The Fine Art Of Assaulting Mud Brick Fortifications In The Middle Kingdom

A regular series on poliorcetic portrayals

Below a row of wrestlers, a storming party assaults a gate supported by a manetelet and long spear with archers. Detail from the tomb of Baquet III at Beni Hasan

Symbolism, as well as the archaeology of defensive walls, point to an epoch of cities at war, and wars over control of cities, from before the First Dynasty. Before the Old Kingdom coalesced, th…