Warfare in the Ancient Near East

Shane M. Thompson (Ph.D., Brown University) is Associate Professor of Bible and the Ancient Near East in the Religious Studies Program at North Carolina Wesleyan University. His current research focuses on leisure activities, performance, and power relationships in the ancient Near East. He is the author of Displays of Cultural Hegemony and Counter-Hegemony in the Late Bronze and Iron Age Levant: The Public Presence of Foreign Powers and Local Resistance (Routledge, 2023).

• Introduction – David B. Schreiner and Shane M. ThompsonThe Defences of Hatra. Fortifications, Weapons and Strategy against the Roman and Sassanian Armies during the 2nd and 3rd cent. CE – Enrico FoiettaEgyptianising Luttwak? A New Look on the Military Organisation of the Middle Kingdom in Lower Nubia – Francesco De GaetanoChariots in Ancient Egypt – New Insights into a Supposedly Well-known Phenomenon – Heidi Köpp-JunkShock and Awe: A Multi-Scalar Historical Approach to Trajan’s Military Campaign in Mesopotamia – Gabriele ViolaGesellschaftliches Tötungsverbot und Töten im Krieg im Alten Ägypten – Daniela C. HärtelPrisoners of War or Deportees? (Re-)Defining Wartime Captivity in Middle and New Kingdom Egypt – Ella KarevHow to Restart a War: Post-War Cycles of Violence in Ancient Egyptian Military Texts – James K. OakleyThe Memory of War: Rewriting History in the Assyrian Period – Laura BattiniWarrior versus Savior: Royal Rhetorics of War in the First Millennium BCE – Jinyan WangBetween Hero and Villain: Remembering Hezekiah as a Site of Memory in Conjunction with Sennacherib’s Third Military Campaign – David B. SchreinerThe Wars of Pharaoh Merneptah and His Celebratory Program at Karnak Temple – Mark D. JanzenRemembering the Violence: Reflections on The Psychological Trauma of War in Biblical Narrative – Shane M. Thompson