Page 247 - Encyclopedia Of World History Vol V

2024 berkshire encyclopedia of world history

of what will eventually become a more formidable wall system (the famous Great Wall of China built during the
that can include bastions as well (Palisades II–IV in Zhou and Qin dynasties, for instance, or Hadrian’s Wall
Cahokia, Illinois). A palisade is erected primarily for between Northumberland and Scotland, which is far
purposes of exclusion and protection against limited- more modern). In somewhat later times—during the
range projectiles. later development of ancient warfare—wooden towers
A wall—built of stones, bricks, stamped-earth, or plas- and other protected structures became mobile siege
tered stockade—is a more substantial fortification than a engines and were used to encase and carry other large-
palisade and sometimes also marks the transition from scale specialized weapons (for instance, battering-rams
chiefdom to statehood, because of the greater specializa- and catapults) and assault troops for attacking a fortified
tion, resources, and coordination required. In Palestine, site (for instance, the siege of Lachish, Nineveh [now in
the earliest defensive walls were built of stone, at Jericho, the British Museum]). There is no evidence for the exis-
during the so-called Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA) tence of siege engines in the New World, although most
period, sometime in the eighth millennium BCE, or soon components (beams, ropes, and walls) would have been
after 8000 BCE. In China, on the other hand, the earliest highly perishable.
massive walls indicative of warfare were built with a lay- Besides walls and towers, other military structures
ered, stamped-earth construction technology during the occur individually or in combination, depending on local
Longshan (Lung-shan) period, East Henan phase, in the needs and capabilities. A moat is a deep and wide exca-
third millennium BCE. A wall with parapet—a vertical vated trench, usually filled with water, most frequently
structure to protect defenders—is an unambiguous indi- located outside a fortified perimeter. Like walls and tow-
cator of warfare, but without a parapet a wall may simply ers, moats were built both in the Old World (for instance,
have other functions, such as social separation, privacy, or at Tell es-Sawwan, Iraq, and Banpo, China) and in the
traffic control. However, some
walled sites that contain other
evidence of warfare (for in-
stance, weapons deposited on
the immediate outside proxim-
ity) lack parapets, so a parapet
can be interpreted as a suffi-
cient but not necessary condi-
tion for warfare.
A tower can be another
form of fortification. Most
commonly, towers are inte-
grated with walls, as in a cas-
tle, and are sometimes located
in frontier regions (Perú) or as
part of a more extensive wall

Knights jousting in
France in the late
fifteenth century.