scholarly journals FRAGMENTS OF THE THIRD MILLENNIUM BC FROM NIGIN

Iraq ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Davide Nadali ◽  
Lorenzo Verderame

The ancient city of Nigin in the State of Lagash is largely attested in the epigraphic sources of the rulers of the First Dynasty of Lagash. Conversely, the archaeological evidence of the Early Dynastic Period is so far very scanty and limited. This paper presents a small group of documents to be dated to the Early Dynastic Period IIIb that were found out of context, but that nevertheless point to a phase of occupation of Nigin in the third millennium BC and are coherent with the information we already know about history of the city and the State of Lagash.

Abusir ◽  
2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miroslav Verner

This chapter focuses on Memphis, a metropolis of ancient Egypt, and the possibility that it was the site of the remains of monumental temples, royal residences, palaces, and many other urban features. Meni, the legendary unifier of Egypt and founder of the First Dynasty at the turn of the fourth to third millennium BC, is credited with the founding of Memphis. It is believed that, in addition to the stronghold, Meni also founded the Temple of Ptah, the chief god of the new royal seat. The chapter traces the history of Memphis and describes the district of the Temple of Ptah, along with the pyramids, royal tombs, and other structures located in the city. It also considers some of the deities who had their cult in Memphis, including Hathor. Finally, it looks at the pharaohs who built their tombs in Memphis.


Author(s):  
Michael A. Gomez

This prologue provides an overview of the history of early and medieval West Africa. During this period, the rise of Islam, the relationship of women to political power, the growth and influence of the domestically enslaved, and the invention and evolution of empire were all unfolding. In contrast to notions of an early Africa timeless and unchanging in its social and cultural categories and conventions, here was a western Savannah and Sahel that from the third/ninth through the tenth/sixteenth centuries witnessed political innovation as well as the evolution of such mutually constitutive categories as race, slavery, ethnicity, caste, and gendered notions of power. By the period's end, these categories assume significations not unlike their more contemporary connotations. All of these transformations were engaged with the apparatus of the state and its progression from the city-state to the empire. The transition consistently featured minimalist notions of governance replicated by successive dynasties, providing a continuity of structure as a mechanism of legitimization. Replication had its limits, however, and would ultimately prove inadequate in addressing unforeseen challenges.


2020 ◽  
pp. 123-152
Author(s):  
Jerzy Żelazowski

The article presents the private houses of Ptolemais’ inhabitants in the context of the history and urban development of a city with a thousand-year-long history. Four periods can be distinguished in the history of Ptolemais: the first since the creation of the city’s final spatial development plan in the 2nd century BC until the Jewish Revolt in 115–117 AD; the second in the 2nd–3rd centuries AD under the sign of development and growing aspirations of Ptolemais; the third in the 4th century AD until the first half of the 5th century AD, when the city served as the capital of the province of Libya Superior; and the fourth, from the end of the 5th century AD until the mid-7th century AD, in which Ptolemais, after a short period of crisis related to the nomad invasions, flourished again until the appearance of the Arabs, marking the end of the ancient city, although not the end of settlement in its area. Within this historical framework, changes in the city’s buildings and the transformation of private houses can be identified, and various cultural influences associated with the arrival of new residents at different times with their baggage of experience or with the more or less significant presence of representatives of the civil and military administration of the Roman Empire can be seen.


2018 ◽  
Vol 108 (1) ◽  
pp. 100-131
Author(s):  
Andreas Hauptmann ◽  
Sabine Klein ◽  
Paola Paoletti ◽  
Richard L. Zettler ◽  
Moritz Jansen

Abstract The many gold and silver artifacts from the Early Dynastic Royal Tombs of Ur in Mesopotamia are among the greatest metal finds of Ancient Mesopotamia in the third millennium BC. Within the framework of a research project, 32 of these artifacts were analyzed for their composition using a portable X-ray fluorescence spectrometer and a scanning electron microscope. Predominantly gold-silver alloys rather than pure gold were identified, containing up to 50 wt.% of silver and often with additional copper content well above 10 wt.%. This spectrum of composition ranges from alloys that could be of natural origin to alloys that were intentionally produced. Some gold artifacts were deliberately blended to gold-silver-copper alloys for color gradation. In addition, Sumerian written sources from the end of the third millennium BC can be compared to the results of the analyses of this study and offer more information on the processing of these metals at that time. In the present study, it is shown that gold originating from placer deposits was brought to Ur. Direct association of gold artifacts with lapis lazuli in many precious objects from the Royal Tombs and the particular composition of inclusions of platinum group minerals in the worked gold both point to a possible provenance in northern Afghanistan. One significant result was the confirmation of the use of depletion gilding for the removal of copper from surfaces; the technique of refining silver-bearing gold, known as parting, is not thought to have been known at this time.A previous version of this paper has been presented as a talk at the 62e Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale of Philadelphia 11th–15th July 2016 by A. Hauptmann, S. Klein and R. Zettler under the title: “A. Hauptmann, S. Klein, and R. Zettler, Sorts of Gold, Sorts of Silver from the Royal Tombs of Ur, Mesopotamia”. “For the late Hans-Gert Bachmann, the pioneer of ancient gold metallurgy. (Andreas Hauptmann)”


Iraq ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 71 ◽  
pp. 99-114
Author(s):  
Anne Eastham

AbstractIn the course of excavations at Abu Salabikh in the 1970s and 1980s bird bones were recovered in small numbers from a range of contexts. These have been identified and are described here. In general, they give a picture of the contemporary rural environment round the city in the mid-third millennium BC, and shed light on contemporary diet. One unusual find in particular is discussed in more detail: that of an entire goshawk skeleton placed near a child in a grave with an adult (Grave 158). This is an interesting piece of evidence which might be taken to illustrate the practice of falconry in Early Dynastic Mesopotamia.


Author(s):  
Maria Giovanna Biga ◽  
Ahmad Karbotly

The river Qoueiq (which flows close to the big city of Aleppo) has been important in the history of Syria already in the third millennium BC. Along its valley there are many tells, studied mostly in surveys from the 1970s; some of them are certainly to be dated to the third millennium BC and their name could be present in the Ebla texts. They are not yet identified with ancient cities. Tell Tuqan, on the lake Matkh in which the river disappears, or Tell Hader in the river valley, can likely be identified with NIrar of the Ebla texts.


Antiquity ◽  
1976 ◽  
Vol 50 (200) ◽  
pp. 216-222
Author(s):  
Beatrice De Cardi

Ras a1 Khaimah is the most northerly of the seven states comprising the United Arab Emirates and its Ruler, H. H. Sheikh Saqr bin Mohammad al-Qasimi, is keenly interested in the history of the state and its people. Survey carried out there jointly with Dr D. B. Doe in 1968 had focused attention on the site of JuIfar which lies just north of the present town of Ras a1 Khaimah (de Cardi, 1971, 230-2). Julfar was in existence in Abbasid times and its importance as an entrep6t during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries-the Portuguese Period-is reflected by the quantity and variety of imported wares to be found among the ruins of the city. Most of the sites discovered during the survey dated from that period but a group of cairns near Ghalilah and some long gabled graves in the Shimal area to the north-east of the date-groves behind Ras a1 Khaimah (map, FIG. I) clearly represented a more distant past.


Author(s):  
Philipp Zehmisch

This chapter considers the history of Andaman migration from the institutionalization of a penal colony in 1858 to the present. It unpicks the dynamic relationship between the state and the population by investigating genealogies of power and knowledge. Apart from elaborating on subaltern domination, the chapter also reconstructs subaltern agency in historical processes by re-reading scholarly literature, administrative publications, and media reports as well as by interpreting fieldwork data and oral history accounts. The first part of the chapter defines migration and shows how it applies to the Andamans. The second part concentrates on colonial policies of subaltern population transfer to the islands and on the effects of social engineering processes. The third part analyses the institutionalization of the postcolonial regime in the islands and elaborates on the various types of migration since Indian Independence. The final section considers contemporary political negotiations of migration in the islands.


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