Military equipment

Although one of the most obvious goals of the military campaigns was to destroy the enemy forces which did not submit or capitulate, and to capture their armaments, the royal inscriptions do not provide detailed information about the weapons looted. As Chart 17shows, most of the entries refer to chariots, cavalry and chariot horses, and the troops captured and enlisted into the royal corps (ki%ir šarrūti) of the Assyrian army with their equipment.⁷¹⁷ Fig. 38 shows captured equipment, excluding equestrian equipment, while Fig. 39shows equestrian equipment, without the troops enlisted into the royal corps (ki%ir šarrūti) of the Assyrian army, a topic which has been discussed in detail in the previous volumes of this project.

712LUUKKO– VANBUYLAERE2002, 40 (CT 53, 13), 1-8.

713MATTILA2002, 198 (ADD 426), 7-9.

714GRAYSON1991, A.0.100.5, 16-18, 20-22,

715Only the account of the 3^rdcampaign (701 B.C.) of Sennacherib mentions that the king received iron as a tribute from Hezekiah, king of Judah. GRAYSON– NOVOTNY2012, 4, 55-80.

716PLACE1867, vol. I, 84-88.

717For the detailed list and discussion of these troops and the captured chariots seeDEZSŐ2012A, passimand Fig. 4, DEZSŐ2012B, 32-34, 92-93, and passim, Fig. 6, Chart 4.

Booty and tribute

Fig. 38. Military equipment captured.

Adad-nƝrƗrƯ II (911—891 B.C.) – GRAYSON 1991,A.0.99.2

68-73 896 ঩anigalbat, Temannu, Naৢibina a staff, his battle-gear, weapons, ... arrows TukultƯ-Ninurta II (890—884 B.C.) – GRAYSON 1991,A.0.100.5

104-108 884 Dnjr-Katlimmu, … of the land Laqû 100 iron daggers Ashurnasirpal II (883—859 B.C.) – GRAYSON 1991,A.0.101.1

i:83-88 883 Snjru, which belongs to BƯt-঩alupê,

Aপi-iababa equipment of the troops ii:92 879 Zazabuপa, ঩abপu bronze armour ii:96-97 879 Mount Kašiiari bronze armour ii:101-102 879 land Nirdun bronze armour

ii:119-125 879 BƯt-ZamƗni equipment for troops (and) horses iii:21-22 878 Snjru, land Suপu equipment for troops, equipment for horses Shalmaneser III (858—824 B.C.) – GRAYSON 1991,A.0.102

2, ii:52-53

5, iii:2 856 Urar৬u his camp, military equipment 2, ii:102; 6,

ii:32-33; 8, 18’-19’; 10, ii:24-25; 14, 65-66; 16, 36-38

853 12 kings of the seashore military equipment 6, iii:8-11 848 Damascus, ঩amath, 12 kings of the sea military equipment

10, 10”-14” 841 Damascus military camp

A.0.102.88 841 house of Omri (঩umrî) (Israel), Jehu spears A.0.102.90 841 Suপu, Marduk-apla-uৢur spears

16, 236’-238’ 832 Urar৬u fighting equipment

Šamši-Adad V (823—811 B.C.) – GRAYSON 1991,A.0.103

2, iv:15’-29’ Nibu, Baba-aপa-iddina divine standard which goes before him Adad-nƝrƗrƯ III (810--783 B.C.) – GRAYSON 1991,A.0.104

4, 7’-10’

811-806? Arpad, battle of Paqaraপubuni his camp Tiglath-Pileser III (745—727 B.C.) – TADMOR –YAMADA 2011

11, 7’-12, 3’ 738 Kummuপi, Tyre, Que, Carchemish,

Gurgum military equipment

12, 6’-11’ 738 Unqi battle equipment

42, 19’-22’, 48,

24’-25’ 733 Samsi, queen of the Arabs military equipment Sargon II (721—705 B.C.) – FUCHS 1994,Annalen

72a 717 Carchemish military equipment 363-372 709 Marduk-apla-iddina, Dnjr-IakƯn implements and equipments THUREAU-DANGIN 1912,MAYER 1983

368-385 temple of ঩aldi, Muৢaৢir

33 silver chariots, bows, quivers, maces, shields, helmets, spears and military standards; 25,212 bronze shields;

helmets and armours; 1,514 different types of bronze spears; 305,412 bronze swords, bows, quivers and arrows Sennacherib (704—681 B.C.) – GRAYSON –NOVOTNY 2012

4, 55-80 701 Hezekiah of Judah shields, lances, armor, iron belt-daggers, bows, u܈܈u-arrows, equipment, implements of war

Assurbanipal (668—631 B.C.) – BORGER 1996 Pr. B iii:78; Pr. C

iv:87: Mannai: Birrnja, Šarru-iqbî, GusunƝ military equipment, weapons Pr. B §35,

v:77-vi:16; Pr. C §45, vi:79-vii:9

653 Elam, Til-Tuba military equipment Pr. A §57,

v:126-vi:76; Pr. F §32, iv:66-v:54

10^th (64..)

Elam, treasury of the palace and the temple

arrows of the battles and other military equipment, chariots, parade chariots, carts decorated with gold

Fig. 38shows that the actual equipment captured consisted mainly of weapons and pieces of the defensive armament. The offensive weapons (arrows, bows, spears and swords) could be distributed among the soldiers of the Assyrian troops, and could easily be used by them.

However, pieces of the defensive armament would have been distributed among the proper units:

scale armours most probably went to the heavy infantry. Different types of units used different kinds of shields: the auxiliary spearmen (Gurreans) used the rounded wicker shield, the heavy infantry favoured the rounded bronze shield, the large battle shield appeared during the reign of Assurbanipal, but the regular, ‘line’ infantry (hardly represented during the last century of the Assyrian Empire) could probably use any type of shield. Scale armour was worn by the heavy troops, but it is conceivable that regular infantrymen could also equip themselves with different pieces of defensive armament. According to our reconstruction the sternest rules concerned the use of helmets. Crested helmets, for example, were never used in the ranks of the cavalry or chariotry – only in the ranks of the auxiliary spearmen (Gurreans).⁷¹⁸

Most of the booty lists use general categories as ‘military equipment,’ ‘implements of war,’

or ‘battle/fighting equipment.’ The entries referencing actual items are going to be discussed below. Surprisingly, representations of the booty scenes almost never show Assyrian soldiers carrying weapons. The most famous of those that do are, on the one hand the sack of the temple of ›aldi in Mu%a%ir (714 B.C.), which shows Assyrian auxiliary spearmen looting the temple, while regular infantrymen carry the booty (including decorated shields) on their shoulders;⁷¹⁹and on the other hand the booty column of Lachish (701 B.C.), where Assyrian armoured soldiers are depicted as carrying shields, bunches of spears and swords on their shoulders.⁷²⁰

To understand the nature and importance of the booty arms and armour, and to understand the role they could have played in the Assyrian army, we should review the few sources which could shed some light on the weapon management of the Assyrian army.

II.3.1.3.1 Bows⁷²¹, arrows⁷²², and quivers⁷²³

The administrative corpus of the Assyrian state archives unfortunately does not help us too much to clear the picture. Two early texts of the archive of Mannu­kī­Aššur, governor of Guzana, dated to the first decades of the 8^thcentury B.C. illuminates certain aspects of the provincial arms and armour management of the local regular troops of the Assyrian army. Both texts list military equipment, including bows and arrows issued to two military personnel. According to the first text ›abinu obtained “2 iron helmets (gurpisu), 1 bronze helmet (gurpisu), 10 daggers, 700 arrows, 3 bows, and 1 quiver.”⁷²⁴The three helmets and the three bows point at the possibility that this list refers to the equipment of more than one person, but the real nature of the list is still

718For a detailed description seebelow.

719BOTTA– FLANDIN1849, pls. 140-141.

720LAYARD1853B, pl. 22.

721Bows – except for a few items found in Egyptian tombs – can only be reconstructed from the pictorial evidence. MCLEOD1970;

HAAS1989, 27-41; WILKINSON1991, 83-99; ZUTTERMAN2003, 119-165; COLLON2008, 93-112; FINDLING– MUHLE2012, 397-410.

722For a comprehensive study of the Assyrian arrowheads seeCURTIS2013, 39-43. A large number of articles have discussed the arrowheads found in different regions of the Near East (PALADŽJAN1955, 65-66; MILIK1956, 3-6; TUBB1977, 191-196; TUBB

1980, 1-6; MILLER1983, 187-190; CURTIS1987, 119-120; SASS1989, 349-356; GICHON– VITALE1991, 242-257; CROSS1992, 57-62; DEUTSCH– HELTZER1997, 111-112; KROLL2000, 379-384; WRIGHT2002, 373-378; FINDLING– MUHLE2012, 397-410).

723For a comprehensive study of the Assyrian quivers seeCURTIS2013, 43. Fragments of bronze sheets, decorating quivers are known mainly from Urarṭu and Transcaucasia: VANDENBERGHE1982, 245-257; POGREBOVA– RAEVSKY1997; CASTELLUCIA– DAN2011, 13-55.

724DORNAUER2014, 49 (Tell Halaf 13).

Booty and tribute

unknown. The other, similar but unfortunately fragmentary list refers to “[x] helmets, [x] quivers, [x]+2 quivers, 28 bows, 500 iron arrow­heads, and 5 iron daggers.”⁷²⁵The recipient and purpose of this shipment of military gear are also unknown. The list most probably contains arms and armour supplies allocated to a unit of archers.

Another fragmentary letter – a list of valuables from Kumme on the Urar#ian border – mentions hundreds of quivers (cover of which was) made of bronze,⁷²⁶which could easily refer to some booty from Urar#u, where metalworking – as seen in the list of booty taken from the temple of ›aldi, Mu%a%ir in 714 B.C. – had reached a high level. This booty list also contains quivers.⁷²⁷

A scarce amount of later, sporadic data refers to the vast industry of imperial bow and arrow production. The size of this industry can be assessed from a letter if Il­iada’ written to Sargon II, in which he refers to the building activities of the magnates, who had built the fort of Minu’, and equipped it with provisions, “30 bows, 20,000 [...] arrows, 10,000 arrow­shafts.”⁷²⁸The fort was garrisoned with 100 Itu’eans (auxiliary archers) and the Gurreans of the Palace. It seems that the local Assyrian authorities could (easily) provide tens of thousands of arrows and arrow­shafts for 100 archers. Another letter to Sargon II by two officials with the same name (Šarru­ēmuranni) refers to another fort which was similarly equipped with [x] thousand and [x] hundred arrows.⁷²⁹ Hereupon it is no surprise when we are faced with the immense numbers mentioned in the booty list of Sargon II’s 8^thcampaign (714 B.C.). The Assyrian soldiers took 305,412 bronze swords, bows, quivers and arrows from the temple of ›aldi in Mu%a%ir.⁷³⁰

The bow­makers were important artisans of the armaments industry. The Assyrian army (before the appearance of the Cimmerians and Scythians) used two basic bow type: the Assyrian and the Elamite. These two types are referred to in an early (784 B.C.) Nimrud Wine List text, which allocates provisions to the bow­maker of Assyrian bows (LÚ.ZADIM GIŠ.BAN.MEŠ KUR.Aššurāia),⁷³¹and to the bow­maker of Elamite bows ([LÚ.ZADIM] GIŠ.BAN.MEŠ KUR.Elam­

ma­a­a).⁷³²Bow­makers are known by name from several administrative and legal documents,⁷³³ two of them from the same town (Donkey­Driver Town).⁷³⁴The largest number of bow­makers appears in a land grant document of Tiglath­Pileser III, which mentions 9 of them.⁷³⁵Similarly to other artisans they were organized into smaller units (whether it was a unit of 10 or more is unclear) with a leader (GAL—ZADIM).⁷³⁶The number of bows they manufactured is unknown.

Only a single administrative text refers to bows they produced, but these pieces were for the king’s personal use.⁷³⁷“For 22 bows for the king’s own use, the sinews for the bowstrings — Sasî. For

725DORNAUER2014, 50 (Tell Halaf 42).

726LANFRANCHI– PARPOLA1990, 101 (K 17736), Rev. 4.

727THUREAU-DANGIN1912, MAYER1983, 382.

728FUCHS– PARPOLA2001, 166 (ABL 883), 14-16.

729FUCHS– PARPOLA2001, 220 (ABL 762), Rev. 3-6.

730THUREAU-DANGIN1912, 394.

731DALLEY– POSTGATE1984, 145 (ND 6218), iii:12.

732DALLEY– POSTGATE1984, 145 (ND 6218), iv:13.

733Tuqun-Issar, b[ow] maker of Aššur (Z[A]DIM-ni Aš-šur), MATTILA2002, 97 (ADD 68), 4-5; Makamê, bow maker (LÚ.ZADIM BAN.ME), KWASMAN– PARPOLA1991, 97 (ADD 66), Rev. 13.

734Ululāiu, bow-maker from Donkey Driver Town (LÚ.ZADIM URU.UŠ—ANŠE-a-a), MATTILA2002, 140 (ADD 379), 2; Aššur-šarru-uṣur, bow-maker from Donkey Driver Town (LÚ.sa-si-nu TA URU.UŠ—ANŠE), MATTILA2002, 271 (ADD 513), Rev. 11.

735KATAJA– WHITING1995, 15 (ADD 885+), 5. Seefurthermore KATAJA– WHITING1995, 83 (BAM 24, 239+), Rev. 7: LÚ.ZADIM—

GIŠ.BAN.TAG.GA.MEŠ.

736Issar-šarru-ibnî GAL—ZADIM (MATTILA2002, 459 (TIM 11, 32), 1).

737Seethe representations of Assurbanipal testing Elamite bows. BARNETT1976, pl. LI.

12 bows for the king’s own use — Bazazānu. 15 minas (silver from) the house of the crown prince, for quivers (and) trappings.”⁷³⁸Another administrative text makes it clear that most of the arrows were made within the framework of the imperial taxation system: “100 good u%%u­

arrows, 400 of iškārus, total 500 u%%u­arrows; 200 bow­strings; … Sîn­bēlu­u%ur authorized in the town Karunuri.”⁷³⁹

Some administrative texts refer to large numbers of bows: one of them mentions 700 bows,⁷⁴⁰ while another short note refers to 784 bows of the city Arpad from 683 B.C.⁷⁴¹These bows were probably part of the tribute paid this North­Syrian city from a period (the last years of Sennacherib) which is hardly known from other sources. The largest known number of bows is also mentioned in a short note: 36,242 bows, inspected.⁷⁴²This unbelievably high number could only come from a booty, from a campaign which might have been led against Elamites or Arameans, whose armies depended upon their large number of archers, and the captured bows would naturally have been inspected. Such a booty of bows is represented on the palace reliefs of Sennacherib, displaying the booty column of a Babylonian campaign.⁷⁴³

The picture of other hand arms emerging from the written sources is much more vague, but fortunately their history can be reconstructed from the pictorial evidence.⁷⁴⁴Concerning the arms and armour the most important and useful sources would be those texts which – similarly to the Nuzi texts – allot different types of arms and armour to different personnel. From these lists, however, only a few have survived.

II.3.1.3.2 Swords⁷⁴⁵and daggers⁷⁴⁶

The swords and daggers of the Neo­Asyrian period were almost exclusively made of iron. This made ironworking a strategic field of the (military) economy and – as has been discussed above – the raw materials, the products and the technologies were strictly controlled by the state. That is why the sources dealing with or mentioning iron swords and daggers – apart from those references which refer to iron swords in literary context – are very few. The first is an administrative text listing a “total of 280 daggers includes 97 of iron (GÌR.AN.BAR) of which 37 are described as having knobs

738FALES– POSTGATE1995, 27 (ZA 73, 2), 1-8.

739DALLEY– POSTGATE1984, 74 (ND 11305).

740PARKER1961, 37, ND 2612.

741DALLEY– POSTGATE1984, 76 (ND 7008).

742DALLEY– POSTGATE1984, 117 (ND 10082).

743BARNETT– BLEIBTREU– TURNER1998, nos. 346-347.

744Seethe plates of volumes DEZSŐ2012A , DEZSŐ2012B, and BARRON2010.

745Only a few fragments of Assyrian swords are known from excavations. Seefor example two Assyrian iron sword fragments from Nimrud in the British Museum (CURTIS2013, 37, Plate VIII, 95-96). For comprehensive studies of the Assyrian swords seeBARRON

2010, 46-78 and CURTIS2013, 37. However, large numbers of articles have been written on ancient Near Eastern swords. The main topics are the Bronze age Canaanite swords (MAXWELL-HYSLOP1946, 1-65; SHALEV1986; PHILIP1989), the Hittite swords (GRÄSLUND1967, 77-90; GEIGER1993, 213-217; ÜNAL1992A; ÜNAL1992, 256-257; SALVINI– VAGNETTI1994, 215-236; ÜNAL

1999, 207-226), the sickle swords and two inscribed Mesopotamian pieces (GÜTERBOCK1965, 197-198; MÜLLER1987; MAUL1995, 63-64; MAXWELL-HYSLOP2002, 210-217), the Luristan (iron) swords (SPEELERS1933, 111; MARYON1961, 173-184; MAXWELL -HYSLOP1962, 126-131; BIRMINGHAM– KENNON– MALIN1964, 44-49; LEFFERTS1964, 59-62; TERNBACH1964, 46-51; BIRD1966, 175-176; MAXWELL-HYSLOP– HODGES1966, 164-176; BIRD1968, 215-223; PLEINER1969, 41-47; HUMMEL1971, 125-127;

MUSCARELLA1989, 349-366; REHDER1991, 13-19; RIEDERER1992, 5-12), and the Urarṭian swords (POGREBOVA1967, 137-145;

POGREBOVA– YESAIAN1982, 85-96; METDEPENNINGHEN1997, 109-136).

746Similarly to the swords, for comprehensive studies of the Assyrian daggers seeBARRON2010, 46-78 and CURTIS2013, 36-37. Other corpuses consist of the studies of daggers of earlier periods. SeeGADD1938, 36-38; MAXWELL-HYSLOP1946, 1-65; NAGEL 1959-1960, 95-104; MAXWELL-HYSLOP– HODGES1964, 50-53; POGREBOVA1966, 49-57; REINISCH1967, 3-7; DIETZ1971, 1-22; SEYRIG

1974, 229-230; MAXWELL-HYSLOP1978, 112-115; LOMBARD1981, 87-94; BOEHMER1983, 101-108; PHILIP1989; SIEVERSTEIN

1992, 1-76; MÜLLER-KARPE1993, 227-234.

Booty and tribute

(surmounting the hilt) of ušu­wood (karriGIŠ.KAL) worked with silver and one as with a knob of terebinth/pistachio­wood (karriGIŠ.bu#ni) worked with gold).”⁷⁴⁷The other text – the letter of 17 blacksmiths – has already been quoted above, and reveals that 17 blacksmiths made 200 iron swords (from the raw material issued by the state within the framework of the Assyrian taxation system (ilku)).⁷⁴⁸During the early 9^th century B.C. iron daggers were important enough to be mentioned separately in a booty list. Tukultī­Ninurta II (890—884 B.C.) during his long march in 884 B.C. received 100 iron daggers from Dūr­Katlimmu.⁷⁴⁹

These numbers are high enough in themselves, but if we take into consideration again the number of iron swords and daggers the (well over 100,000) soldiers of the Assyrian army needed, and the immense number of swords and daggers of the later (late 8^thcentury B.C.) booty lists,⁷⁵⁰ we can hardly imagine the real capacity of the weapon industry of the Assyrian Empire.

II.3.1.3.3 Spears⁷⁵¹

Spears, as well as bronze and iron spearheads were among the military gear of the ancient Near Eastern armies which were manufactured in the largest numbers – during the Neo­Assyrian period probably tens of thousands on a yearly basis. In contrast to their significance only a few Neo­Assyrian texts mention the spears of the army, one of them being an administrative text which refers to an iron case for spears – probably a case attached to the side of the chariot.⁷⁵²One of the reasons for this could be that the spear and the spearhead were pieces of equipment which the soldiers – alongside the state – could also provide for themselves.

That the state played a decisive role in this process (in the equipment of the troops from central arsenals) is corroborated by those few records of booty and/or tribute, which – among other items of weaponry – list spears as well. According to the epigraphs of the Black Obelisk Shalmaneser III (858—824 B.C.) received a tribute of spears in 841 B.C. from Jehu (Iaua), king of Israel (House of Omri)⁷⁵³and from Marduk­apla­u%ur, the ruler of the Su‹u.⁷⁵⁴The largest number of spears captured is known from the sack of the temple of ›aldi in Mu%a%ir (714 B.C.), when the troops of Sargon II looted 1,514 bronze spears of different types.⁷⁵⁵Without a number, but presumably a lot of spears arrived to Assyria from the tribute of Hezekiah of Judah in 701 B.C.⁷⁵⁶

II.3.1.3.4 Shields⁷⁵⁷

The only comprehensive corpus which clarifies certain aspects of the local arms and armour management of the Assyrian military is the archive of Mannu­kī­Aššur, governor of Guzana, dated to the first decades of the 8^thcentury B.C. Some texts in the archive mention shields and

747WISEMAN1953, 147, ND 3480.

748LUUKKO– VANBUYLAERE2002, 40 (CT 53, 013), 1-8.

749GRAYSON1991, A.0.100.5, 104-108.

750Seeagain THUREAU-DANGIN1912, 394 for Sargon II (714 B.C.) and GRAYSON– NOVOTNY2012, 4, 57 for Sennacherb (701 B.C.).

751For comprehensive studies of the Assyrian spearheads and spearbutts seeBARRON2010, 79-112 and CURTIS2013, 38-39. A few articles have been published on spearheads of other periods: WATKINS1974, 188-192; DEMAIGRET1976A, 31-41; DEMAIGRET

1976B; DEMAIGRET1976C, 226-232; BILGI– DINÇOL1989, 29-31.

752FALES– POSTGATE1992, 89 (ADD 1051+), 11.

753GRAYSON1991, A.0.102, 88.

754GRAYSON1991, A.0.102, 90.

755THUREAU-DANGIN1912, 393.

756GRAYSON– NOVOTNY2012, 4, 55-80.

757For comprehensive studies of the Assyrian shields seeBARRON2010, 113-146 and CURTIS2013, 45-46. This piece of the defensive armament has a relatively rich archaeological documentation with the evidence consisting of a large 9^thcentury B.C. bronze shield and several shield fragments (similar to the much later Greek hoplonshields (BOL1989)) from Nimrud, now in the British Museum

other arms and armour as part of the soldiers’ equipment. One of these texts lists the complete equipment of a unit of 10 (eširtu),⁷⁵⁸ another mentions the shields of &illi­Issar which were brought to him from the rab kallapāni.⁷⁵⁹The largest number of heavy shields are mentioned in another text from the archive, which lists 9 A.ŠU­type and 10 wooden shields (made of woodsticks).⁷⁶⁰While the first text deals with shields belonging to their owners (the 10 soldiers of the regular infantry),⁷⁶¹the shields of the other two texts more probably were the property of officers (rab kallapāni)⁷⁶²who had more than one shield (obviously not for their personal use). The different types of shields need further study.⁷⁶³

In addition to the local, provincial management of arms and armour discussed above, some data refer to the central management of weapons, as well. While the 8 silver shields⁷⁶⁴mentioned in an inventory text among a huge number of silver objects ‘belonging to’ the Chief Cupbearer would rather have been part of a treasure than the military equipment of the troops, two other inventory texts really comment on the central arms management. One of these – a long, eight­

column tablet grouping objects according to their material – lists “4 shields of the replacement of the ‘storehouse of the fort.’”⁷⁶⁵The other text (discussed in the previous chapter) also mentions shields: “A leather shield with rivets(?) … 5 shields (made) of heavy sticks.”⁷⁶⁶These texts were

(WA 22484 (diam.: 89 cm), WA 22486, WA 22490.). These Assyrian shields are the earliest known examples of this type. Similar bronze shields are known from 8^thand 7^thcenturies B.C. Urarṭu (Eastern Turkey, Armenia, Northwest Iran): PIOTROVSKY1950, 62; PIOTROVSKY1952, 51-53; PIOTROVSKY1955, 26-30; on further Urarṭian and Northwest Iranian shields: BARNETT– GÖKÇE1953, 121-129; BOYSAL1967; BORN1988, 159-172; DINÇOL– DINÇOL1995, 23-55; KREBERNIK– SEIDL1997, 101-111. For the Cretan and Cypriote/Phoenician shields seeKUNZE1931; BARNETT1977, 157-169; SHAW1989, 165-183.

758DORNAUER2014, 48 (Tell Halaf 30 + 81): 1 chariot, 4 horses, 2 donkeys, 10 bows, 10 daggers, 10 spears, 10 helmets, 10 quivers, 10 shields, 10 tunics, 10 belts (?), 10 kilts, 1 ox, 10 sheep.

759DORNAUER2014, 51 (Tell Halaf 11): “Shields of Ṣillī-Issār which were brought to him from the rab kallapāni: 3 Šalmu, 2 Ḫaiānu, 1 Ḫīri-aḫḫē.”

760DORNAUER2014, 53+58 (Tell Halaf 74+82): “[A.ŠU-type shields, wicker] shields (of woodsticks), 1 [...]-al-[…], 1+2 Adda-ḫāti, 2+1 Atinnu, 1+2 Ḫanūnu, 1+1 Hīri-aḫḫē, 2+1 Aḫu-ilā’ī, 2+1 ›imārî, 0+1 Sē’-barakka; total 9 A.ŠU-type shields, 10 wicker shields (from woodsticks); total 19 heavy shields. […]meṣu, Atinnu, Sē’-barakka […] Adda-ḫāti, […] Iadīdu.

761This type of weaponry fits to the equipment of the regular infantry known from the representations of the 9^th—8^thcenturies B.C.

DEZSŐ2012A nos. 79, 94, 123-124.

762For a discussion seeDORNAUER2014, 26-29, 77-78; for (rab)kallapāni seeDEZSŐ2012A, 60, 69-75.

763A preliminary investigation of the wooden shields of the Assyrian army reveals certain basic categories. There are several types of wooden shields known from the representations of the Assyrian soldiers. 1) The lightest known type is the rounded wicker shield made of osiers woven and fastened together with metal bands and sometimes strengthened by a metal rim and a boss (this type would fit mainly to the auxiliary infantry (Gurreans) of the later periods, DEZSŐ2012A, nos. 36-38, 40-44, 46-50, 51-53, 55-56, for regular infantrymen: nos. 77, 94). Unfortunately the artistic conventions of representing shields makes a distinction between the wickerwork and the wooden structure difficult. 2) A somewhat heavier rectangular shield was probably the wooden shieldmade of wooden sticks fastened together with metal bands. This rectangular type of shield fits more to the regular infantrymen of the 9^th—8^thcenturies B.C. (DEZSŐ2012A, nos. 62, 65-66, 70, 78-79, 83, 88, 100, 101, 121). However, in this case it is also very hard

763A preliminary investigation of the wooden shields of the Assyrian army reveals certain basic categories. There are several types of wooden shields known from the representations of the Assyrian soldiers. 1) The lightest known type is the rounded wicker shield made of osiers woven and fastened together with metal bands and sometimes strengthened by a metal rim and a boss (this type would fit mainly to the auxiliary infantry (Gurreans) of the later periods, DEZSŐ2012A, nos. 36-38, 40-44, 46-50, 51-53, 55-56, for regular infantrymen: nos. 77, 94). Unfortunately the artistic conventions of representing shields makes a distinction between the wickerwork and the wooden structure difficult. 2) A somewhat heavier rectangular shield was probably the wooden shieldmade of wooden sticks fastened together with metal bands. This rectangular type of shield fits more to the regular infantrymen of the 9^th—8^thcenturies B.C. (DEZSŐ2012A, nos. 62, 65-66, 70, 78-79, 83, 88, 100, 101, 121). However, in this case it is also very hard

In document Tamás Dezső: The Assyrian Army II.: Recruitment and Logistics (Pldal 137-0)