The Earliest Sieges in History (and How they Worked)

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The battering ram wouldn't have any effect if the walls were made of rubber.

Ogg: "I am no leaving cave, you come in me bonk you and eat you." Krugg: "Good. Me stay out here and bonk anything and eat it. Even from cave." Ogg: "Fug. I didn't think of that." Fug: "Dis new warfare Ogg. Times change."

Hi SandRhoman could you please consider doing an episode about life under siege? For both the civilians and soldiers? It's very hard to find things covering this topic. Tyvm 🙏

The first siege “ HA you can’t get in!” “ yeah well you can’t get out!” “ so? We’re inside!” “ I mean eventually you’ll need to have things brought in or you’ll die, right?” “……….. well you’re not gonna stay out there that long!” “ I bet we will!” “F@&$ you!” “No F@&$ you!” “No F@&$ you!” “No F@&$ you!”

If Empire Earth taught me anything, you need a guy named samson lugging around a log to conduct a siege in the bronze age.

i would guess the long sticks were not for dislodging bricks, but rather used to hinder the defenders from shooting effectively at the workers directly beneath the wall, building a ramp or trying to fill the moat. it's kinda hard lo lean over and shoot down when there's a giant fly swatter swinging in front of you

I am from a town quite close to ancient Hattusa, in Turkey. Fortifications, underground escape tunnels, intricate design of the walls and those giant slabs of rocks impress me every time. Sometimes I stand by the sloped polished rocks over the hill which the citadel stands and fathom myself a hostile soldier approaching to attack, which would be quite a scary experience. Even today, in order to design, carry, place that kind of heavy items require a lot of time and energy with contemporary technology. Considering the security aspect of those logistics take quite some time. Just think about it, if you drop even one of those 5-10 ton rocks, you would break not only that item, but hurt people, other structures and deal with A LOT of cleaning up. This kind of projects require close to perfect organizational planning, let alone technology. They did it thousands of years ago. Blows my mind. Those fortifications had been there even when indo-europeans first conquered it somewhere around 18th century BC. In fact the tablets describing these events are the first indo-european written records ever, if you are interested search Anitta (king) in wikipedia. Anitta was very upset about the siege of Hattusa.

Babe wake up SandRhoman dropped a new vid

An intuitive case for the frequency of sieges in early warfare over battles, which may be completely redundant to literature: These would be states without standing armies, and without any of the modern amenities of communication. Rulers would probably become aware of an invading army when fleeing refugees from the outskirt villages that got burned on the march start showing up, at least close enough that an official passes on the report to the centre. IIRC this happened with the arrival of the Spaniards in Mesoamerica for a much, much later proof of concept. You don't have radar stations, you don't have regular scouts - at most you have regularly manned border forts. If one of these is invested without a messenger getting out, you don't know you're being invaded until you see em on the horizon. SO! Given all this, and the lack of a standing army, and the processes involved in raising a levy army - you don't often have a chance to offer pitched battle. Meanwhile a defensive posture in fortifications mitigates some of your disadvantages and forces the male population to commit to participation, for cities.

The ramps that brought down Massada can still be seen... after two millennia!

You left off one siege method: Treachery. Never underestimate the power of human greed. Even a LAVISH bribe would be much cheaper than maintaining an army in the field.

Interpreting the depictions of these millennia old clay tablets must be one hell of a work.

We now have evidence of fortifications that are even older. Even before the time humans developed agriculture. In Siberia there were fortifications when there were only hunters.

From iron cometh strength From strength cometh will From will cometh faith From faith cometh honor From honor cometh iron This is the Unbreakable Litany. May it forever be so Iron within iron without

staggering!

Could the Trojan Horse a mythologized transformation of the siege tower? Interesting.

Really love the video, but the expression, the first sieges is wrong. The first seiges actually date to the Neolithic. The chalcolithic (copper age) has characteristic large sieges, for example Siege of Susa 4300 BC.

The first siege probably occurred when a wondering tribe came across the first fortified town. The date, name and location of which has most likely been whipped out of existence by time.

sweet sunday siege day