Ricerc@Sapienza

Il volume raccoglie una serie di contributi sulla prima guerra mondiale

The authors present a reconsideration of warfare evidence in south-eastern Italy during the Bronze Age on the ground of the archaeological data coming from the excavations at Coppa Nevigata. In particular, the transformations of the defensive lines of the settlement through time are discussed, as in all likelihood these were strictly linked to both defensive and offensive strategies and their changes. In this framework, the evidence of the assault that the settlement witnessed around 1500 BC, which caused a severe re in a portion of the village, is analyzed.

Starting from two seal impressions from Tell Mozan, ancient Urkeš (Syria), this paper presents and discusses some Near Eastern seals from Syria and Mesopotamia whose iconography is related to war or warlike scenes. The figurative theme resembles the narrative representations of war in major monuments (such as bas-reliefs on wall panels and steles) – or vice versa? – with a clear selection of culminating moments due to the restricted surface that the seal can offer.

Analysis of the images of the Assyrian sieges as they are depicted on the wall palace reliefs of the Assyrian kings: the contribution takes into account pictorial style, need for the comprehension and development of stories through images and the political and ideological implication of the use of such images in the Assyrian context.

The theme of violence is largely represented in the visual media of ancient Mesopotamia and Syria, from ancient times (fourth millennium BCE) up to the periods of the great empires of Assyria and Babylonia in the first millennium CE. Violent scenes, mostly related to war, principally show the punishment and killing of enemies according to recurrent visual topoi – such as beheading, beating, impalement, blinding, cutting and amputation of limbs – on different media, from cylinder seals to inlays and larger reliefs.

Numbers and warfare are strictly bounded: in particular, war is a very special situation where numbers acquire a very important meaning and function. Even nowadays, when speaking of and analysing war, we are inevitably attracted by numbers and, we could say, numbers precisely dictate the reason and choice of war on the one hand, and the outcome and implication of fighting on the other. In particular, after the battle is over, a virtual fight of numbers begins comparing victories and losses, survivors and fallen

War in the Ancient Near East has been (and it still is) a preferred theme of research by scholars who have been analyzing the composition and formation of the armies, the way war was fought and therefore the different techniques and strategies of fighting.