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

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

List of contributors
Introduction
Michael Eisenberg and Rabei Khamisy

1. The Early 5th-Century BCE Fort of Larisa East (Aeolis) as Part of a Multi-Centred Defence System
Ilgın Külekçi and Turgut Saner
2. The Layout of a Late Classical Fortress in Eastern Sicily: The Military Outpost on Monte Turcisi (CT)
Melanie Jonasch and Claudia Winterstein
3. Strategy Versus Representation? The Late Classical City Wall of Messene
Silke Müth
4. Apertures and Shutters at the Towers of Ancient Messene
Ioannis Nakas
5. Interpreting the Greek Fortifications in Thrace in the 5th-2nd Century BCE: Conflicts or Collaborations?
Aliénor Rufin Solas
6. ‘Dig for Victory’! Competitive Fieldwork in Classical Siege Operations
Gwyn Davies
7. Fortifying a Buffer Region: The City Walls in Triphylia, Greece
Elke Richter
8. Excavating the Hellenistic Fortification of Vergina, Northern Greece
Vassiliki G. Stamatopoulou
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
Brita Jansen
10. The Siege Wall at Mudayna as-Saliya in Central Jordan
Chang-Ho Ji and Chaim Ben-David
11. The Development and Function of the East Gate in Side, Pamphylia
Ute Lohner-Urban
12. The Starting Point of the Imperial Roads in Aelia Capitolina
Shlomit Weksler-Bdolah and Danit Levi
13. Regional Fortifications in the Chora of Hippos (Sussita)
Adam Pažout
14. The Extraordinary Roman Military Presence in Judaea from AD 70 until the 3rd Century
Werner Eck
15. Securing the Hostile Hinterland: The Roman Fort at Gračine and the Defences of Narona
Tomasz Dziurdzik and Anna Mech
16. Fortifications of Nicaea: The Defensive Features of a 3rd-Century CE Rampart and their Transformation Throughout History
Ayşe Dalyancı-Berns
17. Caesarea Maritima: Fortifications and City Expansion from the Time of Herod the Great to Late Antiquity
Peter Gendelman
18. Habonim-Kafr Lām: A Ribāt of the Levantine Coastal Defensive System in the First Centuries of Islam
Hervé Barbé and Itamar Taxel
19. Countermeasures: The Destruction of Siege Equipment at Acre, 1189-1191
John D. Hosler
20. Crusader Coastal Fortifications: Preventing Longshore Raids in the Shallows, While Keeping the Sea Approach Open and Safe
Ehud Galili and Sarah Arenson
21. Three Main Towers of Medieval Caesarea: Their Architecture and Function
Vardit Shotten-Hallel, Jean Mesqui and Uzi ‘Ad
22. Battlefield Archaeology at Tannenberg (Grunwald, Žalgiris): Physical Remains of the Defeat of the Teutonic Order in Prussia in 1410
Sven Ekdahl
23. Contra Multitudinem Ruthenorum Armatorum: The Russian-Livonian Battle of Lake Smolino (1502) Reconsidered
Alexander Baranov