The Art of Siege Warfare and Military Architecture from the Classical World to the Middle Ages

Michael Eisenberg, Rabei Khamisy

• Publisher: Oxbow Books
• Year: 2021
• eBook ISBN: 9781789254099
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Military & Maritime History
• Index: History

The papers in this book present, for the first time, the world of warfare, both defensive and offensive, from the Classical periods to end of the Middle Ages in one collection. These scholarships have attracted ancient writers and generals and nowadays historians, archaeologists and researchers poliorcetics. Military historiography and ancient manuals are well familiar from the Classical period throughout the Hellenistic great battlefields until the end of the Middle Ages, the chronological scope of this codex. The current book is the first to encompass this long array of time while trying to enrich the reader with the continuity, development and regression in the different periods and spheres of the ancient poliorcetics and beyond; the papers presented here are focusing on the physical fortifications, besieging and defense techniques, development and efficiency of ancient projectiles and sieging machinery, battlefields and the historiographical evidence. The X papers of the book, are written by some of the best scholars in their field, presenting here for the first time the results of their research, in the west and in the east.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Book Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of contributors
• Introduction
• 1 The Early 5th-Century BCE Fort of Larisa East (Aeolis) as Part of a Multi-Centred Defence System
• 2 The Layout of a Late Classical Fortress in Eastern Sicily: The Military Outpost on Monte Turcisi (CT)
• 3 Strategy Versus Representation? The Late Classical City Wall of Messene
• 4 Apertures and Shutters at the Towers of Ancient Messene
• 5 Interpreting the Greek Fortifications in Thrace in the 5th–2nd Century BCE: Conflicts or Collaborations?
• 6 ‘Dig for Victory’! Competitive Fieldwork in Classical Siege Operations
• 7 Fortifying a Buffer Region: The City Walls in Triphylia, Greece
• 8 Excavating the Hellenistic Fortification of Vergina, Northern Greece
• 9 The Hellenistic Fortification of Seleukeia Gadara (Umm Qays): Form, Function and Origin of the Military Architecture at the Southern Edge of the Seleucid Empire
• 10 The Siege Wall at Mudayna as-Saliya in Central Jordan
• 11 The Development and Function of the East Gate in Side, Pamphylia
• Plate section
• 12 The Starting Point of the Imperial Roads in Aelia Capitolina
• 13 Regional Fortifications in the Chora of Hippos (Sussita)
• 14 The Extraordinary Roman Military Presence in Judaea from AD 70 until the 3rd Century
• 15 Securing the Hostile Hinterland: The Roman Fort at Gračine and the Defences of Narona
• 16 Fortifications of Nicaea: The Defensive Features of a 3rd-Century CE Rampart and their Transformation Throughout History
• 17 Caesarea Maritima: Fortifications and City Expansion from the Time of Herod the Great to Late Antiquity
• 18 Habonim-Kafr Lām: A Ribāt of the Levantine Coastal Defensive System in the First Centuries of Islam
• 19 Countermeasures: The Destruction of Siege Equipment at Acre, 1189–1191
• 20 Crusader Coastal Fortifications: Preventing Longshore Raids in the Shallows, While Keeping the Sea Approach Open and Safe
• 21 Three Main Towers of Medieval Caesarea: Their Architecture and Function
• 22 Battlefield Archaeology at Tannenberg (Grunwald, Žalgiris):Physical Remains of the Defeat of the TeutonicOrder in Prussia in 1410
• 23Contra Multitudinem Ruthenorum Armatorum: The Russian-Livonian Battle of Lake Smolino (1502) Reconsidered