What is it about?
This article examines ancient fire beacon signaling systems in the Middle East (ca. 2000 BCE - 700 BCE). Using archaeological evidence and GIS analysis, I show how ancient empires strategically positioned fortresses and watchtowers on mountain peaks to create visual communication networks. When danger approached, fires lit on one tower could be seen and relayed by the next, allowing warnings to spread across hundreds of kilometers in minutes. The article traces how these systems eventually served as sophisticated infrastructure in the Urartian and Assyrian empires, arguing that these "fortified regional networks" were among critical innovations that allowed ancient states to effectively control vast territories for the first time.
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Why is it important?
This research challenges conventional narratives about ancient communication technology by showing that sophisticated long-distance signaling systems originated in the ancient Near East thousands of years before the Greeks or Romans. More significantly, it reveals a major turning point in human political organization: these fire beacon networks were part of the infrastructure that made the world's first large-scale empires possible. Before fortified regional networks, ancient states could invade territories but couldn't effectively administer them. The ability to communicate rapidly across distance, including more conventional message relays, allowed empires to actually govern, defend, and maintain control over vast geographical areas. Arguably, this innovation fundamentally changed the scale at which human societies could organize politically.
Perspectives
Writing this article was a long journey during which my curiosity was ultimately rewarded. My research on fire beacons began in earnest after reading a Neo-Assyrian text called 'Sargon's Eighth Campaign' in a graduate seminar which describes many wonders of the enemy empire of Urartu. One of these descriptions is of an elaborate beacon system that the Urartians would use to signal distress. It made me wonder if anyone had every found archaeological evidence for this, and what that evidence would look like. This question sparked my doctoral work, additional field work in Armenia, and a subsequent award-winning book, Landscapes of Warfare: Urartu and Assyria in the Ancient Middle East.
Dr. Tiffany Earley-Spadoni
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This page is a summary of: Towers Built upon the Mountain Peaks: Communicating at the Speed of Light in the Ancient Middle East, January 2026, De Gruyter,
DOI: 10.1163/9789004749702_003.
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