Weapons, warfare and skeleton injuries during the Iron Age in the Ancient Near East
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Authors
Pretorius, Johan
Issue Date
2020-11
Type
Dissertation
Language
en
Keywords
Ancient Near East , Assyrian reliefs , Bioarchaeology , Blunt force trauma , Chronology , Forensic anthropology , Human remains , Iron Age , Lachish , Lachish reliefs , Radiocarbon dating , Sharp force trauma , Skeletal remains , War , Warfare , Weaponry , Wound patterns
Alternative Title
Abstract
Due to the nature of war, persons are killed with various types of weapons.
Throughout the history of humanity, weapons were used in this regard and these
weapons left injuries on the victims that are distinguishable. The type of force
conveyed by the ancient weapons effected injuries that enable modern-day
bioarchaeologists to extrapolate which weapons caused which injuries. The
Assyrians depicted their wars and battles on reliefs. An analysis of these depictions,
with an extrapolation of the lesions expected in skeletal remains, could contribute to
better understanding of the strategies of war in ancient times. This dissertation will
discuss how the evaluation of human remains in comparison to Assyrian reliefs may
contribute to the chronological knowledge of war and warfare in the Iron Age Ancient
Near East – especially at Lachish. A discourse of the approaches available to
researchers regarding access to data in the forensic bioarchaeological field will be
presented.