The World of Ancient Archery

In my post 'The military skills of Tuthmosis III' I mentioned that the pharaoh had killed 120 elephants with his bow and arrow. Technomist asked me whether Tuthmosis killed all the elephants and this is a very interesting question.

Personally I am surprised he killed even one. During Tuthmosis III reign Egyptian warfare was undergoing a transformation but it seems strange that this pharaoh had encountered elephants but had not decided to use them in battle.

Much later, in the ancient Greek and Roman world elephants could (and often did) almost solely determine the course of battle.

When Antiochas had won an elephant-victory over the terrified Gauls, he said, 'Shame my men, whose salvation came through these sixteen beasts. If the novelty of their appearance had not struck the enemy with panic, where should we have been?' Had Antiochas not possessed his sixteen elephants, he might well have lost the battle.

Elephants were not only terrifying in battle because of their size but also because as the Roman writer Arrian mentions their tusks were armed with sharp iron, and the Roman poet Silius Italicus refers to spears fastened to the tusks.

Elephants equipped like this could be used effectively to rout enemy cavalry. Polyaenus, another Roman writer, records that “Caesar had one large elephant, which was equipped with armour and carried archers and slingers in its tower.'

It could be Tuthmosis III chose not to use these animals because although tremendously potential, they were also unpredictable in battle. Therefore if they got out of hand and broke the line in a phalanx their mahouts had to kill them.

Tuthmosis III’s son Amenhotep II (1450-1397BC) also took up his father’s activity of being driven around in a chariot and shooting arrows at copper targets. Here is a picture of Amenhotep II at Karnak Temple, Egypt enjoying his target practice:

In some reliefs we can see that both Tuthmosis and Amenhotep used the self bow along with the composite – suggesting that the self bow (made from a single piece of wood) had not been wiped out by the introduction of the more advanced powerful composite type (made from several pieces and glued together using sinew). Amenhotep II was found buried with a composite bow.

Amenhotep II claimed to have learned archery in his youth from the god Min who taught him to draw his bow to his ear. (How far you draw your bow is important and I’ll deal with it in later blogs).

The Stela of Amenhotep II (this is a large block of stone with information about the king written on it) tells us how the pharaoh drew three hundred bows in order to examine the workmanship. This is similar to the story of Odysseus in Homer’s Odyssey when he chose a perfect bow that only he was able to draw.

Here is a picture of the head of Amenhotep II made from black granite: