Aegean prehistory was born out of the search for the Trojan War. Since the time of Heinrich Schliemann, new forms of evidence have come to light and innovative questions have arisen, including examinations of warfare as a concept. This volume interrogates the nature of warfare in the Bronze Age Aegean for scholars and teachers with knowledge of the ancient Mediterranean, who wish to access the state of the field when it comes to the ways that specialists approach warfare in the prehistoric Aegean. Authors review evidence, consider the social and cultural place of war, and revisit longstanding questions.
Lynne A. Kvapil, PhD (2012), University of Cincinnati, is an associate professor of Classics at Butler University. She has published on terraced landscapes, farming, ceramic production, and mortuary archaeology of the Mycenaean of Late Bronze Age Greece.
Kim Shelton, Ph.D. (1993), is Director of the Nemea Center at UC Berkeley. She directs excavations in Nemea and Mycenae. Her research in ceramics, ritual and religion, and the political economy of the prehistoric Aegean is published in monographs and articles.
Contributors are: Natalie Abell, Tomáš Alušík, Trevor Bryce, Ioannis Georganas, Margaretha Kramer-Hajos, Lynne A. Kvapil, Shannon Lafayette Hogue, Barry Molloy, Jesse Obert, Stephen O’Brien, Angelos Papadopoulos, Cynthia Shelmerdine, Kim Shelton
"This handsomely produced volume fulfills the promise of its title: it accompanies its intended reader, equipped with a basic knowledge of the ancient Mediterranean, into an exploration of various aspects of a topic often fraught with easy generalizations and stereotypical representations. As such, it is a highly welcome and well-prepared publication that was eagerly anticipated. (...) [It] will remain a standard introduction to almost all facets of the topic to a broader readership, facilitating the integration of Aegean prehistory to comparative studies and broad syntheses on warfare, ancient or diachronic."
Vassilis Petrakis in BMCR 2025.06.08
Scholars and teachers with knowledge of the ancient Mediterranean, who wish to access the state of the field when it comes to the ways that specialists approach warfare in the prehistoric Aegean.