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Siege
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Warfare
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A siege is a military blockade of a city or fortress with the intent of conquering by attrition or assault. The term derives from sedere, Latin for "to sit".[1] Generally speaking, siege warfare is a form of constant, low intensity conflict characterized by one party holding a strong, static defensive position. Consequently, an opportunity for negotiation between combatants is not uncommon, as proximity and fluctuating advantage can encourage diplomacy. A siege occurs when an attacker encounters a city or fortress that cannot be easily taken by a coup de main and refuses to surrender. Sieges involve surrounding the target and blocking the reinforcement or escape of troops or provision of supplies (a tactic known as "investment"[2]), typically coupled with attempts to reduce the fortifications by means of siege engines, artillery bombardment, mining (also known as sapping), or the use of deception or treachery to bypass defenses. Failing a military outcome, sieges can often be decided by starvation, thirst or disease, which can afflict either the attacker or defender.
Sieges probably predate the development of cities as large population centers. Ancient cities in the Middle East show archaeological evidence of having had fortified city walls. During the Warring States era of ancient China, there is both textual and archaeological evidence of prolonged sieges and siege machinery used against the defenders of city walls. Siege machinery was also a tradition of the ancient Greco-Roman world. During the Renaissance and the Early Modern period, siege warfare dominated the conduct of war in Europe. Leonardo da Vinci gained as much of his renown from the design of fortifications as from his artwork.
Medieval campaigns were generally designed around a succession of sieges. In the Napoleonic era, increasing use of ever more powerful cannon reduced the value of fortifications. In modern times, trenches replaced walls, and bunkers replaced castles. In the 20th century, the significance of the classical siege declined. With the advent of mobile warfare, a single fortified stronghold is no longer as decisive as it once was. While traditional sieges do still occur, they are not as common as they once were due to changes in modes of battle, principally the ease by which huge volumes of destructive power can be directed onto a static target. Modern sieges are more commonly the result of smaller hostage, militant, or extreme resisting-arrest situations such as the Waco Siege.
Ancient era
The necessity of city walls
The Assyrians deployed large labour forces to build new palaces, temples and defensive walls.[3] Some settlements in the Indus Valley Civilization were also fortified.
By about 3500 BC, hundreds of small farming villages dotted the Indus River floodplain. Many of these settlements had fortifications and planned streets.
The stone and mud brick houses of Kot Diji were clustered behind massive stone flood dikes and defensive walls, for neighboring communities quarreled constantly about the control of prime agricultural land.[4] Mundigak (c. 2500 BC) in present-day southeast Afghanistan has defensive walls and square bastions of sun-dried bricks.[3]
City walls and fortifications were essential for the defense of the first cities in the ancient Near East. The walls were built of mud bricks, stone, wood or a combination of these materials depending on local availability.
City walls may also have served the dual purpose of showing presumptive enemies the might of the kingdom. The great walls surrounding the Sumerian city of Uruk gained such a widespread reputation. The walls were 9.5 km (6 mi) in length, and up to 12 m (40 ft) in height.
Later the walls of Babylon, reinforced by towers and moats, gained a similar reputation. In Anatolia, the Hittites built massive stone walls around their cities, taking advantage of the hillsides. In Shang Dynasty China, at the site of Ao, large walls were erected in the 15th century BC that had dimensions of 20 m (65 ft) in width at the base and enclosed an area of some 2,100 yards (1,900 m) squared.[5] The ancient Chinese capital for the State of Zhao, Handan, founded in 386 BC), also had walls that were 20 m (65 ft) wide at the base; they were 15 m (50 ft) tall, with two separate sides of its rectangular enclosure at a length of 1,530 yd (1,400 m).[5]
The cities of the Indus Valley Civilization showed less effort in constructing defenses, as did the Minoan civilization on Crete. These civilizations probably relied more on the defense of their outer borders or sea shores. Unlike the ancient Minoan civilization, the Mycenaean Greeks emphasized the need for fortifications alongside natural defenses of mountainous terrain, such as the massive Cyclopean walls built at Mycenae during the last half of the 2nd millennium BC.[citation needed]
Archaeological evidence
Although there are depictions of sieges from the ancient Near East in historical sources and in art, there are very few examples of siege systems that have been found archaeologically. Of the few examples, several are noteworthy:
- The late 9th century BC siege system surrounding Tell es-Safi/Gath, Israel, consists of a 2.5 km long siege trench, towers and other elements, and is the earliest evidence of a circumvallation system known in the world. It was apparently built by Hazael of Aram Damascus, as part of his siege and conquest of Philistine Gath in the late 9th century BC (mentioned in II Kings 12:18).
- The late 8th century BC siege system surrounding the site of Lachish (Tell el-Duweir) in Israel, built by Sennacherib of Assyria in 701 BC, is not only evident in the archaeological remains, but is described in Assyrian and biblical sources and in the reliefs of Sennacherib's palace in Nineveh.
Depictions
The earliest representations of siege warfare have been dated to the Protodynastic Period of Egypt, c. 3000 BC. These show the symbolic destruction of city walls by divine animals using hoes.