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Document Details :

Title: Violence in Ancient Egypt
Subtitle: Comments on a Recent Publication
Author(s): BIETAK, Manfred
Journal: Bibliotheca Orientalis
Volume: 80    Issue: 3-4   Date: 2023   
Pages: 215-238
DOI: 10.2143/BIOR.80.3.3292950

Abstract :
State authorities in antiquity and even now, who aspire to dominate foreign enemies and their own people, work through intimidation, including the threats of killing, torture, mutilation, execution, incarceration, and forced labour. The book reviewed in this article provides a detailed overview of the abovementioned methods in Egypt during the New Kingdom. The sources are texts in tombs, papyri, temple walls, and displays of war scenes in relief with the king as the foremost of the victorious warriors. Another theme in the book is how to deal with evildoers. The illustrations depicted in the netherworld guidebooks in the Royal Tombs of the New Kingdom may provide some insight into this subject. A different presentation of the osteological evidence, obtained in Egypt and Nubia, however, would have improved coherence with the abovementioned sources.

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