The origin of organized violence in world history is usually associated with the region of the ancient Near East, a location that encompasses Egypt, the Levant, and Mesopotamia.  There is little archaeological evidence of arms or armor that survived from this early era, but scholars do have some interesting pictorial evidence from grave finds that provide important primary source material for our understanding of the origins of warfare in world history. Here, the earliest example of the depiction of warfare associated with the rise of civilization comes from Egypt in the form of the Narmer Palette, a 25-inch-tall cosmetic pallet portraying the unification of Upper and lower Egypt by King Narmer, sometime around 3100 BCE. The Narmer Palette is two-sided, with each side containing important scenes often interpreted as the ruler of Upper Egypt (the South) conquering Lower Egypt (the North). Narmer is represented on the palette twice in human form once on each side, portrayed as a larger-than-life conqueror marching with his troops towards decapitated enemies, their heads placed between their legs, while on the other side he is wearing a hybrid crown made up of crowns from each region and is seen smiting an enemy with a mace. Additionally, there is some speculation that the depiction of a bull attacking city walls is the pharaoh in animal form, perhaps the first pictorial example of siege warfare in history.

Farther east in Mesopotamia, a region between the lower Tigris and Euphrates rivers in what is today modern Iraq, the early Sumerians are credited with inventing numerous military technologies, including war wagons, bronze maces, sickle-swords, socket spears and axes, and the defensive technologies of copper and bronze helmets, armored cloaks, and bronze armor. Many of these weapons, like the mace, spear, and axe, were present in the pre-Neolithic and Neolithic Periods as stone weapons, but the Sumerians improved their lethality by making them out of copper and later, bronze. In response to the increased lethality of metal weapons, personal body armor also developed, made first out of leather, then copper, and later, out of bronze. By 2100 BCE, bronze scale armor was in use, and by 1700 BCE widely used by Mesopotamian, and later, Egyptian armies.

The standard shock weapons in Sumerian armies were the long heavy spear, battle axe, and the dagger. The effectiveness of the heavy thrusting spear on the battlefields of Mesopotamia impacted the tactical development of ancient armies more than any other weapon. If soldiers armed with the spear were to fight effectively in groups, they had to arrange themselves in close-order formation, giving rise to the first heavy infantry battle square in Western Civilization. Unfortunately, historians know little about ancient Mesopotamian military formations and tactics because kings used writing to commemorate significant military victories, not the way the battle was fought. Occasionally, the same events are recorded in pictorial form. The most impressive of these early illustrations of the Sumerian army at war are provided by the “War Panel” side of the Royal Standard of Ur from the city of Ur and the Stele of Vultures from the city-state of Lagash, both dating from around the middle of the third millennium BCE.

The Royal Standard of Ur dates to the mid-third millennium BCE and measures 8.5 by 19.5 inches. It is made of wood and is inlaid with lapis lazuli, shell, and red limestone. The box was restored due to deterioration over the years of the glue used to set the mosaic, showing a banquet scene on one side, and the Sumerian army on campaign on the other. These martial depictions are presented in three horizontal registers (top, middle, and bottom), referred to collectively as the War Panel. It depicts a Sumerian ruler in the center of the top register, oversized compared to the other figures on the panel.  He walks in front of his own bodyguard towards prisoners of war, naked and bound.  The middle register shows a row of six infantry wearing the same panoply marching towards prisoners, while the bottom register illustrates four-wheeled wagons pulled by four onagers (an early form of domesticated ass) trampling their enemies. These war wagons were manned by a driver and an attendant armed with axe or javelin, with additional javelins in a quiver attached to the wagon. The War Panel of the Royal Standard of Ur reveals a sophisticated form of early combined arms warfare, a precursor to a swifter form of battle using domesticated horses and two-wheeled chariots in conjunction with infantry as illustrated in the battle of Qadesh between the Egyptians and the Hittites.

The Stele of Vultures commemorates a victory of King Eannatum of Lagash (precise reign dates unknown, but sometime between 2600 and 2500 BCE) over the king of Umma and takes its name from a section fragment of the stele depicting a defeated enemy whose abandoned bodies are shown being picked over by vultures and lions. The battle scene fragment shows the army at the very moment of victory, marching over the bodies of their defeated and slain enemies. In the upper register the king leads a troop of heavy infantry, while in the lower register the king is shown riding in a four wheeled battle wagon pulled by four onagers in the van of a troop of light infantry in a scene like that portrayed on the Standard of Ur.

The Sumerian light infantry is depicted without protective equipment and armed with a long spear in the left hand and a battle axe in the right. It is not known whether this unarmored light infantry used their spears for shock combat or as throwing weapons. The Sumerian heavy infantry is portrayed in formation, with the unnamed sculptor carving helmeted spearmen, organized six files deep with an eight-man front, with the front rank bearing large rectangular shields. What is interesting is the apparent standardized equipment and number of spears projecting between the shields. The common panoply and close order suggest that these soldiers were well trained, uniformed, and equipped to fight as a corps, anticipating later Greek, Macedonian, and Roman heavy infantry formations. Still, without corroborating textual evidence it is unknown whether this early battle square was a common battlefield formation, if it was capable of offensive articulation, or if it served primarily as a defensive formation.  Taken together, these three artifacts from ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia illustrate the central position of organized warfare in early ancient Near Eastern civilizations.

Suggested Readings:

Carey, Brian Todd, Joshua B. Allfree, and John Cairns. Warfare in the Ancient World. Pen and Sword, 2006.

Cotterall, Arthur. Where War Began: A Military History of the Middle East from the Birth of Civilization to Alexander the Great and the Romans.  Stackpole Books, 2022.

Ferrill, Arther. The Origins of War from the Stone Age to Alexander the Great. Revised Edition. Westview Press, 1997. 

Gabriel, Richard A., and Karen S. Metz. From Sumer to Rome: The Military Capabilities of Ancient Armies. Greenwood Press, 1991.