The Real Top Ten Ancient Weapons

reply to post by Cuhail


I agree Cuhail. The hand is the # 1 ancient weapon!
As far as sword combat is concerned I have always felt drawn to the sword and ancient combat in general. I have used swords, crossbows, long bows, spears and axes, and I feel I am quailfied to speak on this subject.

Interesting thread, wrong forum though, going to move it to Weaponry.

To the topic, strong consideration to the crossbow. What about chemical warfare? You're thing, huh? Isn't that new? Nope a dead carcass in the water supply during a siege is a formidable weapon and one used for millenia.

Not necessarily a weapon but tactics is also important. Oh, and the catapult, the first artillery I believe.

If you want to talk about defense I'll take high stone walls and a bow with plenty of arrows to your shield and I will win! Whats next?

A series of encirclements to trump my walls? well I call reinforcements with calvary!!

Sorry.

Seriously though. Even most Norse gone a'viking carried spears and wooden or leather shields. Even after the Axe became popular amongst others. Have to remember that the "viking" age only last about 300 yrs and was pretty much right out by 1150 or so.

reply to post by the way


Sorry my mistake, I am not familiar with the widespread use of these weapons i.e. grenades and ancient guns. Please provide a link or two for me so I can do more research! And please correct me if I am wrong but these weapons were confined to the Orient for many years before becoming "known" to the western world. My range of knowledge is not that broad as to include all ancient weapons.

reply to post by Tinhatman


How could I ever discount the use and importance of the spear! My mistake! Yes the Norse did use spears as often if not more than they used swords or axes. And you are right about the walls! LOL you got me there!

There's one weapon that everyone here is forgetting. The one weapon that tops them all.

The Holy Handgrenade of Antioch.

Accept no substitutes.

reply to post by BroonStone


You seem to be getting defensive now ( in more ways than one!), which wasn't my intention! Absolutely right about them all being historically confined to the orient, by the way-think about how much how our leaders have tried to prevent the zenith of our modern day armouries ( nukes) from falling into enemy hands for so long? Sadly, i'm not very techie so can't provide links to the info you want but its all out there,mate-good hunting.

reply to post by the way


You are right to say I am defensive, but only when I am being attacked!

reply to post by BroonStone


I'm not attacking you, mate- just trying to add something to the thread and hopefully encourage you to broaden your views? As you and other posters have commented various things like training,stealth and armour can all be considered "weapons" so we are opening up the debate rather than just printing up-
1) axe, 2) spear etc. or was that what you wanted?

What about the big weapons? They are weapons too. So dont forget awesome things like the Catapult, Onager, Trebuchet (in China in ancient times), Mangonel and Ballista.

Plus what about Slings and Slingshots?

How about ancient Greek Fire, like from the Pelopponnesian War kind?

Don't forget the Hand Ballistas of Greece and Rome, aka Crossbows.

I would also suggest Toxins and Poisons.

I would also consider Chariots, Horses, Dogs, and Elephants.



[edit on 27/3/08 by MikeboydUS]

Yo yos and boomerangs, how's your eye-hand coordination? (think frisbee of death, and it's quiet)

yo yo would be a knock out.....


talk about "special" forces

Well, you asked about the top ten ancient weapons. But I think that your question needs to be segmented because there are a lot of weapons that most people don’t know about that have been extremely effective in combat. But because they were not weapons designed for the military, they have mostly been overlooked by the modern world.

I am taking Kung Fu as of late and did you know that they have over 100 different weapons? These weapons are more for personal defense and covert tactics than what is suitable for military usage. These weapons are not designed for use in single line combat. More like the sword, they are designed for close in fighting, or for taking out a single target.

Also, in my opinion, these weapons are more relevant in today’s world because most people need self defense and are not a part of an organized militia that traines in line combat tactics.

Here is my list of top ten ancient personal defense weapons.

The Butterfly Swords

Traditionally, the blade of a butterfly sword is only sharpened along half of its edge - from the middle of the blade to the tip. The blade from the midpoint down is left blunt so that it can be used to deliver non-lethal strikes and to block without damaging the sharpened edge.

TOAS Nabard Kung fu teaches these weapons and let me tell you, they are very deadly. The handguard doubles as a set of knuckles and because the blades are rather light and broad they are very fast and good at blocking. The blades are wide and almost impossible to grab because you can’t wrap your hand around the entire width as you can a katana.

Chinese War Sword

As cold steel states, “a well balanced weapon that's unbelievably fast and agile”. I agree. When looking at a huge thing like this you say to yourself, yeah right, that things too slow. But you should see someone who is trained with it use it. Its handle is long, but the blade is relatively short. To think about this weapons it is best to imagine how a short staff is used. It has its drawbacks, but it has its advantages too. I would use this over a fighting ax any day of the week

The Rope Dart


Being one of the most difficult weapons to master, the rope (soft weapons) are very unknown to most people. However, they are extremely deadly. The can be completely concealed from all view until used, and because of their speed and range, they are extremely effective first strike weapons. Rope weapons can be almost any range that is needed. There are many different tactics with this weapon. But esentially, because rope is almost always a necessary item to have for any covert action, this training makes the most use of equipment most often seen as benign and not dangerous.

The Hard Whip


This weapon is used for breaking swords, along with many other things. Basically it is a steel staff of sorts. Sword to sword combat was seen as almost unnecessary when steels of certain hardness were obtained. Even today, police officers around the globe carry a version of this weapon (collapsible Baton) that is also designed to break swords, and skulls.

More Later…

My third choice would have to be the bow.

@Hot_Wings: I don't know about you, but I wouldn't attempt to grab a katana's blade lol.

In fact, even my superblunt decorational swords are too ''deadly'' to be grabbed.

There's not too many people I can spar with, so sometimes I just do slow-motion fights with 2 decorational swords for fun. (katana's too sharp and I only have one, which means that someone else would have to use the wakizashi or tanto, not exactly a 1 on 1 fight lol)

At one point, I did a very slow slow-motion ''stab'' at my friend, he tried to grab the blade and got injured doing it.

I laughed at him for his stupidity to use his hands to block the blade rather than his own blade.

My friend you have to remind yourself of the times. When these weapons were used chain mail gloves were around. If your friend even had good leather gloves on he could grab the weapon and enable him to counter attack you with his weapon.

The point wasn't whether grabbing a sword barehanded was a smart idea. Obviously, it isn't. The point was that because the butterfly swords and war sword are so wide, it is almost impossible to get your hand around it sufficient enough to grip it well.

As well, there are a lot of other weapons that are also designed to trap a sword, but these tactics will not work on butterfly swords. Nunchucks, for instance, are used to trap katanas and other thin weapons in well trained hands.

As more a weapon accessory than a weapon, the Woomera is an Australian Aborigine spear throwing device.

en.wikipedia.org...

Makes the spear a much deadlier weapon.

It's impossible to decide a simple top ten of weapons as every weapon is made for a certain type of warfare and against a type of opponent.

Using a katana to hack through a shield wall would be pointless, a battle axe or a polehammer is much better in that. One on one the katana would be better. Stopping a cavalry charge with axes is not as effective as using pikes or long spears. Polehammer is useless in dense woods, i'd rather carry a shorth spear. (you can't swing in woods, you need to stab)

In addition one needs to concider the level of armour on your opponent. Swords are barely effective against platemails, axes, pics and hammers are much better.

If i would have to pick a single weapon for all situation i'd pick a halbard (or voulge or billhook). Followed closely by a shield and one handed axe combination.

[edit on 28-3-2008 by northwolf]

I too agree with the light hand ax as a prime weapon. It is very fast, adaptable. easy to use, throwable,[if multiple axes are available] can be used defensively.
On the other hand man developed different weapons to combat other weapons. A sword is useless against the range of a bow or in close quarters. An ax or knife is useless against the sword but good in close quarters etc. All weapons have a counterpart that makes them useless.
As to catching a sword with your hands, someone has watched to many movies and or seen to many fake black belt demos.
The light hand ax is still used today as a combat weapon and utility tool. It was used by spec ops in Vietnam. However I do not believe it was originally Norse I believe it is much older than that.

respectfully

reluctantpawn

I would also like to say that the sling is also an exemplary weapon that is ancient in origin. It is lightweight. has an effective range, and can be quit devastating.
The atlatl or throwing spear might also be included in the top ten ancient weapons list as well. It has a remarkable range compared to the hand thrown spear. It is nearly the range of a light bow. All of these weapons can be mastered in a short time as well.

respectfully

reluctantpawn

Fourth on my list is the sword, any kind.
Man I had no idea this would turn out to be such a great discussion! wow!
I have to agree with the atlatl, but I would put it in the category of bow or spear.
Also I have been researching the Chinese grenade and I believe it to be a most devestating and powerful weapon, although I don't think it saw widespread use.
The earliest known grenades comes from China in the Song dynasty 960A.D. to 1269A.D.
But the Song Dynasty engineer Su Song readily admitted to building off of the acheivements of the ancients like Zhang Heng who was a master engineer and lived from around 78A.D. to 139A.D.
So the Chinese could have had advanced warfare tech. as far back as B.C.
times! The more we dig the more we find! How old is civilization?