The policy of abusing prisoners and dead enemies between Reality and Allegation: Aspects of the Military History of Ancient Egypt Until the End of the New Kingdom

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Associate Professor, Department of History- Alexandria University

Abstract

Many scenes and texts related to military activity in ancient Egypt appeared some of the cruel and violent methods that the Egyptians practiced with their enemies, whether alive or corpses. This led some scholars to assert that the ancient Egyptians were characterized by brutality and bloodshed in their battles. In fact, these textual and archaeological sources should not be dealt with superficially or with a literal translation; it was just a symbolic depiction related primarily to some ceremonies of victory, or as one of the religious rituals related to the duties that sponsored their military campaigns. On the other hand, these texts, which exaggerated the description of torture and abuse of enemies, were used to play the role of curses and destruction texts, until they appeared in the form of warning texts for everyone who make troubles or violate the borders of the state or even violate the sanctities of the divine temples. That is, they used metaphors and exaggeration to intimidate enemies. Perhaps the only realistic action, and at the same time brutal, in dealing with the dead enemies, is to cut off the hand of the dead enemies, and even this case was aimed at material and moral purposes represented by some statistical and intelligence reasons, as well as symbolic motives aimed at eliminating chaos  by cutting off the enemies' hand, and preventing its regeneration by cutting off their phallus.

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References

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