Throughout history humans have tried to devise better weapons. It seems we are very interested in killing as many people as we can. Today we use weapons of mass destruction, in other worlds we have figured out how to kill even hundreds of thousands of people and maybe even more at once, but in ancient times it was usually killing people the old fashioned way, one at a time and up front and personal. The ancient people came up with some very brutal weapons. Most of them had blades or spikes of some kind which would slice into you or stick into you. This was not true of all ancient weapons however, since some would burn you or smash into you. Some of the oldest weapons were rocks. Many different methods were devised to deliver a rock. The most ancient way of all probably was to throw it. You have to wonder how the first person to throw a rock felt when he killed or injured someone with it. Did he go back to his tribe and brag about his deadly new weapon?

Then there was the guy who studied how the rock was thrown and figured out if he created a sling shot he could hurl a small stone even faster and with practice more accurately. Someone thousands of years later discovered if they built a huge sling shot device known as a catapult they could launch stones weighing a lot more which could even damage stone walls and eventually knock them down. The same was true for knives. At first a sharp piece of stone was used as a knife, then someone figured out if it was put on the end of a long pole they could create a spear and not have to get so close to their prey. Eventually a small flying spear known as an arrow was invented which was shot from a bow at a distance making hunting and killing much safer.

The ancient Chinese were very inventive and constructed some weapons which were far ahead of their time. One was called the Chu Ko Nu. This may have been the first automatic weapon in history having been invented sometime around 200 AD, a thousand years ahead of the crossbow in Europe. The weapon contained a cartridge on top which held 10 arrows which were gravity fed into the bow. This weapon was so successful it was last used in the Sino-Japanese wars of 1894-1895. It is hard to believe the weapon was around for almost 1,700 years. It is said a bowman could fire the 10 arrows in 15 seconds and the weapon was accurate up to 260 feet. The arrows were thought to have been dipped into poison. The effect was this weapon may have been deadlier than a rifle at closer ranges.

Chu Ko Nu

One ancient weapon actually was quite beautiful. It was the chakram. The modern Frisbee might be a descendant of this weapon. The weapon was referred to in the Indian Mahabharata and Ramayana. It could be 4,500 years old or even older. It was circular with a very sharp edge. It was also hollow in the middle. Some were decorated with colored gems. One would not throw it like a Frisbee which sort of floats on the air, they would hold it vertically and throw it. The idea was to stick it into your enemy and perhaps mortally would him or at the very least incapicate him. The weapon became associated with the Sikhs. An historian from the 16th century stated when thrown by an expert it could cut off arms and legs.

Chakram

Warriors on horseback became a big problem during an ancient battle. The horse would trample the opposing troops while the rider would usually be busy chopping at them with a sword or charging them with a lance. Someone decided they had to do something about these mounted troops and invented what is known as the mancatcher. The mancatcher was a pole mounted weapon which would grab a mounted rider around his neck and probably kill him instantly. They usually had an open ring at the end of the pole and spikes. Some had a sort of mechanism which allowed for the neck to enter by locked behind it preventing the mounted rider from escaping. Incorporated in many were spikes that pressed into the neck of the rider killing him. This was a brutal weapon indeed. The use of mancatchers ended in the 18th century.

Mancatcher

A sword is a sword is a sword. Not so in the case of the odachi. This was a very long Japanese sword. The sword was so long it couldn’t be carried by a samurai on his waist. Some people when looking at an odachi sword don’t believe it could have ever been used, because of its length and indeed it wouldn’t be of much help in a close up fight, but using it to defend a wall might be an entirely different thing. It is a tribute to the sword maker and must have been extremely hard to produce. When this sword was drawn it was usually done with a helper. Can you imagine a sword so long it took two people to get it out of its scabbard? It is believed the only practical way to carry this huge sword was by hand.

When it comes to knights, most people believe the armored knight first appeared in the Middle Ages. This is far from the truth. There were Roman knights long before that and they were fully armored. The Romans got the idea to armor some of their mounted soldiers after a battle with another race in which some of their mounted troops sported armor. The Roman knights were known as the Equites. The name was derived from the word for horse. They became a social class and a single knight was called an Eques. They were a division of the Roman army, but after the Punic War II they were no longer in the military. Eventually the later Equites had the right to sit on juries and occupied a third place in Roman politics. Their place was between the senatorial class and the people.

Humans have probably been far too preoccupied with weapons. Can you imagine where we would be today if instead of all that weapon’s development we have been working toward computer development or solving disease?