Collective Violence and Memory in the Ancient Mediterranean

Sonja Ammann, Ph.D. (University of Göttingen, 2014), is Professor of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament at the University of Basel. She is currently directing a research project on Transforming Memories of Collective Violence in the Hebrew Bible funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation. Her recent publications deal with the Babylonian conquest as a cultural trauma.Helge Bezold, Ph.D. (University of Basel, 2022), is a post-doctoral researcher and teacher at the University of Marburg, Germany. His research focuses on representations of violence and power in the Hebrew and Greek Old Testament. His dissertation was published as Esther – Eine Gewaltgeschichte. Die Gewaltdarstellungen in der hebräischen und griechischen Esterüberlieferung (De Gruyter, 2023).Stephen Germany, Ph.D. (Emory University, 2016), is a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Basel. His publications focus on the formation of the narrative literature of the Hebrew Bible, including The Exodus-Conquest Narrative: The Composition of the Non-Priestly Narratives in Exodus–Joshua (Mohr Siebeck, 2017).Julia Rhyder, Ph.D. (University of Lausanne, 2018), is Assistant Professor of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at Harvard University. She has published widely on ritual in the Hebrew Bible and the history of Israelite religion, including Centralizing the Cult: The Holiness Legislation in Leviticus 17–26 (Mohr Siebeck, 2019).

• PrefaceList of FiguresAbbreviationsNotes on Contributors1 IntroductionSonja Ammann2 The Ruins of Jericho (Joshua 6) and the Memorialization of ViolenceAngelika Berlejung3 Memorializing Saul’s Wars in Samuel and ChroniclesStephen Germany4 Fighting Annihilation: The Justification of Collective Violence in the Book of Esther and BeyondHelge Bezold5 Hellenizing Hanukkah: Reframing War Commemoration in 1 and 2 MaccabeesJulia Rhyder6 Memories of Violence in the Material Imagery of Karkamiš and Samʾal: The Motifs of Severed Heads and the Enemy Under Chariot HorsesIzak Cornelius7 Israel’s Violence in Egypt’s Cultural MemoryAntonio Loprieno8 Real Fights and Burlesque Parody: The Depiction of Violence in the Inaros CycleDamien Agut-Labordère9 Material Responses to Collective Violence in Classical AthensNathan T. Arrington10 Remembering and Forgetting the Sack of AthensDavid C. Yates11 The Darkest Hour (?): Military Defeats during the Second Punic War in Roman Memory CultureSimon Lentzsch12 Rebellious Narratives, Repeat Engagements, and Roman HistoriographyJessica ClarkIndex

"Overall, the chapters brought together in this volume provide an engaging and thought-provoking collection of examples of how ancient Mediterranean societies remembered violence in their own pasts; readers interested in conflict and memory in any one of the cultures discussed will find novel points of comparison."Elizabeth Palazzolo, Providence College