Overview

Landscapes of Warfare offers an in-depth exploration of the Urartian empire, which occupied the highlands of present-day Turkey, Armenia, and Iran in the early first millennium BCE. Lesser known than its rival, the Neo-Assyrian empire, Urartu presents a unique case of imperial power distributed among mountain fortresses rather than centralized in cities. Through spatial analysis, the book demonstrates how systematic warfare, driven by imperial ambitions, shaped Urartian and Assyrian territories, creating symbolically and materially powerful landscapes. Tiffany Earley-Spadoni challenges traditional views by emphasizing warfare's role in organizing ancient landscapes, suggesting that Urartu's strength lay in its strategic optimization of terrain through fortified regional networks. Using an interdisciplinary approach that includes GIS-enabled studies and integrates archaeological, historical, and art-historical evidence, she illustrates how warfare was a generative force in structuring space and society in the ancient Middle East. Landscapes of Warfare situates Urartu's developments within the broader context of regional empires, providing insights into the mechanisms of warfare, governance, and cultural identity formation.

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9781646426836

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Reviews

""This rigorous book will change how we think about the ancient kingdom of Urartu as well as the dynamic roles that landscapes played in mediating violence and trauma in the ancient Middle East."" --Benjamin Porter, University of California, Berkeley

Author Information

Tiffany Earley-Spadoni is associate professor in the Department of History at the University of Central Florida. She directs the Kurd Qaburstan Project in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq and the Vayots Dzor Fortress Landscapes Project in Armenia. Supported by funding from the NSF and NEH, her work has garnered recognition including the ASOR Membership Service Award in 2023 and UCF's Teaching Incentive Program Award in 2021. She holds a PhD in Near Eastern Studies from the Johns Hopkins University.

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