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Now had the chance to read the whole document in more detail. Very interesting but of course I couldn't validate or invalidate anything. On the basis that the chap seems to have carried out a lot of research and seemed to make a reasonable case, I'm inclined to go with it (unless advised otherwise).

The very last bit talks about the military aspect, troops and weapons. There are a number of drawings and paintings, some ex-Osprey ones but quite a few from other sources including some concept ones by the author.

Initial takeaway thoughts:
- Probably ought to more cavalry than originally anticipated given the frequent references to the demand for Kushite horses, including some with horse armour.
- Given the number of fortresses and general central administration, plus the use of Kushites as mercenaries in other armies, there probably were some regular troops, but probably not as regular as the Romans. But most troops were probably irregular levies or barbarian mercenaries.
- Armour, generally light or light medium, might be worn and the mix of weapons could be influenced by interactions with other empires an cultures, but the bow seems to be commonly the main weapon.

I agree, I thought it was very interesting.  I'm sure there is the usual 'filling in the blanks' process but the evidence doesn't seem especially sparse.

Some sort of 'regular' core force, drawn from, or paid for, by the Nile cities, and supplemented with levies and mercenaries from the surrounding area sounds about right.

On the cavalry, I thought this was interesting.

QuoteIn the book "On the Erythraean Sea", the Greek historian Agatharchides, relating the history of Ptolemy II's Nubian campaign, refers to a native (Nubian) type of felt armour for horse and rider that covers the whole body except for the eyes:

"For the war against the Aithiopians Ptolemy recruited 500 cavalrymen from Greece. To those who were to fight in the front ranks and to be the vanguard - they were a hundred in number - he assigned the following form of equipment. For he distributed to them and their horses garments of felt (stolas piletas), which those of that country (hoi kata ten choran; "the natives of the country" in Burstein) call kasas, that conceal the whole body except for the eyes."

The author's linking of this description to the much later examples of quilted armour, that we have from the region, seems entirely believable.  The description above sounds very much like this image below. 



I imagine such armour was suited to the local weather and preponderance of archery rather than reflecting a lack of materials or skills.  On the contrary, Meroe seems to have produced a lot of iron and their metalwork skills seem sophisticated from the archeology.  I'm sure we're still talking about an elite here but quilted armour would surely be easier and cheaper to produce than metal horse armour. A few 'regiments' of such cavalry doesn't seem ridiculous. The Kingdoms of the region conquered Eygpt and held off the Assyrians, Persians, Ptolemaics, Romans and Arabs.  That doesn't seem like a bad military record, so they must have had some fighting tradition and organisational skill.

I've discussed the felt-armoured cavalry at http://tabulaenovaeexercituum.pbworks.com/w/page/14246762/Ptolemaic (and it was in Slingshot around 2006) - it seems to me that "the country" in question is probably Egypt.

Thanks Duncan.  You're probably right. There's seems no reason why it couldn't be done but if the natives are Egyptian then we're without evidence it was done in Kush.

This grafitti from the link might be horse armour but isn't really all covering like the description and doesn't even show a rider.

Quote2) Horse graffiti from Musawwarat. The horse wearing a halter is covered in some kind of padded cloth (body and neck).

These others images don't seem to show armoured horses either. 

Agreed that that is by no means complete horse-armour! It looks to me like a saddle-blanket and a separate collar. Certainly some later Nubian art shows large decorative collars - https://warfare.6te.net/11/Nubia-Faras-St_Merkuriuos.htm

Horse no. 2 looks very donkey like.

Quote from: Erpingham on February 12, 2025, 12:26:46 PMHorse no. 2 looks very donkey like.

I hate to imagine what anything that I tried to draw on stone would look like!  I'd happily settle for a donkey, even if it was meant to be a horse 

In Slingshot 347, Ilan Mitchell-Smith's article on his Western Sudanese army includes some very colourful, cloth-armoured close order lancers. The author comments that he associates the cloth-armoured horses with various parts of Africa just south of the Sahara. Accepting the Western Sudanese is much later than the Kushites, is it possible that such distinctive (and unusual) horse-armour had evolved in the area earlier and we just don't have any records of it?

Also the DBMM list for Nobades suggest they gained horse armour from 500AD, so it is possible there was some knocking about before then.

I accept most of the cavalry would like the light horse pictured in Ilan's article but if I could find suitable figures at 6mm (although I couldn't paint the patterns) a small unit might be interesting to include.

I think is entirely possible.  The Ptolemaic evidence from Agatharchides shows that some sort of textile cavalry armour was used in the region and in the period.  There is also other evidence suggesting the use of quilted armour by Meroitic warriors. However, if, as Duncan has argued, the 'natives' are Egyptians not Kushites, we probably need to look at other evidence to gauge if the practice was widespread.  On reflection, the iconography doesn't' seem to support that.  See the cavalry images above.

These are later Christian images that also don't seem to include textile horse armour.

These horsemen from Faras aren't on armoured horses



https://www.reddit.com/r/arabs/comments/j1i7ku/a_gallery_of_paintings_from_the_nubian_faras/



https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpreview.redd.it%2Fniok3vrgs24z.png%3Fwidth%3D1080%26crop%3Dsmart%26auto%3Dwebp%26s%3D18fb82ad31983d7b3d63cfc461f4685ebd2d0fda

The saints could be in textile armour themselves but their horses still don't seem armoured.



https://culture.pl/en/gallery/the-professor-kazimierz-michalowski-faras-gallery-image-gallery

Though we might consider the influence of the Roman/Byzantine models  for this equestrian saints on how the horse is pictured.

Interesting discussion chaps and stuff to mull over before figures get ordered and paint slapped on, which is not likely until 2026 given other in progress projects.

In the Western Sudan (not modern Sudan but West African sub Sahara) the felt army used by the cavalry was to counter not just the archery (the foot archers pre-dating use of cavalry) but the use of poison on arrows.

CarlL