Was the Persian army dependent on cornel wood?
score:8
It is unlikely that the Achaemenid Empire depended solely on cornel-wood.
That empire started out without direct control over those areas now known as natural distribution of that species. If ancient and current areas of distribution are even largely identical that means they build their empire just fine without cornel-wood or imported it. But take a closer look on the map and you see that natural distribution is not identical with human introduction of that tree elsewhere or indicative of some isolated populations.
Trading your enemy what he needs for his weapons is really an ancient custom, from Noric steel sold to the Romans, over to the USSR selling (unknowingly via proxies) the USA the titanium it needed for the SR-71 and everyone today selling or otherwise delivering weapons to the Islamic State.
The conquests of Alexander were quite quick. It is unlikely that the wood needed for weapons is only ever cut for use as weapons days before battle. If it is of strategic importance, they would have amassed a certain amount of stores of it.
If you do not have your preferred material at hand, you then use something else. The oldest example of wood used for such a purpose is according to Wikipedia spruce. The Romans considered cornel as the best material available and used ash most often for
A hasta was about 2 m (6 ft 7 in) in length, with a shaft generally made from ash, while the head was of iron.
So if you need wood and think cornel is best, you are better off using almost any other wood then to seize making replacement weapons. While cornel wood is fine type of wood, the original premise of this question overstates its military importance, while it may indeed be a small contributing factor over all.
While the Greek hoplites dory were made of either ash or cornel, it seems that only the extremely long Macedonian sarissa really calls for this type of wood.
Much more interesting in this regard is the effect an environmental crisis on the Greek side had at precisely this time:
History of crisis in wood economies: Classical Greece
One of the most famous crisis of a wood-based economy is what happened in Classical Greece, where trees began to disappear specially in the areas of Attica, Boeotia and Peloponnesus where indiscriminate cutting of trees for several uses, associated to drought and wildfires led to a severe lack of timber in order to build lances, shields, ships, etc. and to a slow but progressive weakening in military and naval power of the peninsular kingdoms in Greece, that were overwhelmed by Epirus and by the Kingdom of Macedon, much more fertile lands because of their rainy winters. This process arrived to the apex with the conquest of Greece by Phillip II of Macedon.
Whether cornel even has to be used for sarissas is also somewhat contested:
Lammert thought that the sarissa would have had a shaft of ash, as this wood was used universally by the Swiss and others in the great age of the pike in European warfare. Snodgrass supports this suggestion. The quality of ash which makes it so popular for spears is its combination of strength flexibility and lightness. Pliny (H.N. 16.84 [228]) tells us that “Ash is the most compliant wood in work of any kind, and is better than hazel for spears, lighter than cornel, and more pliable than service-tree (sorb); […] the elm would rival it were not its weight against it”
(From Nicholas Victor Sekunda: "The Sarissa", Acta Universitatis Lodziensis Folia Archaeologica 23, 2001.)
For a modern mathematical examination of wood types have a look at those characteristics which may have mattered more to the Persians, bow wood, and see that there are differences, but on a relatively smooth spectrum. The high specific gravity of cornel wood is in many ways a disadvantage. Using another type of wood would present only different trade-offs but might not be regarded as wholly inferior in every aspect.
Upvote:0
In Arrian's account of the battle of the Granicus he specifically mentions the advantage of the Macedonian cornel spear. This suggests the Persians did not use this wood.
The added length of the Macedonian spear makes it more prone to breaking. Using the stronger wood is thus essential. When Alexander's spear breaks he asks for an replacement. His follower is himself in a (successful) fight using the broken half of his spear. The density and weight of the cornel-wood makes for an excellent club. And thus providing a added advantage. The Persian army was thus problably not as dependent on the Cornel-wood as was Alexander's.
Upvote:4
The wood of Cornus mas is extremely dense and, unlike the wood of most other woody plant species, sinks in water. This density makes it valuable for crafting into tool handles, parts for machines, etc. Cornus mas was used from the seventh century BC onward by Greek craftsmen to construct spears, javelins and bows, the craftsmen considering it far superior to any other wood. The wood's association with weaponry was so well known that the Greek name for it was used as a synonym for "spear" in poetry during the fourth and third centuries BC (emphasis mine).
My - entirely speculative - take is that, due the use of cornel as a synonym for spear, maybe spears made from any suitable wood where sometimes referred to as cornels, making if hard to know centuries later what actually was used and if cornel really was such astrategic supply.
More post
- 📝 Why was Benedict Arnold liked by the Tories but scorned by the Whigs?
- 📝 Was the Carthaginian Senate for life or not?
- 📝 Was the Byzantine follis larger than the Roman (and why, if yes)?
- 📝 About how long ago was the most recent day on which a human did not die
- 📝 What was the inheritance tax rate in the UK during WWI and WWII?
- 📝 Which were the four villages in Attica affected by Cleisthenes' reforms? What happened to them?
- 📝 Tarim Mummies origins and theories separating fact from fiction
- 📝 Was the Iron curtain actually present at the time of the Fulton speech?
- 📝 Did the Roman testudo protect the sides of the formation?
- 📝 What were The Troubles in Northern Ireland really about?
- 📝 Is History a subject where certain knowledge is accepted by all historians or can any event be a source for debate?
- 📝 Where I can find historical literacy rates of Eastern European countries?
- 📝 What was the British version of the Enigma machine?
- 📝 How do historians know the details of a seemingly private event?
- 📝 Why couldn't soldiers sight their own weapons without officers' orders?
- 📝 Why did German troops perform this parade near Szászház, in September 1916?
- 📝 Did any U.S. states or cities (outside of New York) ever make a decision to construct nuclear fallout shelters for their population?
- 📝 Organizing the 1788 presidential and congressional elections
- 📝 Was it illegal to blaspheme God in Antioch in 360.-410.?
- 📝 Did an English company famous for its hidden purpose in the 1720s ever reveal its undertaking?
- 📝 How did Hindenburg and Ludendorff lose WWI?
- 📝 Did people have better nutrition before agriculture?
- 📝 Is the USA Congress explicitly patterned after the British Parliament?
- 📝 Have any opinions by Fanny Allen of her father's book on theology survived?
- 📝 What flag are the men in these photos flying?
- 📝 In the "Immigrationist theory" of Romanians (Vlachs), how did they became the vast majority in Transylvania?
- 📝 How did people say “I have to go to the bathroom” before the bathroom and pipes were common?
- 📝 Were early accounts of ancient child prostitution accurate?
- 📝 What WW2 German badge is this?
- 📝 Is the Visigoth cultural and historical influence within Spain rarely acknowledged?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Was the Persian army dependent on cornel wood?
- 📝 Why was the Red Army successful against the Japanese in 1939 but perform poorly against Finland 1939-40 and early part of WW2?
- 📝 Was the British Army a millionaire factory in the early 20th century?
- 📝 Why was the Israeli army strong enough to win the 1948 war?
- 📝 Why was the British army so short of rifles after Dunkirk?
- 📝 At the Battle of Zama, was the Roman army more "native" than the Carthaginian?
- 📝 Why was the US army slow to adopt the use of radar prior to Pearl Harbour?
- 📝 How was the Roman army in fact organized during Caesar's campaigns in Gaul?
- 📝 Why were so few Koreans enlisted in the Japanese Army before conscription was introduced in 1944?
- 📝 What kind of wood was the standard decking for aircraft carriers in World War 2?
- 📝 Was the Persian conquest of Tyre particularly easy, uneventful, or do we lack sources?
- 📝 What was the process to join the army in WW2 England?
- 📝 Was the flexibility of German army a big contributor to their success?
- 📝 Was the attempt to take Stalingrad a distraction to the original objectives of the German Sixth Army during Case Blue in 1942?
- 📝 In France, 1916, would a soldier who was invalided out of the army, e.g. as an amputee, still get his army pay?
- 📝 How was Ivaylo's Bulgarian peasant army able to repel the Mongols?
- 📝 Why was the Mughal Empire Persian oriented?
- 📝 Was the US Army during the WW2 Western Front a motorized army, a mechanized army, or neither?
- 📝 Was the 1939 Red Army more disciplined / better behaved than the 1943-1945 Red Army?
- 📝 In medieval India, was there a distinction between the army and the police?
- 📝 How was the Free Czech Army formed in World War 2?
- 📝 What was the structure of the Russian army following reforms in 1917?
- 📝 What was the first army to have a radio operator in combat units?
- 📝 Was "Mad Anthony" Wayne of the Continental Army really that cruel like shown in this video?
- 📝 Was Greece the only thing stopping a Persian invasion of Europe?
- 📝 Why did the Persian army lose the battle of Marathon?
- 📝 My father (DOB 09/03/1919) entered the army 01/1942. By 12/42 he made Sgt. He was a 1st Sgt. when separated 10/45. Is this unusual?
- 📝 What was the extent of military conscription by the German Army during World War 2?
- 📝 Why did Hitler attack the Soviet Union when he was still busy fighting the United Kingdom?
- 📝 Did Adolf Hitler ever address the fact that his own appearance was almost an exact opposite of what he considered the ideal Aryan appearance?