Ancient Egyptian Military: Soldiers, Organization, Units, Mercenaries | Middle East And North Africa

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ANCIENT EGYPTIAN MILITARY

20120216-military Mesehtisoldiers.JPG
Mesehti soldiers
All and all, ancient Egypt wasn’t very warlike. The Egyptians seemed relatively content living in their unchanged world and did not embark on many campaigns of conquest and when they did their efforts seemed relatively half hearted. One reason Egypt was able to build such large temples and pyramids was that was relatively untroubled by wars and could devotes its manpower to construction projects rather than an army.

Compared to Mesopotamia, Egypt was not very advanced militarily. This was due in part to Egypt's relatively protected geographical position. Armies could not approach Egypt without passing through narrow corridors (the Nile Valley, north and south, and site of the present-day Suez canal) that were relatively easy to defend.

Ancient Egypt's primary enemies were the Libyans, Hittites and Nubians. The Philistines, who the Egyptians called the People from the Sea, were defeated by the armies of Ramses III in the 12th century B.C. and later hired out as mercenaries.

Websites on Ancient Egypt: UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology, escholarship.org ; Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Egypt sourcebooks.fordham.edu ; Discovering Egypt discoveringegypt.com; BBC History: Egyptians bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/egyptians ; Ancient History Encyclopedia on Egypt ancient.eu/egypt; Digital Egypt for Universities. Scholarly treatment with broad coverage and cross references (internal and external). Artifacts used extensively to illustrate topics. ucl.ac.uk/museums-static/digitalegypt ; British Museum: Ancient Egypt ancientegypt.co.uk; Egypt’s Golden Empire pbs.org/empires/egypt; Metropolitan Museum of Art www.metmuseum.org ; Oriental Institute Ancient Egypt (Egypt and Sudan) Projects ; Egyptian Antiquities at the Louvre in Paris louvre.fr/en/departments/egyptian-antiquities; KMT: A Modern Journal of Ancient Egypt kmtjournal.com; Egypt Exploration Society ees.ac.uk ; Amarna Project amarnaproject.com; Abzu: Guide to Resources for the Study of the Ancient Near East etana.org; Egyptology Resources fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk

Why the Ancient Egyptians Didn’t Necessarily Need a Strong Military

Egypt, says Strabo, from the beginning of time was a peaceful country, at least in part because it so inaccessible to foreigners. On the north she is bounded by the harbourless shore of the Mediterranean Sea, on the east and west by the Libyan deserts and the Arabian mountains. To the south moreover, the other side of her frontier is occupied by the Troglodytes, the Southern Lybians, the Nubians and Ethiopians. These peoples and tribes were neither numerous nor strongly warlike. The Nubians and Ethiopians in the south, as far as Meroe, are neither numerous nor united; they inhabit the long narrow winding valley of the river, which affords few facilities for war and but a scanty livelihood. [Source: Adolph Erman, “Life in Ancient Egypt”, 1894]

The tribes that lived in the deserts that encircled Egypt, did not have great ambitions of conquering or creating a large kingdom; their military activity consisted mainly of stealing of cattle and the plundering of caravans. The fact that the kings styled themselves the “vanquishers of the nine bows," shows plainly how little real opposition the Egyptians encountered. It was impossible that wars with these Bedouins should make the nation mighty in war, and the same may be said of the civil wars. In fact, there was nothing whatever in the countries round Egypt that could incite a nation to conquest, for neither the deserts of Nubia nor the arid land of Palestine could appear very attractive to those who called the fertile soil of the Nile valley their own.

Lack of Cohesive Army in Ancient Egypt

It so happens that neither war nor soldiers played the same part in Egypt of old as they did in Mesopotamia, or in the history of other ancient nations. Once only, during the New Kingdom, did Egypt become a military power, but this sudden outburst of a warlike spirit was of very short duration, and ended characteristically by foreign barbarian mercenaries becoming the lords of the country. [Source: Adolph Erman, “Life in Ancient Egypt”, 1894]

Under these circumstances, it cannot surprise us that in the Egypt of early times we find no national army. Each nome under the Ancient Empire had its own armoury, the battle-house} as well as its own militia, which was under the command of the nomarch. To this we must add the contingent supplied by the estates of the great temples: the soldiers of the treasury department; the mercenaries of the friendly chiefs of northern Nubia, and other companies, which altogether might certainly form a considerable number of troops, but could scarcely be considered a united army.

This defect is clearly recognisable in the one description of a great war which has come down to us from the time of the Old Kingdom. Under King Pepi, “the Asiatics who live on the sand," such as probably the Bedouins of the south of Palestine, had undertaken one of their usual predatory expeditions against the Delta, with the object of settling with their herds in the beautiful fertile country of that district, as the Libyan and Semitic nomads have often succeeded in doing in later times.

In this case they were too numerous to be driven out by the usual methods, Pepi therefore determined to call together all the sinews of war that were at his command. He commissioned neither nomarch nor treasurer with the organization and direction of this army, though these officials had always formerly been styled the “superintendents of the soldiers "; but he chose Une, a favorite chief judge, who enjoyed his special confidence. Evidently in spite of their military rank the treasurers and nomarchs had had no actual experience of a real war; they might have led the troops against a rebellious tribe in Nubia or against the robber Troglodytes of the Arabian desert, but they were not equal to an undertaking on a large scale, and a trustworthy energetic man like Unas was more adapted for the work.

Unas fully justified the confidence of his master, as is seen by the account he himself gives in his tomb. “His Majesty made war against the Asiatic Bedouins and brought a great army together of many tens of thousands from the whole of the south, from Elephantine upwards, and northwards from the bifurcation (?) of the Nile, from the north country, from the temple estates (?), from the fortress (?), and from the interior of the fortresses (?), from the African countries of 'E'rt'et, Med'a, 'Emam, Uauat, Kaau, and Tat'e'am. His Majesty sent me at the head of this army. There stood the princes; there stood the chief treasurers; there stood the nearest friends of the palace; there stood the governors and the town-princes of the south and of the north, the friends and superintendents of the gold, the superintendents of the prophets of the south and of the north country, and the superintendents of the temple property — at the head of a troop of the south and of the north country, of the towns and districts over which they ruled, and of the Africans of those countries. It was I, indeed, who led them, though my rank was only that of a superintendent of the garden (?) of the Pharaoh. "

When all these small contingents had been united into one army, a new difficulty presented itself, the difficulty of provisioning these "many tens of thousands. " The problem was solved in a very easy manner: “each one carried as much with him as another; some of them stole the dough and the sandals from the traveler; some of them took the bread from each village, some of them took the goats from everybody. "

Unas went on to boast about the armies success against Bedouins (including Berbers and Lybians in the deserts west of Egypt):
This army fared happily and cut down their fig-trees and their vines.
This army fared happily and slew troops there, even many tens of thousands.
This army fared happily and brought back many captives, even a great multitude. "

Four times again there arose disturbances amongst the Bedouins, and each time Unas was again sent out, “in order to march through the country of the Bedouins with these troops. " A war broke out also “in the north of the country of the Bedouins," to which Unas “went with these troops in ships "; in this war also “he beat them all and slew them. "

Ancient Egyptian Armed Forces

Hatshepsut's expedition to the Land of Punt

During the Middle Kingdom period (2040 –1782 B.C.), when cultures elsewhere were using bronze weapons and armor, Egyptian soldier battled half-naked with clubs and flint spears. It is evident that the disintegration of the state, which ensued towards the close of the Old Kingdom, could not be conducive to the formation of a national army. Under the 12th dynasty, as in earlier times, each nomarch had his own small army, commanded by a “superintendent of the soldiers," as his deputy. As a fact, there was rarely anything important for these troops to do, and therefore in times of peace this officer assisted in the supervision of the fields, whilst the greater number of the men were probably only called out in case of need. Doubtless they were most unwilling to serve, and when the “scribe of the soldiers “appeared in the nome, in order to “choose out fine young men," the grief of the people was probably as heartrending as it has been of late times, when the men were called out for the corvee. [Source: Adolph Erman, “Life in Ancient Egypt”, 1894]

As a matter of fact, the service the government required of these soldiers was not as a rule of a very warlike nature; frequently it might be to escort an expedition to the mines and quarries of the desert. Even in these expeditions, the soldiers were evidently often employed as workmen to drag the blocks of stone; their labor was of course very inexpensive to the state. To quote but one instance, how else can we explain the fact that an official in charge of the mines at Hammamat had 2000 soldiers with him in addition to his stone-masons? it was impossible that so many could be required to protect eighty workmen from the Bedouins. Now and then, of course, the troops of the nomes had to fight in earnest; thus Ameny, the oft-mentioned nomarch ounder Senusrit I, accompanied the king with his troops to Nubia, he “followed his master as he voyaged up-stream in order to overthrow his enemies amongst the foreign nations; he went indeed as the son of the prince, the chief treasurer, the great superintendent of the soldiers of the Nome of the Gazelle, as substitute for his aged father. When His Majesty now returned home in peace, after he had subdued his enemies in the miserable land of Ethiopia, he also followed him and took great care that none of his soldiers were lost. " It is characteristic of this war-report that Ameny docs not recount any victory won, but only tells of tribute raised,

Organization of the New Kingdom Army

As we have seen, the army of the Middle Kingdom consisted essentially of companies of militia, which were supplied in times of need by the princes of the various nomes; it is uncertain how far this old institution was retained under the entirely new conditions of the New Kingdom. At any rate, in the inscriptions, we hear no more of what we might almost call the private armies of the nomes, and with regard to the soldiers of the temple estates, which existed afterwards as before, I can scarcely say whether they were more than a body of police which had to keep order in the sanctuary and on the estates of the god. The great wars of the New Kingdom at all events were carried on with a state army, of which only the smaller part was raised in Egypt,' while the larger part was recruited from foreign mercenaries. This was the case at any rate under the 19th dynasty; for instance, a small army of this time consisted of 3100 barbarian mercenaries, and only 1900 regular soldiers. [Source: Adolph Erman, “Life in Ancient Egypt”, 1894]

The usual division of the army was into named squadrons, the size of which is not definitely known their names. Under the 18th dynasty we meet with the squadron of the Sun-Disk and the squadron of the Pharaoh. Under the kings of the 19th dynasty the regiments were called by even more high-sounding names; a regiment of auxiliary troops that was stationed in the country of Dapur, was called the squadron of the Shining Sun-Disk and a regiment under Seti I bore the name of Amun protects his soldiers.

In time of war larger bodies of troops wcre formed from these squadrons; Ramses II, for instance, had four such bodies of troops with him on his second campaign, which he named after the four great gods of the country, the armies of Amun, of Ra, of Ptah, and of Seth, or rather, if we quote the full names, “the first army of Amun, who gives victory to Ramses II " etc.

Soldiers and Members of the Ancient Egyptian Military

Wall fragment of men with bows

Regular armies were not formed until the New Kingdom (1540-1070). Heidi Köpp-Junk of Universität Trier wrote: “The members of the army consisted of various professions—from scribes to generals and soldiers of the lower ranks—all of whom could exhibit mobility: they could be assigned to war campaigns, or stationed far from home, sent on expeditions, or sent to perform corvée labor. Numerical data for the Egyptian army are rare and their interpretation is controversial. Nevertheless, the biggest contingent of an army consisted of soldiers of the lower ranks, constituting the infantry for the most part.” [Source: Heidi Köpp-Junk, Universität Trier, Germany, UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology, 2013 escholarship.org ]

The text on the stele of Taharqa of the 25th Dynasty (684 B.C.) “states that the route from Memphis to the Fayum, a distance of about 50 kilometers, was covered by soldiers at a speed of 9.2 kilometers/hour to 14.6 kilometers/hour. From the Megiddo campaign of Thutmose III, an average daily travel rate for large troops is attested to be 20 kilometers or even 24 kilometers. The daily rate of marching by a Medjai soldier on patrol was 42 kilometers per day.”

We do not know much of the equipment of the soldiers of the Middle Kingdom. The common soldiers of that time, like those of the Old Kingdom, carried a large bow; as a badge they generally wore on their heads one or two ostrich feathers, which according to Egyptian ideas signified victory; they wound a narrow band round the upper part of their body — this evidently represented a coat of mail. Other companies of troops were armed with a great shield and a spear, or with a small shield, over which a skin was stretched, and a battle-axe; others again carried no shield, but bore a large axe and a lance, or perhaps indeed only a sling. " [Source: Adolph Erman, “Life in Ancient Egypt”, 1894]

Khusobek; An Ancient Egyptian Soldier

John Ray of Cambridge University wrote for the BBC: ““The life of the soldier Khusobek is known only from his funerary stela, a short autobiography which he composed for posterity. The inscription was found at the site of Abydos in Upper Egypt. It would have stood either in his tomb, or in some form of cenotaph: Abydos was the supposed burial-place of the god Osiris, and Egyptians who could not afford to be buried near the resting-place of this god sometimes built small chapels by the processional way leading to his sanctuary. The stela is now in the Manchester Museum. | [Source: John Ray, Cambridge University, BBC, February 17, 2011 |::|]

“Khusobek says he was born around 1880 B.C. The lack of details about his family suggests that he was of humble birth, but he managed to attract the attention of the new king, Senusret III, who made him a royal escort, perhaps a bodyguard. He was given command of a squad of 60 men, and took part in the campaigns into Nubia. |::|

“Egyptian interest in Nubia at this period is well documented, but the news that the king also conducted a campaign into Palestine comes as a surprise, since it had been assumed that the Middle Kingdom left this area to its own devices. The army, accompanied by the veteran Khusobek, penetrates as far as Sekemem, perhaps the modern Nablus on the West Bank. Khusobek had the dangerous task of protecting the rear of the Egyptian army, and he again distinguished. |::|

Unhappy Ancient Egyptian Charioteers and Soldiers

Paebpasa write out a warning against the “unhappy position of a officer chariot-force. " ° As a boy the poor fellow referred to here was placed through the good offices of his grandfather in the stable of the king: He hastens to lay hold of the horses In the stable before his Majesty. He receives beautiful horses. And rejoices and exults, And returns with them to his town. "

He cannot bear the life at home however, so he gives his property into the charge of his grandfather, and drives away in his chariot. Therewith all manner of ill-luck happens to him, and when at last the review of the troops takes place, his misfortunes reach their climax: “He is tortured on the ground, Tortured with a hundred stripes. "

Still less indeed must Paebpasa think of becoming an “officer of the foot soldiery," whose fate is even far worse. In order to warn him of the evils of the latter profession, Amenemopet propounds the following poem to him, a poem that is also to be found in the school literature of that period:
“Oh what does it mean that thou sayest: ' The officer has a better lot than the scribe? '
Come let me relate to thee of the fate of the officer, so full of trouble. He is brought as a child into the barracks (?) to be shut up (?) there.
A blow, that . . . he receives in his belly, A blow, that cuts open, he receives on his eyebrows, And his head is split open by a wound!
They lay him down and beat upon him as upon a book, He is broken by flogging.

Come let me relate to thee how he travels to Syria,
How he marches in the upland country.
His food and his water he has to carry on his arm,
Laden like a donkey; This makes his neck stiff like that of a donkey.
And the bones of his back break. He drinks dirty water . .
. If he arrives in face of the enemy, He is like a bird in a snare.
If he arrives at his home in Egypt, He is like wood, that the worms eat.
He is ill, and must lie down. They have to bring him home on the donkey,
Whilst his clothes are stolen, and his servants run away.
Therefore, O scribe, Reverse thine opinion about the happiness of the scribe and of the officer. "

New Kingdom Mercenaries and Military Units

In the New kingdom many of the troops were foreign mercenaries.According to the Gale Encyclopedia of World History: Mercenaries could be useful in foreign campaigns, but they were disastrous as a domestic police force, because they usually lacked a native’s respect for the king and because their services were always available to a higher bidder. After incurring the army’s wrath, Akhenaton was fortunate to have retained his throne and his life. [Source:Gale Encyclopedia of World History: Governments, Thomson Gale, 2008]

The oft-mentioned Pidt, the bow-company, seem to have been a barbarian corps. With great probability it has been suggested that their curious appellation boiu indicates that they were recruited from the nine bows, such as from the neighbouring barbarian tribes. " As a fact, we learn from an inscription of the 20th dynasty, that in the transport of stone, for instance, the barbarians called 'Apur belonged to the “bow of the 'Anuti barbarians. " It is therefore usually considered that the term bows signifies auxiliary forces, and this interpretation of the word is retained in this book. These bow-troops were commanded by chiefs, men of rank and education, from whose correspondence one or two letters have been preserved. A chief of one of these auxiliary companies commanded in Ethiopia; others occupied the frontier fortresses in the east of the. Delta, and the well-stations of southern Palestine; ' it is a fact therefore that we meet with them on foreign soil, and consequently they have a right to bear the title “superintendent of the barbarian country".

Even during the Old Kingdom Nubians sometimes served in the Egyptian army, and as it appears were celebrated in old times as desert hunters. During the New Kingdom however they were formed into a military corps that answered in many respects to our constables and police, and were employed in various ways by the government. At all events they were under chiefs and their commander was the “prince of Mad'ay. " It is not now known from which tribes they were recruited during the New Kingdom. But in spite of thus outwardly naturalising themselves as Egyptians, yct in the eyes of the pure-bred natives of the Nile Valley they were still homeless barbarians. for instance, a “deputy of the soldiers “writes contemptuously' to the “prince of the Mad''ay: ' Thou art a child of a bond-servant, thou art no prince at all; thou hast immigrated from some other place, in order to resort hither.”

To these original barbaric elements of the Egyptian army we must add under the 19th dynasty the oft-named Shardana, Qahaq and Mashauasha, tribes of the conquered Libyans and Sea People, who entered the service of the Pharaohs under their own chiefs, and like them also finally became the ruling power in the state. That they were employed in considerable numbers is shown by the corps of 5000 men we have already mentioned, which contained 520 Shardana, 1620 Oahaq, and 880 Mashauasha and Africans. The battles also which Merenptah and Ramses III fought with these same tribes and their allies were doubtless fought chiefly by the help of these barbarian mercenaries. In the periods with which we are concerned, these troops were always expressly kept separate from the regular army; they remained in distinct tribes, for Ramses III calls the commanders, whom he set over the barbarians in his service, the “chiefs of the auxiliary troops, and the chiefs of the tribes. "

Ancient Egyptian Weapons

model of shield and spears

During the Middle Kingdom period (1991-1785 BC), when cultures elsewhere were using bronze weapons and armor, Egyptian soldier battled half-naked with clubs and flint spears. Regular armies were not formed until the New Kingdom (1540-1070). Fortresses were set up to hold off the Nubians. Sesostris III established a series of forts that were with signaling distance of one another.

The Hittites and Assyrians began using iron weapons and amour in Mesopotamia around 1200 B.C. with deadly results, but the Egyptians did not utilize the metal until the later pharaohs. The Egyptians began using chariots and composite bows long after their rivals.

The first represented naval battle, pitting the forces of Pharaoh Ramses III against the Sea peoples in the Nile delta, took place in 1186 B.C. with sailing ships, which are much are harder to maneuver that oared vessels. [Source: "History of Warfare" by John Keegan, Vintage Books]

According to ancientmilitary.com: “Over its long history the Egyptians employed a wide variety of ancient weapons. During the earliest periods stone and wood weapons were used, these early Egyptian weapons included slings, clubs, throwing sticks, stone maces and stone tipped spears. Horn and wooden bows were also constructed and used with stone tipped arrows. By 4000 BC the Egyptians had started importing obsidian from the Eastern Red Sea areas for their weapons. This glass like stone has properties that allow it to have a sharper point than the sharpest metals; these almost molecularly thin blades are used even today for scalpels. [Source: ancientmilitary.com/egyptian-weapons ++]

“By the time upper and lower Egypt were first united and their society coalesced around 3150 BC, the Egyptians had already been using bronze weapons. They used bronze for spearheads, axes and maces. It was also during this period that the composite bow came into use, made with horn and wood. Over the following centuries as the Pharaoh’s dominated ancient Egyptian society they began to standardize weapons, stock pile arsenals and borrow weapons systems from invading peoples.” ++

War Imagery from Ancient Egypt: Piles of Hands, Arms and Penises

In 1300 B.C., King Menephta meted out revenge on the Libyan army by severing their penises. A monument at Karnak read: "Phalluses of Libyan generals — 6. Phalluses cut off Libyans — 6,359. Sirculians killed, phalluses cut off — 222. Etruscans killed, phalluses cut off — 542. Greeks killed, phalluses presented to the king — 6,111.

Pharaohs returning from naval campaigns sometimes displaying the dead bodies of enemy princes on the bows of their boats. One of the remaining walls at the Hypostyle Hall at Karnak contains an inscriptions reads: "His Majesty exults at the beginning of battle, he delights to enter it; his heart is gratified at the sight of blood. He lops off the heads of his dissidents...His majesty slays them at one stroke — he leaves them no heir, and whoever escapes his hand is brought prisoner to Egypt."

Kerry Muhlestein of Brigham Young University wrote: “ Smiting scenes occur on a variety of media, from vases to signet rings to funerary equipment. War scenes were also ubiquitous displays of violence from at least the early New Kingdom. Scenes depicting prisoners bound with cords or symbolic plants are also a standard component of official ideology. Foreigners are invariably the victims of violence in these contexts. While we cannot know how accurate the portrayals are, the images present an iconography of domination, subjugation, and humiliation. If there is some degree of accuracy in depictions of how prisoners were bound, then often the binding was done in a way, which would have caused severe and painful damage to muscles and joints . Depictions frequently portrayed positions possibly leading to asphyxiation. Elbows, knees, necks, and ankles particularly were portrayed in awkward and painful positions.[Source: Kerry Muhlestein, Brigham Young University, 2015, UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology, 2013 escholarship.org ]

counting of a pile of hands,a bas-relief at the temple of Medinet Habu in Luxor

“Frequently the violence portrayed was compounded by violence done to the image. Some images were broken, mutilated, or decapitated. Another class of bound prisoner images was continually placed where they would be wal ked on, such as tiles of a palace floor, the sill of the window of appearance, on sandals or on footstools. An Early Dynastic tomb has a bound prisoner as the pivot point for a door, so that each time the door moved it ground on the prisoner’s back. New Kingdom chariot wheels could be constructed so that each revolution furthered the torture of an iconographic enemy. Tutankhamen’s bow was decorated with prisoners whose necks were bound by the bow string, thus further strangling them with each arrow shot. Enemy heads formed the oar stops on a barque of Amun, causing the enemies to be struck with each stroke. Thus an ongoing kinetic violence was often a component of violent iconography. War and Aftermath Iconography also highlights the violence of war. Besides the gruesome violence that was part of the fighting itself, the binding and smiting of prisoners demonstrates the continuation of violence after the battle was over. The taking of a hand or an arm wa s often attested as a battle trophy.

“Depictions show piles of hands, arms, or penises as a part of battle aftermath. Amenhotep II slew a number of prisoners, hung their bodies from the prow of his boat (it is not clear if the killing was before o r after the hanging), and then displayed them in Egypt and Nubia. Thutmose I did the same, although again it is not clear if the prisoner he displayed had been killed during or after the battle. Various finds and depictions imply that such practices were common over most of Egypt’s long history. Moreover, Akhenaten is said to have impaled 225 Nubian prisoners of war after the battle. Merenptah impaled a great number of Libyan prisoners after one battle, and burned many more after a Nubian campaign. Ramesses III slew captives on more than one occasion. Osorkon burned captive rebels. The end of a battle did not end the violence inflicted on Egypt’s enemies. Violence done to real foreigners and to inanimate representations was aimed at defeating forces of chaos. These were two prongs in the s ame weapon wielded by the servants of order against chaos.”

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons

Text Sources: UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology, escholarship.org ; Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Egypt sourcebooks.fordham.edu ; Tour Egypt, Minnesota State University, Mankato, ethanholman.com; Mark Millmore, discoveringegypt.com discoveringegypt.com; Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Geographic, Smithsonian magazine, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Discover magazine, Times of London, Natural History magazine, Archaeology magazine, The New Yorker, BBC, Encyclopædia Britannica, Time, Newsweek, Wikipedia, Reuters, Associated Press, The Guardian, AFP, Lonely Planet Guides, “World Religions” edited by Geoffrey Parrinder (Facts on File Publications, New York); “History of Warfare” by John Keegan (Vintage Books); “History of Art” by H.W. Janson Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.), Compton’s Encyclopedia and various books and other publications.

Last updated August 2024