Upper Egyptian iconography early on equates warfare and hunting as corresponding, ritualised displays of the triumph of order over chaos. Within rituals, displays of physical prowess may represent military activity, and within the realm of actual warfare the subjugation of foreigners may take the form of ritual execrations and the ritualised display of both living and deceased enemies. In the practice of war the Egyptians emphasised manoeuvre over the clash of a shield wall, and captured enemies appear on the whole to have been given a route to acculturation through service to the pharaonic state. Literary sources reveal the use of epistolary taunts in addition to physical violence. As part of the Egyptian concept of the enemy as the opposite of Egypt and order, foreign women tend to appear in a more positive light than do male enemies, and no evidence appears for sexual violence as an element of sanctioned warfare.