As part of my day job, I once got to teach a course on the Archaeology of Warfare in the ancient Middle East. I really enjoyed it, since we got to talk about nerdy things that I don't usually have an excuse to discuss, and to even re-enact a battle! One article that we read for class was Gabriel and Metz's chapter on "Weapons and Lethality" in From Sumer to Rome . They describe the development of different types of armor in the ancient world, then do the math to show you which weapons of the time could actually get through that armor. Short version? If your enemy is wearing bronze armor and you've got a penetrating axe, you'll probably cut through. With any other weapon, you're out of luck (although you can still cause impact damage, of course; or simply aim for an unarmored area of the body or an unarmored person--most corvee soldiers can't afford armor on their own and aren't supplied with much by their kings). Medieval plate armor, as worn by th...
On books (mine and other people's)