Cerro de las Mesas indicates that warfare was critical in the
development and downfall of classic Mayan civilization.
Weaponry prevalent throughout South America, includ-
ing the Chaco region, which comprises territories in north-
eastern Argentina, eastern Bolivia, and western Paraguay,
shows that warfare was a main concern, and weapons like
bows and arrows, spears, and clubs, mostly made of wood,
were quite common. Bolas, stones connected by cords,
thrown to entangle and fell prey or an enemy, were a typical
weapon. In northern Peru’s Moche culture painted pottery
dated to the sixth century c.e. provides a stylized glimpse of
the Moche warrior and his weaponry and armor. Two ani-
mated warriors, their faces covered with fox face masks, wear-
ing decorated helmets and belted tunics, carry round shields
and war clubs. Celebrating warriors on painted pottery shows
clear veneration of the warrior culture.See also art; borders and frontiers; ceramics and pot-
tery; death and burial practices; empires and dynas-
ties; foreigners and barbarians; hunting, fishing, and
gathering; metallurgy; military; war and conquest.FURTHER READING
Simon Anglin, Rob S. Rice, Phyllis Jestice, et al., Fighting Techniques
of the Ancient World (3000 bce to 500 ad): Equipment, Combat
Skills, and Tactics (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2002).
M. C. Bishop and J. C. N. Coulston, Roman Military Equipment
from the Punic Wars to the Fall of Rome, 2nd ed. (Oxford. U.K.:
Oxbow Press, 2006).
John Carman and Anthony Harding, eds., Ancient Warfare: Ar-
chaeological Perspectives (Stroud, U.K.: Sutton, 1999).
James T. Chambers and Spencer C. Tucker, Ancient Weapons: An
Illustrated History of Th eir Impact (Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-
CLIO, 2007).
Arthur Cotterell, Chariot: From Chariot to Tank, the Astounding
Rise and Fall of the World’s First War Machine (Woodstock,
N.Y.: Overlook Press, 2004).
Will Fowler, Ancient Weapons: Th e Story of Weaponry and Warfare
through the Ages (Darby, Penn.: Diane Publishing Company,
1999).
Sir John Winthrop Hackett, ed., Warfare in the Ancient World (Lon-
don: Sidgwick and Jackson, 1989).
Victor Davis Hansen, Th e Western Way of War (Berkeley: Univer-
sity of California Press, 2000).
Lawrence H. Keeley, War be fore Civ iliz ation (New York: Oxford
University Press, 1996).
Eric W. Marsden, Greek and Roman Artillery: Historical Develop-
ment (Oxford, U.K.: Clarendon Press, 1969).
John R. Mixter, “Man’s First Long-Range Missile Weapon, the Sling
Was a Deadly Military Asset in Skilled Hands,” Military His-
tory 18, no. 3 (August 2001): 12–13.
Helmut Nickel, Arms and Armor in Africa (New York: Atheneum,
1971).
Daithi O’Hogain, Celtic Warriors: Th e Armies of One of the First
Great Peoples in Europe (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1999)
Robert B. Partridge, Fighting Pharaohs: Weapons and Warfare in
Ancient Egypt (Manchester, U.K.: Peartree Publishing, 2002).H. Russell Robinson, Th e Armour of Imperial Rome (New York:
Scribner, 1975).
Ian Shaw, Egyptian Warfare and Weapons (Princess Risborough,
U.K.: Shire Publications, 1991).
Anthony Snodgrass, Arms and Armor of the Greeks (Baltimore:
Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997).
Christopher Spring, African Arms and Armor (Washington, D.C.:
Smithsonian Institution Press, 1993).
Jwing-Ming Yang, Ancient Chinese Weapons (Jamaica Plains, Mass.:
YMAA Publication Center, 1999).▶ weights and measures
introduction
For a prehistoric hunter-gatherer a system of weights and
measurements would likely not have been very useful. It was
enough to know that an object was so heavy that it required
two people to move it or that it would take a day to move to
an encampment on the other side of a distant hill. Th e devel-
opment of systems of weights and measures coincided with
the development of civilization itself. As people settled into
permanent communities that evolved into towns and cities
and as they developed trade relationships with other com-
munities, they needed agreed-on systems for measuring and
weighing food and other goods. While these systems diff ered
from culture to culture, they all had common elements and
served common needs.
Th e earliest units of measurement were oft en based on
the human anatomy. Th us, hand spans, forearms, fi ngers, feet,
and other parts of the body were used to specify length. By
extension, distance could be measured by, for example, how
far a person could walk in a day, while area could be measure
by the amount of land a worker could plow in a day. Similarly,
ancient cultures used natural objects as the basis for specify-
ing weights and measures. A reed, for example, could have
been used to measure length. Th e people of ancient India
used such natural objects as louse eggs and dust particles to
measure very small units of length. Other cultures used such
objects as mustard seeds as units of measure.
Th e problem with these units of measurement, of course,
is that they varied from person to person and place to place.
Accordingly, ancient civilizations made eff orts to standardize
their weights and measures. Oft en, this was a task assigned
to the king or other ruler. Th e king had a vital interest in ac-
curate weights and measures. Taxes, for example, were col-
lected on volumes of grain or, in the case of ancient India,
bolts of cloth. Similarly, agriculture required some agreement
on land boundaries. Ancient builders had to have a common
basis for measuring building materials. If a building was to be
made of bricks, then calculating the number of bricks needed
to construct a building of a given size required agreement on
the dimensions of a brick.
Usually, systems of weights and measures developed in
connection with systems of counting and numbers. Indeed,1172 weaponry and armor: further reading0895-1194_Soc&Culturev4(s-z).i1172 1172 10/10/07 2:31:20 PM