Battering ram A battering ram is a siege engine originating in ancient times and designed to break open the masonry walls of fortification s or splinter their wooden gates . In its simplest form , a battering ram is just a large , heavy log carried by several people and propelled with force against an obstacle ; the ram would be sufficient to damage the target if the log was massive enough and / or it were moved quickly enough ( that is , if it had enough momentum ) . Later rams encased the log in an arrow - proof , fire - resistant canopy mounted on wheels . Inside the canopy , the log was swung from suspensory chains or ropes . Rams proved effective weapons of war because old fashioned wall - building materials such as stone and brick were weak in tension , and therefore prone to cracking when impacted with sufficient force . With repeated blows , the cracks would grow steadily until a hole was created . Eventually , a breach would appear in the fabric of the wall — enabling armed attackers to force their way through the gap and engage the inhabitants of the citadel . The introduction in the later Middle Ages of siege cannon s , which harnessed the explosive power of gunpowder to propel weighty stone or iron balls against fortified obstacles , spelled the end of battering rams and other traditional siege weapons . Much smaller , hand - held versions of battering rams are still used today , however , by law enforcement officers and military personnel to bash open locked doors . Design . During the Iron Age , in the ancient Middle East and Mediterranean , the battering ram ' s log was slung from a wheeled frame by ropes or chains so that it could be made more massive and be more easily bashed against its target . Frequently , the ram ' s point would be reinforced with a metal head or cap while vulnerable parts of the shaft were bound with strengthening metal bands . Vitruvius details in his text " On Architecture " that Ceras the Carthaginian was the first to make a ram with a wooden base with wheels and a wooden superstructure . Within this the ram was hung so that it could be used against the wall . This structure moved so slowly , however , that he called it the testudo ( the Latin word for " tortoise " ) . Another type of ram was one that maintained the normal shape and structure , but the support beams were instead made of saplings that were lashed together . The frame was then covered in hides as normal to defend from fire . The only solid beam present was the actual ram that was hung from the frame . The frame itself was so light that it could be carried on the shoulders of the men transporting the ram , and the same men could beat the ram against the wall when they reached it . Many battering rams possessed curved or slanted wooden roofs and side - screens covered in protective materials , usually fresh wet hides , presumably skinned from animals eaten by the besiegers . These hide canopies stopped the ram from being set on fire . They also safeguarded the operators of the ram against arrow and spear volleys launched from above . A well - known image of an Assyrian battering ram depicts how sophisticated attacking and defensive practices had become by the 9th century BC . The defenders of a town wall are trying to set the ram alight with torches and have also put a chain under it . The attackers are trying to pull on the chain to free the ram , while the aforementioned wet hides on the canopy provide protection against the flames . The first confirmed employment of rams in the Occident happened from 503 to 502 BC when Opiter Verginius became consul of Roman and fight against Aurunci people : Second appeared in 427 BC , when the Spartans besieged Plataea . The first use of rams within the actual Mediterranean Basin , featuring in this case the simultaneous employment of siege towers to shelter the rammers from attack , occurred on the island of Sicily in 409 BC , at the Selinus siege . Defenders manning castles , forts or bastions would sometimes try to foil battering rams by dropping obstacles in front of the ram , such as a large sack of sawdust , just before the ram ' s head struck a wall or gate , or by using grappling hooks to immobilize the ram ' s log . Alternatively , the ram could be set ablaze , doused in fire - heated sand , pounded by boulders dropped from battlements or invested by a rapid sally of troops . Some battering rams were not slung from ropes or chains , but were instead supported by rollers . This allowed the ram to achieve a greater speed before striking its target , making it more destructive . Such a ram , as used by Alexander the Great , is described by the writer Vitruvius . Alternatives to the battering ram included the drill , the sapper ' s mouse , the pick and the siege hook . These devices were smaller than a ram and could be used in confined spaces . Famous sieges . Battering rams had an important effect on the evolution of defensive walls , which were constructed ever more ingeniously in a bid to nullify the effects of siege engines . Historical instances of the usage of battering rams in siege s of major cities include : There is a popular myth in Gloucester that the famous children ' s rhyme , Humpty Dumpty , is about a battering ram used in the siege of Gloucester in 1643 , during the English Civil War . However , the story is almost certainly untrue ; during the siege , which lasted only one month , no battering rams were used , although many cannons were . The idea seems to have originated in a spoof history essay by Professor David Daube written for " The Oxford Magazine " in 1956 , which was widely believed despite obvious improbabilities ( e . g . , planning to cross River Severn by running the ram down a hill at speed , although the river is about 30 m ( 100 feet ) wide at this point ) . A capped ram is a battering ram that has an accessory at the head ( usually made of iron or steel and sometimes punningly shaped into the head and horns of an ovine ram ) to do more damage to a building . It was much more effective at destroying enemy walls and buildings than an uncapped ram but was heavier to carry . Use in mining . Pliny the Elder in his Naturalis Historia describes a battering ram used in mining , where hard rock needed to be broken down to release the ore . The pole possessed a metal tip weighing 150 pounds , so the whole device will have weighed at least twice as much in order to preserve its balance . Whether or not it was supported by being suspended with ropes from a frame remains unknown , but very likely given its total weight . Such devices were used during coal mining in the 19th century in Great Britain before the widespread use of explosives , which were expensive and dangerous to use in practice . Modern use . Battering rams still have a use in modern times . SWAT teams and other police forces often employ small , one - man or two - man metal rams for forcing open locked portals or effecting a door breaching . Modern battering rams sometimes incorporate a cylinder , along the length of which a piston fires automatically upon striking a hard object — thus enhancing the momentum of the impact significantly .