Comments

2000 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-73
Author(s):  
Stuart Campbell
Keyword(s):  
Near East ◽  
Level Of Detail ◽  
Late Neolithic ◽  
Near Eastern ◽  
Archaeological Material ◽  
Exceptional Preservation ◽  
The Past ◽  
New Evidence ◽  
Degree Of Isolation

Because of the climate and the nature of the sites, most archaeological material in the Near East has survived the passage of time in a reasonably well preserved state (at least, until recent decades). It remains true, however, that occasional deposits with exceptional preservation provide a level of detail that opens up new areas of interpretation to archaeologists. The classic examples are, perhaps, Çatalhöyük and Nahal Hemar. The ‘Burnt Village’ at Sabi Abyad is proving to be another where the new evidence is leading to a series of publications offering interpretations of the settlement which will have profound implications for our perception of the late Neolithic in northern Mesopotamia. This stimulating article amplifies one area of discussion, attempting to bring some of the most striking features of the ‘Burnt Village’ into a single, unified interpretation. Importantly, this unified interpretation draws on a range of contemporary approaches to understanding the past and, given the tendency of near eastern archaeologists to function in a degree of isolation from wider archaeological trends, this article is to be particularly welcomed. Inevitably it can be criticised in certain areas and it might have gone further in others but these comments start from the basis of welcoming, enjoying and being stimulated by this piece of work.

Artisans to Producers

2020 ◽  
pp. 103-148
Author(s):  
Fanny Bessard
Keyword(s):  
Central Asia ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Food Processing ◽  
Near East ◽  
Physical Change ◽  
Near Eastern ◽  
The Past ◽  
Early Islam

This chapter considers the physical change of the workspace chronologically, geographically, and by industry. From the case studies of pottery, glass, and textile making, as well as food processing, it discusses the standardization of the Roman practice, as seen at Timgad in North Africa, of zoning and conglomerating crafts in early Islam across the Near East and Central Asia. While acknowledging this continuity with the past, it examines the novelty and significance of manufacturing after 800, when ‘post-Roman’ ceased to be a meaningful description of Near Eastern economy, and questions whether urban crafts experienced differentiated or similar forms of development.

Ancient Near Eastern History: the Case of Cyrus the Great of Persia

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
AMÉLIE KUHRT
Keyword(s):  
Old Testament ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Near East ◽  
Ancient Near East ◽  
Religious Toleration ◽  
Near Eastern ◽  
The Past ◽  
Standard Picture

This chapter examines how an historian of the ancient Near East sets about reconstructing a picture of the past using material of great diversity in terms of type and historical value. It demonstrates this approach by considering the figure of the Achaemenid king, Cyrus II ‘the Great’ of Persia. The discussion begins by creating a conventional image of the king and consolidating it. It then analyses the evidence that has been used to strengthen the picture and presents some historical realities. The basis for the standard picture of Cyrus the Great is provided by material in classical writers and the Old Testament. Cyrus introduced a new policy of religious toleration together with active support for local cults, exemplified by the permission he granted to the Jewish exiles to return to Jerusalem and rebuild their temple, with generous funding from central government. The chapter also considers the date for Cyrus' defeat of the Median king Astyages (550), as well as his conquest of Babylon itself.

Judges 1–12

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jack M. Sasson
Keyword(s):  
Near East ◽  
Hebrew Text ◽  
Ancient World ◽  
Ancient Near East ◽  
Near Eastern ◽  
Historical Significance ◽  
The Past ◽  
Masoretic Text ◽  
Faith Traditions ◽  
Over Time

Profound changes have occurred in the study of early Israel over the past four decades. In recent years, the pendulum of scholarship has swung toward literary and theological readings that are not significantly informed by the literature of the ancient Near East. Jack M. Sasson’s commentary to the first twelve chapters of the book of Judges is a refreshing corrective to that trend. It aims to expand comprehension of the Hebrew text by explaining its meaning, exploring its contexts, and charting its effect over time. Addressed are issues about the techniques that advance the text’s objectives, the impulses behind its composition, the motivations behind its preservation, the diversity of interpretations during its transmission in several ancient languages, and the learned attention it has gathered over time in faith traditions, Jewish, Christian, and Muslim. In its pages also is a fair sampling from ancient Near Eastern documents to illumine specific biblical passages or to bolster the interpretation of contexts. The result is a Judges that more carefully reflects the culture that produced it. In presenting this fresh translation of the Masoretic text of Judges as received in our days, Sasson does not shy away from citing variant or divergent readings in the few Judges fragments and readily calls on testimonies from diverse Greek, Aramaic, and Latin renderings. The opinions of Jewish, Christian, and Muslim sages are reviewed, as are those of eminent scholars of recent times. With his Introductory Remarks, Notes, and Comments, Sasson addresses specific issues of religious, social, cultural, and historical significance and turns to ancient Near Eastern lore to illustrate how specific actions and events unfolded elsewhere under comparable circumstances. This impressive new appreciation of Judges will be of immense interest to bible specialists, theologians, cultural historians, and students of the ancient world.

Conceptualizing the Past in Museum Exhibitions of Ancient Egyptian and Near Eastern Art

2020 ◽  
pp. 253-273
Author(s):  
Rachel P. Kreiter
Keyword(s):  
Near East ◽  
African Art ◽  
Near Eastern ◽  
The Past ◽  
Museum Displays ◽  
Ancient Egyptian ◽  
Museum Exhibitions ◽  
Art Canon ◽  
International Strategies ◽  
Selection Of

Should Egypt be exhibited as part of the ancient Near East? This chapter considers the museological place of objects that cannot currently be accommodated in either the Egyptian or ancient Near Eastern canons. First, the chapter broadly defines the traits shared by objects in the Egyptian art canon and argues that museum displays have been primarily responsible for its formation. Then a selection of exhibitions that have incorporated Egyptian material with that of the Near East and traditional African art are considered in order to demonstrate the benefits of an international approach to display. The conclusion is that, as a powerful technology of knowledge production, a curatorial vision that integrates cross-cultural and international strategies into the display of permanent collections would encourage a broadening of the types of objects included in regional and global canons.

A Polemical Tale and its Function in the Jewish Communities of the Mediterranean and the Near East

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 192-227
Author(s):  
Miriam Goldstein
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Eleventh Century ◽  
Near East ◽  
Jewish Communities ◽  
Folk Narrative ◽  
Near Eastern ◽  
The Past ◽  
Textual Tradition ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
Arabic Speaking

Abstract The parodical narrative Toledot Yeshu (TY) has been the object of burgeoning interest in the past decade. It has recently become evident that this work was quite popular in Judeo-Arabic, and circulated continuously in Arabic-speaking Jewish communities from at least the eleventh century until nearly the present day. The following is a first foray into the Judeo-Arabic textual tradition of this narrative. From the sixteenth century and beyond, TY circulated in Arabic-speaking communities in collections of folk narrative. Close examination of the textual tradition of TY in Judeo-Arabic as preserved in four parallel manuscript fragments from the twelfth—fifteenth centuries provides further, more subtle evidence linking TY to this genre, and suggests that TY served primarily as literary entertainment in the Near East. I conclude with consideration of the codicological context of TY manuscripts preserved in Europe, and propose that this Near Eastern function contrasts to TY’s primarily polemical function in Europe.

Matthiae, Paolo / Pinnock, Frances / Nigro, Lorenzo / Marchetti, Nicolò (with the collaboration of Licia Romano): Proceedings of the 6th International Congress of the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East. 5 May–10 May 2009, “Sapienza”, Università di Roma. Volume 1. Near Eastern Archaeology in the Past, Present and Future. Heritage and Identity Ethnoarchaeological and Interdisciplinary Approach, Results and Perspectives. Visual Expression and Craft Production in the Definition of Social Relations and Status; Matthiae, Paolo / Pinnock, Frances / Nigro, Lorenzo / Marchetti, Nicolò (with the collaboration of Licia Romano): Proceedings of the 6th International Congress of the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East. 5 May–10 May 2009, “Sapienza”, Università di Roma. Volume 2. Excavations, Surveys and Restorations: Reports on Recent Field Archaeology in the Near East; Matthiae, Paolo / Pinnock, Frances / Nigro, Lorenzo / Marchetti, Nicolò (with the collaboration of Licia Romano): Proceedings of the 6th International Congress of the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East. 5 May–10 May 2009, “Sapienza”, Università di Roma. Volume 3. Islamic Session. Posters Session

2016 ◽  
Vol 111 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan-Waalke Meyer
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Near East ◽  
Interdisciplinary Approach ◽  
Craft Production ◽  
International Congress ◽  
Ancient Near East ◽  
Near Eastern ◽  
The Past ◽  
Visual Expression ◽  
Definition Of

scholarly journals Searching for late neolithic spinning bowls in the central Balkans

Starinar ◽  
2017 ◽  
pp. 21-32
Author(s):  
Marija Svilar
Keyword(s):  
Full Potential ◽  
Human History ◽  
Late Neolithic ◽  
Textile Production ◽  
The Past ◽  
Ceramic Vessels ◽  
Ceramic Assemblages ◽  
The Given ◽  
New Evidence

Over the past twenty years, research on textile has received increasing attention in archaeology worldwide, providing new insights into one of the most important crafts in human history. In contrast, activities related to spinning and weaving in the Late Neolithic settlements in the Central Balkans have only be treated with cursory attention, which has resulted in nothing more than a set of general assumptions in archaeological literature. Though some progress has recently been made, investigations of textile in prehistoric contexts are still far from their full potential. The quest for spinning bowls in ceramic assemblages constitutes an important part of the given research, providing new evidence on the production of both textiles and pottery. Therefore, the focus of this paper is on the available evidence for those activities related to textile production in the Late Neolithic, primarily to spinning, with special emphasis on the earliest occurrence of spinning bowls in the Central Balkans i.e. the technology of wetting and tightening plant fibres in ceramic vessels.

Order from Chaos: Comparing Approaches to Violence in Anthropology, Assyriology, and the Study of the Hebrew Bible

2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 160-175
Author(s):  
T. M. Lemos
Keyword(s):  
Structural Violence ◽  
Near East ◽  
Ancient Near East ◽  
Approaches To Studying ◽  
Near Eastern ◽  
The Past ◽  
Ancient Israel ◽  
History Of ◽  
History Of Scholarship ◽  
Near Eastern Studies

This article compares the history of scholarship on violence in anthropology in the past one hundred years to major approaches to studying violence in the ancient Near East and ancient Near Eastern sources, including ancient Israel and Israelite literature. The article demonstrates that anthropology and ancient Near Eastern studies have diverged widely in their approaches to violence. In the past two to three decades, the concept of structural violence and new materialist approaches have dominated the study of violence in anthropology, while in Assyriology and the study of ancient Israel/Israelite literature, studies of violence have repeatedly turned to an order and chaos framework. The article ends by suggesting that scholars of ancient West Asia incorporate new materialist approaches more concertedly in studies of violence and either rethink or jettison the simplistic order/chaos dyad.

scholarly journals Ancient pigs reveal a near-complete genomic turnover following their introduction to Europe

2019 ◽  
Vol 116 (35) ◽  
pp. 17231-17238 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laurent A. F. Frantz ◽  
James Haile ◽  
Audrey T. Lin ◽  
Amelie Scheu ◽  
Christina Geörg ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gene Flow ◽  
Coat Color ◽  
Near East ◽  
Complete Disappearance ◽  
Early Neolithic ◽  
Wild Boars ◽  
Near Eastern ◽  
The Past ◽  
European Nuclear ◽  
Complete Genomic

Archaeological evidence indicates that pig domestication had begun by ∼10,500 y before the present (BP) in the Near East, and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) suggests that pigs arrived in Europe alongside farmers ∼8,500 y BP. A few thousand years after the introduction of Near Eastern pigs into Europe, however, their characteristic mtDNA signature disappeared and was replaced by haplotypes associated with European wild boars. This turnover could be accounted for by substantial gene flow from local European wild boars, although it is also possible that European wild boars were domesticated independently without any genetic contribution from the Near East. To test these hypotheses, we obtained mtDNA sequences from 2,099 modern and ancient pig samples and 63 nuclear ancient genomes from Near Eastern and European pigs. Our analyses revealed that European domestic pigs dating from 7,100 to 6,000 y BP possessed both Near Eastern and European nuclear ancestry, while later pigs possessed no more than 4% Near Eastern ancestry, indicating that gene flow from European wild boars resulted in a near-complete disappearance of Near East ancestry. In addition, we demonstrate that a variant at a locus encoding black coat color likely originated in the Near East and persisted in European pigs. Altogether, our results indicate that while pigs were not independently domesticated in Europe, the vast majority of human-mediated selection over the past 5,000 y focused on the genomic fraction derived from the European wild boars, and not on the fraction that was selected by early Neolithic farmers over the first 2,500 y of the domestication process.

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