Window into the Bible
Other Images of Warfare
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Royal Standard of Ur - War side
Date: ca. 2600 BC.
Place: Royal cemetery at Ur [Iraq]
Photographed at the British Museum, London, England.
This standard was discovered by Sir Leonard Wooley in 1927-28. Ur was the birrth place of the Patriarch Abraham. He would have been living about five hundred years after this was constructed.
Royal Standard of Ur
Close-up view of a chariot on the war side of the standard.
Egyptian Soldiers and Nubian
Mercenaries
Date: 1470 BC.
Place: Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut, Deir el-Bahari
Painted Limestone
Photographed at the Neues Museum, Berlin, Germany.
Egyptian Soldiers and Nubian Mercenaries
Date: 1470 BC.
Place: Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut, Deir el-Bahari
Painted Limestone
Photographed at the Neues Museum, Berlin, Germany.
Note: carrying a standard
Smiting an Enemy with a Mace
Date: 1213 - 1204 BC.
Place: Gateway of the palace of Merneptah, Egypt.
Photographed at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
This relief shows Merneptah, the son of Rameses the Great, smiting his enemies with a mace.
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Hittite Chariot Relief
Date: 950 - 850 BC. Late Hittite
Place: Anatolia (Turkey)
This relief is made from Basalt.
Photographed at the Museum of Anatolian Civilisation, Ankara, Turkey.
The Hittites were a familiar part of the Old Testament world. David had a Hittite called Uriah in his army (see 2 Samuel 11). Abraham bought a field that belonges to Ephron the Hittite as a place to bury his family (Gen 23:1ff)
Persian Archers
Date: 5th century BC.
Place: Palace of Darius, Susa [Iran]
Photographed at the Pergamon Museum, Berlin, Germany.
Persian Soldiers
Date: 5th century BC.
Place: Susa [Iran]
Photographed at the Louvre Museum, Paris, France.
“Summon archers against Babylon, all those who draw the bow. Encamp all around her; let no one escape. Repay her for her deeds; do to her as she has done. For she has defied the Lord, the Holy One of Israel.” (Jeremiah 50:29)
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Falling on a Sword
(On a Red Figured Calyx Krater)
Date: 400 - 350 BC.
Place: Etruria, from Vulci [Italy]
Photographed at the British Museum, London, England.
The image depicts the suicide of Ajax the Trojan hero as told in Ovid's Metamorphasis.
Falling on one's sword was sometimes used by people to die an honourable death rather than being captured by an enemy. This is what the Bible tells us King Saul did when he was defeated by the Philistines on Mount Gilboa. (1 Sam 31:4 b)