Chariot Weapons with Historian Mike Loades

We know that the most important, the principal weapon of the chariot was the bow, the bow and arrow, but there is a document, the Collar Papyrus, which gives a whole list of different weapons that the charioteer is supposed to carry with it. There's a variety of handheld weapons such as the mace and the axe. You often see the pharaoh carrying both, or this and another weapon, or a bow and a mace. It's iconic, it's symbolic of him smiting the enemy, that's what Egyptians like to do, they're always talking about the pharaoh smote the enemy. So they're more symbolic than practical from a chariot because if you're on a chariot you haven't got that much reach beyond the wheels. I mean I could get a man if he's that close, but really if he's that close we're probably going to run him down anyway. This is something that's used in the rout as you're driving the enemy from the field. We see them using the kepesh, this iconic Egyptian sword, and again you often see the pharaohs holding that, but again it has limited reach from a chariot. The most perfectly designed sword ever, it's got a curved edge, and curved edges give slice to the cut, and yet if I stick it out from my arm there is a straight line from my shoulder to the point of the sword, so it will give you a very straight thrust, and if you turn it and pull it out that nasty little hook will eviscerate a man if you've got him in the belly, and this hook will hook over an enemy's shield, so you can do that, pull his shield down and strike him in the face. The papyrus tells us that you should carry a shield. The shields were hair on, hide covered boards. We see these circles in many of the illustrations, and what I suspect that means is it's inset there so that you can get the fist through it and hold it there, and so in that position the arm is there bracing it against arrows, and if we get on the chariot Saeed, and you'll see how it fits between the rail, and I can get view but I can shield behind it quite quickly, it really is the right size making this whole vehicle an armoured protection, and I will have armour on as well underneath it. We see two variants in the Egyptian wall painting. One is that the shield bearer is also the driver, so that would mean Saeed would have to drive with one hand or tie the reins around his waist and use his other hand to protect me, the archer, with the shield, or sometimes you will see the shield bearer is a separate person and the archer is the person with the reins, so he's driving and shooting a bow and arrow, and presumably that was down to personal preference. One imagines the most glamorous job was to be the driver and the archer at the same time, and that's something we see the pharaohs doing in wall art, and another weapon that you need to carry, especially if you've got the reins tied around your waist, is a dagger, because if anything breaks, if the pole breaks or a wheel comes off, you don't want to be dragged, so you would need to cut those reins free. There is one other weapon that we see listed in the Colar Papyrus, and that is the javelin. It actually specifically says, carry a javelin of Keter, it's as if it's saying you should have a particular type of javelin for a chariot, a Ketite javelin, Keter is up near Kadesh in Syria, and we see in the wall art, in every illustration, that these javelins have these cords hanging down, maybe these are throwing cords, which could be twisted like this around it, so that you can throw it from the tail end and give spin to it. The rifled bullet gives spin to give stability to a missile. Imagine that the Egyptians were onto that as early as the New Kingdom. It's experimental, and I want to try and see how it works. We only see it in the 19th Dynasty, we see Seti, for instance, has thrown his javelins into Libyans, chasing them off the battlefield in the route, as the troops are scattered around the field. I think you have to go quite close, so we're going to go around and see if this works.