This article appeared in the DBM digest done by the folks out at Stanford University. We have no record of the infantry playing any important part in the battles of NKE. Now you can say, as you did above, that that is because the records are written for the nobility but unlike medieval battles, there is no evidence to the contrary. At least in the middle ages we do have accounts of infantry in battle and accounts which show how the infantry defeated the knights. We have nothing of that sort for this earlier period. We don't even a theory of how infantry could contribute to a chariot battle, a theory that would fit with what little we do know about these early battles. We do know that NKE armies had infantry attached. However, this could be accounted for by the need the Egyptians had for assault troops for attacks on fortresses and camp guards while the chariot battle is underway. The fact that the infantry was attacked to each chariot division would also indicate that one of the functions of the infantry was to guard the chariot division baggage. To be honest: we don't know anyhting at all about the Egyptian army: the sources are mostly temple facings etc. or grave stuff. And one thing the Egyptians did not do was portray everyday life accurately and truthfully, especially if it involved anything official. We "westerners" make the mistake of interpreting Egyptian illustrations and other stuff as if we had made it ourselves. The Egyptians however had a totally different goal with their illustrations and our truth and accuracy were no part of those goals. All of their illustrations were meant to display something idealised: only a very few sketches on "scratch pads" (shards) have survived that show us actual real life scenes (and they show us that Egyptian artists did in fact understand and could draw foreshortening and depth etc.). Combine this with the Eygyptian way of history writing (noting the ordinary things that happened every day and ignore the incidental stuff: exactly opposite to our way) and the ego of some rulers (like the "great" Ramesses II) and the result is some really great looking graphics which are totally worthless if you're searching for facts (as we are for their army). "Yes but their toy soldiers" you say? Well, try recreating a medieval army from Lego knights: that's about the same. We can only generalise on their army, like "they had chariots" and "they had shields" and "they had siege engines", but really, that's about it. There are some administrative records that give us an insight into their world, like the rations the soldiers (probably) got, the amount of grain that could (probably) be stored in a fortress, etc, but nothing has been found so far about the actual organisation of armies. So what are we left with? We "know" the chariot was introduced after the Middle Kingdom. However, during the Middle Kingdom the Egyptians had some huge (and I mean HUGE) fortresses in the south along and in the Nile, hundreds of miles (they were infantry, remember) south of their "border". Why? We don't no. Evidence shows us that during the Old Kingdom these sites were already inhabited. Both kingdoms (probably) relied on infantry. During the Middle Kingdom Palestine was regularly conquered by the Egyptians: the Old Kingdom could have done the same, but we simply don't know if they did. Now we come to the magnificent descriptions of the famous battle of Kadesh (and others): Kadesh is famous only because Ramesses II depicted it on every wall he could lay his hands on and from a few official letters between the Egyptian and Hittite courts. However, nothing much is said in the actual sources, and depending on the imagination of the translator (or better, those who read the translations later on) anything could have happened: one could even argue that there never was a battle but only (possibly) a punishment (decimation) of the Egyptian army. Ramesses II real achievements are his great age and the fact that he chiselled out the name of past pharaos in monuments and replaced it with his own (and in so doing probably claimed a lot of victories). For that matter Ramesses III achieved much more important things. Another problem arises: we all "know" R III was a son of R II, don't we? Well: maybe that was the other way around! More and more evidence suggests that the entire chronology of the 17th to 10th century BC (and maybe even more recent) has to be drastically rewritten, with radical shifts and changeovers in Egyptian history and the total disappearance of the so called Dark Ages in surrounding countries. It could even be possible that Homerus and Ramesses III shook hands! So why bother with an Egyptian army at all? Because it looks great, just as any other fantasy army does! And forget about the Osrpey book (or any other) on this subject. None of the authors have ever read the actual Egyptian texts. However, as an Egyptologist I have (including the Hittite letters) and I've researched the so called Battle of Kadesh and the Nubian fortresses (and NO the pyramids were NOT build with slave labour (we think)). If you want a historically (more) accurate army, try the Assyrians: their approach was more like ours in regard to writing things down. Maybe we COULD have known a great deal about the Egyptian army, but the scrolls on this subject were burned (with maybe a million others) in the great libraries of Pergamon and Alexandria, thanks to those "great" generals of days gone like Caesar and August (is there any civilisaton the Romans did not destroy?). We only know that some of those scrolls went back to "before time itself" as Egyptian priests patiently copied any scroll that was starting to decay. A damned shame it is! Sorry to have burst bubbles . . . but THE TRUTH MUST BE SAID (or is it "SAD"? heh-heh) Cheers (and don't cry: just add some mummies and field them against dwarves) Back to Dispatch Oct. 99 Table of Contents Back to Dispatch List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1999 by HMGS Mid-South This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com