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).

Preface

List of Figures

Abbreviations

Notes on Contributors



1 Introduction

 Sonja Ammann



2 The Ruins of Jericho (Joshua 6) and the Memorialization of Violence

 Angelika Berlejung



3 Memorializing Saul’s Wars in Samuel and Chronicles

 Stephen Germany



4 Fighting Annihilation: The Justification of Collective Violence in the Book of Esther and Beyond

 Helge Bezold



5 Hellenizing Hanukkah: Reframing War Commemoration in 1 and 2 Maccabees

 Julia Rhyder



6 Memories of Violence in the Material Imagery of Karkamiš and Samʾal: The Motifs of Severed Heads and the Enemy Under Chariot Horses

 Izak Cornelius



7 Israel’s Violence in Egypt’s Cultural Memory

 Antonio Loprieno



8 Real Fights and Burlesque Parody: The Depiction of Violence in the Inaros Cycle

 Damien Agut-Labordère



9 Material Responses to Collective Violence in Classical Athens

 Nathan T. Arrington



10 Remembering and Forgetting the Sack of Athens

 David C. Yates



11 The Darkest Hour (?): Military Defeats during the Second Punic War in Roman Memory Culture

 Simon Lentzsch



12 Rebellious Narratives, Repeat Engagements, and Roman Historiography

 Jessica Clark



Index