Emotions, Traumas, and War in the Old Babylonian Period

Abstract

This paper provides a first approach to the emotions people could feel during wars in the Old Babylonian period (ca. 2002–1595 BCE), a subject that has been generally overlooked in research. We pay special attention to soldiers but, as far as possible, we also look at how civilians felt throughout these events to gain a deeper understanding of their perspective. We conclude that texts expressing positive emotions toward war, mostly literature, pretended to naturalize an activity that caused fear. This last emotion appears to be especially documented in letters. Texts of this kind prove that soldiers in the Old Babylonian period felt fear during wars. We also analyze if war caused traumas and we suggest that war traumas were present in the Old Babylonian period.