Helmets and Body Armour in New Kingdom Egypt

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This book examines the dynamics around the introduction and spread of helmets and body armour throughout Egypt during the 18th, 19th and 20th Dynasties. It argues that the word 'introduction' is the best term to define this phenomenon because these types of military equipment were not in fact Egyptian technological innovations, but initially appeared at the end of the Bronze Age following the Hurrian expansion in the Middle East before being dispersed throughout the surrounding territories.

The analysis focuses particularly on a survey of iconographic, archaeological and lexicographic attestations from a wide range of surviving material evidence and literary sources. On the basis of the collated data, it provides as accurate a perspective as possible on how the helmet and the cuirass were introduced and propagated, their impact on warfare and their possible role in ideology across the chronological span of the New Kingdom. Pollastrini also draws productive comparisons between the Egyptian data and contemporary attestations from the Middle East and the Aegean region in order to underpin the 'international' dynamics at play. In doing so it both encourages a broader ancient-historical perspective that sets New Kingdom Egypt within its contemporary context, and sheds new light on developments in the military history and warfare of the period.

Reviews

Alberto Pollastrinis study is the first in-depth approach covering all the facets of the armor of the Egyptian army during the New Kingdom. It breaks new ground with respect to the advances in its style, technique and use for the protection of soldiers during the heyday of the Egypts empire. In fact, this volume, providing fresh and new interpretations, is particularly important for the development and application of metallurgy and leather working at this time in Egypt owing to cross-cultural interactions between Egypt and Western Asia. -- Anthony Spalinger, Emeritus Professor of Classics and Ancient History University of Auckland, New Zealand

Author Bio

Alberto Maria Pollastrini is a member of the Research Unit AOROC Archaeology & Philology of the East and West at Paris Sciences and Letters University, France. He specializes in Egyptian and Western Asiatic warfare and hoplology, in particular from the New Kingdom and Late Period.