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The Siege of Troy
As much as I would love this episode to cover Gerard Butler, Leonidas and the 300 Spartans. This episode of Ancient Discoveries handles the The episode starts out going over the basic story of troy for those of us who haven't seen Orlando Bloom and Brad Pitt.
Then we go to the British Museum which has a bas relief showing a huge siege engine with giant beams controlled by people inside from Assyria. It actually looks a lot like a Dalek. These were already in use 600 years before the Trojan Wars. They think these siege engines could be the basis of the Trojan Horse.
It's easy to think of the bronze age as being primitive, but the standards of their construction were amazing. They look at a helmet and decide that it was hammered and not cast based on the almost perfect thickness of bronze. We go to the Sheffton Museum 16th century bc. The weapons seem to be mass produced. They have a 3500 year old dagger that can still be used today, with a little sharpening, and the historian says that this is something we couldn't make today.
The ships pentekontors were the first ships ever built especially for war. Which had a top speed of about 9 knots.
Now we take a brief detour into the story of Heinrich Schliemann and the finding of troy. I will give you the wiki-link rather than go into it.
Hand to hand combat was very important to personal honor. The chariots were used as "battlefield taxi's" (historian's words not mine) would run around dropping off warriors and picking them up. This is, I have to admit, an entirely delightful mental image. I wish I'd gotten the name of this historian because he's so hyped up about this, like a six year old on skittles.
Now we move on to the Corinthian Helmets and armor. The armor had a kind of linen armor, 13 layers of linen with a leather core. It's a lot like Kevlar actually. Using a composite bow at point plank range, 90 miles an hour, would only have put the slightest scratch on the wearer. It's really slick. They also have a figure-8 shield made from wicker, very tightly woven. It's light and flexible, with a leather skin that's very easy to use. Again they fire a composite bow at the shield and the arrow sticks, but doesn't penetrate.
As far as actual bronze armor goes, we have the Dendra Panoply. It had 15 sheets of bronze and weight about 35 pounds. It was extremely protective, but hard to fight in. And this would have been contemporary with the Trojan War. They go after a recreation of it with a composite bow which barely puts a dent in the armor, and mangles the arrowhead. But it would have led to heat exhaustion very quickly, which is why they relied on their chariot taxicabs.
Even in the ancient time, we had biological weapons...in the form of scorpion jars. They would throw the jars full of scorpions down on their enemies. They also have contemporary hand grenades....but apparently we're not going to go into those, for which I am deeply annoyed. Who cares about giant horses when you have ancient hand grenades?
In the last 5 years we've found out a lot more about Troy. For instance that it was much bigger than the original hilltop citadel would have suggested. Which makes it more likely that there could have been a siege engine trying to get into the city. Even so, the original wall was well nigh impregnable. It looks like the Greeks built ditches around the entrances along the outer wall to keep the Trojan warriors trapped inside.
The Mykonos Vase has a depiction of the Trojan Horse, and it's contemporary with the time of Homer. And apparently horses were very special to Troy, a lot of horse bones have been found by archaeologists.
The documentary reasons that the Trojans believed that the Greeks left behind the horse as a gift to the gods to ensure a safe journey home. The Trojans took it in as an attempt to use the horse as their own offering to the gods.
Then we go to the British Museum which has a bas relief showing a huge siege engine with giant beams controlled by people inside from Assyria. It actually looks a lot like a Dalek. These were already in use 600 years before the Trojan Wars. They think these siege engines could be the basis of the Trojan Horse.
It's easy to think of the bronze age as being primitive, but the standards of their construction were amazing. They look at a helmet and decide that it was hammered and not cast based on the almost perfect thickness of bronze. We go to the Sheffton Museum 16th century bc. The weapons seem to be mass produced. They have a 3500 year old dagger that can still be used today, with a little sharpening, and the historian says that this is something we couldn't make today.
The ships pentekontors were the first ships ever built especially for war. Which had a top speed of about 9 knots.
Now we take a brief detour into the story of Heinrich Schliemann and the finding of troy. I will give you the wiki-link rather than go into it.
Hand to hand combat was very important to personal honor. The chariots were used as "battlefield taxi's" (historian's words not mine) would run around dropping off warriors and picking them up. This is, I have to admit, an entirely delightful mental image. I wish I'd gotten the name of this historian because he's so hyped up about this, like a six year old on skittles.
Now we move on to the Corinthian Helmets and armor. The armor had a kind of linen armor, 13 layers of linen with a leather core. It's a lot like Kevlar actually. Using a composite bow at point plank range, 90 miles an hour, would only have put the slightest scratch on the wearer. It's really slick. They also have a figure-8 shield made from wicker, very tightly woven. It's light and flexible, with a leather skin that's very easy to use. Again they fire a composite bow at the shield and the arrow sticks, but doesn't penetrate.
As far as actual bronze armor goes, we have the Dendra Panoply. It had 15 sheets of bronze and weight about 35 pounds. It was extremely protective, but hard to fight in. And this would have been contemporary with the Trojan War. They go after a recreation of it with a composite bow which barely puts a dent in the armor, and mangles the arrowhead. But it would have led to heat exhaustion very quickly, which is why they relied on their chariot taxicabs.
Even in the ancient time, we had biological weapons...in the form of scorpion jars. They would throw the jars full of scorpions down on their enemies. They also have contemporary hand grenades....but apparently we're not going to go into those, for which I am deeply annoyed. Who cares about giant horses when you have ancient hand grenades?
In the last 5 years we've found out a lot more about Troy. For instance that it was much bigger than the original hilltop citadel would have suggested. Which makes it more likely that there could have been a siege engine trying to get into the city. Even so, the original wall was well nigh impregnable. It looks like the Greeks built ditches around the entrances along the outer wall to keep the Trojan warriors trapped inside.
The Mykonos Vase has a depiction of the Trojan Horse, and it's contemporary with the time of Homer. And apparently horses were very special to Troy, a lot of horse bones have been found by archaeologists.
The documentary reasons that the Trojans believed that the Greeks left behind the horse as a gift to the gods to ensure a safe journey home. The Trojans took it in as an attempt to use the horse as their own offering to the gods.
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... and on the topic of covering, that armor sounds amazingly cool. Also, hand grenades. Hand grenades!!!