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Historians' interest in the history of human migrations is not limited to recent years. Migrations had already figured as explanatory factors in connection with cultural and historical change in the work of classical and ancient studies scholars of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In the writings of these scholars, migrations acted as historical landmarks or epochal thresholds and played a key role in the construction of geo‐historical areas. This model has been called "migrationism" and cannot be explained simply on the basis of the history of individual disciplines, but must be seen in its complex interaction with scientific and historical contexts. However, "migrationism" does not relate to fixed political and scientific positions or movements. For this reason, it cannot be explained adequately by using a historically or ideologically based approach. Relying on narratological approaches, this article examines migration narratives that historians of this period used to explain the rise and fall of ancient civilizations. Referring to contemporary historiographical representations of the ancient Near East, it distinguishes three main narratives that are still common today: narratives of foundation, narratives of destruction, and narratives of mixtures. In this sense, analyzing older migration narratives helps us to sharpen the critical view on the genealogy of our own views on the history—and present—of human migrations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes that living Seleucid kings were recognized as divine by the royal court before the reign of Antiochus III despite lacking an established centralized ruler cult like their fellow kings, the Ptolemies. Owing to the nature of the surviving evidence, we are forced to rely heavily on numismatics to construct a view of Seleucid royal ideology. Regrettably, it seems that up until now much of the numismatic evidence for the divinity of living Seleucid rulers has not been fully considered. I argue that the evidence from silver coinage produced in the name of the Seleucid kings presents a version of the official image of the reigning king and that images which portray the king as divine reflect central acceptance of the king's divinity. This is clear from the epithets on the coinage of Antiochus IV and his successors, but I will argue that the same principle holds for all earlier Seleucid kings. Thus coinage with divine images of Seleucid kings provided one of the mechanisms through which the royal court transmitted the divine nature of the kings to the population. As we will see, in the case of Antiochus Hierax, local considerations also influenced the numismatic representation of the king. This blurring of boundaries between the local veneration of the king, which has long been accepted as normal civic practice in the Greek city-states and in non-Greek temples, and the royal images of the divine king calls into question the strict division between civic and centralized ruler cults. The reflection of local cults within royal ideology can be seen as a manifestation of a negotiating model of Seleucid power that relied heavily on a dialogue with a wide range of interested groups. This article argues that the inconsistencies in the development of an iconography of divine kingship before the reign of Antiochus IV is a manifestation of the same phenomenon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this essay I set out to offer a new interpretation of rural monasticism in Late Antiquity. The commonsensical understanding of the monk is of a holy man who played a key role in shaping the rural landscapes of Late Antique Levant. I want to suggest a distinction between the holy man, usually presented as a living saint in hagiographic literature, and the monk, who was a product of rural society and an integral part of the human landscape in the countryside. As a result, I offer a fresh look at monasticism as an organic component of the rural landscape and at the rural monk as a domestic villager rather than a revered role model for society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on a comprehensive database of livestock frequencies and mortality profiles and on high-resolution relative chronologies, we examined synchronically and diachronically conventional assumptions regarding animal husbandry in the southern Levant in the Late Bronze and Iron Ages and arrived at the following conclusions: 1) A recent study suggests that animal economy in these periods was based on strategies of survival and self-sufficiency. We counter this claim and demonstrate how local self-sufficiency was replaced by specialized economies beginning in Iron Age IIB. 2) Contrary to past assumptions, we argue that changes in animal-husbandry strategies were dictated by historical factors rather than by environmental ones. The main shift in livestock husbandry reflects enhanced social complexity during a period of transformation in the territorial-political system from local kingdoms to imperial rule. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Seleucid Empire was the largest and most ethnically diverse of all the successor kingdoms formed after the death of Alexander the Great. The relationship between the Macedonian dynasty and various subject peoples is therefore a central question of Seleucid historiography. This article focuses on the relations between king and native temples, arguing that temple despoliation was standard procedure for Seleucid rulers facing fiscal problems. I explore various instances in which Seleucid kings removed treasures from native temples under coercive auspices, suggesting that this pattern problematizes recent scholarship emphasizing positive relations between Seleucid kings and native priestly elites. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article looks at the relationship between climate history and settlement patterns in the ancient Middle East, focusing on the period 2000-1800 BCE in the Bronze Age. It notes that this period has been identified as one of dry climate, based on analysis of fossil pollen from the Sea of Galilee and the Ze'elim (Red Sea). It says that evidence of the locations of human settlements indicate a shift in the line between the Levantine semi-arid zone and the Mediterranean forest zone at this time.

The article deals with the territorial history of the southern steppe areas of the Levant in the period between ca. 1050-750 BCE. In the early days of the Iron Age, until the mid-9th century BCE, parts of them, were ruled by local desert entities: in the late Iron I a Moabite polity and in the early Iron IIA and the early years of the late Iron IIA the Tel Masos-Beer-Sheba-Negev Highlands Highlands entity. This situation changed in the later years of the Iron IIA as a result of Damascus' rise to hegemony in the Levant. In the second half of the 9th century BCE Judah, under Damascene domination, expanded for the first time into the Beer-Sheba Valley. In the first half of the eighth century BCE, with the revival of Assyrian power in the days of Adad-nirari III, Damascene authority was replaced by north Israelite domination in the south. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 72-69 B.C., L. Lucullus successively captured the most important urban centres of the kingdom of Pontus, and Tigranocerta in Armenia. His army also operated in the kingdom of Commagene und in Upper Mesopotamia. Lucullus’ military campaign was continued by Pompey. We come across incidental information about the scale of robbery and destruction committed by the Roman army (the statue of Autolycus by Sthennis in Sinope, the temple of Ma in Comana, the secret archives of Mithradates VI, the Roman library of Lucullus, the treasures of Darius the Achaemenid). Some objects of the plundered art appeared in public at the triumphal shows of wealth in Rome, which was perfunctorily documented by Pliny the Elder, Appianus of Alexandria and Plutarch (63 and 61 B.C.). Artworks were also acquired by functionaries of the occupying administration from urban communities and private persons through extortion and blackmail. The Roman lawyers and intellectuals worked out a set of skilful legal formulas to justify and legalise the plunder of cultural goods (ius belli, monumentum imperatoris, ornamentum urbis). Cicero, Livy and Plutarch never condemn the robbery of artworks and libraries if they were committed in the name of the Roman state. The fragmentary evidence testifies to the once flourishing literary circles of the kingdoms of Pontus and Commagene (Methrodorus of Scepsis, Athenion, the anonymous authors of inscriptions from Commagene, the epitaphs of the Bosporan kingdom). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on a conference on the history of clubs, societies, and associations in the ancient Eastern Mediterranean region, held in Copenhagen, Denmark, from October 11-13, 2012. Topics of discussion included religious references in the names of such associations, the role of these association in society and civic life in Antiquity, and their rituals and sacred practices.

This article describes the defense systems of the Middle Bronze IIA and IIB. Social, urban, political, and economic changes, compared to the Early Bronze, forces to imagine, design, and build a defense system radically different from those used until that time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article I consider the issues of temporality and periodization in the ancient Near East under three rubrics: how modern scholars have periodized ancient Near Eastern history, how societies of the ancient Near East periodized their own history, and, more broadly, how they conceptualized the temporal dimensions of their world and mapped themselves onto time. In each case I illustrate the issue with a selection of examples, which in no way represent comprehensive coverage. Under the last rubric, I focus on Sumer and Akkad. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An essay is presented on the role of Genesis 1-11 in the Bible as social commentary. It discusses topics including the ancient and modern historical context of the chapters, the environment of the ancient Near East that is important in discerning the original message of the chapters, and the view of creation as good.

The article presents an examination into the earliest historical instances of international law, focusing on the events and developments of the Ancient Near East between 1200 and 330 B.C.E. An introductory section is provided describing the geopolitical history of the region during the era, citing the dynamics between major powers such as the kingdom of Assyria with smaller individual principalities. An extensive overview is then provided regarding Assyrian inscriptions and Biblical citations concerning Ancient Near Eastern international law discussing subjects such as the declaration of war and diplomacy, religious law, and human rights.

The article presents an overview of the earliest examples and concepts of international law in ancient history. The author highlights several legal traditions and systems from the Near East in the late Bronze Age. Legal topics addressed include dynastic marriage alliances between rulers, arbitration in city-state conflict management, and the laws of travel and extradition for runaway slaves, refugees, and deserting soldiers. Civilizations cited include the Hittites, the Babylonians, and Alašiyans.

For prehistorians, the concept of the "Neolithic toolkit" provides a means of evaluating the technological capacities of world societies on a cross-cultural basis. This article seeks to refine the toolkit idea by distinguishing a series of the technological complexes that, while originating in different regional contexts, became standardized over the centuries in the lands of Islam in the era before 1500 C.E. and subsequently diffused to the rest of the world. The article focuses on three case studies—the water management toolkit, the writing and information management toolkit, and the mathematics and cosmology toolkit—in an effort to explore the reasons for the apparent centrality of Islamicate societies in the assembling of these technological complexes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article there will be presented a perspective between biblical historiography in light of ancient historiography which evokes the framework of the current discussion between these. The Bible is independent from any extra-biblical information related to it. Its theological macro-structure or the whole message of the Word of God to his people is inalterable. On other hand, its micro-structure or superficial area may be modified by external historical evidence to benefit its comprehension. [TRANSLATION]

Presents a review of the way scholars have reconstructed the life of one king of Mari, Zimri-Lim, who lived in the middle-Euphrates region in the early eighteenth century BCE. Biography and career of Zimri-Lim; Discovery of a sequence for the year-date formulas of Zimri-Lim; Personality of Zimri-Lim.

Looks into a period of disruption and social collapse accompanied by restless and aggressive movement of people in the Near East during 1200 B.C. Destruction of the cities and towns of Mycenaean Greece; Invasion of Egypt by the Sea peoples during the reign of Merenptah; Changes throughout the eastern Mediterranean; Decline in the trading between the Mycenaeans and the people of Cyprus.