The Earliest Sieges in History (and How they Worked)

When did the first sieges take place, what did they look like, and what siege equipment was used? In this video, we address these questions and search for verifiable traces of the earliest sieges in history.

Some must read mlitary history books:

#history #documentary #education

Intro: 00:00-01:11
Learn languages with Babbel: 01:11-02:51
The First Sieges in History 02:51-05:06
Chapter 1: The Earliest Sieges 05:06-08:32
Chapter 2: Piecing Together Bronze Age Sieges 08:32-13:47
Chapter 3: Bronze Age Siege Engines 13:47-18:32
Epilogue 18:32-19:40

Bibliography
Armstrong, Jeremy/Trundle, Matthew, Sieges in the Mediterranean World, in: idem (eds.), Brill's Companion to Sieges in the Ancient Mediterranean, Boston/Leiden 2019.
Burke, Aaron, Walled Up to Heaven: The Evolution of Middle Bronze Age Fortification Strategies in the Levant, Boston/Leiden 2008.
Edwards, I. E. S./Gadd, C. J./Hammond, N. G. L. (eds.), The Cambridge Ancient History vol. 1 p. 2 (Early History of the Middle East), Cambridge 2008.
Genz, Hermann, Attacking and Defending Fortified Sites in the Early Bronze Age Levant: The Role of Archery, in: Blum, Stephan et Al. (eds.), From Past to Present. Studies in Memory of Manfred O. Korfmann, Bonn 2020, pp. 25-32.
Heagren, Brett H., The 'Development' of Egyptian Assault Warfare (Late Predynastic Period to Dynasty XX), in: Armstrong, Jeremy/Trundle, Matthew, (eds.), Brill's Companion to Sieges in the Ancient Mediterranean, Boston/Leiden 2019, p. 69-110.
Köpp-Jünk, Heidi, Wagons and Carts and their Significance in Ancient Egypt, in: Journal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections 9 (1016), pp. 14-58.
Mourad-Cizek, Anna-Latifa, Siege Scenes of the Old Kingdom, in: Bulletin of the Australian Centre for Egyptology 22 (2011), pp. 135-158.
Schrott, Raoul, Gilgamesh, Munich 2001.
Schulman, Robert A., The Battle Scenes of the Middle Kingdom, in: JSSEA 12 (1982), pp. 163-185.
Stager, Lawrence E., The Massive Middle Bronze Fortifications-How did they Work?, in British Archaelogical Records 17:30 (1991).
Wilson, Peter, Summary: Under Siege? Defining Siege Warfare in World History, in: Fischer-Kattner, Anke/Ostwald, Jamel (eds.), The World of the Siege. Representations of Early Modern Positional Warfare, Leiden/Boston 2019, pp. 288-306.
Winlock, Herbert E., The Slain Soldiers of Neb-hepet-Re' Mentu-hotpe, New York 1945.

[attemptedunkindness]

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."

[ultraranger]

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 🙏

[bgt]

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!”

[edwardofchide]

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

[orktv]

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

[ionicafardefrica]

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

[erhanozaydin]

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.

[GregoryPrimosch]

Chinese sieges often used the tactic of flooding the city by redirecting rivers. It would be good to have a video on that tactic.

[othelloperrello]

Thank you for giving slingers the credit they deserve. I love the idea of slingers and archers working together. I would totally expect to see archers in front as they are able to aim, with slingers running support bombing or running skirmishes as needed.
Great analysis, rhank you

[clintmoor]

this is pure quality. great content. other youtubers could learn something here in my opinion.

[ScarletRebel]

These animations you put in your vids always makes this one of my top fav history channels on YouTube

[wiktorberski]

A really interesting piece of human history. So thank you very much

[barbariancataphract]

I actually really wanted to read about Bronze Age sieges, you made my day <3

[RealEvilLordExdeath]

The bronze age and its warfare is so interesting please more

[isshin]

Please create a video about castles/ fortresses, how and what they were made of from the earliest times

[billmiller]

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.

[sdhflkjshdfskdhfskljdhf]

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.

[thenextbondvillainklaussch]

Excellent break down of the information, and excellent Graphics to help with the explanation 10/10

[Metachris]

Absolutely great video for this interesting topic!
But I did have a problem trying to stay focused on the discussion when a town or location was being pinged on the map. The sound used was unfortunately really distracting.
Otherwise, love your content and hope to see more soon!

[Thraim.]

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