Narrator: How did the Chinese build a devastating automatic
weapon 2,000 years before machine guns?
Firepower matters.
Narrator: What are the secrets behind the ancient
world's high-tech body armor,
made thousands of years before bulletproof vests?
This was space-age stuff.
This was how you wanted to go to war.
Narrator: And why is this simple invention the godfather
of the world's most ruthless weapons-
landmines?
Monuments more colossal than
our own, ancient super weapons
as mighty as today's,
technology so precise it defies reinvention.
The ancient world was not primitive.
Their marvels are so advanced, we still use them now.
Travel to a world closer than
we imagine, an ancient age
where nothing was impossible.
Over 2,000 years ago, the
Chinese created a weapon so
devastating, it turned untrained
troops into ancient machine gunners.
Is it possible that they
developed the first rapid-fire
weapon in history?
To fully understand the power of
this ancient weapon, you must
start by examining one of
today's most devastating
firearms- the AK-47.
Like its predecessor, this gun
is easy to use, easy to produce,
and can quickly turn raw
recruits into killing machines.
Automatic weapons are crucial to the success of any army or
navy because the more rounds you can put down target onto the
battlefield in a minimum amount
of time, the more effective you are.
Narrator: What was this amazing super weapon?
There's a clue in China, at the
greatest archaeological
discovery of our time...
The mausoleum of China's first
emperor, Qin Shi Huang.
The terracotta army is a clay
army that was buried in the
mausoleum for the first Qin
emperor, to guard him in the
afterlife, and it is astonishing.
Every face of every man in that
thousands-of-men army is different, is individual, and
every man was armed with state- of-the-art weapons of the day.
Narrator: But over the
centuries, their weapons have
rotted away.
Their hands are empty.
Could they once have held the
world's first repeating weapon?
And could this warrior tech have
created a killing zone that
seems impossible on an ancient
battlefield?
An essential element of all
land warfare is firepower,
whether it's the big long-range
guns on today's tanks or whether
it's the AK-47, firepower matters.
And 2,300 years ago in China, it mattered there, too.
And they invented this
- the Chinese repeating crossbow, the chu ko nu.
Narrator: The genius of this amazing weapon is its simplicity.
There are just 4 major parts-
wooden stock...
Bamboo bow...
Wooden magazine...
And the lever.
This magazine holds 8 crossbow
bolts to complete such an
astonishing weapon.
As you push this lever forward, the string catches in a notch.
As you push the lever up, it
reveals this little pin here,
and that is the whole deal,
that little peg there.
You pull the lever back, you're pulling the string bacac the
magazine comes down onto the stock.
It's that peg that pushes the
string out of the notch, and the
whole cyclic starts over again.
It's a constantly cycling,
repeating, wonderful, efficient weapon.
Narrator: This revolution made technology, not training,
the dominant force on the battlefield.
Such an impossibly sophisticated
weapon turned peasants into
soldiers almost overnight, much
like the AK-47 does now.
It gives the rate of fire
that a trained archer can put
out, but without all the
hardship of learning to do it.
Narrator: Archers were
professional soldiers who had to
be trained from childhood.
The best could shoot about 10 arrows a minute.
But could raw troops be as effective as this on the battlefield?
Looking at a Chinese regiment
of 1,000 soldiers shooting six
bolts in a minute, you've got
6,000 arrows flying towards the enemy.
Narrator: This incredible weapon turned close formations
of elite enemy troops into crossbow fodder.
It's impossible to believe, but
the ancient Chinese had a lever-
action firearm that predates
anything in our modern world.
But there is a curious connection between this weapon
and one of the most iconic
weapons of the American west, a
connection that could help us
understand how advanced this
ancient weapon truly was.
There's an obvious parallel
between the lever action of the
Chinese repeating crossbow and
the lever action of the
Winchester 73 repeating rifle.
I wonder which repeats more quickly.
Narrator: Is it possible to
compare these two weapons?
We are going to try by pitting
them against each other in a
shoot-off, Texas style, to find the top gun.
Kirsten Weiss is an American national champion and performance shooter.
I love the Winchester.
It's one of my favorite guns.
I mean, they're such fun, aren't they?
Yeah, isn't it the best?
That lever action.
Do you dare take on old technology?
With new?
Yes, I dare, let's do it.
Let's do it.
Narrator: Can this weapon
from 2,300 years ago really
match the rate of fire of a
Winchester 73?
They've got five shots each.
Which will have the quickest rate of fire?
Okay, so this is just on speed.
Okay.
And I've got the older weapon.
So I get to give the countdown.
3, 2, 1!
Done!
I don't believe it.
You got to hand it to the Chinese.
Absolutely!
Isn't that extraordinary?
Fantastic.
Narrator: This game-changing
ancient repeating crossbow has
matched one of the greatest
repeating rifles of all time,
an incredible feat.
They have got something which
in its repeating function is at
least a match.
Yes.
I mean, you would think such a thing impossible.
Yes!
Thank you, good job.
Thank you, Mike.
Good job.
Narrator: The Chinese
repeating crossbow would have
been an awesome weapon in the
hands of conscripted peasants or
tough professional soldiers.
But despite this firepower, the
Chinese troops did have one
serious limitation.
The heavy body armor worn by
the warriors of the emperor Qin
would have affected their
mobility and stamina.
The Chinese warriors would
have struggled in their heavy
metal armor, but would you
believe in ancient Greece, they
actually already had lightweight
armor that predates kevlar by
over 2,000 years?
Narrator: The Chinese
developed a devastating
repeating weapon that predated
the machine gun by over 2,000 years.
But while they had the
firepower, they were hampered by
their heavy metal armor.
About the same time, a
revolution in body protection
was taking place half a world
away in Greece, an armor so
impossibly light and strong,
you'd think it came from today.
To understand how effective this
ancient armor was, we need to
look at today's tech.
Modern day body armor didn't
come about until world war I,
but it was metal and heavy in
order to be bulletproof.
Then in the late 1960s, kevlar was invented.
Narrator: Dupont kevlar is a
super-tough synthetic material
layered to make lightweight body armor.
It spreads and reduces the force
of an incoming projectile, and
the tough kevlar fibers are
extremely hard to break.
This is a 20th-century technology, right?
Wrong.
This is linothorax, or Greek kevlar.
This is Alexander the great's
battle gear of choice when he
began his conquests in the
4th century bc.
Narrator: Alexander the Great
led Macedonian warriors in their
conquest of Greece, the Persian
empire, Afghanistan, and even
reached as far as India.
He was feared throughout the ancient world and believed to be invincible.
But he had a secret weapon.
We know from ancient sources
that he wore a breastplate of
folded linen, 12 layers all
woven together and then glued to
form this lightweight armor.
Narrator: Linen is a super-
tough natural material.
It can be layered to make
lightweight body armor.
In many ways, it acts just like
dupont kevlar by spreading and
reducing the force of projectiles.
The kevlar fibers of the
material are extremely strong.
But could this simple cloth be constructed to withstand extreme impact?
The evidence for the linothorax is principally artistic.
We see it regularly on Greek vases and pottery.
And we get written accounts explaining that it was made of cloth.
However, the breakthrough is with Alexander's father, Philip.
Philip in his tomb has a thorax
in exactly this same style, and
from that, we can work out the
form and extrapolate this
reconstruction based on all the
archaeological sources.
Narrator: Reconstruction
expert rorie brophy is
re-creating this ultimate body
armor from modern linen.
I'm making linothorax armor.
It's a type of armor preferred
by the ancient greeks.
It's made from linen and glue.
It was used by Alexander the
great when he conquered most of
the known world.
A very simple material to make, in principle.
It's just layers of linen with
glue in between it, pressed
really, really well together.
Linen is a remarkable material.
It's incredibly strong, probably
the strongest natural fiber you can get.
Narrator: It seems impossible
that fabric armor could protect
a soldier in battle.
Modern-day dupont kevlar will
stop a bullet.
But will rorie's Greek kevlar
withstand one of the deadliest
weapons of the ancient world?
Today hunter Ellis is armed with
the mighty longbow to test this
linen wonder armor.
This willow-leaf arrowhead will
be shot at 120 Miles per hour
about the same impact
Alexander's armies would have faced.
It's make or break time for Greek kevlar.
Can an arrow really be defeated by fabric?
Dead-center gut shot, but the big question is right now-did it penetrate?
Let's go find out.
You can see it sticking out of
the armor right here, but would
it have mortally wounded this warrior?
(Chuckles)
You know what?
It's only sticking out about a half-inch on the inside.
So this Greek kevlar did what it's supposed to do.
It absorbed the impact of this arrow.
This warrior would have lived to fight another day.
Narrator: This incredible ancient body armor could have
made the difference between living and dying on the battlefield.
Alexander the great learned this
firsthand when the armor was put
to the test at the siege of Gaza.
In the heat of battle at one
point soaring out from the enemy
lines came a ballista bolt.
It hit his shield, it went
through the shield, penetrated
the shield and into his armor, his linthorax.
Luckily this armor is so good,
it managed to take most of the
force from the bolt, and it only
lightly wounded him.
Narrator: The ancient armor
turned a killing wound into a
flesh wound.
For the ordinary foot soldier this was, you know, space-age stuff.
This was how you wanted to go to war.
They were wearing the kevlar of their period.
Narrator: Whether it is the
ancient or the modern world, the
military has always sought to
develop ways to protect a
soldier's entire body, from head to toe.
Just think of some of the
innovations we have today.
U.S. special forces are
developing lightweight
protective body armor, full-body
armor for their operators.
But did you know the Romans had it nearly 2,000 years ago?
Narrator: Today's armies
don't realize that many of the
advances they are working on
were actually first developed in
the ancient world.
An example is this demonstration
of a highly sophisticated full
body armor called talos now
under development for U.S. Forces.
(Whinnies)
The history books lead us to
believe that the first true
armored warriors were the
medieval knights of Europe.
But new evidence shows that in
Europe, the Romans were using
fully armored knights much
earlier.
Hunter Ellis is getting suited up, medieval style.
Right now I'm dressed in a
15th-century harness of arms.
When most people picture full
body armor, they think of
medieval knights, but in fact
warriors had this type of
protection about 1,000 years earlier.
Narrator: But proving that
Roman warriors had full body
armor will take some serious
detective work.
( Man shouts in Latin )
Often, Rome's greatest military advances were born out of their military defeats.
In one terrible battle, at
carrhae in modern Turkey, the
Roman army was changed forever.
In 53 bc, the Romans had a
classic infantry army going out
into the desert to face the parthians.
The parthians however were cavalry-heavy.
And they had cataphracts.
Narrator: This was the
parthians' secret weapon.
Their heavy cavalry, known as
cataphracts, were armored.
The Romans were utterly
mauled, more than 20,000 dead.
(Crowd shouting)
(Horse whinnying, galloping hoofbeats)
The Romans were never ones to take defeat lightly.
They went away.
They learned their lessons.
When they came back, they had
their own cataphracts.
And this time, the Romans were victorious.
Narrator: The Romans took this technology to the
next level, creating the first European knights.
But what did they look like?
There's graffiti drawn by a bored Roman soldier at a
frontier post on the border of what's now modern day Syria, and
this gives us an idea of what these warriors might have looked like.
Narrator: This ancient
graffiti could be an incredible
eyewitness account.
Is this proof that the knights
of Rome really did exist?
Well, there are actual
accounts from the 4th century
from Roman soldiers who served
on the battlefield.
These aren't the armchair generals.
And they talked about warriors
dressed head to toe in full body
armor, glistening on the
battlefield like silver statues.
How would you like to run into that?
Narrator: One ancient historian has found a clue in Oxford, England.
Dr. Adrian Goldsworthy is one of
the world's leading experts on
the Roman armed forces.
Hidden away in the dusty
archives of the Bodleian
library, Adrian has unearthed
evidence that could re-write how
we view the Roman army.
The book I've got in front of me here is something quite remarkable.
It's a book written in the 4th century a.D.
So here you've got a picture of something that you might not
expect to see as a soldier of the Roman army-a man fully
armored on a fully armored horse.
Narrator: Incredibly, horse
armor like this was found in a
destroyed Roman fort in the 1930s.
Made of metal scales, it's identical to the illustration in the book.
And there's another clue from an ancient text.
One of the things listed are
the titles of all the officers
in command of all the army units
of the Roman army.
Among these units there are
quite a few that are listed as cataphracts.
Narrator: And there's still
more evidence that the Romans
were using knights.
'Cause if we go on and look
here at an illustration of the
fabricae, the workshops, the
factories that supplied the
equipment for the army and look
in detail, we can actually see
depictions of the heavy armor
that these sorts of soldiers would wear.
You've got the main cuirass,
heavy strong protected body armor.
Narrator: These lines drawn on the illustration give another clue.
The main body armor is chain mail, an armor made of iron rings.
Mail, which was the mainstay
of the Roman army for centuries,
came from the celts in the west.
But it produces an armor which
is effective, especially in hand
to hand combat, against swords and spears.
Here if you look at the illustrations, you can actually
see what we've been talking about all the time.
Because in this corner you've
got extra defenses for the arms
and extra defenses for the limbs.
They had plate defenses, like
this reconstruction of a 1st-
century manica.
It's made with iron plates which are articulated together to make it flexible.
Narrator: We have found one last clue.
Now also it gives us the
insignia on shields, you can see
these brightly painted devices,
which would have identified each
unit in battle.
And it is more than a
coincidence that none of the
units of cataphracts are given a
shield design in this great
catalog of the shields of the Roman army.
Narrator: Like medieval knights, this armor was so
impossibly powerful, the soldiers didn't use shields.
It was a combination of all
these different styles of armor
for different purposes, the
scale, the mail, the articulated
plates, that come together to
produce this ancient super troop.
Narrator: We can now reveal
the Roman cataphract, the first
European knight over 1,000 years
earlier than we ever imagined.
(Whinnies)
(All shouting)
These guys, encased in heavy
armor from head to foot for
themselves and their horses
charging with lances were an
ancient superweapon.
Narrator: The one remaining
mystery is the warrior's helmet
which protected the face and head.
But amazingly, a clue for its
appearance could come from
Rome's deadliest enemies.
The Roman cataphracts would soon face their greatest
enemy, sword-wielding warriors that seem to come from "the game
of thrones," but they're as real as I am and 100 times more terrifying.
Narrator: We've rewritten
history to prove that the Romans
had fully armored knights over
1,000 years before the age of chivalry.
If it weren't for the evidence,
the existence of such troops
would seem impossible to believe.
But one mystery remains- is it
really possible that the Romans
had a helmet that covered the
full head and face like a
medieval knight?
The ancient writers tell us that the head and face are
covered by a metal mask and that
the wearer would look like a
glittering statue.
Now these helmets obviously
existed, but none survive.
They cover the entire head,
similar to the late Roman
cavalry helmet.
Narrator: No helmet like this
has ever been found, but there
might be a lead...
From Rome's deadliest enemies.
In the 4th century a.D., the
wealthy Roman province of
Britain faced a terrible threat...
Barbarian German tribesmen called Saxons...
Who lived for fighting and plunder.
The Saxons were coming from
the sea and raiding rich and
fertile Britannia.
The coastline was so inundated
with Saxon raids, they even
named their forts and garrisons the Saxon shore.
Narrator: The Romans built 10 massive forts to protect Britannia.
But how could they know where
the Saxons would strike next?
The Romans don't know where
they're going to strike.
So they need a flexible, mobile
reserve to deal with them.
And the best way to do that is cavalry.
The Romans learned from their
experiences in the middle east,
that the best form of cavalry
against bodies of infantry- the
Saxons were infantry- was heavy
armored, disciplined, close-
formation shock cavalry.
Their answer to Saxon raids was
the cataphract.
(Crowd shouting)
Imagine being a Saxon and
sailing across the sea, landing
on the beach and then being
greeted by an armored cavalry
of cataphracts in iron plate
and chain mail.
Even for the mighty Saxons, this
would make them think twice.
Narrator: To level the
playing field, the Saxons
imitated the Roman armor,
including their helmet.
At Sutton hoo in eastern
England, evidence has been found
of what a Roman cataphract
helmet might have looked like.
Under this mound, a mighty
warrior was buried...
In the richest Saxon grave ever found.
King raedwald was laid to rest
here with his war gear and
magnificent helmet.
This reconstruction shows the
sophistication of an era some
call the dark ages.
This is Britain's tutankhamen.
So a find like Sutton hoo
basically gives us a window into
a secret world.
This warrior king was buried in
his full battle gear.
He had a chainmail shirt, he
had a shield, and he had an
incredible sword and helmet.
Narrator: Is the Sutton hoo
helmet the missing link that
shows us what the Roman
cataphracts wore?
When you see all three helmets together, the similarities are incredible.
You can imagine how the Roman
cataphracts would have made a
lasting impression on the
raiding Saxons.
Here we have the Sutton hoo helmet.
No cataphract helmets exist, but
this is a Roman cavalry
ceremonial helmet from about 500
years earlier.
Look at the similarities in
design and protection of the
faceplates and neck plates in
the back, which would protect
from a rear blow.
And then look at this full
frontal face coverage.
But what's unique about the
Sutton hoo helmet is this Ridge
right down the crest, it's
believed that the Roman
cataphract helmet had the same
feature.
Narrator: With a helmet that
matches ancient descriptions,
we've re-created a Roman
cataphract for the first time ever.
Roman warrior tech created full
body armor over 1,000 years
before medieval knights.
(Whinnies)
But even the knights of Rome could not prevent the empire's decline and fall.
The Roman army was eventually pulled out of Britain to defend Rome.
Britannia was invaded and settled by the Saxons.
(Crowd screaming)
The Saxons were also
accompanied by the angles, so
we have a confederation of
German tribes.
It's from the angles that we get
the term "England," angleland.
And of course, we therefore have
Anglo-Saxons.
Narrator: But the Saxons weren't done yet.
Narrator: Over 2,000 years
ago, the Roman army used fully
armored knights on the battlefield.
Rome's enemies the Saxons didn't
just copy Roman equipment.
They created their own ultimate
warrior superweapon.
The Saxons were true warriors.
Most had small swords or sax,
much like this one right here.
It's basically a big knife.
But others had the long sax,
like this.
This is the replica of the
Sutton hoo sword.
This is what a Ferrari or
Lamborghini would cost in the
Saxon world.
This right here is the ultimate
status symbol.
Weapons are the mark of an
anglo-Saxon warrior.
And his most important weapon is the sword.
Swords were even considered magical, like Excalibur to king Arthur.
They were named, names like
widow's wail- the cry of a wife
as her husband is slain- leg
biter- a sword that can cut
underneath the opponent's shield
and take out his ankle- or even
needle to pierce through to the heart.
Narrator: These lethal swords
were made to impossibly high
specifications worthy of
21st-century technology.
Under this mound, the greatest
Saxon sword in history was discovered...
(Shouts in foreign language)
Narrator: In the grave of king Raedwald at Sutton hoo in England.
The sword and treasure are now
held in the British museum in London.
The reconstruction next to the
remains of the original shows
the might and power it once had.
Now a sword like this would
generally be buried with its
owner, but it's still incredibly
rare to find them in the ground
and absolutely unique to have an
example as superb as this.
This is a sword where no expense
has been spared.
The handle is made of gold, and
on the pommel, there's gold
filigree, and garnets have been inlaid.
So this is a symbol of your
power, of your status, and it's
no coincidence that these are
being used because they were
thought to have almost magical
powers and to be able to ward
off the evil of lightning and thunder.
Narrator: But this sword was not just for show.
Its construction reveals
impossibly sophisticated
techniques that made it the
ultimate war blade.
There's a story behind these patterns.
They're not just for decoration.
The patterns show us the extent
of the highly sophisticated
technology that was used to
create this absolutely
incredible ancient weapon.
Narrator: The Saxon super
sword was the first effective
use of composite metal in the world.
But how did they do it?
This incredible technique of
pattern welding is still used in
modern knife blades...
And by swordsmith Stuart makin
to recreate the tip of the
Sutton hoo sword.
So what I've got here is a
billet of different types of steel.
The four darker layers are mild
steel, which is a soft metal.
The three other layers are high
carbon steel.
And what we're going to do is
use the fire to melt these
together and make one piece
which combines the hardness of
the carbon steel and the
softness of the mild steel.
Narrator: This incredible
ancient technology mixes hard
steel for cutting with soft
steel for strength.
A sword made only of soft metal will bend.
A sword made solely of hard
metal will shatter.
This deadly weapon had a
supernatural strength that made
it supposedly unbreakable in combat.
These are exquisite works of art.
They're extraordinary pieces of
technology, but also, this is
the weapon that is gonna save
your life.
Narrator: The hard and soft
steel are combined into billets.
The billets are hammered into
bars to start creating the pattern.
By twisting those metals
together, when we do the final
stage, you'll see that twist in
the surface of the material.
Narrator: Once four twisted
billets are made, they are then
joined to make the body of the sword.
And I'm actually forging the
blade tip of the sword here.
Narrator: But that's not the
end to the impossibly high
sophistication of this ultimate weapon.
I've got a couple of pieces
of high carbon steel.
Now on their own, they'd be too
brittle to make a sword.
However, we're gonna weld these
either side of the core to make
the cutting edge.
So when the sword is ground and
polished, it maintains its razor edge.
Narrator: All that needs to
be done now is to use acid to
reveal the pattern that shows
the mix of soft and hard steel
that gives the blade its
impossible strength and cutting power.
All of these processes
combined to produce this entire
beautiful, yet functional
stunning piece of work.
It's absolutely phenomenal.
What's almost impossible to
imagine is that smiths over
1,000 years ago were able to
produce an object of such
beauty and with such
sophisticated technology.
We've seen highly
sophisticated ancient battle
equipment that's thousands of
years ahead of its time, but it
was one incredibly simple
invention by the ancient greeks
and the Romans that sets the
stage for some of the most
terrifying and ruthless weapons of modern warfare.
Narrator: Look at modern warfare and you see incredible
parallels with the ancient world.
It seems impossible, but one
tiny invention going back over
3,000 years is the godfather of
some of today's cruelest weapons.
We're in the moat at southsea castle.
Moats are familiar to most
people- a trench or a ditch
around the castle or fort
usually dry, sometimes
containing water.
It denies the ground to the enemy.
That's harder in an open battlefield.
You need a way to stop the
enemy coming forward against you.
And that's where these come in.
These are caltrops.
Narrator: Named after the
Latin word "calcitrapa" or "foot
trap," caltrops are incredibly
simple and effective.
Tread on one of these, and it's game over.
The caltrop, it's a 4-pronged
Barb designed that no matter how
you throw it, 3 prongs are on
the ground and 1 prong sticks
straight up into the air.
This is an area-denial weapon.
It's easy to make, it's simple
to deploy, and it can be carried
anywhere.
As the enemy comes forward,
strikes these, starts to take
casualties, they stop.
Narrator: This impossibly
simple idea is as effective as
modern area-denial weapons, but
what seems even more impossible
is that it revolutionized
defensive warfare.
These are easy to make.
To an ancient, all he needs to
do is take two pieces of bar
stock, shape it, weld it
together, bend it.
And it's also the work of just
moments, a few minutes' work to
make one.
In many ways, these should be
seen as the ancestors of modern
area-denial weapons, whether
you're looking at razor wire
and barbed wire or more modern
weapons such as mines, cluster
bombs and scatter bomblets.
But these, these were 3,000 years ago.
Nasty little suckers.
Narrator: Over time, swords,
crossbows, and metal armor have
disappeared from our arsenals.
But caltrops have hardly changed.
And believe it or not, U.S.
Forces in Afghanistan are still
using versions of the caltrop to this day.
Narrator: These tiny wonder weapons were the ultimate warrior tech.
With caltrops on hard ground,
ancient soldiers could gain an
edge against any threat, even
the most intimidating of all-
the elephant
whether it's Hannibal and the
carthaginians, the persians, or
even the Indians, elephants were
a terror weapon.
They were huge beasts covered in
armor that can sweep through
your lines.
Caltrops are the perfect answer.
Elephants are intelligent,
they're very thick skinned, but
underfoot, they're very sensitive.
Now imagine a bed of these being
thrown down as a wave of
attacking elephants come towards you.
( Elephant roars )
Wounded elephants will flee,
naturally, the quickest route
possible, which is normally
directly behind them, through
the troops, which causes utter
carnage amongst the ranks.
Elephants are definitely a
double-edged weapon.
Narrator: Cunning use of this
ingenious yet simple weapon did
more than just stop the enemy.
But what most enemies do is
they try and circumvent the obstacle.
That's why clever placement
means the enemy will be driven
to where you want them-
driven into choke points that
you can then smash.
You can deliver your heavy
cavalry, your best elite troops
and eliminate the enemy totally.
Simple little device but one
that's fundamental to an entire
tactical plan on the battlefield.
This is all the hallmarks of
modern warfare, but they were
doing this 3,000 years ago.
Yeah.
Cracking piece of kit.
Narrator: Warriors of the
ancient world had highly
sophisticated weapons thousands
of years ahead of their time,
from the first automatic weapons
to full body armor and the first
area-denial weapons, proving
that the ancients were able to
achieve the impossible, creating
warrior tech we can still see in
use today.