Warfare in the Ancient Near East to 1600 BC (Warfare and History)

545 Pages·2006·5.47 MB·English

by  William J. Hamblin

Warfare in the Ancient Near East to 1600 BC
‘Hamblin’sbookisagoldmineofinformation–bothtextualandarchaeological–
onancientNearEasternwarfarebeforetheLateBronzeAge.’
ProfessorRobertDrews,VanderbiltUniversity
For many historians, military history began in Classical Greece. Chronologically,
however, half of recorded military history occurred before the Greeks rose to
military predominance. In this groundbreaking and fascinating study, William J.
Hamblin synthesises current knowledge of early ancient Near Eastern military
historyinanaccessibleway,fromtheNeolitihicerauntiltheMiddleBronzeAge.
Drawing on an extensive range of textual, artistic, and archaeological data,
WarfareintheAncientNearEastto1600BCoffersadetailedanalysisofthemilitary
technology, ideology, and practices of Near Eastern warfare, focusing on key
topics including: recruitment and training of the soldiers; the logistics and weap-
onryofwarfare,withemphasisontheshiftfromstonetometalweapons;therole
played by magic; narratives of combat and artistic representations of battle; the
origins and development of the chariot as a mode of military transportation; for-
tificationsandsiegecraft;anddevelopmentsinnaval warfare. Hamblin paysparti-
cular attention to the earliest-known examples of holy war ideology in
MesopotamiaandEgypt,andarguesthatthiseralaidthefoundationforlaterNear
Eastern concepts of holy war, and that such understandings remain of vital sig-
nificanceintheworldtoday.
Illustrated throughout, including maps of the region, this book is essential for
expertsandnon-specialistsalike.
William J. Hamblin is Associate Professor of History at Brigham Young
University, specializing in Near Eastern and military history. He is co-author of
WorldHistoryto1648(1993).
Warfare and History
General Editor
Jeremy Black
Professor of History, University of Exeter
AirPowerintheAgeofTotalWar MedievalNavalWarfare,1000–1500
JohnBuckley SusanRose
TheArmiesoftheCaliphs ModernChineseWarfare,1795–1989
MilitaryandSocietyintheEarlyIslamicState BruceA.Elleman
HughKennedy
ModernInsurgenciesandCounter-insurgencies
TheBalkanWars,1912–1913 GuerrillasandtheirOpponentssince1750
PreludetotheFirstWorldWar IanF.W.Beckett
RichardC.Hall
MughalWarfare
EnglishWarfare,1511–1642 ImperialFrontiersandHighroadstoEmpire
MarkCharlesFissel 1500–1700
JosGommans
EuropeanandNativeAmericanWarfare,
1675–1815 NavalWarfare,1815–1914
ArmstrongStarkey LawrenceSondhaus
EuropeanWarfare,1660–1815 OttomanWarfare,1500–1700
JeremyBlack
RhoadsMurphey
EuropeanWarfare,1494–1660
ThePeloponnesianWar
JeremyBlack
Amilitarystudy
J.F.Lazenby
TheFirstPunicWar
J.F.Lazenby
Samurai,WarfareandtheStateinEarly
MedievalJapan
Frontiersmen:WarfareinAfricaSince1950
KarlF.Friday
AnthonyClayton
GermanArmies SeapowerandNavalWarfare,1650–1830
WarandGermanPolitics,1648–1806 RichardHarding
PeterH.Wilson
TheSovietMilitaryExperience
TheGreatWar1914–1918 RogerR.Reese
SpencerC.Tucker
Vietnam
TheIrishandBritishWars,1637–1654 SpencerC.Tucker
Triumph,Tragedy,andFailure
JamesScottWheeler TheWarforIndependenceandtheTransformation
ofAmericanSociety
Israel’sWars,1947–1993 HarryM.Ward
AhronBregman
WarandtheStateinEarlyModernEurope
TheKoreanWar Spain,theDutchRepublicandSwedenas
NoVictors,noVanquished Fiscal-militaryStates,1500–1660
StanleySandler JanGlete
MedievalChineseWarfare,300–900 WarfareandSocietyinEurope,1792–1914
DavidA.Graff GeoffreyWawro
WarfareandSocietyinEurope,1898tothePresent WarfareandSocietyintheBarbarianWest
MichaelS.Neiberg GuyHalsall
WarfareatSea,1500–1650 WarintheModernWorldsince1815
JanGlete JeremyBlack,editor
WarfareinAtlanticAfrica,1500–1800 WorldWarTwo
MaritimeConflictsandtheTransformationof AMilitaryHistory
Europe JeremyBlack
JohnK.Thornton
War,PoliticsandSocietyinEarlyModernChina,
Warfare,StateandSocietyintheByzantineWorld, 900–1795
565–1204 PeterLorge
JohnHaldon
WarfareintheAncientNearEast,to1600BC
WarintheEarlyModernWorld, HolyWarriorsattheDawnofHistory
1450–1815 WilliamJ.Hamblin
editedbyJeremyBlack
TheWarsoftheFrenchRevolutionandNapoleon,
WarsofImperialConquestinAfrica,1830–1914 1792–1815
BruceVandervort OwenConnelly
WesternWarfareintheAgeoftheCrusades, IndianWarsofCanada,Mexicoandthe
1000–1300 UnitedStates,1812–1900
JohnFrance BruceVandervort
WarandSocietyinImperialRome,
31BC–AD284
BrianCampbell

Warfare in the Ancient Near East
to 1600 BC
Holy Warriors at the Dawn of History
William J. Hamblin
Firstpublished2006
byRoutledge
2ParkSquare,MiltonPark,Abingdon,Oxon,OX144RN
SimultaneouslypublishedintheUSAandCanada
byRoutledge
270MadisonAvenue,NewYork,NY10016
RoutledgeisanimprintoftheTaylor&FrancisGroup,aninformabusiness
#2006WilliamJ.Hamblin
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2006.
“To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s
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Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthisbookmaybereprintedorreproducedorutilized
inanyformorbyanyelectronic,mechanical,orothermeans,nowknownorhereafter
invented,includingphotocopyingandrecording,orinanyinformationstorageor
retrievalsystem,withoutpermissioninwritingfromthepublishers.
BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData
AcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
WarfareintheancientNearEasttoc.1600BC/[editedby]WilliamJ.Hamblin.
p.cm.–(Warfareandhistory)
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
1.Militaryartandscience–MiddleEast–History.2.MiddleEast–History,
Military–To1500.I.Hamblin,WilliamJames.II.Series.
U31.W372005
355’.00939’409013--dc22
2005006029
ISBN10:0-415-25589-9(pbk)
ISBN10:0-415-25588-0(hbk)
ISBN13:978-0-415-25589-9(pbk)
ISBN13:978-0-415-25588-2(hbk)
For Loree, Ken, Karen and Alex
– of course
For Scott Nelson: the Better Man
And for Blake Donner,
who dared to dream of a world without war

‘‘Mightiest of the mighty, hero in battle, let me sing his song!’’
Gilgamesh and the Bull ofHeaven, Sumer, c. 2000 BCE (EOG 169)