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While there are creative pieces theorizing about Tamar and her inclusion in both David and Jesus’ genealogies, there is a lack of research comparing King David’s genealogy in I Chronicles 2 with the kingly genealogies of the same time. Comparing the two shows that genealogies in the surrounding nations—Assyria, Babylonia, etc.—are lacking women. In contrast, the Old Testament is filled with kingly genealogical records that list and name women. This thesis will touch on the differences and similarities between the kingly records/genealogies, theorize and explore the levirate marriage custom and matrilinear descent, and attempt to provide a better understanding of Tamar and what set Ancient Israelite society apart from the surrounding cultures.

In the two parts of this chapter, we investigate the ways in which major royal cities of the Ptolemaic and Seleucid realms were constructed as capitals of imperial states. In particular, we discuss how the foundation stories of these cities reflect conflicts and integration politics, which the creation of imperial metropoleis involved and which these stories aimed to control. Against the common assumption that the capitals of the Ptolemaic and Seleucid empires were culturally and politically uncontested, we will suggest that both Ptolemaic and Seleucid royal cities were constantly positioned and re-positioned vis-à-vis other royal or imperial cities that expressed, or had expressed in the past, similar claims. In the foundation myths of royal cities, we observe both competition and accommodation: competition and acommodation, that is, across the imperial zones of the Seleucid and Ptolemaic kings, between Memphis and Alexandria, as well as between Alexandria and Rome.

Numbers 5:11–31: Sotah as a Cultural Breakthrough in the Ancient Near East. Numbers 5:11–31 could be interpreted as a kind of sexism and repression to women. In the Mishnaic tradition, the passages indeed are being understood and developed in such a manner. From tractate Sotah in Mishnah, the suspected adulterous wife indeed is ashamed and treated as a prostitute. This article seeks to present another perspective on the passage. This article uses the sociological study method to identify the sociological problems alleged against the passage based on the explanation of the Sotah tractate in the Mishnah. Afterward, the inferior position of women in the ancient Near East will be explained as a cultural context to understand the passage better. Finally, considering this cultural context and comparing the Sotah ritual with the common rituals in the ancient Near East, this article argues that Numbers 5:11–31 could be seen as a cultural breakthrough to protect women, which are considered marginalized.

Non

Large, pre-modern complex agricultural societies faced signicant environmental and social challenges in sustaining and maintaining the intensication of agricultural production that facilitated wide-scale redistributive food systems. Yet how agricultural societies embedded in larger social and economic networks balanced the needs of non-local political entities and the necessities of everyday local life is not often explored for communities living on the margins of polities who utilized written language. The archaeological site of Dhiban in the contemporary Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan has been occupied for at least 3,000 years by sedentary agricultural communities. Nevertheless, regional elites wrote little about the settlement. It is still unknown how successive communities managed to flourish despite the environmental challenges of inhabiting a semi-arid landscape with annual precipitation too low for reliable rain-fed farming. This dissertation focuses on the Byzantine (300 - 640 CE) and Mamluk (1260 - 1450 CE) empires, who oversaw two separate attempts to increase the production of agricultural goods within their respective political territories. The specific trajectories and economic prerogatives of those empires differed, and therefore provide insight into how varying political and ideological institutions affected local lifeways at Dhiban. Archaeological data derived from the excavation of the mounded archaeological site in 2009, 2010, 2012, and 2013, and the high-resolution sampling, recovery, and analysis of paleoethnobotanical data, combine to explore empirically the local agricultural practices of historical farmers in Dhiban and their responses to state intervention via the agricultural economy. Contrary to perceptions of timeless and unchanging agricultural practices in southwest Asia and the eastern Mediterranean, the results of the project reveal that communities at Dhiban in these two periods exercised considerable agency in the choice of agricultural crops, the composition of agricultural fields, and the organization of agricultural labor and crop processing. Mamluk period archaeological deposits contain paleoethnobotanical evidence of an irrigated wheat and barley monocropping strategy with signicant crop-processing occurring on site, although there is also archaeological evidence of periodic site abandonment. Byzantine period deposits, in contrast, contain no evidence of abandonment, and little crop-processing occurring on site. Nevertheless new varieties of agricultural crops appear in Mamluk period deposits, such as plum and sorghum, as a result of trade or garden-plot cultivation. Therefore, although these communities faced environmental constraints in the range of crops that could be grown, and participated in the unique economic networks of each political intervention, they demonstrated choice in the kinds and proportions of agricultural goods produced. The theoretical contributions of this project thus apply both to the archaeological and general scientic community concerned with sustainability by providing a diachronic paleoethnobotanical data-set nuanced by the influence of human decision-making.

The Neo-Assyrian Empire is one of the most important empires of the Ancient Near East. The empire was established in the city of Assur in Northern Mesopotamia. As a result of the successful wars of the Assyrian kings, the state expanded rapidly and the surrounding area of Mesopotamia was captured by the Assyrians. The imperialist policies of the Assyrian kings were supported by royal propaganda in steles, annuals, construction inscriptions, and relief depictions, which were the media organs of royal authority. Assyrian propaganda was meant to influence the gods, bureaucracy, future kings, people, the army, and enemies. The Assyrian kings wanted to continue the support of the gods, to embed the state ideology in the bureaucracy, to teach the future princes the state administration, to employ the people and the army in the service of the royal authorities, and to seize the will of the enemies. Propaganda messages were spread by professionals in written, visual or verbal forms. The image of kings has always been reflected positively, the images of enemies have always been negatively reflected. Assyrian gods and kings were glorified, those who opposed royal politics were humiliated. Violence in all its forms has been legitimized, and kings often boasted of the violence they inflicted on their enemies. It is important in the Assyrian propaganda in that it gives the richest examples of Ancient Mesopotamia., Yeni Asur İmparatorluğu, Eski Yakındoğu’nun en önemli İmparatorluklarından birisidir. İmparatorluk, Kuzey Mezopotamya’da Asur kentinde kurulmuştur. Asur krallarının yaptıkları başarılı savaşlar sonucunda devlet hızla genişledi ve Mezopotamya çevresi Asurluların eline geçirmiştir. Asur krallarının emperyalist politikaları, kraliyet otoritesinin medya organları olan steller, yıllıklar, inşaat yazıtları ve kabartma tasvirlerdeki kraliyet propagandası ile desteklenmiştir. Asur propagandası tanrıları, bürokrasiyi, gelecekteki kralları, halkı, orduyu ve düşmanları etkilemek için yapılmıştır. Asur kralları tanrıların desteğini devam ettirmek, bürokrasiye devlet ideolojisini yerleştirmek, gelecekte kral olacak prenslere devlet yönetimini öğretmek, halkı ve orduyu kraliyet otoritelerinin hizmetinde çalıştırmak ve düşmanların iradesini ele geçirmek istemişlerdir. Propaganda mesajları profesyoneller tarafından yazılı, görsel veya sözlü olarak yayılmıştır. Kralların imajı her zaman olumlu, düşmanların imajı her zaman olumsuz yansıtılmıştır. Asur tanrıları ve kralları yüceltilmiş, kraliyet politikalarına muhalefet edenler aşağılanmıştır. Şiddetin her türlüsü meşrulaştırılmış ve krallar genellikle düşmanlarına uyguladıkları şiddet ile övünmüşlerdir. Asur propagandasında Eski Mezopotamya’nın en zengin örneklerini vermesi bakımından önemlidir.

New edition and discussion of the Nabonidus Chronicle (ABC 7: II 10-18) on the conquest of Lydia by the Persian king Cyrus and the New Year Festival in Babylon in the absence of king Nabonidus.

The Bible was not originally written for the modern reader, but the testimony of the Church is that it continues to speak God’s word to readers/hearers today. However, many modern Bible readers come across texts that need further explanation because the biblical authors did not offer clarification of their writings. They assumed the readers of their time were familiar with the background and could understand the reported events without further explanation. To achieve a “legit” interpretation of Old Testament texts, we first need to understand Scripture correctly, meaning that the biblical text must be read in its narrower and broader context. Only within a context does it become clear what the author meant to say. The main argument of this article is to exhibit that the Bible can only be fully understood against the backdrop of the Ancient Near East (ANE). The broader context consists of the knowledge of surrounding nations during Bible times (i.e., Hebrew Bible). By examining ANE texts and archeological findings we achieve a more complete and enriched comprehension of a given scriptural text or passage. This article exhibits through some concrete examples how archeological findings, inscriptions, and Ancient Near East texts can aid in understanding the broader context of the Old Testament world. In return, the wider context of the Bible world can enlighten or clarify a difficult, incomprehensible, or ambiguous biblical text and henceforth scriptural interpretation become more accurate and closer to the original message and meaning.

scientific articles

Il presente volume raccoglie le relazioni presentate nella seconda edizione del convegno “Nuovi volti della ricerca archeologica, filologica e storica sul mondo antico”, organizzato dai dottorandi del Dottorato interateneo Trieste - Udine - Venezia e tenuto presso il Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici dell’Università di Trieste, nei giorni 23-27 settembre 2019.

Since 2007, the conferences organized under the title 'Broadening Horizons' have provided a regular venue for postgraduates and early career scholars in Ancient Near Eastern Studies. The volumes present the proceedings of the 6th Broadening Horizons Conference, which took place at the Freie Universität Berlin from 24-28 June, 2019. The general theme, 'Bridging the Gap: Disciplines, Times, and Spaces in Dialogue', is meant to encourage communication and the development of multidisciplinary approaches to the study of material cultures and textual sources. Volume 1 contains 17 papers from Session 1 - Entanglement. Material Culture and Written Sources in Dialogue; Session 2 - Integrating Sciences in Historical and Archaeological Research; and Session 5 - Which Continuity? Evaluating Stability, Transformation, and Change in Transitional Periods.

New edition and discussion of the Nabonidus Chronicle (ABC 7: II 10-18) on the conquest of Lydia by the Persian king Cyrus and the New Year Festival in Babylon in the absence of king Nabonidus.

This paper focusses on concepts of space and ritual in Ancient Near Eastern visual art. Two very different types of visual media are confronted: representations on cylinder seals from the third and second millennium BC and reliefs from the palace of the Assyrian king, Ashurbanipal, from the 7th century BC. Both media are a rewarding source for reconstructing ancient Mesopotamian spatial cognition and its realistic practice which goes beyond the efficacy of textual records. Within the imagery of ritual scenes on cylinder seals, strategies of self-assertion by members of society who are not royals can be observed. Contrary, within the visual narrative of the royal lion hunt on Assyrian palace reliefs, the mythological perception of space is effortfully blended with geopolitical and economic interests., Dieser Beitrag konzentriert sich auf Konzepte von Raum und Ritual in der altvorderasiatischen Bildkunst. Dabei werden zwei sehr unterschiedliche Arten von Bildmedien gegenübergestellt: Darstellungen auf Zylindersiegeln aus dem 3. und 2. Jahrtausend v. Chr. und Reliefs aus dem Palast des assyrischen Königs Assurbanipal aus dem 7. Jahrhundert v. Chr. Beide Medien sind eine wertvolle Quelle für die Rekonstruktion der altmesopotamischen Raumvorstellung und ihrer realistischen Praxis, die über die Aussagekraft textlicher Aufzeichnungen hinausgeht. Innerhalb der Bildsprache von Ritualszenen auf Zylindersiegeln lassen sich Selbstbehauptungsstrategien von nicht-adeligen Gesellschaftsmitgliedern beobachten. Innerhalb der visuellen Erzählung der königlichen Löwenjagd auf assyrischen Palastreliefs hingegen wird die mythologische Raumwahrnehmung aufwändig mit geopolitischen und wirtschaftlichen Interessen vermengt.

The first volume of the proceedings of the conference 'Broadening Horizons 6 -- Bridging the Gap: Disciplines, Times, and Space in Dialogue' gathers the papers presented in three sessions: Session 1 -- Entanglement. Material Culture and Written Sources in Dialogue; Session 2 -- Integrating Sciences in Historical and Archaeological Research; Session 5 -- Which Continuity? Evaluating Stability, Transformation, and Change in Transitional Periods. The range of topics covered here is certainly bewildering, and leaves us shuttling across vast periods and regions, from Neolithic Göbekli Tepe to the ink recipes of medieval Arabic manuscripts. At the core of each session and paper, however, is not only the overt confrontation with methodology in dealing with the evidence, but the need for multiple, intersecting methodologies in order to interpret that evidence in any meaningful sense.

International audience

The first volume of the proceedings of the conference 'Broadening Horizons 6 -- Bridging the Gap: Disciplines, Times, and Space in Dialogue' gathers the papers presented in three sessions: Session 1 -- Entanglement. Material Culture and Written Sources in Dialogue; Session 2 -- Integrating Sciences in Historical and Archaeological Research; Session 5 -- Which Continuity? Evaluating Stability, Transformation, and Change in Transitional Periods. The range of topics covered here is certainly bewildering, and leaves us shuttling across vast periods and regions, from Neolithic Göbekli Tepe to the ink recipes of medieval Arabic manuscripts. At the core of each session and paper, however, is not only the overt confrontation with methodology in dealing with the evidence, but the need for multiple, intersecting methodologies in order to interpret that evidence in any meaningful sense.

The location of Persepolis remained lost for about eighteen centuries. During the 17th century CE, the attitude of European travellers towards the monumental complex and its inscriptions changed. António de Gouveia visits Persepolis in 1602 CE and published his travel account in 1611. His account describes in detail the architectural features, mentions the cuneiform inscriptions. Supporting his interpretations upon classical and biblical sources, Gouveia's account distinguishes itself from previous ones and provides the pattern for following travel reports. The present paper compares Gouveia's description with other accounts of the 17th century, and clarifies its influence on later travel accounts on Persepolis.Destruída em 330 BCE, Persépolis esteve perdida cerca de dezoito séculos. No séc. XVII, dá-se uma alteração na relação dos viajantes europeus com o complexo e as suas inscrições. António de Gouveia visita Persépolis em 1602. Publicado em 1611, o seu relato descreve as estruturas arquitetónicas e menciona inscrições cuneiformes, suportando as interpretações em fontes clássicas e bíblicas. O relato de Gouveia distingue-se dos anteriores e inaugura o padrão dos relatos sucessores. Esta artigo compara a descrição de Gouveia com outros relatos do século XVII (Silva e Figueroa (1619), Valle (1621), Chardain (1666), Struys (1672)) e analisando o teor, o contexto e o impacto de cada relato, procura clarificar a influência de António de Gouveia nos relatos posteriores.

A brief history of Jerusalem from 586 to 332 BC, when Jerusalem and Judah were part of the Neo-Babylonian and Persian empires. It was a crucial period for the origin of the Hebrew Bible and the Jewish faith. Due to the captivity of many inhabitants to Babylonia and the return of part of them under Persian rule, the influence from Babylonia is considerable. Because Babylonia and Judah were both subdued lands under the Persians, who had lost their royal dynasties, telling parallels between both regions can be observed. The role of the returnees and of the Persian government in the introduction of the Hebrew laws and institutions is discussed.

A brief history of Jerusalem from 586 to 332 BC, when Jerusalem and Judah were part of the Neo-Babylonian and Persian empires. It was a crucial period for the origin of the Hebrew Bible and the Jewish faith. Due to the captivity of many inhabitants to Babylonia and the return of part of them under Persian rule, the influence from Babylonia is considerable. Because Babylonia and Judah were both subdued lands under the Persians, who had lost their royal dynasties, telling parallels between both regions can be observed. The role of the returnees and of the Persian government in the introduction of the Hebrew laws and institutions is discussed.

A brief history of Jerusalem from 586 to 332 BC, when Jerusalem and Judah were part of the Neo-Babylonian and Persian empires. It was a crucial period for the origin of the Hebrew Bible and the Jewish faith. Due to the captivity of many inhabitants to Babylonia and the return of part of them under Persian rule, the influence from Babylonia is considerable. Because Babylonia and Judah were both subdued lands under the Persians, who had lost their royal dynasties, telling parallels between both regions can be observed. The role of the returnees and of the Persian government in the introduction of the Hebrew laws and institutions is discussed.

Salt is the main source of sodium in the human diet, which is involved in the control of blood pressure and volume and is essential for muscle function. The use of salt in antiquity is still a little debated issue: processing and consumption of sodium chloride, in fact, are difficult to prove archaeologically even where there are salt sources in the surrounding area. This paper explores the role of salt resources and landscapes in archaeological/textual data and travel memoirs.

A ascensão das pesquisas voltadas às Humanidades Digitais permitiu um novo olhar para o passado, até mesmo no mais remoto dos tempos. Neste artigo, busco trazer uma possibilidade de atualização das nossas visões sobre a Antiguidade Próximo-oriental, a partir de metodologias da informática. Para tanto, parto da ideia de ligações de rede (pela Social Network Analysis), criando um mapa visual sobre a interação de diferentes reinos em um sistema diplomático. Localizo essa pesquisa no século XIV AEC, quando o Sistema de Amarna estruturou regras e costumes para estabelecer contatos e manter o poder dos reinos de maior destaque. Com isso, espera-se revisitar o antigo oriente, desmistificando e recontextualizando aqueles povos em uma realidade mais integrada e interconectada., The increasing number of researches on Digital Humanities enables a new view of the past, even to the most ancient times. In this paper, I aim to facilitate a renovation of our notions about the Ancient Near East, through methodologies of the informatics. For that, I use the Social Network Analysis’ resources to create a visual map of the interaction between kingdoms in a diplomatic system. This inquiry is focused in the XIV century BCE when the structures and rules of the Amarna System permitted contacts and maintained the power of some well-established kingdoms. With that, I hope to revisit the Near East and rethink those peoples in a more integrated and interconnected reality.

For international relations (IR) scholars, the story behind the figure of Udjahorresnet might seem as an obscure phase in international history. Yet the pre-Roman period is educative for testing constitutive IR concepts such as the balance of power theory, international system, or soft power, which are still widely assumed to have become relevant only in the post-Roman context rather than in the ancient civilizations of the Eastern Mediterranean preceding the Greco-Roman experience. This article proposes that insights from IR theory can offer ancient historians and Egyptologists theoretical tools by linking empirical facts to patterns rather than just unique events via conceptual analysis. Udjahorresnet as diplomatic figure is an important primary source to understand the transition of power from native Egyptian hands to the Achaemenid rule, and thus it provides a case study where micro and macro levels of analyses find fertile ground in a cross-disciplinary framework.

Diplomacy and exchanges between states had a long tradition in the ancient Near East and Egypt, but a more complex system of international relations developed especially in the 2nd millennium BC. After an introduction, which examines the concept of “foreign language” and points out the difficulties that interpreters and messengers had, this paper focuses on the documentation from the LBA, particularly highlighting some aspects of the Mittanian dossier of the El-Amarna archives. The last section considers the theme of communication in the Assyrian royal inscriptions of the 1st millennium BC., La diplomatie et les échanges entre les États avaient une longue tradition au Proche-Orient et en Égypte anciens, mais c’ est surtout au IIe millénaire avant J.-C. qu’ un complexe système de relations internationales se développe dans la région. Après une introduction qui examine le concept de «langue étrangère» et souligne les difficultés inhérentes le rôle des interprètes et des messagers, la contribution se concentre sur la documentation du Bronze Récent et notamment sur certains aspects du dossier mittanien d’ El-Amarna. La dernière section examine le thème de la communication dans les inscriptions royales assyriennes du Ier millénaire avant J.-C., Mora Clelia. Experts de la parole au Proche-Orient ancien. Diplomates, messagers, interprètes. In: Peuples et États à l’épreuve de la diplomatie Entrevues, ambassades, négociations : les sons de la diplomatie ancienne Actes du quatrième colloque SoPHiA 27 et 28 mars 2015, Besançon. Besançon : Institut des Sciences et Techniques de l'Antiquité, 2020. pp. 15-27. (Collection « ISTA », 1490)

This volume contains 21 papers presented at Sessions 1 (The Neolithic–Chalcolithic transition in Upper Mesopotamia. Subsistence strategies, economy, society and identity; key note speaker M. Frangipane) and 2 (The Levant in the Bronze Age: crossroad or frontier between different cultures?; key note speaker A. Maeir) of the 5th edition of the “Broadening Horizons” Conference, which was held at the University of Udine from 5th to 8th June 2017. Broadening Horizons is an international meeting that aims to offer an opportunity for relatively informal discussion, especially (though not exclusively) for young/early career archaeologists specialized in the ancient Near East and disciplines relevant to the main theme of each congress session. All the papers have passed a double blind peer-review process and provide significant contributions on a number of topics – among which material culture (e.g. pottery tradition and architecture), settlement pattern, social changes, cultural transmission and economic dynamics – that are of fundamental importance for the archaeology of Mesopotamia and the Levant.

Water and its availability are among the main concerns of the contemporary world, with water crisis being recurrently mentioned among the main risks of more significant concern of our modern times in the “Global Risk Report” of the World Economic Forum in the last years. Sustainability and water management are currently perceived as crucial challenges the modern timeframe has to face. As a consequence, research and preservation of hydro-cultural landscapes rooted in the past, especially in arid countries, has received much attention in recent years. The ancient Near East represents undoubtedly a rich field of research as far as ancient systems of water management are concerned, and a field providing fervid stimuli for theoretical discussion on the crucial “water and power” relation. The present paper aims to present different developments in the debate on models dealing with ancient Near Eastern water systems, from the hydraulic society depicted by Wittfogel in 1957 to the more fragmented and multi-disciplinary perspectives of contemporary researchers.

International audience

The Levant has always been a crucial zone for contacts between Egypt and the ancient Near East. During the Late Bronze Age (the ‘international period’) and the Iron Age, pharaonic Egypt, the Hittite empire, and later the Neo-Hittite and Aramaic states shared many occasions of exchange and interaction, testified both by texts and artefacts: among them, luxury objects like ivories. This paper aims to retrace the circulation of some iconographic motifs of different origins attested on the ivories of Arslantaş/Hadātu (near the border of modern Syria and Turkey), comparing this material with other ivories found in sites of the Levantine area (Ugarit, Byblos, Megiddo): a journey through precious items from Egypt to Anatolia, across the Levant throughout the Bronze and Iron Age, to the rediscovery of those people who, despite geographical distances, travelled, circulated and interlaced relationships.

International audience; This volume looks at how the issues of textiles and gender intertwine across three millennia in antiquity and examines continuities and differences across time and space – with surprising resonances for the modern world. The interplay of gender, identity, textile production and use is notable on many levels, from the question of who was involved in the transformation of raw materials into fabric at one end, to the wearing of garments and the construction of identity at the other.Textile production has often been considered to follow a linear trajectory from a domestic (female) activity to a more 'commercial' or 'industrial' (male-centred) mode of production. In reality, many modes of production co-existed and the making of textiles is not so easily grafted onto the labour of one sex or the other. Similarly, textiles once transformed into garments are often of 'unisex' shape but worn to express the gender of the wearer.As shown by the detailed textual source material and the rich illustrations in this volume, dress and gender are intimately linked in the visual and written records of antiquity. The contributors show how it is common practice in both art and literature not only to use particular garments to characterize one sex or the other, but also to undermine characterizations by suggesting that they display features usually associated with the opposite gender.