Eliott says that Egyptians didn’t treat the javelin as a disposable ordinance like an arrow. At close range, they would use the javelin to thrust at the enemy behind their shields, but they could also launch the armor-piercing javelin at attacking chariots or lines of infantry. New Kingdom soldiers would carry a quiver of javelins over their shoulder like arrows.
It also functioned in close combat as a short spear about a meter long (3.3 feet).
The Egyptian javelin was more than a hand-launched missile. The Egyptians’ shields were utilitarian-three wooden planks bound with glue and animal hides-but they transformed into a formidable defense when the infantry closed ranks in a phalanx formation. The Syrians showed them how to forge simple bronze speartips with a hollow socket that fit tightly over a wooden shaft. “You could outfit hundreds of recruits with them, perfect for the warfare of the period.”īefore the Hyksos invasion, Egyptian speartips were wooden and prone to splintering on contact. “At a time when metal was so precious, all you needed was a small bit of bronze at the tip,” says Paul Elliott, a historian and reenactor who wrote Warfare in New Kingdom Egypt.
