Warfare in the Ancient Near East

This volume examines warfare across Egypt, Assyria, Judea and Mesopotamia, exploring military strategy, fortifications, royal ideology, captivity, memory and trauma. Combining archaeological, textual and iconographic evidence, the volume reveals how war was prepared for, fought and remembered.

This collection brings together scholars of geographic areas and temporal periods from throughout the ancient Near East to examine the topic of warfare. Rather than looking solely at its violent enactment, the contributions in this volume examine the process of warfare from its planning stages to its remembrance, encouraging a broad examination of the topic. The essays within depict the numerous ways in which warfare throughout the ancient Near East manifests, suggesting that cross-cultural dialogue enhances our study of warfare.

Introduction – David B. Schreiner and Shane M. Thompson

The Defences of Hatra. Fortifications, Weapons and Strategy against the Roman and Sassanian Armies during the 2nd and 3rd cent. CE – Enrico Foietta

Egyptianising Luttwak? A New Look on the Military Organisation of the Middle Kingdom in Lower Nubia – Francesco De Gaetano

Chariots in Ancient Egypt – New Insights into a Supposedly Well-known Phenomenon – Heidi Köpp-Junk

Shock and Awe: A Multi-Scalar Historical Approach to Trajan’s Military Campaign in Mesopotamia – Gabriele Viola

Gesellschaftliches Tötungsverbot und Töten im Krieg im Alten Ägypten – Daniela C. Härtel

Prisoners of War or Deportees? (Re-)Defining Wartime Captivity in Middle and New Kingdom Egypt – Ella Karev

How to Restart a War: Post-War Cycles of Violence in Ancient Egyptian Military Texts – James K. Oakley

The Memory of War: Rewriting History in the Assyrian Period – Laura Battini

Warrior versus Savior: Royal Rhetorics of War in the First Millennium BCE – Jinyan Wang

Between Hero and Villain: Remembering Hezekiah as a Site of Memory in Conjunction with Sennacherib’s Third Military Campaign – David B. Schreiner

The Wars of Pharaoh Merneptah and His Celebratory Program at Karnak Temple – Mark D. Janzen

Remembering the Violence: Reflections on The Psychological Trauma of War in Biblical Narrative – Shane M. Thompson

• Edited by David B. Schreiner
• Edited by Shane M. Thompson