to keep on researching myself, digging through all my old university books, digging through all my papers and whatever I can find, cause doing this is actually really fun, really enjoyable, honestly. But yeah, that's about it for now. Until the next time!