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This article is part of a special issue of the Journal of Ancient History, "Social Biographies of the Ancient World." It presents the fundamental elements of Bourdieu's sociological field theory before adapting them to apply to the study of ancient, premodern societies. By reverse-engineering the theory's developmental process through the work of Bourdieu, the article underscores the process by which he came to develop his theory. His original process is then able to be adapted for use in ancient societies whose available sources limit ethnographic or (traditional) archival approaches. What results is a distillation of field theory as applicable for the study of the Ancient Near East and other ancient societies. "Ancient Near Eastern field theory" presents an avenue for further analysis of the social dynamics of the ancient world that still preserves the fundamental elements of Bourdieu's theory. What results is a method, not a model, for analysis that the following three case studies utilize in various ways based on the questions of the researchers and the sources materials at hand. Thus, this adaptation of field theory is useful for additional research both into the case studies presented in this issue and as a method to address other questions of socio-historical significance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is the introduction to a special issue of the Journal of Ancient History, "Social Biographies of the Ancient World." It sketches out an outline of Ancient Near Eastern social structures by utilizing sociological concepts first developed by Pierre Bourdieu. It is our contention that the concepts of field, capital, habitus, and the interplay between theory and practice facilitate the analysis of social structures under first millennium BCE empires even with the limitations of extant evidence, that is, even without ethnographic observation or self-aware personal writings. Bourdieusian Field Theory as a model is flexible and amenable to elaboration with further topics beyond the three case studies represented in this issue. We chose to investigate herein a mortuary stele, a literary figure, and a personal archive as they are three common source types for the ancient worlds of western Asia. We hope this issue will encourage other scholars of the ancient world to join us in utilizing these approaches for social-/micro-history—beyond Marxist or Weberian approaches. Through analysis of an understudied mortuary stele of a relatively unknown woman (Ahatabu), a well-known, supposedly anti-imperialist literary figure (Jonathan), and the archive of an early businesswoman (Babatha), this study presents Bourdieusian approaches to sources with varying known contexts and lifeworlds—emphasizing its applicability for broad usage throughout Ancient Near Eastern history. Finally, we reflect on the ways we found Bourdieu useful for thinking about ancient evidence in the three case studies. After analyzing the similarities and differences in our approaches to and uses of his thought, we propose further ways Bourdieu might provide helpful new trajectories for the study of the Ancient Near East. In particular, we point to the debated issues of family and gender. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article we provide a contribution to answering the question of how religious communication is possible. Religious communication is confronted with the essential paradox that statements about a principally inaccessible transcendence have to be made by immanent, known means. Metaphors, which we understand as mapping of a known source domain onto an unknown target domain, are particularly suitable for this purpose. We apply these assumptions to the Sumerian story Gilgameš, Enkidu, and the Netherworld to examine how the text is to be understood as religious communication. We identify the familiar physical and social spheres as the source domains and the netherworld as the unknown target domain. We show how the conceptual metaphor THE NETHERWORLD IS A PHYSICAL PLACE is elaborated by means of different slots, namely where the realm of the dead is located, how to get to and how to return from there, in which shape one is able to return from the netherworld, as well as how things are ordered there. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fibula appeared in the Levant during the late second millennium bce and gradually replaced the toggle pin as the common accessory to fasten clothing. In this contribution, we trace the dissemination of fibulae in the southern Levant, pinpointing its chronology, the development of local variants and significant locales of consumption. The analysis of site-specific case studies suggests that the fibula was worn first by elites of the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah as part of a new fashion, and became popular among the members of the colonial society under the Assyrian empire. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within this paper we will account for a cooperation between Ghent University based Assyriologists and computational linguists that has set up a pilot study to analyse the language used in Old Babylonian (OB) letters using Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques. OB letters make up an interesting dataset because (1) they form an invaluable source for everyday vernacular language, and (2) more than 5000 have been recovered, many of which are accessible in transliteration and translation through the series Altbabylonische Briefe and the Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. Based on a first batch of letters from OB Sippar, later extended by other Akkadian letters, we aim to develop machine learning approaches to perform semi-automatic text analysis and annotation of the letters. We will here present a Part-of-Speech (PoS) tag prediction model using machine learning. The input data is Akkadian in transliteration and the best performing model is a fine-tuned Multilingual BERT Transformer with Word embeddings (weighted avg F1: 90.19 %). When compared to the benchmark attempt of PoS tagging on a larger Akkadian corpus (97.67 %), it leaves room for improvement. However, analysing the results shows us that multilingual word embeddings improve the model performance and with an enlargement of the corpus targeting certain classes, we could considerably better the macro average F1 scores. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital Humanities has an increasing need for widely applicable and easy-to-use methods across disciplinary boundaries. We believe that the cross-disciplinary methods we have developed for the study of the ancient Near East are useful for the study of other research questions outside the field of "Digital Assyriology". The article presents an overview of automated language processing for lexical-semantic analysis, social network analysis, and content analysis. We draw on the work in our research group, which aims to address how changing empires affect social group identities and lifeways in the first millennium BCE in Mesopotamia. The article places the methods our research team has developed into the larger methodological context of Digital Humanities (DH). The article presents an overview of the tools our research group has found useful in our study of ancient social groups. Sections 1 and 2 give the necessary background for the reader to understand the particular challenges related to the study of ancient Mesopotamia and how we have overcome them. The concrete case studies presented in Sections 3 and 4, however, are kept as general as possible, to facilitate similar approaches in adjacent fields of study. Our methodology and approaches are well documented and openly available, and in our view can be used on similar text materials, by other groups interested in DH approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In an attempt to reconstruct the role and value of childhood in 3rd millennium BC Near Eastern societies, this article discusses specific archaeological aspects related to the material culture of children, integrating notions provided by contemporary cuneiform sources. In particular, burial contexts from selected sites of the Euphrates Valley will be analysed since they offer a large set of tangible data to investigate the remains of children and the artefacts associated with them. In this respect simple statistics and spatial analysis of burials is presented, ultimately trying to reconstruct the value accorded to children by adults through the lens of the funerary sphere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article first presents an analysis of the origin and development of modern studies on childhood in antiquity. After this historiographical context and as a prelude to the following articles, attention is focused on the treatment and potential that the children of the Ancient Near East have had for the scientific community in the last half century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Athar alrafedain is the property of Republic of Iraq Ministry of Higher Education & Scientific Research (MOHESR) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Selçuk University Journal of Faculty of Letters is the property of Selcuk Universitesi Edebiyat Fakultesi Dergisi and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

There exists widespread evidence that the Near Eastern societies manufactured seals. However, among these, South Arabian seals remain largely neglected while performing various particularly revealing functions. For instance, the practice of sealing allowed for the explicit expression of ownership as well as the act of witnessing in legal matters. More broadly, seals were a means of articulating individual identities and reinforcing communal belonging. This paper is the first study on the seals of ancient South Arabia after the unpublished Ph.D. dissertation by Diana P. Wong (1999. "Stamp Seals of the Ancient Yemen." Unpublished PhD diss., Berkely). It investigates a corpus comprising 85 published seals currently held in museums and private collections across three continents. After providing a brief survey of the region's history, this article analyses the epigraphic and iconographic content carved on the corpus, offering some reflections on the typology and characteristics of the seals, as well as on the society of ancient South Arabia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the Iron Age IIA Philistine cemetery at Ashkelon (modern Israel), roughly 11% of individuals exhibit severe and highly variable dental wear, which we explore here at two timescales: wear that accumulates over days and weeks (microwear) and wear that accumulates over months and years (macrowear). Using teeth from both adult and nonadult individuals, we first established categories of dental macrowear patterns and sorted individuals within them. We then made replicas of the teeth from 27 individuals having both typical and atypical dental wear and performed metrology by noncontact profilometry on a reflected light microscope. We then calculated each tooth's surface roughness (Sa) and collected qualitative observations of teeth within each macrowear category. Our findings show no macrowear or microwear pattern exclusive to sex or age group. Likewise, there are no statistically significant differences (p < 0.05) in Sa between adult males and females, and sampled nonadults fall within two standard deviations of the pooled adult means. The microscopic surfaces of all teeth show a wide variety of textures on the occlusal surfaces, including wavy striations, deep parallel striations, globular pitting, and newly described rectangular pits. These results indicate that individuals used their teeth as a third hand while manipulating objects and that children also participated in these activities. Due to the similarities in dental wear between Ashkelon and other coastal populations, we conclude that the observed wear patterns arose from the performance of specialized tasks for a marine‐based economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract. In Jewish society, a widow may experience a negative social stigma that puts her in a disadvantaged position. This negative stigma certainly confirms that a widow needs protection. The purpose of this paper was to outline the position of widows in the eyes of both Torah and Ancient Near Eastern law. To that purpose, the author conducted a literature review, which includes Old Testament texts as well as extra-biblical texts related to the position of widows. This study showed that widows, in both the Torah and the laws of the Ancient Near East, are entitled to protection. The difference between the two laws is that in the Torah the protection of widows is theologically reflected as initiated and guaranteed by God. Abstrak. Dalam masyarakat Yahudi, seorang janda dapat mengalami stigma sosial negatif yang memojokkan posisinya. Stigma negatif tersebut tentunya menegaskan bahwa seorang janda membutuhkan perlindungan. Tujuan dari tulisan ini adalah untuk menguraikan kedudukan janda di mata hukum Taurat maupun hukum di Timur Dekat Kuno. Untuk itu, penulis akan melakukan kajian literatur, yang meliputi teks-teks Perjanjian Lama maupun teks-teks ekstra biblika terkait kedudukan janda. Hasil dari kajian ini menunjukkan bahwa janda, baik dalam hukum Taurat maupun hukum-hukum di Timur Dekat Kuno, wajib mendapatkan perlindungan. Yang membedakan di antara kedua hukum tersebut adalah bahwa dalam hukum Taurat perlindungan terhadap janda direfleksikan secara teologis sebagai diinisiasi dan dijamin oleh Tuhan.

In biblical studies, a growing interest in metaphors as the conceptual key to the ancient mind has arisen. However, in contrast with the popularity of metaphor, other tropes have received little attention. This article sheds light on another rhetorical feature: 'cumulative part-whole relations,' which construct a new whole by compounding disparate body parts, a textual and visual strategy deliberately used to cross boundaries of individual parts, to integrate the parts into a larger whole, and to demonstrate superiority and supernatural powers. Through examining visual and textual examples from the ancient Near East, including Song 7.1–6 and the composite creatures (Mischwesen) from the Levant, this article reveals that the rhetorical mechanism of the cumulation of part-whole relations follows the logic that the whole is more than the sum of its parts, while that whole remains a single one no matter how many parts are compounded. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to Numbers 21:4–9, the Nehushtan was a copper/bronze snake effigy that functioned as a 'magical' healing tool to cure the early Israelites from venomous snakebites they incurred during their desert wanderings. What is unclear from the narrative is the symbolic significance of the event, the materials used, the technical skills required, and whether magic was at play. Firstly, when considering the magical effects of the Nehushtan, we must define which type of magic—apotropaic or sympathetic—was involved. Based upon existing scholarship on the topic, the general consensus is that the Nehushtan represented sympathetic magic, underpinned in this instance by homeopathic/imitative magic. To highlight this point, this study will provide selected examples of both types of magic so that the Nehushtan's association with sympathetic magic can be illustrated. Secondly, and most importantly, we must consider why the image of a snake was chosen if the very affliction (envenomation) suffered by the people was caused by the creature now being posited as a symbol of divine healing. Did the ancient perceptions of snakes and healing play a role in this decision? Why did the early Israelites not question the logic behind the use of a magical snake effigy when both magic and effigies were technically prohibited by biblical laws? To answer these questions, the study will consider the historical background (the Exodus from Egypt), the set (geographical location), and the setting (cultural contact and influence) in which the narrative of the Nehushtan took place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Bible is one of the most influential documents in human history that has not only changed believers' lives but has also greatly influenced our society whether one is a Christian or not. While the Western world has somehow managed to remove the Bible from the public sphere and religion relegated as the opium of the oppressed masses in the Communist bloc, to Africans, the Bible has remained a moral compass without which human life becomes ungovernable. As the Bible has come to occupy such a high place of authority in African life, the aim of this article is to examine the contemporary challenges that Africa is facing concerning issues of power and accountability in light of selected biblical texts. Using largely the canonical approach and socio-cultural anthropology, this article takes the Bible as a mirror that leaders should use to self-introspect in regard to their exercise of power and accountability to their subjects. It is our observation that there is now a tendency among African leadership especially during elections to rush to claim vox populi, vox Dei meaning 'the voice of people is the voice of God', yet rigging and failure to live up to God's dictates may be manifestly characterising one's leadership. A fish begins rotting in its head hence it is our conclusion that it is only by having a leadership that cultivates a fear of God at its heart that Africa can be healed of its problems. Contribution: In Africa, it is a paradox that while some political leaders purport to have been schooled in the Bible in mission schools, they lead a life divorced from it. This article adds a voice to the on-going religion and politics dialogue in Zimbabwe by soliciting an honest adherence to its principles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Ancient Near East and the Eastern Mediterranean were geographical and sociopolitical scenarios with fluent and constant connectivity from the earliest times in history. Prestige goods and raw materials found their way from one side to another through extensive networks even before the emergence of the state in Egypt and Mesopotamia, integrating movements not only of goods but also of people, technologies, cultural practices, gods, languages, and ideas (Wilkinson et al. 2011; Warburton 2020). In this volume, we named them “interconnections” to precisely emphasize the relevance of exchange in the adoption, modification, or re-adaptation of foreign traces. The influence of incoming technologies and the shaping of identities in such a dynamic world, always moving, is also considered. Naturally, many diverse theoretical approaches were proposed over time to explain those interconnections, contributing to completing the never-ending panorama of relationships (e.g. Warburton 2020: 1-21). At the same time, nowadays a comprehensive amount of evidence is usually considered in explaining those interconnections, mainly material remains, textual registers, and iconography.

The contemporary debate on the recognition that sophisticated art and architecture was produced in the Ancient Near East has reached a level of investigative maturity, using the tools of archaeology, but also of aesthetics, semiotics, history, and others. Thus, scholars have concluded that Mesopotamian art possesses the same grandeur as Egyptian and Greek art. Despite this, part of the region that makes up the Ancient Near East was considered peripheral in comparison to the Mesopotamian world. The Southern Levant, the place where most of the biblical narrative took place is in this situation and is considered peripheral, not only in art, but also in architecture. To adhere to this thesis without questioning it is to disregard that the same tools used to classify Mesopotamian art can be instruments for a critical reading of Levantine art, considering its peculiar characteristics, even if in a smaller numerical and qualitative proportion. One cannot relegate any artistic production to a peripheral minority. The second part of this article deals with the classification of Levantine art as peripheral and the possibilities that open up when we apply other critical tools for a re-reading. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article compares the aspects of sacral and divine kingship in the Seleucid Empire and Western Han dynasty. It explores the divine origin of rulers, their role as chief priests, their divinity, and the authority derived from the gods. The article provides a cultural comparison between ancient China and ancient Hellenistic states, discussing the deification of rulers in both empires. It also includes a list of various books and articles related to the topic, offering a comprehensive collection of resources for further research. [Extracted from the article]

This article represents the first section of the second part of the study Gods and Idols. Representations and Symbolizations of the Divinity in the Religions of Ancient Israel. The subjects addressed for analysis are idolatry and iconoclasm in the context of Levantine iconography, seen from the perspective of the biblical authors, a totally tendentious, aggressive and contrary vision, in particular, to the archaeological discoveries. The Hebrew lexical fund of the MT was very rich and, later, almost doubled by the Greek version of the Old Testament text translated into the LXX (Septuagint) translation, regarding the denomination of foreign gods, idols and other representations. However, the “de facto tradition” of the Israelites contained a plastic iconography, idolatry and iconoclasm being phenomena that appeared in the post-exile period and called by scientific research “programmatic tradition”. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Marilynne Robinson is one of the most influential Christian writers and public intellectuals alive today, and her views on a range of topics should be taken seriously. In her 2015 essay entitled 'Memory', she argues that the 'liberal side' of American Christianity has retreated from scriptural theology under pressure from academic biblical criticism. Her dismissal of Hebrew Bible scholarship is centred on two primary and interrelated ideas. First is the idea that Israelite religion was embedded in a broader context of Ancient Near East (ANE) religious cultures, such that biblical stories and characters sometimes borrow from other ancient sources. Second is the problem that the scholarly understanding of ancient Israelite polytheism threatens to make God into a 'pagan amalgam'. The interrelated problem, that is, is the uniqueness and transcendence of the Hebrew Bible, and the God who is its main character. In this article, I review the scholarship on ancient Israelite religion and Robinson's complaints about it. I argue that Robinson treats the critical scholarship only at a distance, allusively, (mis)representing it and sometimes (mis)understanding it in superficial ways, but that her theological anxiety is warranted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The contemporary debate on the recognition that sophisticated art and architecture was produced in the Ancient Near East has reached a level of investigative maturity, using the tools of archaeology, but also of aesthetics, semiotics, history, and others. Thus, scholars have concluded that Mesopotamian art possesses the same grandeur as Egyptian and Greek art. Despite this, part of the region that makes up the Ancient Near East was considered peripheral in comparison to the Mesopotamian world. The Southern Levant, the place where most of the biblical narrative took place is in this situation and is considered peripheral, not only in art, but also in architecture. To adhere to this thesis without questioning it is to disregard that the same tools used to classify Mesopotamian art can be instruments for a critical reading of Levantine art, considering its peculiar characteristics, even if in a smaller numerical and qualitative proportion. One cannot relegate any artistic production to a peripheral minority. The first part of this article deals with the use of conceptual and critical tools in the classification of Ancient Near Eastern artistic production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the remarkable excavations at Hasanlu, in northwestern Iran, thousands of metal objects were discovered, but few have been systematically studied. The goal of this study is to present a catalogue of the metal quivers found by the Joint Expedition to Hasanlu (1956–1977), led by Robert H. Dyson of the University of Pennsylvania Museum. After a brief introduction concerning the site and the evidence for metal quivers in the Ancient Near East as a whole, the examples discovered at Hasanlu will be presented and analyzed within their archaeological contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The following article is a prolegomenon for an extensive study of iconography (representations and symbolization) and iconology (reception and explanation) manifested in the religions of Ancient Israel. Thus, this first part presents an analytical contextualization of the primary sources, like references from the Old Testament, epigraphic records and archaeological data. All these are seen from the perspective of specialized literature with the specificity of the subject areas involved in such a hermeneutic process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Acta Universitatis Lodziensis. Folia Luridica is the property of Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Lodzkiego and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article examines the Negev road-economy from the rise of the Nabatean civilization to the Early Islamic period (3rd C. BCE – 9th C. CE), focusing on the region's complex commerce networks, which connected between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean basin and, more broadly, between east and west. We discuss the economy of goods-transportation within the system of Negev connectivity, and we propose to update the limiting boundary lines imposed by the title 'The Nabatean Incense Route' on the medium connecting between Aila, Petra and Gaza. Our main aims are: to emphasize the longevity of the system, which functioned long before and after the floruit of the Nabatean society; to highlight the wide and colorful array of participants – other than the Nabateans themselves – who were acting within the system for their respective commercial purposes; to demonstrate the wealth of goods which was transported by means of the system in both directions – far beyond incense or even spice and aromatics more broadly; and to show how transportation itself was carried out throughout the system along networks of roads and hubs, rather than through a single, linear road. • Current research offers a reductive view of the ancient connectivity in the Negev. • Newly assessed textual sources show multiculturality of the ancient Negev. • New organic finds from rubbish middens show the Negev's trans-regional connectivity. • Approaching Negev settlements as network suggests omnidirectional mobility. • Holistic multi-disciplinary synthesis shows ancient Negev as intense economic hub in the longue durée. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to Numbers 21:4–9, the Nehushtan was a copper/bronze snake effigy that functioned as a ‘magical’ healing tool to cure the early Israelites from venomous snakebites they incurred during their desert wanderings. What is unclear from the narrative is the symbolic significance of the event, the materials used, the technical skills required, and whether magic was at play. Firstly, when considering the magical effects of the Nehushtan, we must define which type of magic—apotropaic or sympathetic—was involved. Based upon existing scholarship on the topic, the general consensus is that the Nehushtan represented sympathetic magic, underpinned in this instance by homeopathic/imitative magic. To highlight this point, this study will provide selected examples of both types of magic so that the Nehushtan’s association with sympathetic magic can be illustrated. Secondly, and most importantly, we must consider why the image of a snake was chosen if the very affliction (envenomation) suffered by the people was caused by the creature now being posited as a symbol of divine healing. Did the ancient perceptions of snakes and healing play a role in this decision? Why did the early Israelites not question the logic behind the use of a magical snake effigy when both magic and effigies were technically prohibited by biblical laws? To answer these questions, the study will consider the historical background (the Exodus from Egypt), the set (geographical location), and the setting (cultural contact and influence) in which the narrative of the Nehushtan took place.

The tug₂ guz-za /tug₂guz.za is a cloth attested in different spellings from the 3rd to 1st millennia BCE that has received diverse translations. Evidence from Ur III textile production texts, reconstructions based on experimental data, and lexical lists now converge to suggest that the cloth was defined by its thick weft. Although the tug₂ guz-za /tug₂guz.za has traditionally been connected to the Zottenrock of Mesopotamian visual media via the adjective guz(-za) 'bristly, wire-haired,' no independent evidence of shagginess has been found for the textile. Instead, this contribution demonstrates that there is another guz-za meaning 'bright red' that was applied to textiles and wool in the lexical lists of the 2nd millennium BCE, suggesting that the tug₂ guz-za /tug₂guz.za was conceived of as a red cloth at least in some periods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the ways how Hittite kings justified their usurpations of power, such usurpations happening almost constantly during the whole period of the Hittite kingdom, from the Old Hittite period until the fall of the empire. It focuses on three outstanding texts illuminating prominent cases in the Hittite history: the Proclamation of Telepinu which gives important information about several usurpations during the late 17th and 16th century BC, the First Plague Prayer of Muršili I which illuminates the reaction to the 14th century BC usurpation of Šuppiluliuma I, and the Apology of Hattušili III from the 13th century BC, which stands out as our best example of justification of a successful usurpation in the ancient Near Eastern region. These three cases reveal different strategies of justification accepted by the Hittite kings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies of the Bronze Age in the ancient world traditionally have focused on mainstream populations, together with their social organization, and the economic subsistence strategies implemented by them. As a result, those people who lived on the edges of society, whether defined geographically, socially, demographically, or economically, have received correspondingly less attention. Yet, peoples on the margins of mainstream populations fulfilled roles integral to the primary economic and social systems in Bronze Age cultures in the ancient Near Eastern and North African world. This concept of marginal and/or liminal groups in the ancient world, the importance of examining them, and different methods of addressing them, are presented here, as the introduction to the collected papers on marginality and liminality in the Bronze Age world of the ancient Near East and North Africa in this special issue of the Journal of Ancient Near Eastern History. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Marginality and liminality are concepts that are used in the study of the ancient Near East, although formal definitions for these terms are rarely given. This paper explores the history of the uses of these terms in social theory, discussing the origins of the terms in the writings of early twentieth-century thinkers such as Georg Simmel, Robert Ezra Park, and Victor Turner. It details how these ideas and concepts were debated by psychologists, sociologists, and anthropologists throughout the twentieth century, when these terms were adopted into Near Eastern studies. While these concepts were defined by social theorists, investigations of the archaeological, textual, and art-historical evidence from the ancient Near East show that they well reflect emic conceptualizations. Examples from Near Eastern contexts demonstrate the benefits of using flexible and multi-vocalic conceptualizations of marginality and liminality that still recognize the distinctiveness of these two issues. The paper concludes by offering different frameworks for applying these concepts to the study of the Bronze Age Near East. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mesopotamian medicine offers a rich set of data related to the subject of colour, noted not only in diagnosis, but also in therapy. This contribution addresses the question of chromatic associations between given curative elements and symptomatologies, despite the methodological problems related to this line of research. A selection of health problems characterized by clear nuances has been presented : on the one hand, bodily fluids, such as blood and pus ; on the other, cutaneous ailments, for which cuneiform sources provided us with descriptions. The results reveal shared beliefs about the colour of certain ingredients, but also principles of chromoanalogy, similia similibus curantur, as well as their opposites.

The article presents the ways customary law could be gradually changed in the ancient Near East. They included working with existing institutions while modifying their consequences as well as their scope of application with tools such as legal fiction. However, the conservative nature of the ancient oriental culture, as well as that of the scribal education made any sudden, radical modification impossible, and even if a new contract type was created, it would keep the pretense of following a long-established practice.

“Magic” is a term that continues to feature in popular and scholarly circles, yet scholars continue to disagree vehemently about its definition and utility. This article uses the various definitions of magic as lenses through which to compare the ritual texts of the Priestly Pentateuch, ancient Egypt, and ancient Mesopotamia. The results offered illumine both the texts and the scholars who interpret them. Regardless of the definition employed, the biblical and other ANE ritual texts are quite similar, leading to the conclusion that magic should not be used as a dividing line between biblical Priestly and other ANE ritual texts.

In contrast to those who read Genesis 1 through 11 as myth, the story of Genesis is historical narrative with a theological purpose (theo-history). The Hebrew theo-history of creation was undergirded by a worldview that did not converge with her neighbors but significantly diverged from the surrounding nations. While the literary style of Genesis has elements common to other ancient mythologies, the content itself is quite distinct. Unlike other ancient cosmologies, the Hebrew worldview perceived the people, places, and events of Genesis as historical and not merely religious symbols. The divergence of the Hebrew worldview from all ancient Near East (ANE) cultures is illustrated in three observations: (1) Genesis is monotheism not polytheism/panentheism, (2) Genesis is special revelation not cultic theology, and (3) Genesis is theo-history not myth or mytho-history. These three distinctives of Hebrew cosmology reflect a unique worldview shaped by divine revelation, and because Genesis was written in the genre of theo-history, Hebrew cosmology offers us a dependable foundation for knowing something true about our material origins, shaping ethical priorities, safeguarding the sacredness of human life, directing moral decision making, recognizing the significance of historical progress, and guiding scientific inquiry into the book of nature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article offers a new comparison of the ancient Mesopotamian story Enuma Elish and the biblical Garden of Eden story (Genesis 2:4–3:24) as a case study that demonstrates how attention to myth theory and comparative method might improve studies of ancient Southwest Asian literatures. This comparison illustrates the connection between myth, meaning making, and the lived experiences that produced and perpetuated these myths by focusing on the cultural value of work and memory as expressed in both narratives. In contrast to previous modes of comparison that conclude with claims to the Bible's superiority, this comparison uses tools from myth studies and comparative religion toward a clearer understanding of the cultural messaging of both myths regarding the purpose of human life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]