On a cloudless, sunny April afternoon, hundreds gathered on the Quiet Green. A voice blared through a megaphone: “Hey, anyone want to join the battle? Come fight with us!” And a loud spectacle began on the so-called Quiet Green, which on that day was bisected by a snaking sheet of blue vinyl intended to represent the Orontes River in modern-day Syria.

Roughly 90 students dressed as ancient Egyptian and Hittite soldiers, situated in chariots and armed with homemade shields, bows, swords, and spears, proceeded to re-enact the Battle of Kadesh, in which the pharaoh Ramesses II led an Egyptian army in a massive chariot battle against the Hittite Empire in 1274 B.C.E.

“The Battle of Kadesh has gotten interest from a really broad swath of society for a long time,” says Laurel Bestock, an associate professor of archaeology and Egyptology and
Assyriology who teaches Fighting Pharaohs: Ancient Egyptian Warfare. “It’s particularly fascinating because it looks really well documented. And then as soon as we try and get closer to it, we realize how much we’re missing—how much we don’t know about the perspectives of anyone other than the king in this battle.”