Fabulous Book

I HAVE been quite fortunate recently with my choice of reading material, and that is very much the case with William J Hamblin's Warfare In The Ancient Near East To 1600 BC.

The subtitle of Holy Warriors At The Dawn Of History might have put me off if I had noticed it.

But the author did not use the book as a vehicle for pushing a wacky theory.

Rather he pointed out that much warfare in the early days of history, and in pre-historical times for that matter, was justified on religious grounds, with kings claiming to be acting on behalf of, and with the aid of, various gods.

500+ pages of brilliantly informative and exciting history

Hamblin, who died in 2019, was associate professor of history at Brigham Young University, Utah.

The book has taught me much about early warfare in Mesopotamia, with warring city states such as Ur and Kish.

In my ignorance I had thought such conflicts would be dull to read about, my views perhaps overly influenced by the clumsiness of early chariots. I now know better.

His coverage of later times was much more familiar to me, although again I learnt plenty.

The book was published in 2006, but the only parts that seem a little dated to me, admittedly a layman, concern his coverage of the Hyksos 'invasion' of Egypt. But that is a small part of a much greater achievement.