SeanJan 15, 2022

Female Military Historians

Detail from a New Kingdom relief of soldiers in the Museo Civico, Bologna. Photo by Sean Manning September 2018.

I have said that the ‘hoplite debate’ from 1989 to 2013 was an argument between people who were very similar to each other. One way they were the same was that they were almost all men. Is that because academic military history in general is male-dominated? That would not be a very good argument because military history is so marginal at universities that most people who do it have another research field. But more importantly, I can think of about two dozen 40 fifty sixty women who have made significant contributions to the study of war in the ancient and medieval worlds. From my point of view, a doctoral dissertation, scholarly book, or several influential articles are enough to be significant.

Ancient (47)

  • Ahlberg, Gudrun (d. 2014): Fighting on Land and Sea in Greek Geometric Art (1971) https://digitaltmuseum.se/021189700779/konstnar-och-imaginist-gudrun-ahlberg
  • Anderson, Kate: The Weapons, Warriors, and Warfare of Northern Britain, 1250 BC-850 AD (PhD thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2012) http://hdl.handle.net/1842/6286
  • Ball, Jo: Greek and Roman battlefield archaeology https://www.badancient.com/about/jo-ball/
  • Battini, Laura: edited two volumes on warfare in the Ancient Near East; many other research interests
  • Bon, Anne-Marie (École normale supérieure): Translated and annotated Alphonse Dain’s edition of Aeneas Tacticus in 1967
  • Clark, Jessica H. (Florida State University): war in Latin literature until the time of Augustus, Military Loss and the Roman Republic (Oxford, 2014), co-editor of Brill’s Companion to Military Defeat in Ancient Mediterranean Society (Brill, 2018) https://classics.fsu.edu/jessica-h-clark (thanks Bret D.)
  • Craven, Stephanie P.: mercenaries from Hellenistic Crete https://utexas.academia.edu/StephanieCraven
  • Cuomo, Serafino: ancient mathematics and engineering including catapults https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serafina_Cuomo
  • Dixon, Karen: co-authored and illustrated The Roman Cavalry (1992), The Late Roman Army (1996)
  • Erdmann, Elisabeth: Nordosttor und Persische Belagerungsrampe in Alt-Paphos (1977); “Die Sogenannten Marathonpfeilspitzen in Karlsruhe” (1973)
  • Fischer-Bovet, Christelle: the army of Ptolemaic Egypt https://dornsife.usc.edu/cf/faculty-and-staff/faculty.cfm?pid=1024522
  • Fortenberry, Diane: Elements of Mycenaean Warfare (unpublished PhD thesis; University of Cincinnati, 1990).
  • Frost, Honor: underwater archaeology, published the Marsala Punic warship https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honor_Frost
  • Gerard, Silvannen: Seleukid army, ancient cavalry https://manchester.academia.edu/SilvannenGerrard
  • Gilliver, Kate: “I am a Roman military historian and archaeologist with particular interests in the conduct of war and the practicalities of waging war in the Roman world from the second Punic war to the third century AD.” https://www.cardiff.ac.uk/people/view/73021-gilliver-kate (thanks Bret D.)
  • Harrell, Kate: Mycenean archaeology https://vmnh.academia.edu/KateHarrell/Aegean-Prehistory-Papers
  • Hoss, Stefanie (Universität zu Köln): the archaeology of the Roman army https://uni-koeln.academia.edu/StefanieHoss
  • Hyland, Anne: the horse in the ancient world
  • Inall, Yvonne: Iron Age European swords and spears https://sydney.academia.edu/YvonneInall
  • Kaiser, Anna Maria: The army in Late Roman Egypt (various articles)
  • Kilian-Dirlmeier, Imma: Die Schwerter in Griechenland (außerhalb der Peloponnes) (1993), Kleinfunde aus dem Athena-Itonia-Heiligtum bei Philia (2002)
  • Lehoërff, Ann: prehistoric European arms and armour. Monograph Par les armes: le jour où l’homme inventa la guerre (Éditions Belin, 2018) = A Call to Arms: The day war was invented (Sidestone Press, 2022) https://www.sidestone.com/authors/lehoerff-anne
  • Lang, Janet (British Museum): Roman ferrous objects including swords https://britishmuseum.academia.edu/JanetLang
  • Marinovič, Ludmila (d. 2010): Le mercenariat grec au IV e siècle avant notre ère et la crise de la polis (1988) (free to read on persée) https://ru.wikipedia.org/
  • Mayor, Adrienne: Greek Fire, Poison Arrows, & Scorpion Bombs: Biological & Chemical Warfare in the Ancient World
  • Melville, Sarah C.: Neo-Assyrian Warfare https://clarkson.academia.edu/SarahMelville/
  • Mihajlov, Anneka: Athenian and Roman cavalry: PhD thesis 2018 Greek Riders of War: Cavalrymen of Ancient Greece, article in Antichthon vol. 56 2022 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3433-1938
  • Mödlinger, Marianne: Bronze Age weapons and warfare in Europe https://infomus.academia.edu/MarianneM%C3%B6dlinger (thanks Todd F.)
  • Parnell, Catherine Sara: ancient Greek kopides and machairas, started a PhD in archaeology at University College Dublin but may not have finished
  • Phang, S. E: The marriage of Roman soldiers (13 B.C.-A.D. 235) (2001); Roman Military Service: ideologies of Discipline in the Late Republic and Early Principate (2008)
  • Pimouguet-Pédarros, Isabelle: sieges and fortifications in the Classical Aegean, Archéologie de la défense: Histoire des fortifications antiques de Carie (2000)
  • Pretzler, Maria (Swansea): very useful website on Aeneas Tacticus (built for a conference) http://aeneastacticus.net/public_html/index.html
  • Radner, Karen (LMU Munich): Neo-Assyrian warfare eg. “Sustaining the Assyrian Army Among Friends and Enemies in 714 BCE.” Journal of Cuneiform Studies 67 pp. 127–143
  • Rihll, Tracey Elizebeth (Swansea): a book on ancient catapults
  • Ringheim, Hannah L.: Greeks in Saite Egypt and the Levant https://www.ringheim.info/a-homepage-section/ or https://oxford.academia.edu/HannahRingheim
  • Schofield, Aimee: Philon of Byzantium, reconstructing ancient catapults, dissertation: Experimental archaeology and siege warfare: analysing ancient sources through experimentation (Manchester, 2014)
  • Scurlock, Joann: unpublished PhD thesis draft on Neo-Assyrian warfare (she had to change topics mid-way through her studies)
  • Sheldon, Rose Mary (Virginia Military Institute): professor at a state (!) military college in the USA, books on ancient espionage, ambushes in Greek warfare https://vmi.academia.edu/RSheldon
  • Southern, Patricia (University of Newcastle upon Tyne, retired): The Roman Cavalry (1992), The Late Roman Army (1996)
  • Stamatopoulou, Vasiliki: Hoplon: Όπλον: η αργολική ασπίδα και η τεχνολογία της (Hoplon: the Argolic Shield and its Technology, PhD thesis Αριστοτέλειο Πανεπιστήμιο Θεσσαλονίκης, 2004) https://culture.academia.edu/VasilikiStamatopoulou
  • Steinby, Christa: The Roman Republican Navy (2007), a book on the evidence against Polybius’ narrative that the Romans has no experience fighting at sea before the First Punic war. She published a popular version as Rome versus Carthage: The War at Sea (Pen & Sword Maritime, 2014)
  • Summerer, Latife: the paintings of soldiers and a battle from Tatarlı, Turkey
  • Travis, Hilary: archaeologist and Roman military equipment scholar with her husband (three-part series: Roman Helmets, Roman Body Armour, and Roman Shields)
  • Uckelmann, Marion (Durham University): combat in bronze Age Europe, Bronze Age shields https://durham.academia.edu/MarionUckelmann
  • Warin, Isabelle: dedications of weapons in Greek sanctuaries and Central European sites; thoughtful reviews of books on ancient warfare https://independent.academia.edu/IsabelleWarin
  • Willekes, Carolyn (Mount Royal University): The Horse in the Ancient World (2016), experimental and experiential archaeology
  • Williams, Nadya: “Nadya Williams is a historian of war in the Ancient Mediterranean and of Late Antique Christianity, although usually not in the same project. She is currently completing a book on cultural Christians in the early churches.” https://substack.com/profile/44038808-nadya-williams

Medieval (15)

Active Before 1950 (4+)

  • van den Berg, Hilda: critical edition of de obsidione toleranda, a tenth-century Greek text that reworks the ancient writers on defending a city (Brill: Leiden, 1947). I wish I could find more about her.
  • Elizabeth Hilda Lockhart Lorimer: “The Hoplite Phalanx with Special Reference to the Poems of Archilochus and Tyrtaeus” (1947), Homer and the Monuments (1950)
  • Marie Pancritius: a dissertation on Neo-Assyrian warfare (Assyrische Kriegführung von Tiglat-pileser I. bis auf Šamši-adad III diss. Königsberg 1904), a book on the Battle of Cunaxa (Studien über die Schlacht bei Kunaxa, 1906), and an article on the Stele of the Vultures (“Der Kriegsgeschichtliche Wert der Geierstele,” Memnon 3 (1908), pp. 155–179), summary of her career at https://medium.com/@johnwilee/can-you-name-a-woman-working-predominantly-on-greek-or-roman-military-history-before-1980-or-61c99460fc7b
  • Sargent (née Robinson), Rachel L.: “The Use of Slaves by the Athenians in Warfare,” Classical Philology 22.2 (1927), pp. 201–212

In the years before US entry into WW II, Fletcher Pratt’s naval wargame had a large and enthusiastic contingent of female players.

One reason why these names may not be familiar to people who followed the hoplite debate is that they often focused on topics like arms and armour, artwork, documents, and horses which were marginalized by the ‘California School’ (what some people used to call the ‘orthodoxy’).

I don’t think that the sex of researchers in the hoplite debate shaped their conclusions in the way that US politics or their identification with classical philology shaped their conclusions. But just as there are many military historians who are not Anglos, there are many military historians who are not men. The current phase of research into warfare in the Iron Age Aegean is being shaped by researchers who are archaeologists, researchers from outside the US and UK, and maybe researchers who are women. I look forward to learning what this more diverse community of researchers will come up with!

Do you have any names to add to this list? Add them in the comments or send me an email!

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(scheduled 6 January 2022, outlined in late 2021)

  • Edit 2022-01-24: added two names suggested by Bret Devereaux
  • Edit 2022-01-25: added another name suggested by Todd F.
  • Edit 2022-01-31: added an archaeologist of early fortifications
  • Edit 2022-02-10: added Travis
  • Edit 2022-02-21: added Dickinson, Hoss
  • Edit 2022-02-25: added link to https://www.basiliscoe.com/ thanks to cite at https://www.karwansaraypublishers.com/mwblog/a-thank-you-to-kay-ruth-and-randall/
  • Edit 2022-03-05: added Erdmann and Schofield
  • Edit 2022-03-22: added Stamatopoulou and Ueckelmann
  • Edit 2023-01-16: added Frost, clarified that this includes both historians and archaeologists, updated to total to “about fifty”
  • Edit 2023-01-17: added Harrell and Schulze-Dörrlamm and Warin
  • Edit 2023-04-25: added Ball and Mihajlov
  • Edit 2023-05-10: added Lehoërff
  • Edit 2023-06-01: added link to Stamatopoulou
  • Edit 2023-09-11: added Bon and Rihll
  • Edit 2024-04-18: added N. Williams
  • Edit 2024-05-26: added G. Dickinson, R. Schmid
  • Edit 2024-09-27: added van den Berg
  • Edit 2024-09-30: added Battini and Cuomo, updated total to “about sixty”
  • Edit 2025-01-27: added Herbert-Davies
  • Edit 2025-01-31: added Phang
  • Edit 2025-03-22: consider adding Elizabeth M. Green who works on the communities around the Roman army https://www.uwo.ca/classics/about-us/greene.html
  • Edit 2025-10-15: added Steinby 2007
  • Edit 2026-03-04: added Parnell, Kilian-Dirlmeier 2002

#ancient #archaeology #hopliteDebate #medieval #militaryHistory #researchHistory