# | Polity | Coded Value | Tags | Year(s) | Edit | Desc |
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Gabriel says the mace was the dominant weapon of war from 4000 BCE but had disappeared from Sumerian illustrations before 2500 BCE, a time when the helmet appears.
[1]
Almost certainly the technology was still present but the weapon may have been used less frequently. Coded present for Ur III and Akkad and could possibly be ’inferred present’ at this time.
[1]: (Gabriel 2002, 24) Richard A Gabriel. 2002. The Great Armies of Antiquity. Praeger. Westport. |
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not mentioned in sources detailing A’chik weapons and tools
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-
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Javelins, bows and various handheld weapons made of iron are present in the Later Vedic period, as shown by textual and archaeological evidence.
[1]
Other weapons are not mentioned and are therefore presumed absent.
[1]: Upinder Singh, A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century (New Delhi: Pearson Education, 2008), p.199, 245. |
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"As with the rest of the Near East, there is little evidence for warfare in Neolithic Mesopotamia."
[1]
[1]: (Hamblin 2006: 33) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/4WM3RBTD. |
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Not mentioned in detailed descriptions/lists of finds from Mehrgarh. "War technology is not well represented" before the Indus period.
[1]
[1]: (Kenoyer 1991: 347) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/A7DS8UKX. |
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"We have no evidence for warfare. In contrast with later periods, ’Ubaid seals show no depictions of weapons, prisoners, or combat scenes".
[1]
There were discovered some mace-heads and stone axes, but their function is not clear. They could have been used either as a prestige object or symbol of power or as a weapon. There are found both in domestic and ceremonial contexts (temples - e. g. in Telul eth Thalathat.
[2]
[3]
[1]: (Stein 1994: 39) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/V94SXJRJ. [2]: Sievertsen 2010, 206 [3]: Carter and Phillip 2010, 25 |
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Academic histories of warfare and weaponry in Egypt stop mentioning axes and maces once they reach the New Kingdom, suggesting they gradually fell out of fashion.
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Academic histories of warfare and weaponry in Egypt stop mentioning axes and maces once they reach the New Kingdom, suggesting they gradually fell out of fashion.
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No information in literature.
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No information in literature.
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Lances, swords, crossbowmen, longbows, pikemen were of central importance on the battlefield for at least 200 years after the first guns until the Battle of Carignola (1503 CE) which was probably decided by guns and Marignano (1515 CE) when Swiss squares were beaten by cavalry shooting pistols and cannon artillery.
[1]
The first Bourbon era 1589-1660 CE is firmly after the transition to firearm dominance so at this time the old weapons must have played only a minor role in warfare or had been completely abandoned.
[1]: (Nolan 2006, 367) Cathal J Nolan. 2006. The Age of Wars of Religion, 1000-1650: An Encyclopedia of Global Warfare and Civilization. Volume 1 A - K. Greenwood Press. Westport. |
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Academic histories of warfare and weaponry in Egypt stop mentioning axes and maces once they reach the New Kingdom, suggesting they fell out of fashion. Preiser-Kapeller (2015) suggests next data for war clubs for an Upper Egypt NGA polity may be East Roman Empire 395-631 CE.
[1]
[1]: (Preiser-Kapeller 2015, Personal Communication) |
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Salinas says that the Mainas, eastern neighbors of the Shuar, for their arms have darts, shields, throwing rods with spear throwers, and wooden clubs (macanas) made of palm wood. There has been no reference to the use of clubs by the Shuar.
[1]
They do not have slings for the hurling of arrows. No slings at all. No clubs.
[2]
[1]: Stirling, Matthew Williams. 1938. “Historical And Ethnographical Material On The Jivaro Indians.”, 78-79 [2]: Tessmann, Günter, b. 1884. 1930. “Indians Of Northeastern Peru.”, 355 |
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’Salinas says that the Mainas, eastern neighbors of the Jivaros, for their arms have darts, shields, throwing rods with spear throwers, and wooden clubs (macanas) made of palm wood. There has been no reference to the use of clubs by the Jivaros.’
[1]
’They do not have slings for the hurling of arrows. No slings at all. No clubs.’
[2]
[1]: Stirling, Matthew Williams. 1938. “Historical And Ethnographical Material On The Jivaro Indians.”, 78-79 [2]: Tessmann, Günter, b. 1884. 1930. “Indians Of Northeastern Peru.”, 355 |
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Use of atlatls, war clubs, battle axes and polearms does not appear to be supported by evidence.
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not mentioned in any of the sources that deal with weapons and armor
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not mentioned in any of the sources that deal with weapons and armor
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"Little is known about warfare in Mesoamerica before the Middle Formative [...] warfare was relatively unorganized, conducted by small groups armed with unspecialized tool-weapons".
[1]
[1]: (Hassig 1992: 12-13) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/E9VHCKDG. |
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Weapons other than obsidian swords, bows and arrows, slings, spears and atlatls are not known for this period.
[1]
[1]: Flannery and Marcus (1983) The Cloud People: divergent evolution of the Zapotec and Mixtec civilizations. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Academic Press, New York. |
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No archaeological evidence for this. Moreover, the scholarly consensus is that the Jomon were relatively peaceful.
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No archaeological evidence for this. Moreover, the scholarly consensus is that the Jomon were relatively peaceful.
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No archaeological evidence for this. Moreover, the scholarly consensus is that the Jomon were relatively peaceful.
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Academic histories of warfare and weaponry in Egypt stop mentioning axes and maces once they reach the New Kingdom, suggesting they fell out of use. This source, for which we require expert confirmation, say the Kushites "fought with clubs, swords, pikes, and hatchets."
[1]
[1]: (http://www.afropedea.org/kush#TOC-Military) |
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These do not appear to be included in depictions of "warriors" in North Yemeni rock-art from the Late Neolithic and Bronze Age, as reproduced in Jung (1991).
[1]
However, Jung himself does not state these were not in use, nor does he remark on their absence in said depictions.
[1]: (Jung 1991) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/JP9KX5BK. |
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These do not appear to be included in depictions of "warriors" in North Yemeni rock-art from the Late Neolithic and Bronze Age, as reproduced in Jung (1991).
[1]
However, Jung himself does not state these were not in use, nor does he remark on their absence in said depictions.
[1]: (Jung 1991) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/JP9KX5BK. |
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"Little is known about warfare in Mesoamerica before the Middle Formative [...] warfare was relatively unorganized, conducted by small groups armed with unspecialized tool-weapons".
[1]
[1]: (Hassig 1992: 12-13) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/E9VHCKDG. |
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"The presence of maceheads (both metal and stone), which Yadin (1963: 40) has suggested were made defunct by the adoption of helmets, supports [the possibility that helmets were not used]." However, Cork himself notes that the scholarly consensus is that there is little direct evidence for warfare in the region at this time, and that Indus weaponry has been interpreted as having been used for hunting rather than fighting.
[1]
[1]: (Cork 2005: 413, 416) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/ECMD5V2D/q/cork. |
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"The presence of maceheads (both metal and stone), which Yadin (1963: 40) has suggested were made defunct by the adoption of helmets, supports [the possibility that helmets were not used]." However, Cork himself notes that the scholarly consensus is that there is little direct evidence for warfare in the region at this time, and that Indus weaponry has been interpreted as having been used for hunting rather than fighting.
[1]
[1]: (Cork 2005: 413, 416) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/ECMD5V2D/q/cork. |
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"Little is known about warfare in Mesoamerica before the Middle Formative [...] warfare was relatively unorganized, conducted by small groups armed with unspecialized tool-weapons".
[1]
[1]: (Hassig 1992: 12-13) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/E9VHCKDG. |
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"Little is known about warfare in Mesoamerica before the Middle Formative [...] warfare was relatively unorganized, conducted by small groups armed with unspecialized tool-weapons".
[1]
[1]: (Hassig 1992: 12-13) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/E9VHCKDG. |
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Inferred from the fact that sources such as Hassig do not mention this weapon in lists and descriptions of weapons known to have been used in Teotihuacan.
[1]
[1]: (Hassig 1992: 47-48) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/E9VHCKDG. |
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Inferred from the absence of war clubs in the previous and subsequent polities, also not known as a weapon in this region (NGA). There is no evidence for war clubs, however, there is evidence of injuries that appear to have been made through blunt force trauma. The authors of the study conclude that there may be blunt weapons, it is also possible that the resulting injury was made through another weapon hitting against a helmet. Given that both options are equally valid, we can assume that there may have been war clubs, even if these were out of use by the Angkorian period. (RA’s guess). "The trauma apparent at Phum Snay is a combination of blunt and sharp force but the large amount of healed trauma makes it difficult to match a specific weapon with the wounds (cf. Powers 2005). An examination of known weaponry from the later Angkorian period does not show a predominance of weapons that could inflict BFT".
[1]
[1]: (Domett et al. 2011, p. 452) |
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-
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Inferred from the absence of war clubs in the previous and subsequent polities, also not known as a weapon in this region (NGA). Applies to the NGA (Tonle Sap area). There is no evidence for war clubs, however, there is evidence of injuries that appear to have been made through blunt force trauma. The authors of the study conclude that there may be blunt weapons, it is also possible that the resulting injury was made through another weapon hitting against a helmet. "The trauma apparent at Phum Snay is a combination of blunt and sharp force but the large amount of healed trauma makes it difficult to match a specific weapon with the wounds (cf. Powers 2005). An examination of known weaponry from the later Angkorian period does not show a predominance of weapons that could inflict BFT".
[1]
[1]: (Domett et al. 2011, p. 452) |
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Inferred from the absence of war clubs in the previous and subsequent polities, also not known as a weapon in this region (NGA). There is no evidence for war clubs, however, there is evidence of injuries that appear to have been made through blunt force trauma. The authors of the study conclude that there may be blunt weapons, it is also possible that the resulting injury was made through another weapon hitting against a helmet. Given that both options are equally valid, we can assume that there may have been war clubs, even if these were out of use by the Angkorian period.
[1]
. "The trauma apparent at Phum Snay is a combination of blunt and sharp force but the large amount of healed trauma makes it difficult to match a specific weapon with the wounds (cf. Powers 2005). An examination of known weaponry from the later Angkorian period does not show a predominance of weapons that could inflict BFT".
[2]
[1]: pers. comm. Daniel Mullins [2]: (Domett et al. 2011, 452) |
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No archaeological evidence for this. Moreover, the scholarly consensus is that the Jomon were relatively peaceful.
|
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No archaeological evidence for this. Moreover, the scholarly consensus is that the Jomon were relatively peaceful.
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No archaeological evidence for this. Moreover, the scholarly consensus is that the Jomon were relatively peaceful.
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obsolete technology
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"In 844/1440, 40 Ma’azibah were clubbed to death by the sultan’s forces. Later in the year the sultan sent a new governor to al-Mahjam who was murdered. This, says the author of the Ghayah. marked the end of Rasulid control over Tihamah."
[1]
[1]: Porter, Venetia Ann (1992) The history and monuments of the Tahirid dynasty of the Yemen 858-923/1454-1517, Durham theses, Durham University, p. 25, Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/5867/ |
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They could have used war clubs if they had wished.
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Inferred from the presence of war clubs in previous and subsequent polities in the Middle Yellow River Valley.
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present for previous polity in chronology.
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Maces.
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Present for Erlitou, unknown for Erligang (the period that precedes the Shang).
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"In 844/1440, 40 Ma’azibah were clubbed to death by the sultan’s forces. Later in the year the sultan sent a new governor to al-Mahjam who was murdered. This, says the author of the Ghayah. marked the end of Rasulid control over Tihamah."
[1]
[1]: Porter, Venetia Ann (1992) The history and monuments of the Tahirid dynasty of the Yemen 858-923/1454-1517, Durham theses, Durham University, p. 25, Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/5867/ |
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Code inferred from Abbasid Caliphate
[1]
which occupied Yemen between 751-868 CE.
[1]: Hugh N Kennedy. 2001. The Armies of the Caliphs: Military and Society in the Early Islamic State. Routledge. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/SGPPFNAZ/q/kennedy |
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They could have used war clubs if they had wished.
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present in previous polities
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Inferred from previous quasi-polity.
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Inferred from previous quasi-polities.
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Inferred from previous and subsequenct (quasi)polities.
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Inferred from previous and subsequent (quasi)polities.
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Inferred from previous and subsequent (quasi)polities.
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Inferred from previous and subsequent (quasi)polities.
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"In light of the introduction of the ax during the EB, it would seem that the club rarely, if ever, functioned as the sole, short-range weapon of the Levantine soldier. The three Asiatics depicted on the East Wall (south side) of Tomb 2 at Beni Hasan each bear another weapon in addition to the club; the front warrior bears both the eye ax and the club, while the two soldiers after him bear clubs and spears (Newberry 1893:pl. 16)."
[1]
[1]: Burke (2004:82). |
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A military historian states that the Maurayan heavy infantry is known to have used iron weapons including maces, dagger-axes, battle-axes and a slashing sword
[1]
- do Maurayan specialists agree?
[1]: (Gabriel 2002, 219) Gabriel, Richard A. 2002. The Great Armies of Antiquity. Greenwood Publishing Group. |
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Period from 862 CE: Maces.
[1]
"In attack, a short spear or javelin seems to have replaced the pike, and a mace might also have been added."
[2]
[1]: (Kennedy 2001, 24) Kennedy, H. 2001. The Armies of the Caliphs. Routledge. London. [2]: (Nicolle 1982, 20) Nicolle, D. 1982. The Armies of Islam, 7th-11th Centuries. Osprey Publishing. |
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According to a military historian (a polity specialist needs to check this data): Mace was the dominant weapon of war from 4000 BCE but had disappeared from Sumerian illustrations before 2500 BCE (a time when the helmet appears).
[1]
Inferred from the presence of war clubs in previous and subsequent polities in Susiana.
[1]: (Gabriel 2002, 24) Richard A Gabriel. 2002. The Great Armies of Antiquity. Praeger. Westport. |
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‘Major categories are pear-shaped stone maceheads, copper/bronze spiked and star maces, shortswords, knives/daggers with upturned ends, iron socketed spears, and arrowheads’
[1]
[1]: Michael D. Danti, ‘The Late Bronze and Early Iron Age in Northwestern Iran’, In Daniel T. Potts (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Iran, 2013, p. 359 |
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Present in preceding and succeeding polities.
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Inferred from use in Mauryan Empire. The Sunga Dynasty was in effect the continuation of the Mauryan Empire as it was established in a coup by the Mauryan general Pushyamitra Sunga (Roy 2015, 19).
[1]
According to one military historian (this data needs to be confirmed by a polity specialist) the Mauryan army used the club and mace.
[2]
[1]: (Roy 2015: 19) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/35K9MMUW. [2]: (Gabriel 2002, 212) Richard A Gabriel. 2002. The Great Armies Of Antiquity. Praeger. Westport. |
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"There was no significant change in the weaponry of the Indian army from ancient to classical times; in fact, according to Kosambi, there was a decline in the standard of arms. Indian soldiers were mostly very poorly equipped, noted Marco Polo."
[1]
[1]: (Eraly 2011, 169) Abraham Eraly. 2011. The First Spring: The Golden Age of India. Penguin Books India Pvt. Ltd. New Delhi. |
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"In the seventh century the Arab Caliphate overran the Sāssānian Empire and, as far as we can tell, no great changes took place in the Persian equipment then or for a long time afterwards."
[1]
Earlier Abbasids had the mace.
[2]
[1]: (Robinson 1967) Robinson, H. Russell. 1967. Oriental Armour. Walker and Co. New York. [2]: (Nicolle and Hook 1998) Nicolle D, Hook A. 1998. Armies of the Caliphates 862-1098. Osprey Publishing. |
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"Most soldiers lacked body armor and helmets, probably only carrying shields for defense, especially by slingers and clubmen."
[1]
[1]: (Hassig 1992: 82) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/E9VHCKDG. |
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"It was not until iron came into widespread use in the early first millennium that swords in particular and iron weapons in general began to replace the more expensive bronze spears, arrowheads, axes, and daggers of earlier times."
[1]
Present.
[2]
Maceheads
[3]
[1]: (McIntosh 2005: 190) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/KK2E3KMD. [2]: Hamblin 2006, 88 [3]: Hamblin 2006, 74 |
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"It was not until iron came into widespread use in the early first millennium that swords in particular and iron weapons in general began to replace the more expensive bronze spears, arrowheads, axes, and daggers of earlier times."
[1]
maceheads
[2]
[1]: (McIntosh 2005: 190) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/KK2E3KMD. [2]: Postgate 2007, 30-31 |
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Present.
[1]
Present.
[2]
What explanation accompanied these suggestions of present? Gabriel says the mace was the dominant weapon of war from 4000 BCE but had disappeared from Sumerian illustrations before 2500 BCE, a time when the helmet appears.
[3]
[1]: Rutkowski 2007, 24 [2]: Lafont 2009, 15 [3]: (Gabriel 2002, 24) Richard A Gabriel. 2002. The Great Armies of Antiquity. Praeger. Westport. |
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"The Priest-king, armed variously with spear, mace, and bow, is thus shown in a whole sequence of martial activities".
[1]
[1]: (Hamblin 2006: 39) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/4WM3RBTD. |
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"The weapons used in the military forces of the Anatolian Principalities were bow and arrow, sword, shield, javelin, dagger, club, axe, catapult and arrade."
[1]
Ak Koyunlu armies had infantry and auxiliaries.
[2]
Islamic infantry of the period used maces and pole-arm weapons.
[3]
[1]: (1994, 365) Ibrahim Kafesoglu. Ahmet Edip Uysal. Erdogan Mercil. Hidayet Yavuz Nuhoglu. 1994. A short history of Turkish-Islamic states (excluding the Ottoman state). Turkish Historical Society Printing House. [2]: (Quiring-Zoche 2011) Quiring-Zoche, R. 2011. Aq Qoyunlu. http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/aq-qoyunlu-confederation [3]: (Jones ed. 2012, 92-93) Gareth Jones. ed. The Military History Book: The Ultimate Visual Guide to the Weapons that Shaped the World. Dorling Kindersley Limited. London. |
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"In the seventh century the Arab Caliphate overran the Sāssānian Empire and, as far as we can tell, no great changes took place in the Persian equipment then or for a long time afterwards."
[1]
Sassanids
[2]
and Abbasid Caliphate
[3]
had war clubs or maces.
[1]: (Robinson 1967) Robinson, H. Russell. 1967. Oriental Armour. Walker and Co. New York. [2]: (Wilcox 1986, Plate E) Wilcox, P. 1986. Rome’s Enemies (3): Parthians and Sassanid Persians. Osprey Publishing. [3]: (Kennedy 2001, 24) Kennedy, H. 2001. The Armies of the Caliphs. Routledge. London. |
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‘Major categories are pear-shaped stone maceheads, copper/bronze spiked and star maces, shortswords, knives/daggers with upturned ends, iron socketed spears, and arrowheads’
[1]
[1]: Michael D. Danti, ‘The Late Bronze and Early Iron Age in Northwestern Iran’, In Daniel T. Potts (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Iran, 2013, p. 359 |
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The Elamite ruler, "Igi-halki is mentioned as Attar-kittah’s father on two inscribed maceheads from Choga Zanbil."
[1]
Gabriel says the mace was the dominant weapon of war from 4000 BCE but had disappeared from Sumerian illustrations before 2500 BCE, a time when the helmet appears.
[2]
Almost certainly the technology was still present but the weapon may have been used less frequently. Coded present for Ur III and Akkad and could possibly be ’inferred present’ at this time.
[1]: (Potts1999: 207) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/WDUEEBGQ/q/Potts. [2]: (Gabriel 2002, 24) Richard A Gabriel. 2002. The Great Armies of Antiquity. Praeger. Westport. |
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The Elamite ruler, "Igi-halki is mentioned as Attar-kittah’s father on two inscribed maceheads from Choga Zanbil."
[1]
Gabriel says the mace was the dominant weapon of war from 4000 BCE but had disappeared from Sumerian illustrations before 2500 BCE, a time when the helmet appears.
[2]
Almost certainly the technology was still present but the weapon may have been used less frequently. Coded present for Ur III and Akkad and could possibly be ’inferred present’ at this time.
[1]: (Potts1999: 207) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/WDUEEBGQ/q/Potts. [2]: (Gabriel 2002, 24) Richard A Gabriel. 2002. The Great Armies of Antiquity. Praeger. Westport. |
||||||
Mace.
[1]
In the region of modern Sudan during this period: "The Mahdist army used different types of weapons during their revolt. They used also weapons such as swords, axes and maces which resembled Persian weapons of the same period in terms of shape and decoration."
[2]
[1]: (Phyrr 2015, 244?) Stuart W Phyrr. 2015. American Collectors and the Formation of the Metropolitan Museum’s Collection of Islamic Arms and Armor. David G Alexander. ed. Islamic Arms and Armor in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Metropolitan Museum of Art. Yale University Press. New Haven. [2]: (Stephane and Khorasani 2018) Pradines Stephane. Manouchehr Moshtagh Khorasani. 2018. Sufi in War: Persian influence on African weaponry in the 19th century Mahdist Sudan. JAAS. Volume XXII. No.5. |
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"During the reign of the first King Khosrow, or Chosroes (531-79), a cavalryman’s equipment consisted of body armor, breastplate, helmet, greaves and arm shields, horse armor, lance, sword, club, battleaxe, a quiver with thirty arrows, two reflex bows, and two replacement strings."
[1]
[1]: (Mitterauer 2010, 106) Mitterauer, M. 2010. Why Europe?: The Medieval Origins of Its Special Path. University of Chicago Press. |
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Illustration shows a clibanarius (6th century) with what looks like a type of mace.
[1]
at the muster parades of Khusrau I (second Sassanid period) cavalry units required to have "mail, breastplate, helmet, leg guards, arm guards, horse armour, lance, buckler, sword, mace, battle axe, quiver of thirty arrows, bow case with two bows, and two spare bow strings."
[2]
[1]: (Wilcox 1986, Plate E) Wilcox, P. 1986. Rome’s Enemies (3): Parthians and Sassanid Persians. Osprey Publishing. [2]: (Chegini 1996, 58) Chegini, N. N. Political History, Economy and Society. in Litvinsky, B. A. ed. and Iskender-Mochiri, I. ed. 1996. History of Civilizations of Central Asia. Volume III. The crossroads of civilizations: A.D. 250 to 750. pp.40-58. unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0010/001046/104612e.pdf |
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There is Shimashki period mace head which was "dedicated to a maritime trader ’to (the goddess) Ninuruamugub, his lady, for the life of Shulgi, the mighty male, the king of Ur’".
[1]
Gabriel says the mace was the dominant weapon of war from 4000 BCE but had disappeared from Sumerian illustrations before 2500 BCE, a time when the helmet appears.
[2]
Almost certainly the technology was still present but the weapon may have been used less frequently. Coded present for Ur III and Akkad and could possibly be ’inferred present’ at this time.
[1]: (Potts 1999: 132) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/WDUEEBGQ/q/Potts. [2]: (Gabriel 2002, 24) Richard A Gabriel. 2002. The Great Armies of Antiquity. Praeger. Westport. |
||||||
The mace was the dominant weapon of war between 4000-2500 BCE before the helmet was invented.
[1]
[1]: (Gabriel 2002: 24) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/VAWK3Z9E/q/Gabriel. |
||||||
According to a military historian (a polity specialist needs to check this data): mace was the dominant weapon of war between 4000-2500 BCE before the helmet was invented.
[1]
According to a military historian (a polity specialist needs to check this data): 4000 BCE in the Middle East and southeastern Europe: "sling, dagger, mace, and bow are common weapons".
[2]
[1]: (Gabriel 2002, 24) Richard A Gabriel. 2002. The Great Armies of Antiquity. Praeger. Westport. [2]: (Gabriel 2007, xii) Richard A Gabriel. 2007. Soldiers’ Lives Through History: The Ancient World. Greenwood Press. Westport. |
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According to a military historian (a polity specialist needs to check this data): mace was the dominant weapon of war between 4000-2500 BCE before the helmet was invented.
[1]
According to a military historian (a polity specialist needs to check this data): 4000 BCE in the Middle East and southeastern Europe: "sling, dagger, mace, and bow are common weapons".
[2]
[1]: (Gabriel 2002, 24) Richard A Gabriel. 2002. The Great Armies of Antiquity. Praeger. Westport. [2]: (Gabriel 2007, xii) Richard A Gabriel. 2007. Soldiers’ Lives Through History: The Ancient World. Greenwood Press. Westport. |
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An aklys isa small club, sometimes with spikes on one end and often attached to the arm with a leather strap, estimated to have been used by the Osci tribes of phrehistoric Italy.
[1]
[1]: (Tarassuk and Blair 1982: 17) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/LK8ZLPC7. |
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French mercenaries were often employed who would bring their own weapons. These included the battle axe, sword, dagger, spear or lance. Mace, club and flail would begin their rise to prominence at the end of this period.
[1]
[2]
[1]: Boulton in Kilber, W W. 1995. Medieval France: An Encyclopedia. Psychology Press. [2]: Nicolle, D and McBride, A. 1991. French Medieval Armies 1000-1300. Osprey Publishing Ltd. London. |
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Mace, club and flail common after 1300 CE.
[1]
The Papal State often used French mercenaries. General reference for this time period in Europe: other weapons included mace, war hammer, dagger, poleaxe and axe.
[2]
[1]: (Boulton 1995, 124-127) [2]: (Rogers 2007, 32) Clifford J Rogers. 2007. Soldiers’ Lives Through History: The Middle Ages. Greenwood Press. Westport. |
||||||
Mace, club and flail common after 1300 CE.
[1]
The Papal State often used French mercenaries. General reference for this time period in Europe: other weapons included mace, war hammer, dagger, poleaxe and axe.
[2]
[1]: (Boulton 1995, 124-127) [2]: (Rogers 2007, 32) Clifford J Rogers. 2007. Soldiers’ Lives Through History: The Middle Ages. Greenwood Press. Westport. |
||||||
An aklys isa small club, sometimes with spikes on one end and often attached to the arm with a leather strap, estimated to have been used by the Osci tribes of phrehistoric Italy.
[1]
[1]: (Tarassuk and Blair 1982: 17) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/LK8ZLPC7. |
||||||
An aklys isa small club, sometimes with spikes on one end and often attached to the arm with a leather strap, estimated to have been used by the Osci tribes of prehistoric Italy.
[1]
Illustration of a Villanovan chieftain and weapons does not show a war club.
[2]
. Don’t appear in book on warfare
[2]
. Expert advice is needed.
[1]: (Tarassuk and Blair 1982: 17) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/LK8ZLPC7. [2]: (Fields 2011) |
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Kanabou (金棒) is noted as being a club weapon in use: ’Sort of iron club used by warriors in ancient times, and a favorite weapon of some monk-warriors (Heisou) in the Heian and Kamakura periods’
[1]
Photographs exists as late as 1868 with samurai still being equipped with this
[2]
[1]: Louis Frederick, Japan Encyclopedia, translated by Kathe Roth, The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 202, p. 466 [2]: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/?next=/pin/create/button/%3Furl%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fwww.thoughtco.com%252Fimages-of-the-samurai-japans-warriors-4122916%253Futm_source%253Dpinterest%26utm_medium%3Dsocial%26utm_campaign%3Dshareurlbuttons_nip%26media%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Ffthmb.tqn.com%252Fe8I92cksGuk5-eG0KOHC1VaizSA%253D%252F735x0%252Fabout%252FOgawaEraSamurai-56a040323df78cafdaa0adc7.jpg%26description%3DImages%2520of%2520the%2520Samurai%252C%2520Japan%2527s%2520Warriors%253A%2520Photo%2520of%2520a%2520Tokugawa-era%2520samurai%2520warrior |
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"In the seventh century the Arab Caliphate overran the Sāssānian Empire and, as far as we can tell, no great changes took place in the Persian equipment then or for a long time afterwards."
[1]
"Turkish weapons, 10th-12th centuries. An assortment of typical Turco-Mongol or Central Asian weapons fragments were found during archaeological excavations at the Citadel of Kuva. This area, close to the frontier with China, became the heartland of the Kara-Khanid Sultanate which rivalled the Seljuks for the domination of the north-eastern provinces of the Islamic world ... The weapons themselves, including parts of daggers, arrowheads and spearheads, would have been identical to those used by Seljuk warriors both here in Transoxania, in Iran and in Syria".
[2]
[1]: (Robinson 1967) Robinson, H. Russell. 1967. Oriental Armour. Walker and Co. New York. [2]: (Nicolle 2001, 51) Nicolle, David. 2001. The Crusades. Osprey Publishing. |
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Kanabou (金棒) is noted as being a club weapon in use: ’Sort of iron club used by warriors in ancient times, and a favorite weapon of some monk-warriors (Heisou) in the Heian and Kamakura periods’
[1]
Photographs exists as late as 1868 with samurai still being equipped with this
[2]
[1]: Louis Frederick, Japan Encyclopedia, translated by Kathe Roth, The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 202, p. 466 [2]: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/?next=/pin/create/button/%3Furl%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fwww.thoughtco.com%252Fimages-of-the-samurai-japans-warriors-4122916%253Futm_source%253Dpinterest%26utm_medium%3Dsocial%26utm_campaign%3Dshareurlbuttons_nip%26media%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Ffthmb.tqn.com%252Fe8I92cksGuk5-eG0KOHC1VaizSA%253D%252F735x0%252Fabout%252FOgawaEraSamurai-56a040323df78cafdaa0adc7.jpg%26description%3DImages%2520of%2520the%2520Samurai%252C%2520Japan%2527s%2520Warriors%253A%2520Photo%2520of%2520a%2520Tokugawa-era%2520samurai%2520warrior |
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Kanabou (金棒) is noted as being a club weapon in use: ’Sort of iron club used by warriors in ancient times, and a favorite weapon of some monk-warriors (Heisou) in the Heian and Kamakura periods’
[1]
[1]: Louis Frederick, Japan Encyclopedia, translated by Kathe Roth, The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 202, p. 466 |
||||||
Kanabou (金棒) is noted as being a club weapon in use: ’Sort of iron club used by warriors in ancient times, and a favorite weapon of some monk-warriors (Heisou) in the Heian and Kamakura periods’
[1]
iron scepter-like rods and wooden staffs have been found since early Kofun with the previous quote to infer presence even if there are no records at the time indicating their use in warfare
[2]
[1]: Louis Frederick, Japan Encyclopedia, translated by Kathe Roth, The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 202, p. 466 [2]: Kidder Jr., J. Edward, 2007. Himiko and Japan’s Elusive Kingdom of Yamatai Honolulu: Hawaii University Press. p. 109-110 |
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Kanabou (金棒) is noted as being a club weapon in use: ’Sort of iron club used by warriors in ancient times, and a favorite weapon of some monk-warriors (Heisou) in the Heian and Kamakura periods’
[1]
[1]: Louis Frederick, Japan Encyclopedia, translated by Kathe Roth, The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 202, p. 466 |
||||||
Kanabou (金棒) is noted as being a club weapon in use: ’Sort of iron club used by warriors in ancient times, and a favorite weapon of some monk-warriors (Heisou) in the Heian and Kamakura periods’
[1]
Photographs exists as late as 1868 with samurai still being equipped with this
[2]
[1]: Louis Frederick, Japan Encyclopedia, translated by Kathe Roth, The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 202, p. 466 [2]: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/?next=/pin/create/button/%3Furl%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fwww.thoughtco.com%252Fimages-of-the-samurai-japans-warriors-4122916%253Futm_source%253Dpinterest%26utm_medium%3Dsocial%26utm_campaign%3Dshareurlbuttons_nip%26media%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Ffthmb.tqn.com%252Fe8I92cksGuk5-eG0KOHC1VaizSA%253D%252F735x0%252Fabout%252FOgawaEraSamurai-56a040323df78cafdaa0adc7.jpg%26description%3DImages%2520of%2520the%2520Samurai%252C%2520Japan%2527s%2520Warriors%253A%2520Photo%2520of%2520a%2520Tokugawa-era%2520samurai%2520warrior |
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Kanabou (金棒) is noted as being a club weapon in use: ’Sort of iron club used by warriors in ancient times, and a favorite weapon of some monk-warriors (Heisou) in the Heian and Kamakura periods’
[1]
Photographs exists as late as 1868 with samurai still being equipped with this
[2]
[1]: Louis Frederick, Japan Encyclopedia, translated by Kathe Roth, The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 202, p. 466 [2]: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/?next=/pin/create/button/%3Furl%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fwww.thoughtco.com%252Fimages-of-the-samurai-japans-warriors-4122916%253Futm_source%253Dpinterest%26utm_medium%3Dsocial%26utm_campaign%3Dshareurlbuttons_nip%26media%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Ffthmb.tqn.com%252Fe8I92cksGuk5-eG0KOHC1VaizSA%253D%252F735x0%252Fabout%252FOgawaEraSamurai-56a040323df78cafdaa0adc7.jpg%26description%3DImages%2520of%2520the%2520Samurai%252C%2520Japan%2527s%2520Warriors%253A%2520Photo%2520of%2520a%2520Tokugawa-era%2520samurai%2520warrior |
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Vedic sources connect charioteering with mace.
[1]
Not everyone agrees Vedic culture was descendant from, and thus can tell us about, Andronovo culture.
[2]
[1]: (Kuz’mina 2007, 136-137) Elena Efimovna Kuzʹmina. 2007. The Origin of the Indo-Iranians. J P Mallory ed. BRILL. Leiden. [2]: (Lamberg-Karlovsky 144-145) C C Lamberg-Karlovsky. 2005. Archaeology and language: the case of the Bronze Age Indo-Iranians. Edwin Francis Bryant. Laurie L Patton. eds. The Indo-Aryan Controversy: Evidence and Inference in Indian History. Routledge. Abingdon. |
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"Le antiche figurazioni e i reperti archaeologici suggeriscono inoltre la presenza di soldati di fanteria dotati di lance, pugnali, asce e mazze, ma scarsamente protetti da armi difensive, quali elmi, corazze e scudi, che compaiono raramente nei repertori figurati; risulta, infine, la presenza di corpi di arcieri."
[1]
TRANSLATION: "Ancient iconography and archaeological findings suggest that the infantry was armed with spears, daggers, axes, and clubs, but was only rarely clad in defensive gear such as helmets, armour and shields; finally, armies also included archers’ corps."
[1]: Bartoloni, P. 1988. L’esercito, la marina e la guerra. In Moscati, S. (ed) I Fenici pp. 132-138. Milano: Bompiani. |
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Reference for pre-colonial West Africa: "conventional weapons (as opposed to firearms) continued to play an effective role in West African warfare until as late as the middle of the last century." (i.e. 19th century).
[1]
Reference for pre-colonial West African warfare: "Among shock weapons, those decisive instruments in war, were the sword, club, lance, dagger, and fighting bracelet."
[2]
[1]: (Smith 1989, 80) Robert Sydney Smith. 1989. Warfare & Diplomacy in Pre-colonial West Africa. Second Edition. The University of Wisconsin Press. Madison. [2]: (Smith 1989, 64) Robert Sydney Smith. 1989. Warfare & Diplomacy in Pre-colonial West Africa. Second Edition. The University of Wisconsin Press. Madison. |
||||||
Reference for pre-colonial West Africa: "conventional weapons (as opposed to firearms) continued to play an effective role in West African warfare until as late as the middle of the last century." (i.e. 19th century).
[1]
Reference for pre-colonial West African warfare: "Among shock weapons, those decisive instruments in war, were the sword, club, lance, dagger, and fighting bracelet."
[2]
[1]: (Smith 1989, 80) Robert Sydney Smith. 1989. Warfare & Diplomacy in Pre-colonial West Africa. Second Edition. The University of Wisconsin Press. Madison. [2]: (Smith 1989, 64) Robert Sydney Smith. 1989. Warfare & Diplomacy in Pre-colonial West Africa. Second Edition. The University of Wisconsin Press. Madison. |
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The last Yuan emperor Toghon Temur returned to Mongolia and established the capital of his new Mongol state ("which extended from Manchuria to Kyrgystan") at Karakorum. At that time the MilTech codes would be the same as for the preceding Yuan China. Over the next decades the state lost territory and there was civil war at the start of the 15th century although in 1409 CE they still managed to rout a very large invading Ming army. The Ming attacked again but the Mongols were not conquered. Under an Oirat noble called Esen (1440-1455 CE) they invaded China in 1449 CE with 20,000 cavalry and captured the Ming emperor. In 1451 CE Esen overthrew the Mongol Khan but he wasn’t a direct descendent of Genghis Khan and was killed during a 1455 CE rebellion. His rule was followed by minor Khans who ruled a Mongolia in which the Khalkhas were one of three ’left-flank’ tumens (in addition to Chahars and Uriangqais). The state also had ’right-flank’ tumens (Ordos, Tumeds, Yunshebus) and the Oirats of western Mongolia. "These 6 tumens were major administrative units, often called ulus tumens (princedoms), comprising the 40 lesser tumens of the military-administrative type inherited from the Yuan period, each of which was reputedly composed of 10,000 cavalry troops ..."
[1]
The narrative suggests at least for 1400 CE and 1500 CE the army was cavalry based and in continuity with the preceding Yuan. The Yuan Dyansty is coded present for war clubs. Presumably Mongol cavalry could use it as a secondary weapon.
[1]: (Ishjamts 2003, 208-211) N Ishjamts. 2003. The Mongols. Chahryar Adle. Irfan Habib. Karl M Baipakov. eds. History Of Civilizations Of Central Asia. Volume V. Development in contrast: from the sixteenth to the mid-nineteenth century. UNESCO Publishing. Paris. |
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Sources
[1]
only mention very little archaeological evidence for weaponry for this period, and this does not include clubs. However, weapons made from wood and cloth have been documented for the later periods, so their absence in the archaeological record may be due to preservation bias. David Carballo (pers. comm.) wrote that wooden clubs were present in this period.
[2]
[1]: Marcus and Flannery (1996) Zapotec Civilization: How urban society evolved in Mexico’s Oaxaca Valley. Flannery and Marcus (1983) The Cloud People: divergent evolution of the Zapotec and Mixtec civilizations. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Academic Press, New York. [2]: (Carballo, David. Personal Communication with Jill Levine, Dan Hoyer, and Peter Turchin. Email. April 2020. |
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Sources
[1]
only mention very little archaeological evidence for weaponry for this period, and this does not include clubs. However, weapons made from wood and cloth have been documented for the later periods, so their absence in the archaeological record may be due to preservation bias. David Carballo (pers. comm.) wrote that wooden clubs were present in this period.
[2]
[1]: Marcus and Flannery (1996) Zapotec Civilization: How urban society evolved in Mexico’s Oaxaca Valley. Flannery and Marcus (1983) The Cloud People: divergent evolution of the Zapotec and Mixtec civilizations. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Academic Press, New York. [2]: (Carballo, David. Personal Communication with Jill Levine, Dan Hoyer, and Peter Turchin. Email. April 2020. |
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Listed by Hassig.
[1]
[1]: (Hassig 1992: 248) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/E9VHCKDG. |
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"Thrusting spears became the primary combat weapons [in the Late Formative situation] as they spread throughout Mesoamerica. Clubs persisted, but declined [...] maces also declined. [...] The distribution of slingstones throughout Mesoamerica indicates the continued use".
[1]
[1]: (Hassig 1992: 31) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/E9VHCKDG. |
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"Thrusting spears became the primary combact weapons [in the Late Formative situation] as they spread throughout Mesoamerica. Clubs persisted, but declined [...] maces also declined. [...] The distribution of slingstones throughout Mesoamerica indicates the continued use".
[1]
[1]: (Hassig 1992: 31) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/E9VHCKDG. |
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"Most of the basic Mesoamerican armaments were in existence at this time [Classic period] - atlatls, darts, and spears, we well as clubs (bladed and unbladed), shields, cotton body armor, and unit standards [...] This military organization and technology was carried forward and elaborated on first by Toltecs and then by Aztecs".
[1]
[1]: (Hassig 1992: 5) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/E9VHCKDG. |
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’Stone Clubs. Stone clubs are of two principal kinds, the ‘pineapple’ (gishi) and the disk (emi). They are made from river pebbles. The former variety has a hole through the longer axis for the haft, and its striking surface is serrated by means of longitudinal and lateral grooves, which leave a number of processes or points. The latter is more or less disk-shaped, the outer edge being ground down to a fairly sharp cutting-edge.’
[1]
’Wooden ‘Swords’. The wooden sword (asivo) is a blade-shaped length of black palm-wood usually some 3 feet 6 inches long. The point and edges are not so sharp as to pierce or cut, and the weapon is virtually a club. Being used with two hands, it is much less unwieldy than the stone-headed club, and probably gains in effectiveness by its lightness. The asivo is often painted and befeathered.’
[2]
[1]: Williams, F. E. (Francis Edgar), and Hubert Murray. 1930. “Orokaiva Society.”, 83 [2]: Williams, F. E. (Francis Edgar), and Hubert Murray. 1930. “Orokaiva Society.”, 82 |
||||||
Stone Clubs. Stone clubs are of two principal kinds, the ‘pineapple’ (gishi) and the disk (emi). They are made from river pebbles. The former variety has a hole through the longer axis for the haft, and its striking surface is serrated by means of longitudinal and lateral grooves, which leave a number of processes or points. The latter is more or less disk-shaped, the outer edge being ground down to a fairly sharp cutting-edge.
[1]
Wooden ‘Swords’. The wooden sword (asivo) is a blade-shaped length of black palm-wood usually some 3 feet 6 inches long. The point and edges are not so sharp as to pierce or cut, and the weapon is virtually a club. Being used with two hands, it is much less unwieldy than the stone-headed club, and probably gains in effectiveness by its lightness. The asivo is often painted and befeathered.
[2]
[1]: Williams, F. E. (Francis Edgar), and Hubert Murray. 1930. “Orokaiva Society.”, 83 [2]: Williams, F. E. (Francis Edgar), and Hubert Murray. 1930. “Orokaiva Society.”, 82 |
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The Indo-Greeks were most likely to have been influenced and equipped in the tradition of the Macedonian style adopted by their Bactrian-Greek forbearers. They presumably wore the muscled breastplate made of metal scales and stripped with leather. Military adventurers and mercenaries from the Mediterranean took part in campaigns into India (attracted by India’s rumored wealth) and were present in military colonies; and they may provide more circumstantial evidence of the types of military equipment used by the Indo-Greeks. In addition, depictions on coins provide evidence of plate armour and the Boeotian helmet of the Alexandrian cavalrymen.
[1]
One issue that remains unclear is how many, if any, of the reforms taking place were in reaction to Roman military innovations trickling into the Indo-Greek Kingdoms. Therefore, the coding reflects Greek military technology from an earlier period.
[2]
Helmet would provide defence against weapons such as a war club which may have been wielded by cavalry.
[1]: Docherty, Paddy. The Khyber Pass: a history of empire and invasion. Union Square Press, 2008. pp. 64-66 [2]: Lee, Mireille M. "Hellenistic Infantry Reform in the 160s BC, by Nicholas Sekunda.(Studies on the History of Ancient and Medieval Art of Warfare 5.) Oficyna Naukowa MS, Lodz 2001. |
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"The presence of maceheads (both metal and stone), which Yadin (1963: 40) has suggested were made defunct by the adoption of helmets, supports [the possibility that helmets were not used]." However, Cork himself notes that the scholarly consensus is that there is little direct evidence for warfare in the region at this time, and that Indus weaponry has been interpreted as having been used for hunting rather than fighting.
[1]
[1]: (Cork 2005: 413, 416) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/ECMD5V2D/q/cork. |
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If "the first archaeologically recognizable, large post-Indus urban settlements are not earlier than the fifth century BC ... solidly visible states ... appear in a sudden profusion in the late first millennium B.C."
[1]
- who was king Stabrobates of India who used war elephants against a queen of Assyria (considered Shammuramat?) in the 9th century BCE?
[2]
One could infer king Stabrobates, if not based there himself, must have subdued and controlled the Kachi Plain region in order to invade Mesopotamia from ’India’. (Another source says Assyria invaded India and were driven out of Pakistan and India).
[3]
Diodorus Siculus says this too, queen Semiramis was based in Bactra (Bactria?).
[4]
If king Stabrobates’s polity controlled the Kachi Plain, then we code the according to the military technology he possessed. This would have included weapons of war. Note: one military historian estimates that the Assyrian army had a strategic range of 2000 km
[5]
which places the Indus region in reach of their forces.
[1]: (Ahmed 2014, 64) Mukhtar Ahmed. 2014. Ancient Pakistan - An Archaeological History: Volume V: The End of the Harappan Civilization, and the Aftermath. Foursome Group. [2]: (Mayor 2014, 289) Adrienne Mayor. Animals in Warfare. Gordon Lindsay Campbell. ed. 2014. The Oxford Handbook of Animals in Classical Thought and Life. Oxford University Press. Oxford. [3]: (Kistler 2007, 18) John M Kistler. 2007. War Elephants. University of Nebraska Press. Lincoln. [4]: Diodorus Siculus. Delphi Complete Works of Diodorus Siculus. Delphi Classics. [5]: (Gabriel 2002, 9) Richard A Gabriel. 2002. The Great Armies of Antiquity. Praeger. Westport. |
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According to Hasan Nizami’s Taj-ul-Maathir (13th CE) Muslim cavaliers also "used iron maces, battleaxes, daggers, and javelins" whereas the Hindu Rajputs had only spear or lance.
[1]
[1]: (? 2013, 162-163) ?. Sirhindi, Abdullah. Daniel Coetzee. Lee W Eysturlid. eds. 2013. Philosophers of War: The Evolution of History’s Greatest Military Thinkers. The Ancient to Pre-Modern World, 3000 BCE - 1815 CE. Praeger. Santa Barbara. |
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"The presence of maceheads (both metal and stone), which Yadin (1963: 40) has suggested were made defunct by the adoption of helmets, supports [the possibility that helmets were not used]." However, Cork himself notes that the scholarly consensus is that there is little direct evidence for warfare in the region at this time, and that Indus weaponry has been interpreted as having been used for hunting rather than fighting.
[1]
[1]: (Cork 2005: 413, 416) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/ECMD5V2D/q/cork. |
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"At any rate the Ferghana valley has yielded up a rich store of bronze and silver objects of clearly southern origin. The trove includes a pin with a double-helical head and a mace with a sculptural group representing the milking of a cow and the suckling of a calf. The residents of the southern oases may have been attracted to the Ferghana valley by its tin deposits so vital for metalworking in the Bronze Age."
[1]
[1]: (Masson 1992, 242-244) |
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"The mace would seem to have been characteristically Arab, for it was not recorded among those Berbers who bore the brunt of Fatimid expansionist wars in the 10th century."
[1]
The Fatimid arsenals contained two-handed maces.
[2]
"While the styles of weapons varied according to region and time period, the warriors of the Crusader era generally employed many of the same types of weapons used during the first Islamic centuries - coasts of mail, helmets, shields, swords, spears, lances, knives, iron maces, lassos, bows, arrows, and naft (or Greek fire)."
[3]
[1]: (Nicolle 1982, 18) Nicolle, D. 1982. The Armies of Islam, 7th-11th Centuries. Osprey Publishing. [2]: (Hamblin 2005, 749) Shillington, K. ed. 2005. Encyclopedia of African History: A - G.. 1. Taylor & Francis. [3]: (Lindsay 2005, 78) Lindsay, James E. 2005. Daily Life in The Medieval Islamic World. Hackett Publishing Company, Inc. Indianapolis. |
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Two copper mace heads in Tomb H in Alacahöyük.
[1]
"The mace was among man’s oldest weapons (at least 6000 B.C.E. at Catal Huyuk)".
[2]
4000 BCE in the Middle East and southeastern Europe: "sling, dagger, mace, and bow are common weapons".
[3]
[1]: Yalçin Ü. and H. G., "Reassessing Antropomorphic Metal Figurines of Alacahöyük, Anatolia", In: "Near Eastern Archeology" Vol. 76:1 (2013), p. 41. [2]: (Gabriel 2002, 51) Richard A Gabriel. 2002. The Great Armies of Antiquity. Praeger. Westport. [3]: (Gabriel 2007, xii) Richard A Gabriel. 2007. Soldiers’ Lives Through History: The Ancient World. Greenwood Press. Westport. |
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"The Byzantines also used the war mace: not only as a striking weapon as it was principally used, but also as an effective throwing weapon."
[1]
Infantry: "Weapons included various types of spear, mace, and axe (single-bladed, double-bladed, blade-and-spike, etc.), along with the traditional sword, although not all heavy infantrymen carried the latter."
[2]
[1]: (O’Rourke 2010, 10) O’Rourke, M. 2010. The Land Forces of the Roman (Byzantine) Empire in the 10th Century. Canberra. [2]: (Haldon 2008, 476) Jeffreys E, Haldon J and Cormack R eds. 2008. The Oxford Handbook of Byzantine Studies. Oxford University Press. Oxford. |
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The shape and appearance of the blunt force traumatic injuries identified at Çatalhöyük are consistent with injuries from both handheld blunt objects but also from projectiles - thrown stones or other objects. The number, shape, and location on the top and back of the cranium suggest that objects, thrown or sling-delivered, support an association.
[1]
There is a rich groundstone industry, both for grinding plant material and ochres, and for small axes and maces.
[2]
According to a military historian (this data needs to be checked by a polity specialist) "The mace was among man’s oldest weapons (at least 6000 B.C.E. at Catal Huyuk)".
[3]
[1]: Christopher J. Knüsel, Bonnie Glencross, ‘Çatalhöyük, Archaeology, Violence’, ‘’Contagion: Journal of Violence, Mimesis, and Culture’’, Volume 24, 2017, pp. 29-32 [2]: Ian Hodder, ‘Çatalhöyük: A Prehistoric Settlement on the Konya Plain’, The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Anatolia: (10,000-323 BCE), Edited by Gregory McMahon and Sharon Steadman, 2011, p. 945 [3]: (Gabriel 2002, 51) Richard A Gabriel. 2002. The Great Armies of Antiquity. Praeger. Westport. |
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"The mace was among man’s oldest weapons (at least 6000 B.C.E. at Catal Huyuk)".
[1]
’Copper or bronze mace-head from Can Hasan’.
[2]
4000 BCE in the Middle East and southeastern Europe: "sling, dagger, mace, and bow are common weapons".
[3]
[1]: (Gabriel 2002, 51) Richard A Gabriel. 2002. The Great Armies of Antiquity. Praeger. Westport. [2]: Excavations at Can Hasan: First Preliminary Report, 1961 Author(s): D. H. French Source: Anatolian Studies, Vol. 12 1962, British Institute at Ankara, pp.34 [3]: (Gabriel 2007, xii) Richard A Gabriel. 2007. Soldiers’ Lives Through History: The Ancient World. Greenwood Press. Westport. |
||||||
"The Illinois war-club was made of wood or antler, and was shaped like a cutlass-type sword with a large ball at the striking end"
[1]
.
[1]: Illinois State Museum, Illinois Society: Technology: Weapons (2000), http://www.museum.state.il.us/muslink/nat_amer/post/htmls/te_weapons.html |
||||||
There were war clubs used by the Iroquois, often made of wood or bone with "bone or stone inserted at the head."
[1]
[1]: (Beauchamp 1968: 16) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/KJQLGMR6 |
||||||
Code checked by Peter Peregrine. Previous notes: Archaeological evidence for warfare appears to "only" include "[d]efensive structures around villages, violent injuries on human remains, "trophy heads," the abandonment of regions, and the positioning of sites in ever more defensive positions"
[1]
, though a few weapon types can be cautiously inferred, such as bow and arrows and spears
[2]
, and, at a later date, firearms
[3]
.
[1]: G. Gibbon, Oneota, in P. Peregrine, M. Ember and Human Relations Area Files, Inc. (eds.) Encyclopedia of Prehistory: Volume 6: North America (2001), p. 391 [2]: P.S. Martin, G.I. Quimby and D.Collier, Indians Before Columbus (1947), p. 316 [3]: Illinois State Museum, Late Prehistoric, Technology: Weapons (2000), http://www.museum.state.il.us/muslink/nat_amer/pre/htmls/lp_weapons.html |
||||||
Hazara infantry used against the Mughals in the mid-seventeenth century.
[1]
- what weapons did they use? The cavalry may have carried a mace as a secondary weapon?
[1]: (Roy 2014, 111-112) Kaushik Roy. 2014. Military Transition in Early Modern Asia, 1400-1750: Cavalry, Guns, Government and Ships. Bloomsbury Academic. London. |
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From 700 BCE? in Steppe zone: "During the seventh and sixth centuries B.C. several nomadic states of northern Iranian tribes came into being in Central Asia. In the west some Saka tribal confederations are mentioned in ancient Greek literature and Old Persian inscriptions, while in the east the Hsien-yün, and later the Yüeh-chih and the Hsiung-nu, tribal confederations are attested by the Chinese sources. ... Lively contacts and easy communications promoted the rise and spread of a fairly uniform nomadic culture in the steppe zone. The same types of horse-harness (bridle, bit, cheek-piece, saddle, trappings), arms (bow, bow-case, arrow and quiver, sword, battle-axe, mail) and garments (trousers, caftan, waist-girdle, boots, pointed cap) were used in the steppe zone from Central Europe to Korea."
[1]
Hsiung-Nu reference c200 BCE: "Among their weapons we find the compound bow, bronze and bone arrowheads (their arrows also contained beads that gave them a whistling effect), broadswords, short swords, lances, and maces."
[2]
Can the Steppe zone be used to code Sogdiana?
[1]: (Harmatta 1994, 476-477) Harmatta, J. Conclusion. in Harmatta, Janos. Puri, B. N. Etemadi, G. F. eds. 1994. History of Civilizations of Central Asia. Volume II. The development of sedentary and nomadic civilizatins 700 B.C. to A.D. 250. UNESCO Publishing. [2]: (Golden 1992, 60) Peter B Golden. 1992. An Introduction to the History of the Turkish Peoples. Otto Harrassowitz. Wiesbaden. http://www.academia.edu/28176263/An_Introduction_to_the_History_of_the_Turkish_Peoples |
||||||
"In the seventh century the Arab Caliphate overran the Sāssānian Empire and, as far as we can tell, no great changes took place in the Persian equipment then or for a long time afterwards."
[1]
"The dearth of illustrative material for the greater part of six centuries is largely due to the wanton destruction caused by two savage invasions from the east and only such finds as the stucco figures from Kara-shar [Central Asian warrior, eighth to tenth century] tell us that in all this period there had been little change."
[1]
The Sassanids had war clubs
[2]
including a "mace" (clibanarius).
[3]
[1]: (Robinson 1967) Robinson, H. Russell. 1967. Oriental Armour. Walker and Co. New York. [2]: (Mitterauer 2010, 106) Mitterauer, M. 2010. Why Europe?: The Medieval Origins of Its Special Path. University of Chicago Press. [3]: (Wilcox 1986, Plate E) Wilcox, P. 1986. Rome’s Enemies (3): Parthians and Sassanid Persians. Osprey Publishing. |
||||||
"In the seventh century the Arab Caliphate overran the Sāssānian Empire and, as far as we can tell, no great changes took place in the Persian equipment then or for a long time afterwards."
[1]
The Sassanids had war clubs
[2]
including a "mace" (clibanarius).
[3]
[1]: (Robinson 1967) Robinson, H. Russell. 1967. Oriental Armour. Walker and Co. New York. [2]: (Mitterauer 2010, 106) Mitterauer, M. 2010. Why Europe?: The Medieval Origins of Its Special Path. University of Chicago Press. [3]: (Wilcox 1986, Plate E) Wilcox, P. 1986. Rome’s Enemies (3): Parthians and Sassanid Persians. Osprey Publishing. |
||||||
Coded inferred present as they could be used by indigenous forces under British command? Ed.
|
||||||
Not mentioned by sources. Existed earlier in chronology for this region so not a question of whether technology is present. Battle axes, a similar crushing weapon, are known, so it is likely metal war clubs could have been used, if they were deemed to have been useful.
|
||||||
Present in Egypt at this time
[1]
- the regime in the Morocco probably used weapons similar to those of its neighbours. We could also check - as yet unconsulted - references for Christians in contemporary Iberia who may have been used as mercenaries.
[1]: (Nicolle 2014) Nicolle, D. 2014 Mamluk Askar 1250-1517. Osprey Publishing Ltd. |
||||||
"Toltec arms included atlatls and darts, knives, and a curved club that I have labelled a short sword."
[1]
[1]: (Hassig 1992: 112) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/E9VHCKDG. |
||||||
According to the Cach-nama "the common weapons of the Indian soldiers in early medieval India were ’swords, shields, javelins, spears, and daggers.’ Other sources indicate that they also carried lances, maces and lassos."
[1]
[1]: (Eraly 2015) Abraham Eraly. 2015. The Age of Wrath: A History of the Delhi Sultanate. Penguin. |
||||||
Code inferred from Abbasid Caliphate
[1]
which occupied Yemen between 751-868 CE.
[1]: Hugh N Kennedy. 2001. The Armies of the Caliphs: Military and Society in the Early Islamic State. Routledge. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/SGPPFNAZ/q/kennedy |
||||||
"in Juzjani’s Tabaqat-i Nasiri and obtained from an eye-witness ... light-armed cavalry (sawar-i baraha wa-jarida)... These are clearly shown a few lines later to have been mounted archers".
[1]
Could also be armed with war clubs? Ghaznavid and Ghurid armies: "scattered but substantial evidence ... cavalry wielded, in addition to bows and arrows, weapons such as battle-axes, maces, lances, spears, sabres, and long, curved swords (qalachurs), while whatever (non-Turkish) infantry there was carried bows, maces, short swords and spears".
[2]
[1]: (Jackson 2003, 17) Peter Jackson. 2003. The Delhi Sultanate: A Political and Military History. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge. [2]: (Wink 1997, 90) Andre Wink. 1997. Al-Hind the Making of the Indo-Islamic World. Volume II: The Slave Kings and the Islamic Conquest 11th-13th Centuries. BRILL. Leiden. |
||||||
The Hepthalites were steppe nomads who adopted the patterns of warfare suited to the central Asian steppe. Although direct evidence is scant, descriptions seem to indicate that they were mounted archers who may had utilized the stirrup and the double sheath. Evidence of there equipment is hard to verify, although they seem to have relied on mounted forces and traditional steppe tactics. There is some evidence of club use by the infantry.
[1]
[1]: Grousset, Rene. The empire of the steppes: a history of Central Asia. Rutgers University Press, 1970. |
||||||
Existed earlier in chronology for this region so not a question of whether technology is present. Battle axes, a similar crushing weapon, are known, so it is likely metal war clubs could have been used, if they were deemed to have been useful.
|
||||||
"The mace was among man’s oldest weapons (at least 6000 B.C.E. at Catal Huyuk)".
[1]
4000 BCE in the Middle East and southeastern Europe: "sling, dagger, mace, and bow are common weapons".
[2]
[1]: (Gabriel 2002, 51) Richard A Gabriel. 2002. The Great Armies of Antiquity. Praeger. Westport. [2]: (Gabriel 2007, xii) Richard A Gabriel. 2007. Soldiers’ Lives Through History: The Ancient World. Greenwood Press. Westport. |
||||||
Inferred from the presence of war clubs in previous and subsequent polities in the Middle Yellow River Valley.
|
||||||
They were used in 1530 CE: "After all, the new fields were planted, the bows, arrows and maces furnished, the poisoned darts produced and the warriors concentrated under a single head. The objectives of the Chief of Bonda were met, and he gained prestige within his ranks and the Spanish, accumulated corn and for the time being gained political dominance (Tovar 1993)."
[1]
The Bonda indians had bows, arrows, quivers and clubs: "Los indios de Bonda tenían arcos, flechas, carcajs y macanas (32, V, 35)"
[2]
[1]: (Dever 2007, 200) [2]: (Reichel-Dolmatoff 1951, 87) |
||||||
Kanabou (金棒) is noted as being a club weapon in use: ’Sort of iron club used by warriors in ancient times, and a favorite weapon of some monk-warriors (Heisou) in the Heian and Kamakura periods’
[1]
[1]: Louis Frederick, Japan Encyclopedia, translated by Kathe Roth, The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 202, p. 466 |
||||||
"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 (figure 18)."
[1]
[1]: (Shaw 1991: 31) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/7J8H86XF. |
||||||
"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 (figure 18)."
[1]
[1]: (Shaw 1991: 31) Shaw, Ian. 1991. Egyptian Warfare and Weapons. Princes Risborough: Shire. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/7J8H86XF. |
||||||
Inferred from use in previous periods, though no longer one of the main weapons: "the weaponry being used by the Egyptians and their opponents--a combination of bows and arrows, shields, spears and axes--remained virtually unchanged from the Sixth to Thirteenth Dynasties."
[1]
[1]: (Shaw 1991: 37) Shaw, Ian. 1991. Egyptian Warfare and Weapons. Princes Risborough: Shire. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/7J8H86XF. |
||||||
[1]
Mace was the dominant weapon of war between 4000-2500 BCE in Sumer and until the Hyksos invasions (1700 BCE) in Egypt.
[2]
"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 (figure 18). Comparatively large numbers of maceheads have been excavated at late Predynastic and Protodynastic sites."
[3]
[1]: Gilbert, G. P. 2004. Weapons, Warriors and Warfare in Early Egypt. BAR International Series 1208: Oxford. pg: 34-70, 166-183 [2]: (Gabriel 2002, 24-25) Richard A Gabriel. 2002. The Great Armies of Antiquity. Praeger. Westport. [3]: (Shaw 1991: 31) Shaw, Ian. 1991. Egyptian Warfare and Weapons. Princes Risborough: Shire. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/7J8H86XF. |
||||||
"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 (figure 18). Comparatively large numbers of maceheads have been excavated at late Predynastic and Protodynastic sites."
[1]
[1]: (Shaw 1991: 31) Shaw, Ian. 1991. Egyptian Warfare and Weapons. Princes Risborough: Shire. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/7J8H86XF. |
||||||
Inferred from use in previous periods, though no longer one of the main weapons: "the weaponry being used by the Egyptians and their opponents--a combination of bows and arrows, shields, spears and axes--remained virtually unchanged from the Sixth to Thirteenth Dynasties."
[1]
Confirmed for an earlier time period.
[2]
"slate palettes, knife handles, and maceheads."
[3]
[1]: (Shaw 1991: 37) Shaw, Ian. 1991. Egyptian Warfare and Weapons. Princes Risborough: Shire. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/7J8H86XF. [2]: Gilbert, G. P. 2004. Weapons, Warriors and Warfare in Early Egypt. BAR International Series 1208: Oxford. pg: 34-70, 166-183 [3]: (Hassan 1988, 173) |
||||||
Inferred from use in previous periods, though no longer one of the main weapons: "the weaponry being used by the Egyptians and their opponents--a combination of bows and arrows, shields, spears and axes--remained virtually unchanged from the Sixth to Thirteenth Dynasties."
[1]
Confirmed for an earlier time period.
[2]
[1]: (Shaw 1991: 37) Shaw, Ian. 1991. Egyptian Warfare and Weapons. Princes Risborough: Shire. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/7J8H86XF. [2]: Gilbert, G. P. 2004. Weapons, Warriors and Warfare in Early Egypt. BAR International Series 1208: Oxford. pg: 34-70, 166-183 |
||||||
Inferred from use in previous periods, though no longer one of the main weapons: "the weaponry being used by the Egyptians and their opponents--a combination of bows and arrows, shields, spears and axes--remained virtually unchanged from the Sixth to Thirteenth Dynasties."
[1]
[1]: (Shaw 1991: 37) Shaw, Ian. 1991. Egyptian Warfare and Weapons. Princes Risborough: Shire. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/7J8H86XF. |
||||||
Mace was the dominant weapon of war between 4000-2500 BCE in Sumer and until the Hyksos invasions (1700 BCE) in Egypt after which time Egyptians began to use the helmet. From 1700 BCE the kopesh, sickle-sword, rather than the mace, became the symbolic weapon of the Egyptian Pharoah.
[1]
Present but used less frequently?
[1]: (Gabriel 2002, 24-25) Richard A Gabriel. 2002. The Great Armies of Antiquity. Praeger. Westport. |
||||||
Present for Abbasid Caliphate:"In defence the abna were trained to maintain ranks behind their long pikes and broadswords however hard the enemy pressed, and then to fight hand-to-hand with short-swords and daggers. I attack, a short spear or javelin seems to have replaced the pike, and a mace might also have been added. Although abna were often armoured, they would also fight without cuirass or even shield."
[1]
[1]: (Nicolle 1982, 20) Nicolle, D. 1982. The Armies of Islam, 7th-11th Centuries. Osprey Publishing. |
||||||
Did Spanish soldiers ever use New World weapons? Inferred use (even if rarely) against the Incas and Aztecs by Spanish soldiers. Used against the Spanish by the Aztecs: macana wooden clubs.
[1]
[1]: (Pemberton 2011, preview) Pemberton, John. 2011. Conquistadors: Searching for El Dorado: The Terrifying Spanish Conquest of the Aztec and Inca Empires. Canary Press eBooks Limited. https://www.zotero.org/groups/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/3SI549GS |
||||||
Islanders used slings, spears, and clubs: ’Within districts, conflict arose over land, succession to chiefship, theft, adultery, and avenging homicide. Between districts, it arose over attentions to local women by outside men, the status of one district as subordinate to another, and rights of access to fishing areas. Formal procedures for terminating conflict between districts involved payments of valuables and land by the loosing to the winning side. Fighting involved surprise raids and prearranged meetings on a field of battle. Principle weapons were slings, spears, and clubs. Firearms, introduced late in the nineteenth century, were confiscated by German authorities in 1903. Martial arts included an elaborate system of throws and holds by which an unarmed man could kill, maim or disarm an armed opponent.’
[1]
’Fighting skills in aboriginal times included knowledge of the manufacture as well [Page 54] as of the use of the various weapons: the club, spear, sling, knuckle-duster, and in more recent time the knife and rifle. Of great importance, too, was a knowledge of the various holds in a system of hand-to-hand encounter remotely reminiscent of Japanese jiujitsu. To acquire these skills required considerable practice. In aboriginal times the various lineages used to hold periodic month-long training course in their respective meeting houses. Although each political district fought engagements as a united military group, training was given independently by the various lineages. Those present were the men of the lineage, the husbands of its women, and the sons of its men, in conformance with the pattern of confining the transmission of knowledge to one’s children and one’s lineage mates. It is said that by no means everyone knew all of the various weapons nor all of the tricks of hand-to-hand fighting. Knowledge of the proper magic was required in the manufacture of the several weapons and also to increase the effectiveness of their use thereafter. It is not surprising, therefore, that fighting skills were treated in the same way as other types of incorporeal property.’
[2]
[1]: Goodenough, Ward H. and Skoggard, Ian: eHRAF Cultural Summary for the Chuuk [2]: Goodenough, Ward Hunt 1951. “Property, Kin, And Community On Truk”, 53 |
||||||
Islanders used slings, spears, and clubs: ’Within districts, conflict arose over land, succession to chiefship, theft, adultery, and avenging homicide. Between districts, it arose over attentions to local women by outside men, the status of one district as subordinate to another, and rights of access to fishing areas. Formal procedures for terminating conflict between districts involved payments of valuables and land by the loosing to the winning side. Fighting involved surprise raids and prearranged meetings on a field of battle. Principle weapons were slings, spears, and clubs. Firearms, introduced late in the nineteenth century, were confiscated by German authorities in 1903. Martial arts included an elaborate system of throws and holds by which an unarmed man could kill, maim or disarm an armed opponent.’
[1]
’Fighting skills in aboriginal times included knowledge of the manufacture as well [Page 54] as of the use of the various weapons: the club, spear, sling, knuckle-duster, and in more recent time the knife and rifle. Of great importance, too, was a knowledge of the various holds in a system of hand-to-hand encounter remotely reminiscent of Japanese jiujitsu. To acquire these skills required considerable practice. In aboriginal times the various lineages used to hold periodic month-long training course in their respective meeting houses. Although each political district fought engagements as a united military group, training was given independently by the various lineages. Those present were the men of the lineage, the husbands of its women, and the sons of its men, in conformance with the pattern of confining the transmission of knowledge to one’s children and one’s lineage mates. It is said that by no means everyone knew all of the various weapons nor all of the tricks of hand-to-hand fighting. Knowledge of the proper magic was required in the manufacture of the several weapons and also to increase the effectiveness of their use thereafter. It is not surprising, therefore, that fighting skills were treated in the same way as other types of incorporeal property.’
[2]
[1]: Goodenough, Ward H. and Skoggard, Ian: eHRAF Cultural Summary for the Chuuk [2]: Goodenough, Ward Hunt 1951. “Property, Kin, And Community On Truk”, 53 |
||||||
"Lesser weapons were also employed by knights after 1050. Special forms of ax, hammer (bec), mace, club, and flail were introduced in the 12th and 13th centuries to supplement the sword, but it was only after 1300 that these were both fully developed and commonly used."
[1]
[1]: (Boulton 1995 67-68) Jonathan D Boulton. Armor And Weapons. William W Kibler. Grover A Zinn. Lawrence Earp. John Bell Henneman Jr. 1995. Routledge Revivals: Medieval France (1995): An Encyclopedia. Routledge. Abingdon. |
||||||
"Lesser weapons were also employed by knights after 1050. Special forms of ax, hammer (bec), mace, club, and flail were introduced in the 12th and 13th centuries to supplement the sword, but it was only after 1300 that these were both fully developed and commonly used."
[1]
Mace armed cavalry at Battle of Bouvines.
[2]
Maces used by infantry in 13th century.
[3]
[1]: (Boulton 1995 67-68) Jonathan D Boulton. Armor And Weapons. William W Kibler. Grover A Zinn. Lawrence Earp. John Bell Henneman Jr. 1995. Routledge Revivals: Medieval France (1995): An Encyclopedia. Routledge. Abingdon. [2]: (Nicolle 1991, 10) [3]: (Nicolle 1991, 12) |
||||||
Inferred from previous and subsequent (quasi)polities.
|
||||||
Inferred from previous and subsequent (quasi)polities.
|
||||||
"Lesser weapons were also employed by knights after 1050. Special forms of ax, hammer (bec), mace, club, and flail were introduced in the 12th and 13th centuries to supplement the sword, but it was only after 1300 that these were both fully developed and commonly used."
[1]
Mace armed cavalry at Battle of Bouvines.
[2]
Maces used by infantry in 13th century.
[3]
Hundred Years’ War (1337-1453 CE) reference: mace.
[4]
[1]: (Boulton 1995 67-68) Jonathan D Boulton. Armor And Weapons. William W Kibler. Grover A Zinn. Lawrence Earp. John Bell Henneman Jr. 1995. Routledge Revivals: Medieval France (1995): An Encyclopedia. Routledge. Abingdon. [2]: (Nicolle and McBridge 1991, 10) [3]: (Nicolle and McBridge 1991, 12) [4]: (Wagner 2006, 27-29) John A Wagner. 2006. Encyclopedia of the Hundred Years War. Greenwood Press. Westport. |
||||||
Paleolithic Patjitan culture in Java had stone tools like hand-axes that could have been used for or developed into a weapon of war.
[1]
According to the Chinese Nan chou i wu chih (A Record of Strange Things in the Southern Regions) written about 222-228 CE a volcanic country called ’Ge-ying’ (thought to be western Java) traded with the Malay Peninsula and imported horses from India. They were used by warriors.
[2]
Dewawarman I may have founded Salakanagara in west West Java 130 CE. He followed Aji Saka who may have introduced ’Buddhism, letters, calendar, etc.’) into Central and East Java 78 CE.
[3]
[1]: (Barstra 1976, 77) Gert-Jan Bartstra. 1976. Contributions to the Study of the Palaeolithic Patjitan Culture Java, Indonesia. Part 1. Volume 6. E J BRILL. Leiden. [2]: (Miksic and Goh 2017, 215) John Norman Miksic. Geok Yian Goh. Routledge. 2017. Ancient Southeast Asia. London. p. 215 [3]: (Iguchi 2015) Masatoshi Iguchi. 2015. Java Essay: The History and Culture of a Southern Country. Troubador Publishing Ltd. |
||||||
Dewawarman I may have founded Salakanagara in west West Java 130 CE. He followed Aji Saka who may have introduced ’Buddhism, letters, calendar, etc.’) into Central and East Java 78 CE.
[1]
Indian military terms surviving in Javanese: "war, weapon, sword, lance, armour, shield, helmet, banner, battle, siege, fortress, soldier, officer, enemy, spy, etc."
[2]
The ruling class were Hindu Indians and their contemporaries in the Indian Chalukyan Kingdom had "swords, shields, spears, clubs, lances, bows and arrows etc."
[3]
[1]: (Iguchi 2015) Masatoshi Iguchi. 2015. Java Essay: The History and Culture of a Southern Country. Troubador Publishing Ltd. [2]: (Kumara 2007, 161) Sasiprabha Kumara. 2007. Sanskrit Across Cultures. Special Centre for Sanskrit Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University. New Delhi. [3]: (Sreenivasa Murthy and Ramakrishnan 1975, 93) H V Sreenivasa Murthy and R Ramakrishnan. 1975. A History of Karnataka. Vivek Prakashan. |
||||||
"There was no significant change in the weaponry of the Indian army from ancient to classical times; in fact, according to Kosambi, there was a decline in the standard of arms. Indian soldiers were mostly very poorly equipped, noted Marco Polo."
[1]
Present during the preceding Hoysala period: "The Hoysala Army could be taken as a microcosm of the force structure of the Hindu polities in Deccan and South India. The infantry carried bamboo bows, swords, spears and shields."
[2]
[1]: (Eraly 2011, 169) Abraham Eraly. 2011. The First Spring: The Golden Age of India. Penguin Books India Pvt. Ltd. New Delhi. [2]: (Roy 2015, 98) Kaushik Roy. 2015. Warfare in Pre-British India - 1500 BCE to 1740 CE. Routledge. London. |
||||||
Coded present based on this reference.
[1]
Old Mataram was a ’highly Indianized culture’ until it was replaced by an East Javanese one "that increasingly promoted various elements of the island’s older indigenous traditions."
[2]
The switch-over did not occur until the end of the Kediri Kingdom: it was the Singhasari Kingdom that witnessed ’the decline of Hindu culture and civilisation in Java and the succession of Javanese culture.’
[3]
Temple reliefs from earlier periods contain murals showing clubs, swords, bows and arrows, spears, shields, armour, knives, halberds.
[4]
Indian military terms surviving in Javanese: "war, weapon, sword, lance, armour, shield, helmet, banner, battle, siege, fortress, soldier, officer, enemy, spy, etc."
[5]
[1]: (Sedwayati in Ooi 2004 (b), 707) [2]: (Unesco 2005, 233) Unesco. 2005. The Restoration of Borobudur. Unesco. [3]: (Rao 2005, 213) B V Rao. 2005. History of Asia. Sterling Publishers Pvt Ltd. New Dawn Press, Inc. Elgin. [4]: (Draeger 1972, 23, 27) D F Draeger. 1972. Weapons and Fighting Arts of Indonesia. Tuttle Publishing. [5]: (Kumara 2007, 161) Sasiprabha Kumara. 2007. Sanskrit Across Cultures. Special Centre for Sanskrit Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University. New Delhi. |
||||||
"Weapons, notably axes, clubs, swords, and daggers, seem to have been Indian, though the curved swords are of a later type than those on the Central Javanese reliefs. The reappearance of the spear in these reliefs, while the use of the bow is confined to human heroes, suggests an increasing pressure to resume use of local types of weapons."
[1]
[1]: (Powell 2002, 325) John Powell. 2002. Weapons & Warfare: Ancient and medieval weapons and warfare (to 1500). Salem Press. |
||||||
Borobudur and Prambanan temples contain murals showing the weaponry of early times - swords, bows and arrows, spears, shields, armour, clubs, knives, halberds. The Plaosan temple group 3 miles from Prambanan depicts stone carved gate guards armed with clubs and swords.
[1]
Old Mataram was a ’highly Indianized culture’ until it was replaced by an East Javanese one "that increasingly promoted various elements of the island’s older indigenous traditions."
[2]
[1]: (Draeger 1972, 23, 27) [2]: (Unesco 2005, 233) Unesco. 2005. The Restoration of Borobudur. Unesco. |
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"There was no significant change in the weaponry of the Indian army from ancient to classical times; in fact, according to Kosambi, there was a decline in the standard of arms. Indian soldiers were mostly very poorly equipped, noted Marco Polo."
[1]
[1]: (Eraly 2011, 169) Abraham Eraly. 2011. The First Spring: The Golden Age of India. Penguin Books India Pvt. Ltd. New Delhi. |
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According to a military historian the Maurayan heavy infantry is known to have used iron weapons including maces, dagger-axes, battle-axes and a slashing sword
[1]
- do Maurayan specialists agree? The Indus Civilization used the mace.
[2]
[1]: (Gabriel 2002, 219) Gabriel, Richard A. 2002. The Great Armies of Antiquity. Greenwood Publishing Group. [2]: (Singh 1997, 89) Sarva Daman Singh. 1997 (1965). Ancient Indian Warfare: With Special Reference to the Vedic Period. Motilal Banarsidass Publishers Private Limited. Delhi. |
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According to Hasan Nizami’s Taj-ul-Maathir (13th CE) Muslim cavaliers also "used iron maces, battleaxes, daggers, and javelins" whereas the Hindu Rajputs had only spear or lance.
[1]
[1]: (? 2013, 162-163) ?. Sirhindi, Abdullah. Daniel Coetzee. Lee W Eysturlid. eds. 2013. Philosophers of War: The Evolution of History’s Greatest Military Thinkers. The Ancient to Pre-Modern World, 3000 BCE - 1815 CE. Praeger. Santa Barbara. |
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"The period between the post-Gupta era and the Islamic invasions is generally regarded as a sort of ’quasi Dark Age’ in India ... military historian U. P. Thapliyal asserts that after CE 500, there were no innovations in the theory and practice of warfare."
[1]
This is a post-Gupta era polity so if the Guptas used the war club and there was no major shift in weaponry until the Islamic invasion then the war club was probably still in use at this time.
[1]: (Roy 2013, 27) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/X24V7ZAD. |
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"The period between the post-Gupta era and the Islamic invasions is generally regarded as a sort of ’quasi Dark Age’ in India ... military historian U. P. Thapliyal asserts that after CE 500, there were no innovations in the theory and practice of warfare."
[1]
This is a post-Gupta era polity so if the Guptas used the war club and there was no major shift in weaponry until the Islamic invasion then the war club was probably still in use at this time.
[1]: (Roy 2013, 27) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/X24V7ZAD. |
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"The weapons carried by soldiers can also be discerned in [Hoysala temple] reliefs, including lances, swords, maces and shields."
[1]
Skanda, the ’war general of gods’, "is sometimes depicted with many weapons including: a sword, a javelin, a mace, a discus and a bow although more usually he is depicted wielding a sakti or spear."
[2]
Hoysala infantry had maces.
[3]
[1]: (Sardar 2007, p. 32 [2]: (Chugh 2016) Lalit Chugh. 2016. Karnataka’s Rich Heritage. Art and Architecture. From Prehistoric Times to the Hoysala Period. Notion Press. Chennai. [3]: (Roy 2013) Kaushik Roy. 2013 Military Manpower, Armies and Warfare in South Asia. Routledge. London. |
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"There was no significant change in the weaponry of the Indian army from ancient to classical times; in fact, according to Kosambi, there was a decline in the standard of arms. Indian soldiers were mostly very poorly equipped, noted Marco Polo."
[1]
[1]: (Eraly 2011, 169) Abraham Eraly. 2011. The First Spring: The Golden Age of India. Penguin Books India Pvt. Ltd. New Delhi. |
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Staves: "In the Uttararama-carita a great contingent of soldiers armed with corslets, staves and quivers..."
[1]
Clay plaques from Paharpur (c8th CE) show male and female infantry armed with a club.
[1]
[1]: (Mishra 1977, 146) Shyam Manohar Mishra. 1977. Yaśovarman of Kanauj: A Study of Political History, Social, and Cultural Life of Northern India During the Reign of Yaśovarman. Abhinav Publications. |
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"The period between the post-Gupta era and the Islamic invasions is generally regarded as a sort of ’quasi Dark Age’ in India ... military historian U. P. Thapliyal asserts that after CE 500, there were no innovations in the theory and practice of warfare."
[1]
This is a post-Gupta era polity so if the Guptas used the war club and there was no major shift in weaponry until the Islamic invasion then the war club was probably still in use at this time.
[1]: (Roy 2013, 27) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/X24V7ZAD. |
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The Agni-purana (composed perhaps 600-1000 CE?) mentions weapons training with the sword, club and lasso.
[1]
Potent force by the fourth century BCE.
[2]
"There was no significant change in the weaponry of the Indian army from ancient to classical times; in fact, according to Kosambi, there was a decline in the standard of arms. Indian soldiers were mostly very poorly equipped, noted Marco Polo."
[3]
[1]: (Eraly 2011, 167) Abraham Eraly. 2011. The First Spring: The Golden Age of India. Penguin Books India Pvt. Ltd. New Delhi. [2]: (Eraly 2011, 165) Abraham Eraly. 2011. The First Spring: The Golden Age of India. Penguin Books India Pvt. Ltd. New Delhi. [3]: (Eraly 2011, 169) Abraham Eraly. 2011. The First Spring: The Golden Age of India. Penguin Books India Pvt. Ltd. New Delhi. |
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Kanabou (金棒) is noted as being a club weapon in use: ’Sort of iron club used by warriors in ancient times, and a favorite weapon of some monk-warriors (Heisou) in the Heian and Kamakura periods’
[1]
[1]: Louis Frederick, Japan Encyclopedia, translated by Kathe Roth, The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 202, p. 466 |
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No references in the literature. RA.
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Not mentioned by sources in lists of artefacts found at sites in the region dating to this time.
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Gabriel says the mace was the dominant weapon of war from 4000 BCE but had disappeared from Sumerian illustrations before 2500 BCE, a time when the helmet appears.
[1]
Almost certainly the technology was still present but the weapon may have been used less frequently. Coded present for Ur III and Akkad and could possibly be ’inferred present’ at this time.
[1]: (Gabriel 2002, 24) Richard A Gabriel. 2002. The Great Armies of Antiquity. Praeger. Westport. |
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If "the first archaeologically recognizable, large post-Indus urban settlements are not earlier than the fifth century BC ... solidly visible states ... appear in a sudden profusion in the late first millennium B.C."
[1]
- who was king Stabrobates of India who used war elephants against a queen of Assyria (considered Shammuramat?) in the 9th century BCE?
[2]
One could infer king Stabrobates, if not based there himself, must have subdued and controlled the Kachi Plain region in order to invade Mesopotamia from ’India’. (Another source says Assyria invaded India and were driven out of Pakistan and India).
[3]
Diodorus Siculus says this too, queen Semiramis was based in Bactra (Bactria?).
[4]
If king Stabrobates’s polity controlled the Kachi Plain, then we code the according to the military technology he possessed. This would have included weapons of war. Note: one military historian estimates that the Assyrian army had a strategic range of 2000 km
[5]
which places the Indus region in reach of their forces.
[1]: (Ahmed 2014, 64) Mukhtar Ahmed. 2014. Ancient Pakistan - An Archaeological History: Volume V: The End of the Harappan Civilization, and the Aftermath. Foursome Group. [2]: (Mayor 2014, 289) Adrienne Mayor. Animals in Warfare. Gordon Lindsay Campbell. ed. 2014. The Oxford Handbook of Animals in Classical Thought and Life. Oxford University Press. Oxford. [3]: (Kistler 2007, 18) John M Kistler. 2007. War Elephants. University of Nebraska Press. Lincoln. [4]: Diodorus Siculus. Delphi Complete Works of Diodorus Siculus. Delphi Classics. [5]: (Gabriel 2002, 9) Richard A Gabriel. 2002. The Great Armies of Antiquity. Praeger. Westport. |
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Sources
[1]
only mention very little archaeological evidence for weaponry for this period, and this does not include clubs. However, weapons made from wood and cloth have been documented for the later periods, so their absence in the archaeological record may be due to preservation bias.
[1]: Marcus and Flannery (1996) Zapotec Civilization: How urban society evolved in Mexico’s Oaxaca Valley. Flannery and Marcus (1983) The Cloud People: divergent evolution of the Zapotec and Mixtec civilizations. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Academic Press, New York. |
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Sources
[1]
only mention very little archaeological evidence for weaponry for this period, and this does not include clubs. However, weapons made from wood and cloth have been documented for the later periods, so their absence in the archaeological record may be due to preservation bias.
[1]: Marcus and Flannery (1996) Zapotec Civilization: How urban society evolved in Mexico’s Oaxaca Valley. Flannery and Marcus (1983) The Cloud People: divergent evolution of the Zapotec and Mixtec civilizations. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Academic Press, New York. |
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If "the first archaeologically recognizable, large post-Indus urban settlements are not earlier than the fifth century BC ... solidly visible states ... appear in a sudden profusion in the late first millennium B.C."
[1]
- who was king Stabrobates of India who used war elephants against a queen of Assyria (considered Shammuramat?) in the 9th century BCE?
[2]
One could infer king Stabrobates, if not based there himself, must have subdued and controlled the Kachi Plain region in order to invade Mesopotamia from ’India’. (Another source says Assyria invaded India and were driven out of Pakistan and India).
[3]
Diodorus Siculus says this too, queen Semiramis was based in Bactra (Bactria?).
[4]
If king Stabrobates’s polity controlled the Kachi Plain, then we code the according to the military technology he possessed. This would have included weapons of war. Note: one military historian estimates that the Assyrian army had a strategic range of 2000 km
[5]
which places the Indus region in reach of their forces.
[1]: (Ahmed 2014, 64) Mukhtar Ahmed. 2014. Ancient Pakistan - An Archaeological History: Volume V: The End of the Harappan Civilization, and the Aftermath. Foursome Group. [2]: (Mayor 2014, 289) Adrienne Mayor. Animals in Warfare. Gordon Lindsay Campbell. ed. 2014. The Oxford Handbook of Animals in Classical Thought and Life. Oxford University Press. Oxford. [3]: (Kistler 2007, 18) John M Kistler. 2007. War Elephants. University of Nebraska Press. Lincoln. [4]: Diodorus Siculus. Delphi Complete Works of Diodorus Siculus. Delphi Classics. [5]: (Gabriel 2002, 9) Richard A Gabriel. 2002. The Great Armies of Antiquity. Praeger. Westport. |
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Maces may have earlier been a weapon of those Andronovo who used the chariot but at this time chariot warfare may have been replaced by mounted horsemen. "In the 12th century BC chariot warfare tactics lost their importance in Andronovo society; mounted horsemen armed with bows and arrows replaced chariot drivers."
[1]
Tazabagyab culture is considered to have had its origin in Andronovo culture.
[2]
Andronovo culture (2000-900 BCE, Alakul phase 2100-1400 BCE, Fedorovo phase 1400-1200 BCE, Alekseyevka phase 1200-1000 BCE). Tazabagyab culture (15th - 11th), Suyarganskaya culture (11th - 9th), Amirabad culture (9th - 8th).
[1]: (Kuz’mina 2007, 138) Elena Efimovna Kuzʹmina. 2007. The Origin of the Indo-Iranians. J P Mallory ed. BRILL. Leiden. [2]: (Mallory 1997, 20-21) J P Mallory. Andronovo culture. J P Mallory. D Q Adams. eds. 1997. Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture. Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers. Chicago. |
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not mentioned in literature
|
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No information in the archaeological evidence for this time
|
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Not mentioned by sources in lists of artefacts found at sites in the region dating to this time.
|
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Likely unknown.
|
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Not mentioned in literature
|
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Thomas Cressy: I have found the following quote, but it is unclear how ’ancient’ the weapon actually is. Kanabou (金棒) is noted as being a club weapon in use: ’Sort of iron club used by warriors in ancient times, and a favorite weapon of some monk-warriors (Heisou) in the Heian and Kamakura periods’
[1]
[1]: Louis Frederick, Japan Encyclopedia, translated by Kathe Roth, The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 202, p. 466 |
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we need expert input in order to code this variable
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we need expert input in order to code this variable
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Not discussed in consulted literature RA.
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Sources
[1]
only mention very little archaeological evidence for weaponry for this period, and this does not include clubs. However, weapons made from wood and cloth have been documented for the later periods, so their absence in the archaeological record may be due to preservation bias.
[1]: Marcus and Flannery (1996) Zapotec Civilization: How urban society evolved in Mexico’s Oaxaca Valley. Flannery and Marcus (1983) The Cloud People: divergent evolution of the Zapotec and Mixtec civilizations. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Academic Press, New York. |
||||||
Relative to this period, sources only mention the atlatl and spears.
[1]
However, weapons made from wood and cloth have been documented for the later periods, so the absence of weapons other than the atlatl and spears in the archaeological record may be due to preservation bias.
[1]: Marcus and Flannery (1996) Zapotec Civilization: How urban society evolved in Mexico’s Oaxaca Valley. Flannery and Marcus (1983) The Cloud People: divergent evolution of the Zapotec and Mixtec civilizations. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Academic Press, New York. |
||||||
Relative to this period, sources only mention the atlatl and spears.
[1]
However, weapons made from wood and cloth have been documented for the later periods, so the absence of weapons other than the atlatl and spears in the archaeological record may be due to preservation bias.
[1]: Marcus and Flannery (1996) Zapotec Civilization: How urban society evolved in Mexico’s Oaxaca Valley. Flannery and Marcus (1983) The Cloud People: divergent evolution of the Zapotec and Mixtec civilizations. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Academic Press, New York. |
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||||||
Gabriel says the mace was the dominant weapon of war from 4000 BCE but had disappeared from Sumerian illustrations before 2500 BCE, a time when the helmet appears.
[1]
Almost certainly the technology was still present but the weapon may have been used less frequently. Coded present for Ur III, Akkad and Middle Elam and could possibly be ’inferred present’ at this time.
[1]: (Gabriel 2002, 24) Richard A Gabriel. 2002. The Great Armies of Antiquity. Praeger. Westport. |
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||||||
According to one military historian (data needs to be checked by an expert for this polity) the mace was the dominant weapon of war from 4000 BCE but had disappeared from Sumerian illustrations before 2500 BCE, a time when the helmet appears.
[1]
Almost certainly the technology was still present but the weapon may have been used less frequently. Coded present for Ur III, Akkad and Middle Elam and could possibly be ’inferred present’ at this time.
[1]: (Gabriel 2002, 24) Richard A Gabriel. 2002. The Great Armies of Antiquity. Praeger. Westport. |
||||||
-
|
||||||
Sources
[1]
only mention very little archaeological evidence for weaponry for this period, and this does not include clubs. However, weapons made from wood and cloth have been documented for the later periods, so their absence in the archaeological record may be due to preservation bias.
[1]: Marcus and Flannery (1996) Zapotec Civilization: How urban society evolved in Mexico’s Oaxaca Valley. Flannery and Marcus (1983) The Cloud People: divergent evolution of the Zapotec and Mixtec civilizations. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Academic Press, New York. |
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Paleolithic Patjitan culture in Java had stone tools like hand-axes that could have been used for or developed into a weapon of war.
[1]
According to the Chinese Nan chou i wu chih (A Record of Strange Things in the Southern Regions) written about 222-228 CE a volcanic country called ’Ge-ying’ (thought to be western Java) traded with the Malay Peninsula and imported horses from India. They were used by warriors.
[2]
Dewawarman I may have founded Salakanagara in west West Java 130 CE. He followed Aji Saka who may have introduced ’Buddhism, letters, calendar, etc.’) into Central and East Java 78 CE.
[3]
[1]: (Barstra 1976, 77) Gert-Jan Bartstra. 1976. Contributions to the Study of the Palaeolithic Patjitan Culture Java, Indonesia. Part 1. Volume 6. E J BRILL. Leiden. [2]: (Miksic and Goh 2017, 215) John Norman Miksic. Geok Yian Goh. Routledge. 2017. Ancient Southeast Asia. London. p. 215 [3]: (Iguchi 2015) Masatoshi Iguchi. 2015. Java Essay: The History and Culture of a Southern Country. Troubador Publishing Ltd. |
||||||
Gabriel says the mace was the dominant weapon of war from 4000 BCE but had disappeared from Sumerian illustrations before 2500 BCE, a time when the helmet appears.
[1]
Almost certainly the technology was still present but the weapon may have been used less frequently. Coded present for Ur III and Akkad and could possibly be ’inferred present’ at this time.
[1]: (Gabriel 2002, 24) Richard A Gabriel. 2002. The Great Armies of Antiquity. Praeger. Westport. |
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"Lesser weapons were also employed by knights after 1050. Special forms of ax, hammer (bec), mace, club, and flail were introduced in the 12th and 13th centuries to supplement the sword, but it was only after 1300 that these were both fully developed and commonly used."
[1]
[1]: (Boulton 1995 67-68) Jonathan D Boulton. Armor And Weapons. William W Kibler. Grover A Zinn. Lawrence Earp. John Bell Henneman Jr. 1995. Routledge Revivals: Medieval France (1995): An Encyclopedia. Routledge. Abingdon. |
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According to a military historian (this data needs to be checked by a polity specialist) "The mace was among man’s oldest weapons (at least 6000 B.C.E. at Catal Huyuk)".
[1]
The shape and appearance of the blunt force traumatic injuries identified at Çatalhöyük are consistent with injuries from both handheld blunt objects but also from projectiles-thrown stones or other objects. The number, shape, and location on the top and back of the cranium suggest that objects, thrown or sling-delivered, support an association.
[2]
[1]: (Gabriel 2002, 51) Richard A Gabriel. 2002. The Great Armies of Antiquity. Praeger. Westport. [2]: Christopher J. Knüsel, Bonnie Glencross, ‘Çatalhöyük, Archaeology, Violence’, ‘’Contagion: Journal of Violence, Mimesis, and Culture’’, Volume 24, 2017, pp. 29-32 |
||||||
Not discussed in consulted literature RA.
|
||||||
-
|
||||||
Not discussed in consulted literature RA.
|
||||||
According to a military historian (this data needs to be checked by a polity specialist) "The mace was among man’s oldest weapons (at least 6000 B.C.E. at Catal Huyuk)".
[1]
The shape and appearance of the blunt force traumatic injuries identified at Çatalhöyük are consistent with injuries from both handheld blunt objects but also from projectiles - thrown stones or other objects. The number, shape, and location on the top and back of the cranium suggest that objects, thrown or sling-delivered, support an association.
[2]
[1]: (Gabriel 2002, 51) Richard A Gabriel. 2002. The Great Armies of Antiquity. Praeger. Westport. [2]: Christopher J. Knüsel, Bonnie Glencross, ‘Çatalhöyük, Archaeology, Violence’, ‘’Contagion: Journal of Violence, Mimesis, and Culture’’, Volume 24, 2017, pp. 29-32 |
||||||
Gabriel says the mace was the dominant weapon of war from 4000 BCE but had disappeared from Sumerian illustrations before 2500 BCE, a time when the helmet appears.
[1]
Almost certainly the technology was still present but the weapon may have been used less frequently. Coded present for Ur III, Akkad and Middle Elam and could possibly be ’inferred present’ at this time.
[1]: (Gabriel 2002, 24) Richard A Gabriel. 2002. The Great Armies of Antiquity. Praeger. Westport. |
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