Honors Program
Honors in History
Date of Award
5-2025
Thesis Professor(s)
William Burgess Jr.
Thesis Professor Department
History
Thesis Reader(s)
Jennifer Axsom Adler
Abstract
Women are often overlooked as contributors in conflict and warfare throughout time, both modern and ancient. Women in positions of authority through politics, religion, or both contributed to the management of conflict and warfare through propaganda, political ritual, and direct involvement in the army. This thesis focuses on five different women from Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Syria beginning in the 2200s BCE to the height of the Roman Empire. It focuses on the utilization of primary sources such as translated writings, statues, art and iconography, and documentation of the works of these women. Women’s contributions continue to be overlooked or erased from history, so this thesis attempts to shed light on the traditional and non-traditional ways women of power in the past asserted their authority over conflict. Figures such as Priestess Enheduanna and Queen Nefertiti relied on propaganda, political ritual, and religion to control conflict and assert power while Pharaoh Hatshepsut, Queen Zenobia, and Queen Cleopatra engaged in warfare traditionally by leading military campaigns or engaging in conflict directly. Some of these women in the past had their names removed from history, with signs of sabotage or removal on their monuments and memorials. However, their names and actions persist, with more information coming to light of the truth of their roles in their worlds. The modern understanding of women in the ancient world is colored by modern assumptions and perceptions of the role of women, and thus this thesis further hopes to recontextualize the actions and behavior of these women surrounding war and conflict with time and location accurate context.
Publisher
East Tennessee State University
Document Type
Honors Thesis - Open Access
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Kimbro, Margaret E. and Kimbro, Margaret, "Women in War in the Ancient Middle East" (2025). Undergraduate Honors Theses. Paper 834. https://dc.etsu.edu/honors/834
Copyright
Copyright by the authors.
Included in
History of Gender Commons, Other History of Art, Architecture, and Archaeology Commons, Women's History Commons
