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Based on palaeography and the supposed relative chronology of the three Aramaic steles from Sefire, various dates in the first half of the 8th century BCE have been proposed for the stele Sefire I. In this article, I propose a new reading in the inscription of part of the name of Aššur-dān III, one of the kings of Assyria from the first half of the 8th century BCE. This new reading, together with other available data, especially those gleaned from Neo-Assyrian written sources, provides the basis for a more precise dating of the inscription on stele Sefire I. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Jeremiah 10:5 contains the collocation tomær miqšāh, which has been interpreted in a variety of ways ranging from "scarecrow in a cucumber field" to "plated pillars". It is argued that the collocation should rather be interpreted as "palm sculpture" and that it refers to a known type of object from the ancient Near East whose depictions are designated by scholars as the "Assyrian sacred tree". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While Christianity has existed in Iran/Persia since the fourth century, if not earlier, at the middle of the twentieth century almost all Iranian Christians belonged to an ethnic minority, especially the Assyrians and the Armenians. Ethnic Iranians were almost all Muslims, and then mostly Shi' a Muslims. Since the Revolution of 1979 hundreds of thousands of ethnic Iranians have left Islam for evangelical Christianity, both within and outside of Iran. This paper seeks to explore the multifaceted factors-political, economic and technological-that have helped to create an environment wherein increasing numbers of ethnic Iranians have apostatized from Islam and become evangelical Christians. A concluding section outlines Steven Lukes' theory of power and analyzes the growth of Iranian Christianity in the light of his theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article addresses the phenomenon of fortifications in Iron Age Israel and tries to portray the specific historical background behind their construction by integrating the archaeological data, the extra-biblical sources and the analysis of the biblical text. Of the two clear stratigraphical phases of fortifications noticed in several Iron Age cities, the latter is more massive and elaborated compared with its predecessor. We propose that the developed phase of fortifications in Israel was created under the Omrides, in a time of economic and political strength, as a response to the expansion policy of Aram Damascus. This analysis offers an explanation to the intriguing absence of any biblical reference to the Assyrians prior to Tiglath-pileser III, and casts a fresh look upon the current debate on the chronology of the Iron Age II. If the elaborate fortification systems were initiated during the first half of the ninth century, the initial phase of the urbanization process, which preceded this developed stage, must have begun in the days prior to the Omride dynasty, namely in the tenth century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The historical study of ethnic and religious minorities in the Near East presents as an endless task for years ahead. This paper offers a tour d’horizon of key minority issues from ca. 1300 B.C. to the present while plotting the way minorities―whether defeated, put under serious constraint, tolerated or marginalised―have been conceptualised in the historical record. Looking at history this way opens up the richness and importance of ‘minority studies’, and allows for reflection on the history of interpretations of the ‘suppressed other’ over the centuries. The contribution approaches Zaza ethno-religiosity as a brief test case. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As is known, the racist worldview rising in Europe, particularly in Germany of the 1930s, affected also the socio-political realities in Turkey, and became in effect a part of the official policy of the country. Many theories of obvious Turkist nature, such as Güneş Dil Teorisi (Sun Language Theory), were even shaped by the government and introduced into the university programmes. In this framework, the ancient Near Eastern states were declared Turkish, and the idea about the primordial presence of the Turks in Anatolia and Mesopotamia became a sort of axiom or absolute truth. From anthropological perspective, thousands of Armenian and Greek graves were opened and examined for the purpose of determining the real Turkish type; the skulls taken from these graves were compared with those of the contemporary Turks. The racist ideology defeated in Europe as a result of World War II, was correspondingly overthrown in Turkey too; even some sanctions were imposed to its defenders. However, since the 1980s, the similar ideas have been brought to the agenda again via the project of 'the re-discovery of the proto-Turks in Anatolia'. Moreover, some Turkish academics have argued that the non-Muslim and non-Turk peoples, such as the Pontus Greeks, the Armenians, and the Assyrians are, indeed, of Turkic origin. This paper examines the recent publications by several Turkish authors who vehemently advocate the above summarised views, which, at the same time, are shared and embraced by a clear majority of the academics studying identity and ethnicity issues in Turkey. The introductory part of the paper discusses the theoretical aspects of ethnicity-again with a focus on the relevant literature published in Turkey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ancient city of Assur was an important emporium and a central place in the trade between Mesopotamia and Anatolia during the nineteenth-eighteenth centuries BC. Its traders exported to Anatolia large quantities of tin and expensive woolen textiles, which were sold for silver and gold, shipped back to Assur. The traders, traveling with donkey caravans, used a network of colonies and trading stations, where they could live and work on the basis of treaties with the local rulers. After a description of Assur's commercial role, the activities, organization and status of the traders are analyzed. First of those in Anatolia, with reference to the colonial system and the main Anatolian emporia. Next of those in Assur—"merchant-bankers", investors (in joint-stock funds), wholesale dealers, and moneylenders—and their relations to the "City-Hall", the economic and financial heart of Assur, and the "City-Assembly", whose decisions and verdicts reveal elements of a commercial policy and attempts to promote its interests. While the city, whose trade covered a particular circuit of a much wider international network, also had to consider local and international interests, the "colonial" traders were more focused on financial profits, also via the local trade in copper and wool. But the tensions due to diverging interests were restricted and the Assyrians were able to maintain a stable, profitable and highly developed commercial system for more than two centuries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following on from a critical 'inventory' of ancient evidence and modern interpretations regarding the presence of Syrians, Assyrians or Leukosyrians in the North-East of Asia Minor, I propose a geographical explanation for this strange homonymy in ancient ethnography: the presence of Syrians in Pontic and Eastern Mediterranean regions could be regarded, in Greek and Roman times, as the effect of a narrowed perception of the oekoumene. This could explain also the presence of Arabs, Chaldeans and Chalybes in the North as well as in the South of the Eastern extremity of the ancient world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following on from a critical 'inventory' of ancient evidence and modern interpretations regarding the presence of Syrians, Assyrians or Leukosyrians in the North-East of Asia Minor, I propose a geographical explanation for this strange homonymy in ancient ethnography: the presence of Syrians in Pontic and Eastern Mediterranean regions could be regarded, in Greek and Roman times, as the effect of a narrowed perception of the oekoumene. This could explain also the presence of Arabs, Chaldeans and Chalybes in the North as well as in the South of the Eastern extremity of the ancient world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Historiographical texts are here read as literary compositions of their time, providing us with various elements of the process of identity construction or reconstruction. The first West Syrian historical texts were produced in the sixth century, when the history of what would become the Syrian Orthodox Church began. An examination of contemporary sources and myths of origins shows that the ethnic origins of the Abgarid dynasty played no part in Syrian 'ethnogenesis', but that there existed a notion of Syro-Mesopotamian origins, closely related to a supposed homeland, that of Aram. An acknowledged common ancestry going back to the Chaldean and Assyrian Empires relies on a common language more than a common homeland or sovereign. Whereas the Assyrians came to personify the ever-hostile Persian neighbour, a sort of stereotypical enemy, the Hellenistic kings were perceived as having effected a synthesis of the double Syro-Mesopotamian and Greek culture. The Seleucid era, as adopted by the Edessans, thus remained in use regardless of the prevailing political powers and is an assertion of independence and a strong local identity marker, being a rejection of the local Antiochene as well as the imperial Byzantine eras. The Syrian Orthodox also developed an innovative method of writing the history of their separated Church, producing a new genre consisting of lengthy chronicles written in several parts or columns, in which political and ecclesiastical history were kept separate. This Syrian Orthodox method of writing history is the only truly distinctive Syrian Orthodox literary genre. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the development of a multiplicity of diplomatic languages during the late bronze age in the Middle East, where Akkadian was joined by Hittite, Hurrian, Canaanite, and Egyptian. This expansion did not apparently mark a dramatic shift in the governance of the region at a local level, despite the expansion of imperial rule by the Hittites and Egyptians. Records indicating that there was a diplomatic protocol governing war between the states in this region are considered. The development of treaties establishing rule over subordinate states and parity between states is assessed.

The article examines the question of the Assyrian identity; certain problems pertaining to the history of the Assyrian-Kurdish relationships; the problem of the Assyrian autonomy; the role of the political parties of the Iraqi Assyrians; the status of the Assyrians in Iraqi Kurdistan; the Assyrians after the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime, and several other issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In earlier work on the Deuteronomic History, I have defined 1 Kings 11 to 2 Kings 17 as 'The Book of the Divided Kingdoms', and argued that its deep-structural 'message' is one of salvation for northern Israel. Here I present the Syrians, the most pervasive foreign presence in this 'Book', as a major element in this dynamic of salvation. In the account of the house of Jehu, they function analogously to the foreign power in one of the judge-cycles (in Judges and 1 Samuel) by means of which Yahweh punishes Israel--a role necessary to the eventual salvation. Historically, it seems likely that all the traditions about the Syrians, and about the prophet Elisha, originated in the time of Jehu's dynasty. But in the existing text, stories of the Syrians and/or Elisha extend well back into the time of Ahab. The reason for this, I suggest, is that the Syrians' salvific role is being intensified by making them agents in the process whereby Baal-worship was removed from Israel. In terms of 'ideological geography', Israel's north-east (Syrian) boundary is given a positive valence (cf. traditions of the arrival from that direction of Israel's ancestors), in opposition to the north-west (Tyrian) boundary, whence comes the Baalistic threat. This suggests a promise of salvation even in the later invasions from the north-east, by the Assyrians and their imperial successors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the role of women missionaries in mid-nineteenth century Iran. Information on Fidelia Fiske, a former teacher, and the Nestorian Mission; Themes of a text written by early Assyrian converts; Perception of Assyrians to the missionaries.

Several reviews of articles involving the fortification of Tell el-Ful site by Assyrians by Israel Finkelstein, excavations at Qumran in West Bank by Bart Wagemakers and the Mada'in Saleh monuments in Petra by Nabil I. Khairy, which appeared in "Palestine Exploration Quarterly" are presented.