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Assyrian weapons
Topic Started: Jul 27 2007, 02:45 PM (1,708 Views)
Mark Anders
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Does anyone have an Assyrian larp-kit yet?
I wonder what weapons were used.
Assyrians were iron age I suppose but what civilization were they in the bronze age?
Sumerian perhaps?

<Mark>
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Sean Manning
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I don't know of any Assyrian reeenactors/LARPers/SCAers.

There were some Assyrian powers back in the Late Bronze Age at least, although they were overshadowed by their powerful neighbors. I would just call ASsyria one end of Mesopotamian civilization then, but I'm not an expert on the region/period.

There are plenty of books with good pictures of the reliefs from Assyrian palaces which are our main sources on wargear. Less weapons survived the tender mercies of 19th century 'archaeologists,' although many armouries were dug up.

Their medium infantry seem to have used a spear, small round shield, conical helmet, circular chest-plate, and long knife. Other troops, at least in sieges, could be very well protected with full-length scale robes and reed or wood-and-leather pavises (Old Persian spara/Classica Greek gerra).
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Fabrice De Backer
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Hello Boys,

you just touched my speciality.

During the First part of the Middle Bronze Age (XIX-XVIII c. B.C.), the Assyrians were the Old Assyrians, like the merchant-warriors known from their karum, kind of fortified caravansaray (halt post for caravans with all that is needed to drink eat, deal, sleep, store,..).They had a very wide and extended network of such karum, the best known being situated at the ancient Kanesh, nowadays known in Turkey as Kül Tepe (Hill of Ashes, to give you an idea of how they met their end)
Very nice place to see, lots of books and articles but few illustrated documents.

http://www.google.fr/search?hl=fr&rlz=1W1G...BCltepe&spell=1

Then, during the Second part of the Middle Bronze Age (XVII-XIV c. B.C.), they are known as the "Middle" Assyrians; best know for being the enemies of Ramses, Hatusili (they were in fact the reason why Hittites and Egyptians made peace) and for their famour occupation of the palace of Mari, world famous site in Syria (Tell Hariri). The most famous king of that period was the wonderful Shamshi-Addu, who wrote his son how to beahve and deal with the soldiers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mari,_Syria

After the Sea People and all that sort of things, we have another Assyrian civilization, from the very beginning of the First Iron Age (+/- XIII-XII), which mainly spent their time trying to reconquer the famour triangle of Assyria in northern Irak (Assur-Arbeles-Kalhu-Nineveh-Kirkuk). The harpe of one of these warrior-kings, Tiglath-Pileser Ist, belongs now to the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Arts at New York.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashur

Then, the Second Part of the First Iron Age (XI-VIII c. B.C.), we have the new ascendency of the "Neo"-Assyrians, with kinglets like Assurnasirpal II who extended their kingdoms to the sea and far beyond, with the usual revolutions, assasinations, civil wars and so on at the death of each king or so.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nimrud

After that, a new dynasty emerges from a gouvernor of Kalhu who made a coup d'état during the civil war, the famous Tiglath-Pileser III, wo killed everybody not in accordnace with him, refromed the state and the army, adopted the infantery components and state army, before passing away and leaving the kingdome to his son/brother Salamanzar V, who will die assassinated (or not) by his brother/son/general during the 3 years siege of Samaria. This guy will change his name in Sharru-Kin (the legimitate king), and will be the founder of the alst dynasty of the assyrian KINGDOM (I hate reading "empire") : The Sargonids, who will rule during the First Part of the Second Iron Age (2 nd 1/2 VIII c- VII c B.C.) and leave us thousands of reliefs and texts.....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineveh

Sorry for being that long, but if you want to do assyrian re-enactment, I thought you would be interested in the peculiar periods associated with peculiar equipment and tactics.

All the best,

Fabrice
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Jamie Szudy
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...what Fab said! :D

I'd only add a couple things. First, for any kind of Assyrian LARP/reenactment/etc., your best bet will be the Neo-Assyrian period (early 1st Millennium BC), since that period is particularly rich in pictoral evidence. Nearly all of the famous palace relief sculptures come from that period. Plus we have an abundance of textual evidence, and a good amount of it is easily accessible in English translation in the State Archives of Assyria project publications by the University of Helsinki. While they are (very irritatingly) pretty mute on the subject of armor, there is a considerable amount of info on clothing and all other aspects of material culture as well as social issues, etc.

A good place to start if your interested in the reliefs is this book: http://www.etana.org/abzu/coretext.pl?RC=20143 Always bear the date7reign of the sculpture in mind, as styles changed over time then as they do now.

I should also mention that the Sharru-Kin mentioned by Fab is probably better known to most of you by the Hellenified-Anglicized version of his name, Sargon. Most of the famous Mesopotamian kings have had their names slaughtered in translation by Greeks or Hebrews, and are now known best by these versions. But, as an Assyriologist, I'm all for people learning the original names. For example, Assurnasirpal is really Aššur-naṣir-apli ("the god Assur is the guardian of the heir"), Tiglath-Pileser is Tukulti-apil-Ešarra ("my trust is in the god Ešarra), and Esarhaddon is Aššur-ahhe-iddina ("the god Assur has given me a brother").

Also, if you're interested in Assyrian siege engines (again, we're talking early 1st Millennium), then Fab's your guy! ;)
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Yves Goris
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just picking up this thread again:

last year books about the assyrian army have appeared.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tamas-Dezso-Struct...e+assyrian+army

they were published by a university in budapest and contain many drawings from mural art.

lots of descriptions and stuff...

i thought it was worth the money.
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Francois Denegra
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i thought it was worth the money.
Quote:
 


it's also my opinion.

These two books are the actual amount of work for the knowledge of Assyian infantry, cavalry and chariotry.

Without forget the different works of Fabrice de Backer, numerous enough on the Net.

But also

- The representation of Foreign soldiers and their employment in the Assyrian Army by Nadali,
- Assyrian chariotry and cavalry, by Duncan Noble,
- Late Assyrian Arms and Armour, by Amy E. Barron (thesis)

and a few others as

L'armée et l'organisation militaire de l'Assyrie, d'après les lettres des Sargonides trouvées à Ninive, by Malbran Labat, Florence

:)
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Francois Denegra
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I rectify any oversights

Dezso, Tamas : Oriental influence in the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean Helmet Traditions in the 8th-7th centuries B.C.
and
Dezso, Tamas : Near eastern helmets of the iron age.

Both in the famous collection British Archaeological Reports (BAR) and of great importance (the first after the works of Karpe Muller...).

and also :

Foreign Chariotry and cavalry in the armies of Tiglath-Pileser III and Sargon, II by Stephanie Dalley

And that's all for now... :rolleyes:
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Sean Manning
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Yves Goris,Apr 5 2013
06:46 PM
just picking up this thread again:

last year books about the assyrian army have appeared.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tamas-Dezso-Struct...e+assyrian+army

they were published by a university in budapest and contain many drawings from mural art.

lots of descriptions and stuff...

i thought it was worth the money.

Dezso's books are not so easy to get in North America, but a company called Kubon & Sagner will import both volumes through Germany if you email them. I have a copy in the mail and I hope they are worth the money!
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Yves Goris
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I'm pretty sure you will like them. :P

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Yves Goris
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received in the meantime?
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Sean Manning
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Yves Goris,May 1 2013
06:44 AM
received in the meantime?

Not yet. They will ship both volumes to my home town as soon as they receive the second volume, but I am still in my university town.

Maybe ordering from Amazon UK would have been easier, but I try to support smaller businesses over the Warrior Woman of the Internet.
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Sean Manning
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Yves Goris,Apr 5 2013
06:46 PM
just picking up this thread again:

last year books about the assyrian army have appeared.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tamas-Dezso-Struct...e+assyrian+army

they were published by a university in budapest and contain many drawings from mural art.

lots of descriptions and stuff...

i thought it was worth the money.

Yves, thank you again for letting me know about this book. Both volumes came in the mail, and can see that they will keep me busy for a long time. They are very thorough and use both the art and the texts. Just what I was looking for!
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Todd Feinman
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Too bad there are no Assyrian reenactors.. Their arms and armour were very cool.
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Jeroen Zuiderwijk
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Todd Feinman,Sep 5 2013
03:11 AM
Too bad there are no Assyrian reenactors.. Their arms and armour were very cool.

There's only one way to change that :)
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william m
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Thank you very much Fabrice for the link to download the PDF document on the Assyrian reliefs in the British museum!!

I was at the British Museum last weekend and I spent quite a bit of time studying the reliefs as the detail is fantastic. I shall have to put some photos up.
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