Daily Life-Warfare

Miles Lubas

Soldiers

Egypt military played an important role in peacetime and in war.
Egypt had a standing army of soldiers that worked full time. They were stationed throughout the entire empire.
Egypt also had mercenaries, which were usually from distant lands that were payed to fight. The actual cost of what it was to have a mercenary fight for you was unknown. Guesses can only be made.
When Egypt needed to send an army into battle, the pharaoh would take one out of every ten men who worked in the temples to aid the army.
The Egyptians did not have one main strategy. Although Ramesses the Second once led four divisions named after gods to fight against the city of Kadesh. They waited for a while to attack and surprised them and were able to win the battle.

Companies and Divisions

The Egyptian army was organized into divisions and companies.
A company had about 200 foot soldiers while a division had almost 5,000 soldiers.
A captain lead each company, and he carried a staff topped with the companies’ emblem to show his importance.
A general or a lieutenant led a division. Each division marched under a flag which had a picture of their main god on it.
The general of each army would report to the king what had happened during the battle or whatever they had been doing.

Weapons

The Egyptian army and navy used lots of different weapons in battle.
The infantry used javelins for throwing, daggers, short curved swords, spears, maces, and axes in close combat.
In order to protect themselves, they used shields. These were made out of rawhide.
Others were wooden and rectangular. They were curved at the top and covered with leather and turtle shell. The soldiers also had headgear made out of paddled caps.
Soldiers had to wear protective gear, but under all of that they wore a leather triangular kilt which was a protective garment. Coats of chain mail were very rare and worn usually only by the king
Over the years, weapons changed, for example the axe. The blades became shorter with a more narrow edge. Arrows also evolved. They started to be made of reed.
Although the Egyptians used lots of traditional weapons, they did import a few from nearby countries or people.
One example of an imported weapon was the khepesh also known as a sickle sword.

Chariots

Sometimes soldiers fought in chariots, which were horse drawn carriages that had two wheels. Each chariot drawn by two horses.
In each chariot, there were two soldiers. A driver and an archer.
The driver wore a leather or bronze helmet and leather body armor for protection, while the archer had a bow and a few javelins for throwing.
The chariots served as mobile fighting platforms which archers used to attack the enemy. Someone with a sword would do no good since it was not close combat.
Each squadron had about 25 chariots commanded by a “Charioteer of the Residence.”
Since the horses were small, there was no cavalry.
The royal stable master was in high respect, since it was usually his horses that would lead the chariots. The Egyptians would sometimes capture horses from foreign campaigns if they were low on them.
Other stable masters that worked for the main stable master fed, cleaned, and made the horses exercise to keep them ready for battle.
Chariots were most likely introduced to the Egyptians by the Hyksos. The Egyptians later made more improved chariots which they would later use to overthrow them and other establishments.