ABSTRACT
This chapter considers noncombatants during wartime. Textual and iconographic sources offer evidence that foreign men, women, and children were taken as spoils of war to Egypt over several millennia. Numerous lists from private and royal documents identify these individuals as spoils of war. Textual evidence of noncombatants conveys much information about gender. A biographical inscription from the tomb of Kaiemtjenenet in Saqqara, which is associated with the reign of Djedkare-Isesi, 5th dynasty king of the Old Kingdom, for instance, mentions a royal decree supposedly commanding him to accompany prisoners because there were many women among them. The Memphis stela of Amenhotep II supposedly has a text which is a version of the Karnak temple stela. After the New Kingdom, the number of texts dealing with military campaigns of the pharaohs decreases. The depiction of an Egyptian soldier holding a foreign woman by her hair iconographically parallels that of the king smiting his enemies.
