History According to Bob: Ancient Warfare, Ancient Workers

Choice excerpts:

Sea Peoples Part 2 - The Peleset:
The Philistines rose to a position of power in the region due to their military superiority over the local population, because they were iron users. There are lots of military engagements that are found in the Old Testament. The Philistines did have a law that stated if you were a non Philistine and you held more than a small handful of iron, you were subject to death because they were so concerned that their control, the people they were controlling would learn the technique, and there'd be more of them than there were Philistines.

Hyksos Part 2:
Analogy on the issue with training with the between the composite bow that the Hyksos had and the English longbow which took lots of practice. You needed lots of strength - the bowman in the English army during the Hundred Years War were almost deformed from the muscles that they built up in order to fire it

Ancient Siege Warfare Part 1:
If you just take the walled-in section. One of the earliest cities is of course Jericho and earliest Jerico is only ten acres so you might be able to put two thousand people in that. The general rule of thumb that archaeologists use for cities is two hundred people per acre. Jerusalem at the time of Sennacherib was probably about thirty five acres

Background to the Battle of Marathon Part 1:
What do they have the plumes over the top of their heads? Well that's to help entangle arrows coming down besides giving you notification where who's commanding where

Background to the Battle of Marathon Part 3:
If the Greek hoplite was outfitted with a full armour, that would mean that only about six percent of his total body area was uncovered. And most of these areas didn't have any major organs. For example your arms - you're going to have completely exposed arms, you're not gonna have gloves on. You may have a bracelets of some sort on the wrists but they're not going to have full grieves like you have in the Middle Ages, so that's open. The face is open, in some cases the throat is open and you would have your legs between the knees and the upper thigh - that would be open so you know those are the main areas. In recreated tests both broadhead and narrow tipped arrows were fired into replica Greek linen thorax cuirasses - this would be either linen or leather. The range that they were fired at was twenty five meters. The modern bow with the fifty five pound pull weight or draw weight - which is actually greater than that of the ancient Persian bow, most of the arrows - if they penetrated at all went in only about one or two millimeters. Of course the curved surface of a bronze plate cuirass was even more effective

Marathon Through the Eyes of Four Historians Part 1:
The Greek trophy which tends to mark the spot where the enemy turned and ran - so if you find a column on a Greek battlefield, that usually marks the point in a victory where the enemy turned and ran off. The interesting to note is that the word trophy that we use today is derived from a Greek word which means turn. So the trophy would have marked the spot where the heaviest fighting took place

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Ancient Beauty Workers Part 1:
The Greek and Romans did not believe tattoos had any kind of beauty aspect. They used tattoos to humiliate people. So they're used on criminals, on prisoners, on slaves basically to label people. They referred to tattooing - or the Romans did - as stigmata or skin prick. Or to cut the skin with a sharp instrument.

04 June Ancient Beauty Workers Part 2:
It was also believed that a talisman garland would offer you protection. For example, a garland o wreath made with amethyst, roses and ivy leaves was supposed to protect you from drunkenness. You ever seen those paintings where you see all the people at an orgy or at a festival with the funny little hats? Well, that's supposed to keep them from getting drunk. Obviously, it doesn't work but they do look good

Ancient City Workers Part 1:
[On firefighting] The main weapon that was incredible at this time is the ancient fire extinguisher, which is called an astum [sp?]. It's a clay pot filled with chemicals that smother fires. And you go, wow, how did they come up with that? But if you think about it, if the ancients are good enough to make Greek fire, surely they had something around to counter in case of some kind of accident. You just take the clay pot, you put your chemicals in it, and you throw it like a hand grenade.