Somewhere between totally mythical and “pretty close” there has to be a way to figure this. After all, the stele’s speak in terms of pretty specific numbers – Ahab brought 10K soldiers and 2K chariots to Qarqar, eg. How would they have done that? Did they have a certain number for a platoon? And another for a company? And did they even divide their troops in those ways? Even then their armies would have had to have a way to muster the troops and know everyone was there and accounted for.
So if you’re a NK scout looking out across the valley and you have to take some fairly accurate estimate of enemy troop strength back to the king, how do you do it? Do you count sections of troops organized in 10s? 50s? You have to have some way to do it or you won’t be a scout for long.
