tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31246093.post9110988476059826433..comments2024-03-21T14:41:14.622-07:00Comments on Graphic Firing Table: Battles Long Ago: Tollense Crossing 1200 BCEFDChiefhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10607785969510234092noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31246093.post-71266485277098560672016-03-26T14:55:42.374-07:002016-03-26T14:55:42.374-07:00That comment was made on a website written by some...That comment was made on a website written by someone who appears to lack serious archaeological or historical chops. I included it primarily because I thought he had an interesting theory on the overall tactical setting for the fight rather than his knowledge of the period.<br /><br />My problem with his theory is more practical; it's damn deadly difficult to control a horse and hit anything with an arrow at the same time. Horse archers tended to come from two main sources; horse nomads and professional cavalrymen. North Germany in 1200 BCE doesn't seem to have developed any sort of mounted fighting tradition in general, and much less mounted archery. For one thing the terrain isn't conducive to it, either for fighting or for the sort of mounted hunting/herding culture that produces good horse bowmen, and I don't get the sense that the Bronze Age cultures in the region had produced anything like the sort of surplus resources needed to produce a professional cavalry.<br /><br />So I agree with you; I don't think that the arrow-in-the-skull is an artifact of a mounted archer (or a war chariot of which I don't think anyone has found evidence of from the period...). But that wasn't the real reason I included the citation...FDChiefhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10607785969510234092noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31246093.post-2814552961307482202016-03-26T11:18:14.722-07:002016-03-26T11:18:14.722-07:00I have reservations about the "mounted archer...I have reservations about the "mounted archers".<br /><br />This took place in 1200 BC, plus or minus a hundred years or so. Sounds <i>really</i> early for mounted archery to me.<br /><br />The Assyrians were still using teams of two at a time later than that: one holding the reins of both horses while the second soldier shot.<br /><br />Horse <i>riding</i> seems to go back to around 3900 BC. See "The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World". But <i>fighting</i> from horseback is another story altogether.<br /><br />Charioteers would make more sense, IMHO. But chariot use might leave traces of its own, which the archaeologists presumably didn't uncover.Stormcrownoreply@blogger.com