Author | Leng Yan's author team - Double-tailed cat
Word count: 2498, reading time: about 7 minutes
Editor's note: As the saying goes, people rely on clothes and horses rely on saddles. Leng Yan had talked about emperors' outfits before. This article will talk about the martyr's outfits of ancient Egyptian . Because ancient Egypt has a large time span, this article mainly talks about the equipment of the pharaohs in the New Kingdom period.
Because of the special status (sacredness) of the pharaoh in ancient Egypt, there were many murals depicting the pharaoh going to fight, especially the pharaoh who reigned the longest time in the 19th Dynasty, and there were many war stories about him.
And Ramses II himself was the commander of the Egyptian army in Battle of Kadishi. In order to demonstrate his outstanding martial arts, many temple walls contain a large number of murals and reliefs of the pharaoh fighting in all directions. Thanks to the special natural environment of the Nile River basin, a large number of murals and cultural relics were preserved. In addition to Ramses II, another pharaoh Tutankhamun also left a large number of precious cultural relics. Through these murals and cultural relics are unearthed, we can have a specific impression of the equipment used by the ancient Egyptian pharaoh when he went to war.
First of all, the head equipment. As the most advanced person, the hat worn by the pharaoh is definitely not ordinary. On the Naermai palette and some other cultural relics reliefs, there are scenes in which the pharaohs wear white crowns or king scarves (commonly used by pharaohs in film and television dramas) use the power head to attack their opponents. However, as weapons on the battlefield continue to upgrade, new armor began to appear.
▲Pharaoh with a king scarf
▲Pharaoh with a white crown
▲Pharaoh with a blue crown
A blue crown (Khepresh) began to appear in the 16th Dynasty. In the New Kingdom period, the image of the pharaoh wearing a blue crown began to appear on murals of various rituals, especially in murals related to war. This blue crown appears very frequently. This blue crown is made of leather with blue decorative pieces. Because the internal space is relatively large, it has a certain protective effect.
At the same time, ancient Egyptian soldiers in the New Kingdom began to wear leather or copper armor helmets, so in some movies and TV dramas, there are also images of the Pharaoh wearing copper armor helmets. Of course, wearing a blue crown or a copper armor helmet depends on the environment. When it is encouraging morale, the blue crown is more suitable.
Ancient Egyptian murals may mostly use blue crowns in order to demonstrate the grand image of the Pharaoh.
▲Ramesses II in the film and television drama
▲Ancient Egypt's linen and metal helmet
After talking about it, let's talk about what they wear on their bodies. Although there are not many ancient Egyptian armors appearing from the murals and archaeology, there are real objects appearing, which shows that ancient Egypt still considers the protection of generals and soldiers. Egypt's Armor is also divided into actual combat Armor and etiquette Armor.
actual body armor is made of copper sheets or leather. A set of leather armor was unearthed from the tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun. It can be seen from the details that this set of armor makes the leather into pieces of armor, and the connections between the armor are connected by leather ropes, and they are superimposed on each other to enhance defense. From the structure, it is very close to the later leather armor. In addition, bronze armor sheets have been found, and even bronze armor sheets with the name of Ramses II were found in Türkiye .
According to the remaining cultural relics and murals, the pharaoh's armor can effectively protect parts above the knee. In terms of defense area and defense performance, it is not inferior to Mycenae bronze armor, and it is sufficient for defense at that time.
In addition to actual combat armor, there are also decorative armor. This armor is made of leather or linen. The armor is decorated with gorgeous lapis lazuli and gold jewelry, which is quite gorgeous.
Pharaoh wore actual bronze armor or leather armor during combat, and even more gorgeous etiquette armor during military parade or departure. There are also scenes of Pharaoh wearing armor in religious activities.
▲Leather Armor Armor Tablets
▲Ancient Egyptian Leather Armor Unearthed from Tutankhamun’s Mausoleum
▲Etiquette Armor
The protection of the head and torso equipment is relatively rare for the feet, because of the local climate. In the tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun, the pharaoh's golden slippers were found, similar to the current flip-flops.
After talking about the protective equipment, let’s talk about weapons. Although the danger factor of killing enemies on the battlefield is very high, sometimes it is necessary to boost morale. The Pharaoh's weapons include scepter , scimitar , and a triangle bow.
First talk about the scepter, which is a very ancient weapon. As mentioned above, this weapon appeared during the period of Narmai (former kingdom pharaoh). On the Narmai palette, there is a scene of the pharaoh hitting the enemy with the scepter.
Considering the attack distance and attack methods, this power header is more like a tool similar to a tool that performs killing and symbolizes power. Sometimes it can also be used as a blunt weapon. After all, blunt weapon strikes are difficult to defend against in the age of cold weapons, especially for head strikes.
In addition to the scepter, there is also the famous ancient Egyptian scimitar (khopesh), also known as the sickle sword. Judging from the murals and reliefs, this kind of scimitar is the standard configuration of Pharaoh. In ancient Egyptian holy scripts, scimitars have the meaning of power. Compared with the exaggerated scimitars in film and television dramas or games, judging from the murals, Pharaoh's scimitars do not seem to be very long and not very curvature.
▲Scene of the pharaoh holding a scimitar fighting against the Libyans
▲Ancient Egyptian scimitar
In addition to scimitars, there are also daggers. A golden dagger and a meteorite dagger were unearthed from the tomb of Tutankhamun. But this meteorite dagger is very likely to be an exotic product, because in the diplomatic letters written in Akkadian in the Egyptian royal archives, there is written evidence that the dagger comes from abroad. These letters refer to the list of gifts given to King Mitani when he married a princess of Mitani when he was married to him at Amenhotep III (the grandfather of Tutankhamun). This list mentions a dagger with an iron blade and a gold handle with lapis lazuli inlaid on it.
Next is to introduce the pharaoh's bow. As a long-range shooting weapon, bows and arrows were highly valued in the era of cold weapons. Whether it is hunting or fighting, bows and arrows are indispensable.
When compound bow was introduced to Egypt, it became the standard weapon of the pharaoh. Compared with the double recurve bows that we are common, The composite bow of the ancient Egyptian is a triangular bow. This kind of bow and cold science has published an article to introduce that although its power is worse than that of later bows, it has strong accuracy and operability. Compared with the bows of ordinary soldiers, the pharaoh's bow decoration was more luxurious. He painted mud gold on the bow. It can be said that the bow used by the pharaoh at that time was shining with golden light under the sun.
▲Ancient Egyptian compound bow
In addition to scepter bow and arrow, the pharaoh also had tomato axe and javelin spear. In a mural, there was a scene where the pharaoh killed the enemy with a gun. The gun of the pharaoh was painted also carries jewelry.
Archaeology also found that the Pharaoh's golden battle axe was of course ritual, and the actual battle axe was mainly bronze.
After talking about weapons, it is said that the Pharaoh's car was, at that time, the Takahashi saddle and stirrup had not appeared yet, and the cavalry was not as important as it was later on the battlefield. At that time, the main motor tool was the carriage. The characteristic of ancient Egyptian carriages was that they pursued lightness. For example, the carriages of ancient Egyptian chariots were very narrow and could only carry two people. The wheel spokes were very few than the oriental wheels, with six or four.The carriage is just a basket, so light that an adult can carry it. This kind of lightness naturally has the advantages of being light and is very fast under the guidance of two war horses.
Just like driving in ancient China, driving was a gentleman's six arts, there are many murals where ancient Egyptian aristocratic boys drove by themselves.
Because the wheels are at the rear of the body, the tank makes it more flexible. From the murals, this kind of chariot is very popular among the upper nobles, and the carriage in the tomb of the Pharaoh Tutankhamun seems to have traces of being used. Of course, you must be careful to control this kind of carriage, otherwise it will easily overturn.
In general, through the pharaoh's military preparations, we can see the military level of ancient Egypt at that time. More than three thousand years ago, this was the most advanced equipment.
This article is an original manuscript from the Cold Weapon Research Institute. The editor-in-chief Yuan Kuo and the author, the two-tailed cat. No media may reprint without written authorization. Violators will be held legally responsible. Some pictures are from the Internet. If you have any copyright issues, please contact us.
