ABSTRACT
Created in about 100 bc, the so-called Alexander Mosaic is one of the best-known images of the great conqueror as well as a particularly fine example of the mosaicist's art. Its subject is presumed to be the Battle of Issus, fought between Alexander the Great of Macedon and Darius III of Persia. The two tombs with scenes of violence that can be confidently placed in the Fifth Dynasty, as well as the one that may date to the Old Kingdom, are unfortunately notable neither for their preservation nor their publication. The published scene of violence from the tomb of Khaemhesy at Saqqara, probably dated to the Fifth Dynasty, shows an attack on what appears to be a settlement. Middle Kingdom tombs with images of violence are known from the sites of Thebes and Beni Hasan. Images of war in Egyptian private tombs have almost universally been assumed to depict particular historical battles.
