Ooh, thanks for writing this. I love when people write about the “real” history of things. Another thing about ancient battles that I never see getting mentioned (and I think of stuff like this because -woman!) is the inevitable cleanup, or non-cleanup, depending on where the battles took place.

Somebody had to wade into this hot mess of blood, rotting and dying bodies, and mud, and clear it away, and “maybe” bury the dead, or kill the leftovers who couldn’t be saved or imprisoned, or not. Depending on where the battle happened there wouldn’t be any cleanup at all, and probably that area of the land would simply be avoided by the locals for decades, as the bodies rotted (and were picked over by carrion creatures) where they lay, making the whole area a smelly mess. There’s a reason crows have the reputation they have.