Unit:
Specialty Greek and Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology: From the Bronze Age Palaces to the Hellenistic KingdomsLibrary of the School of Philosophy
Supervisors info:
Konstantinos Kopanias， Associate Professor in the Archaeology of the Eastern Mediterranean
Eleni Mantzourani， Professor of Prehistoric Archaeology
Giorgos Vavouranakis，Associate Professor of Prehistoric Archaeology
Original Title:
Battle of Kadesh-Warfare and Military Organization during the 13th century B.C.
Translated title:
Battle of Kadesh-Warfare and Military Organization during the 13th century B.C.
Summary:
The Battle of Kadesh in 1274 B.C is perhaps the most famous and best documented battle in the Bronze Age. Through a review of the Battle of Kadesh and the subsequent military organizations of major civilizations in 13th century B.C, this dissertation aims to synthesize our current knowledge about military history in different civilizations around the ancient world in the 13th century B.C. By employing a cross-cultural comparative method, I aim to examine the systems of military organization and the exchanging of military technologies between different ancient civilizations during this period, such a Egypt, Hittite, Yin-Shang China and Mycenaean Greece.
The different system of socio-political organization is reflected in the warfare as well as the military organizations of these different civilizations. Through the comparison of the military organizations of the Egyptian, Hittite, Yin-Shang and Mycenaean civilizations, we see more similarities in the first three kingdoms, potentially due to the similar nature of the social-political system in Egypt, Hittite and Yin-Shang. The image of military organization in Mycenaean states is not very clear since their social-political system and scale were drastically different from Egypt, Hittite and Yin-Shang, making it very difficult to draw any assumptions from the archaeological record.
Main subject category:
Archaeology
Keywords:
Battle of Kadesh, warfare, military organizations, Late Bronze Age, Egypt, Hittite, Yin-Shang, Mycenaean
