This axe was invented in Egypt along with the Khopesh. The Egyptian military was formed since the 1st dynasty during Narmer's rule and is one of the oldest armies in the world. Egypt is considered the mother of the world for a reason. Half the things we use today originated from there.
definately set the standard for militaries of the time, you see the Israelites, and a lot of other neighbouring cultures using similar army structures and weapons.
The Epsilon Axe in Egypt was almost abandoned/displaced by other type of axe when khopesh arrived. The duck-bill axe, which itself developed as a derivation of the Epsilon Axe in the Levant at the early centuries of the 2nd millenium. Usual axes before where, the Flat Axe all back from the Old Kingdom to the Middle Kingdom (around the Middle Kingdom onwards will be only find in building contexts), the Sickle-Axe (sort-a-way the ancestor of the Khopesh) with about the same chronology, and the Epsilon Axe (in Egyptology called scalloped or tanged). The flat axe by the way have some incredibely butifull decorated models. Would be nice to see a video dedicated to different Egypt military periods, specially since those videos usually fall in the same stereotype, cloth over the head (somewhat that only happen in a short span of time during the Ramesside Period, probably with a helm under it) instead of the much more frecuent "Nubian Wig", late 18th dynasty shield, no armor, kilt and the classical linen "cingulum". And at some point the same weird combination of anachronistic elements is descouraging. Take in mind we are talking about almost 4000 years of History (imagine doing a combination into a single "form" of 4000 years of western military gear). Anyways, a video on the topic is always very welcomed, hope u do more of the very underrated Egyptian, Levantine and Near Eastern military history. About Egypt I let u a few nice papers about some gears (very easy to find online): Wernick, N., (2015). Ancient Egyptian Shields and their Handles: A Functional Explanation of New Kingdom Developments. Cartwright, C., (-). Wooden Egyptian archery bows in the collections of the British Museum. Shaw, I. (1991). Egyptian Warfare Weapons. Hamblin, W. J., (2006). Warfare in the Ancient Near East to 1600 BC. History and Warfare.
From what i can gather, the duck bill axe was more popular in the Syria portion of the Egyptian world, although it's very clearly inspired by the Epsilon Axe. I would like to do some videos on Egypts ancient bronze age military, probably will do a historical warfare series once my current 3rd century Ancient Italy rabbit hole is over, but theres still so much to cover! We havent even got to the Greeks of Italy yet!
@@AncientHistoryGuy well duck-bill axe was indeed an innovation of the syro-cananean pops, at least from the archaeology pov. Btw I forgot about another book, more visual and easy to find (also less academic, but pretty good anyways), is quite useful to get started in other cultures also: Stillman, N. (1984). Armies of the Ancient Near East 3,000 BC to 539 BC I'm looking forward to your next video, being of any topic :)
Possibly in the future! We've only just got into the weird axes of ancient Egypt! Still got to do the Fan, Duckbill, and just the plain normal battle axe!
Could you do more of these videos please josh, ive forgotten what ive already requested and i dont know whats on your list.. Also in my opinion, i personally like to this axe more then the dane axe for a few reasons but mainly its combat ability and material cheapness but because of its shape, to my knowledge of wepons it would be even worse against trees and as you said armor, but edged wepons aren't usually designed to fight heavy armor Personally i would think it would make a good helburt (aka aid a point to the tip for thrusts but i could also see issues with the weight, But if it was one handed, good luck thrusting with that weight, its possible it was 2 handed but with those big shelds im going to say that was not well used, How many times have you seen it used with shelds? If its only a few times it is possible they were only usee by elit troops as 1 handing it dosent make that much sense considering its length so was likely 2 handed at times, possibly with the sheld as you said, Mean while lower teir troops just 2 handed it or may of had a version with a shorter shaft for hand grip alowing for it to be one handed better Sorry if this sounds like garbage im tired and probably did sound like i made much sense lol,
The epsilon axe could of been affixed to the haft slightly lower allowing a spear cap, but why stop there? They could of put a blunt metal balancing cap and straighten the haft to make a swiss army weapon as you could reverse the grip and now have a sweet bludgeoning mace with a spiked pommel and bladed hand guard. They were brushing their fingers against fantasy weapon greatness but did not seize it. :(
The technology to create halberds unlocks further down the tech tree, in a later Era. The egyptians could have rushed it but it would've meant neglecting other areas
This ax was used in the 1930s when Imhotep was resurrected and on his way to fight the scorpion king.
This axe was invented in Egypt along with the Khopesh. The Egyptian military was formed since the 1st dynasty during Narmer's rule and is one of the oldest armies in the world.
Egypt is considered the mother of the world for a reason. Half the things we use today originated from there.
definately set the standard for militaries of the time, you see the Israelites, and a lot of other neighbouring cultures using similar army structures and weapons.
Definitely one of my favorite axes
The Epsilon Axe in Egypt was almost abandoned/displaced by other type of axe when khopesh arrived. The duck-bill axe, which itself developed as a derivation of the Epsilon Axe in the Levant at the early centuries of the 2nd millenium. Usual axes before where, the Flat Axe all back from the Old Kingdom to the Middle Kingdom (around the Middle Kingdom onwards will be only find in building contexts), the Sickle-Axe (sort-a-way the ancestor of the Khopesh) with about the same chronology, and the Epsilon Axe (in Egyptology called scalloped or tanged).
The flat axe by the way have some incredibely butifull decorated models.
Would be nice to see a video dedicated to different Egypt military periods, specially since those videos usually fall in the same stereotype, cloth over the head (somewhat that only happen in a short span of time during the Ramesside Period, probably with a helm under it) instead of the much more frecuent "Nubian Wig", late 18th dynasty shield, no armor, kilt and the classical linen "cingulum".
And at some point the same weird combination of anachronistic elements is descouraging. Take in mind we are talking about almost 4000 years of History (imagine doing a combination into a single "form" of 4000 years of western military gear).
Anyways, a video on the topic is always very welcomed, hope u do more of the very underrated Egyptian, Levantine and Near Eastern military history.
About Egypt I let u a few nice papers about some gears (very easy to find online):
Wernick, N., (2015). Ancient Egyptian Shields and their Handles: A Functional Explanation of New Kingdom Developments.
Cartwright, C., (-). Wooden Egyptian archery bows in the collections of the British Museum.
Shaw, I. (1991). Egyptian Warfare Weapons.
Hamblin, W. J., (2006). Warfare in the Ancient Near East to 1600 BC. History and Warfare.
From what i can gather, the duck bill axe was more popular in the Syria portion of the Egyptian world, although it's very clearly inspired by the Epsilon Axe.
I would like to do some videos on Egypts ancient bronze age military, probably will do a historical warfare series once my current 3rd century Ancient Italy rabbit hole is over, but theres still so much to cover! We havent even got to the Greeks of Italy yet!
@@AncientHistoryGuy well duck-bill axe was indeed an innovation of the syro-cananean pops, at least from the archaeology pov.
Btw I forgot about another book, more visual and easy to find (also less academic, but pretty good anyways), is quite useful to get started in other cultures also:
Stillman, N. (1984). Armies of the Ancient Near East 3,000 BC to 539 BC
I'm looking forward to your next video, being of any topic :)
Excellent stuff. Any chance of a study on the Labrys?
do we chop, jab, slash
Possibly in the future! We've only just got into the weird axes of ancient Egypt! Still got to do the Fan, Duckbill, and just the plain normal battle axe!
I would have liked to see some images of ancient ax heads.
Could you do more of these videos please josh, ive forgotten what ive already requested and i dont know whats on your list..
Also in my opinion, i personally like to this axe more then the dane axe for a few reasons but mainly its combat ability and material cheapness but because of its shape, to my knowledge of wepons it would be even worse against trees and as you said armor, but edged wepons aren't usually designed to fight heavy armor
Personally i would think it would make a good helburt (aka aid a point to the tip for thrusts but i could also see issues with the weight,
But if it was one handed, good luck thrusting with that weight, its possible it was 2 handed but with those big shelds im going to say that was not well used,
How many times have you seen it used with shelds? If its only a few times it is possible they were only usee by elit troops as 1 handing it dosent make that much sense considering its length so was likely 2 handed at times, possibly with the sheld as you said,
Mean while lower teir troops just 2 handed it or may of had a version with a shorter shaft for hand grip alowing for it to be one handed better
Sorry if this sounds like garbage im tired and probably did sound like i made much sense lol,
Yeah not reading all that..
@@jimjones1130 don't blame you 🤣🤣
Seems to be a common agreement that the Egyptians could have used it as a sort of Pole axe!
Thanks for showing off this weapon. :) can you show off more weapons. :)
How about the Egyptian Fan Axe?
chola dynasty history please make video
interesting, i never heard of this weapon before
Thankyou! And now you have!
HALLEJUAH FINNALLY MORE HITTITE EVEN IF ONLY A CAMEO!!!!
Will eventually get round to the Hittites!
@@AncientHistoryGuy hooray!!!!
❤❤i like Egypt
The Epsilon Axe reminds me the bardiche
The epsilon axe could of been affixed to the haft slightly lower allowing a spear cap, but why stop there? They could of put a blunt metal balancing cap and straighten the haft to make a swiss army weapon as you could reverse the grip and now have a sweet bludgeoning mace with a spiked pommel and bladed hand guard. They were brushing their fingers against fantasy weapon greatness but did not seize it. :(
wait till will get into the Fan Axes, those things are just plain weird.
The technology to create halberds unlocks further down the tech tree, in a later Era. The egyptians could have rushed it but it would've meant neglecting other areas
@@steelcladCompliant True, and if you don't have chariots by early game, are you even playing Egyptians correctly?
🗿👍
AI?
😂😂😂