2,700 years ago, new weapons changed power balance in Israel
‘The Assyrian army relied on technological advancements in the battlefield, as no one could stand up to them’ in siege
Around 2,700 years ago, a new type of deadly weapon debuted in biblical Israel: socketed copper-alloy arrowheads were employed by the Assyrian army which brought the region to its knees during the 7th century BCE.
A group of Israeli researchers documented their use in the battles waged in the area over the next centuries, offering new insights on some key historical moments, including the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BCE.
As Prof. Oded Lipschits, the director for the Institute of Archaeology at Tel Aviv University,
explained to The Jerusalem Post, these arrowheads offered the Assyrians a significant advantage which might have been instrumental to the important victories they obtained.
“There is no question that the Assyrian army could count on significant technological advancements on the battlefield. No one could stand up to them when they laid siege for example,” said Lipschits, who co-authored a paper on the topic in the latest issue of the Israel Exploration Journal together with Dr. Guy Stiebel and Sean Dugaw.
Scythian arrowheads, which acquired this name because they were first associated with a nomadic people from the Eurasian steppe who were referred to as Skythai by
Gantz said that he had spoken with Ohana who had described “the injury to public order and the blocking of roads,” and said that although he backed the police in general, “more expansive policies” should be used regarding the right to free protest.
Following widespread media coverage and condemnation not only from the Blue and White leaders but numerous opposition politicians, the Likud accused the press of hypocrisy for not opposing the arrests of Sheffi Paz and other “right wing activists.”
Paz and two other activists were indicted in February this year after vandalizing offices of the European Union in September 2019.
“All of a sudden, when a left-wing activist is arrested when he is violating the law and blocking a road at a left wing protest organized by Ehud Barak, a friend and