Battering ram and siege tower
Ariete y torre de asedio
- Date
- c. 1900 BCE · confidence medium
- Place
- Mari (Tell Hariri), Syria; Beni Hasan, Egypt
- Credited to
- The Amorite kingdom of Mari and Middle Kingdom Egypt
- Field
- Conflict
What it is
Beam with a metal head suspended beneath a covered mobile structure to batter walls, together with towers and earthen ramps. The Mari letters and the paintings at Beni Hasan (c. 1900 BCE) document their use.
What it led to
- Siege warfare as a specialism with engineers and sappers
- A race between fortification (glacis, rammed-earth walls) and siegecraft
- Systematic conquest and destruction of cities, the basis of territorial empires
Built on
- City wall with towers and gatesc. 3000 BCE
- Ox cart
- Bronze carpentry tools
Made possible
- Assyrian siege engines
- Hellenistic siege tower
- Glacis and sloped wall