The Late Bronze-Early Iron Age Transition: Changes in Warriors and Warfare and the Earliest Recorded Naval Battles (pp. 191-209 in Ancient Warfare: Introducing Current Research, vol. 1), 2015 (original) (raw)
Related papers
International Ancient Warfare Conference, Aberystwyth University, 2013
The transition from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age (LH IIIB-C) in the eastern Mediterranean, Aegean, and Near East was marked by the destruction of empires and the migratory movement of populations. This time of upheaval was also marked by a change in the iconography of warriors and warfare, particularly in Egypt and in the Aegean world, including the first representations of true naval combat. Warriors in feathered headdresses, never before seen in Helladic or Egyptian art, are shown on Aegean pottery and in Egyptian relief taking part in battles on both land and sea, and the Helladic oared galley (Wedde’s Type V) makes its first appearance at this time as an instrument of naval warfare. This paper investigates these earliest representations of naval combat, with a special emphasis on the appearance and employment of new maritime technology and its effect on naval warfare. Also considered are what changes in fighting, if any, had to be made in order to adapt to this early form of ship-based combat.
The Aegean and the Levant at the Turn of the Bronze and Iron Ages, University of Warsaw, 2016
Literary and iconographic accounts suggest that the transition from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age (LH IIIB-LH IIIC) in the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean was marked by increased threats on both land and sea. This includes the iconography of warriors and warfare, particularly in Egypt and in the Aegean world, where the first representations of true ship-to-ship combat are seen. This paper investigates these early iconographic and literary accounts, asking whether they should be seen as “warfare” in the formal sense, as piratical (and anti-piratical) naval operations, or as a combination of both, and seeking to define these terms in the context of the Late Bronze-Early Iron Age transition.
2021
[publisher's description] In Naval Warfare and Maritime Conflict in the Late Bronze and Early Iron Age Mediterranean, Jeffrey P. Emanuel examines the evidence for maritime violence in the Mediterranean region during both the Late Bronze Age and the tumultuous transition to the Early Iron Age in the years surrounding the turn of the 12th century BCE. There has traditionally been little differentiation between the methods of armed conflict engaged in during the Late Bronze and Early Iron Ages, on both the coasts and the open seas, while polities have been alternately characterized as legitimate martial actors and as state sponsors of piracy. By utilizing material, documentary, and iconographic evidence and delineating between the many forms of armed conflict, Emanuel provides an up-to-date assessment not only of the nature and frequency of warfare, raiding, piracy, and other forms of maritime conflict in the Late Bronze Age and Late Bronze-Early Iron Age transition, but also of the extent to which modern views about this activity remain the product of inference and speculation.
2nd International Conference on Relations Between Egypt, the Aegean, the Levant, and the Sudan in the 2nd and 1st Millennia B.C.E. (Prague), 2014
The multidirectional flow of communication and culture around the Late Bronze Age Eastern Mediterranean is clearly reflected in the iconographic, literary, and material records. While the participation of states in these exchanges of ideas and objects is clearly recorded in records like the Amarna letters, the role of non-state actors, both within established networks and “below the radar” on the periphery of formal lines of communication, is a subject that has garnered increasing interest in recent years. This paper approaches the role of peripheral actors – alternatively known as entrepreneurs or pirates, depending on time, setting, and context – in the development and diffusion of technology by focusing on the development and spread of the Helladic Oared Galley and the Loose-Footed, Brailed Sail around the Eastern Mediterranean during the last years of the Late Bronze Age and the Late Bronze–Early Iron transition. These technological developments represented a break from prior ship design, which revolutionized seafaring in the eastern Mediterranean. While the Galley, a vessel well-suited for raiding and warfare, seems to have its origin in the Helladic world (as its name suggests), the brailed sailing rig appears in multiple locations within the Eastern Mediterranean world within a small temporal window, with its most famous representation being the naval battle scene at Medinet Habu, wherein both Egyptian and ‘Sea Peoples’ ships are portrayed as employing this new rig in identical fashion. The circumstances and connections which caused these opposing forces to draw on new and identical implements will be explored in this study, as will the role (and travels) of non-state maritime actors in driving the development and distribution of this revolutionary maritime technology.
Aegean Studies, 2014
The appearance of the brailed rig and loose–footed sail at the end of the Late Bronze Age revolutionized seafaring in the eastern Mediterranean. The most famous early appearance of this new technology is found in history’s first visual representation of a naval battle, on the walls of Ramesses III’s mortuary temple at Medinet Habu. In this monumental combat scene, both Egyptian and Sea Peoples ships are depicted with this new rig, as well as top–mounted crow’s nests and decking upon which shipborne warriors do battle. The identical employment of these innovative components of maritime technology by opposing forces in this battle suggests either some level of previous contact between the invaders and those responsible for designing and constructing Egypt’s ships of war, or shared interaction with a third party, perhaps on the Syro–Canaanite coast. This article examines the evidence for the development of the brailed rig in the eastern Mediterranean, and explores the possibility that at least one group of Sea Peoples, who may have comprised a key part of the international economy of the Late Bronze Age in their role as “pirates, raiders, and traders” (Georgiou 2012: 527) – Artzy’s “nomads of the sea” (1997) – played a similarly integral role in the transference of maritime technology between the Levant, Egypt, and the Aegean.
Hellenic Marine Forces in Late Bronze Age Greece
ARHEOLOGIJA I PRIRODNE NAUKE ARCHAEOLOGY AND SCIENCE Published by: Center for New Technology Institute of Archaeology, University of Belgrade, vol 14/2018 pp. 9-17., 2018
Bronze Age excavation finds offer a great number of information relating the naval architecture of Greek ships. Unfortunately depictions with war character are quite limited. In addition, the paucity of naval battles on illustrations and texts raise many difficulties to the study of naval warfare. Warriors onboard, who consisted a primitive type of marine corps of Late Bronze Age Greece, offers an obstructive but very exiting area for research.