1. The Old Babylonian period: ( c. 1880–1595 bc )

Author(s):  
Trevor Bryce

‘The Old Babylonian period’ concentrates on Hammurabi’s dynasty, which belonged to one of the most powerful and widespread ethnic groups in the Near East: the Amorites. Hammurabi’s reign from 1793 marked the peak period in his dynasty’s tenure of power in the Near East, particularly in the middle Euphrates region and southern Mesopotamia, but it was Sumu-la-El (c.1880–1845) who founded the kingdom of Babylonia, building a royal palace and a great fortification wall around the city. Under Hammurabi’s five successors, all of whom had long reigns, the kingdom was to last another 155 years. But within a few years of the great man’s death, decline had set in.

Author(s):  
Lyubov V. Ostapenko ◽  
Roman A. Starchenko ◽  
Irina A. Subbotina

Young people’s participation in optimizing interethnic relations is becoming particularly important in the face of growing interethnic tension, a rise of distrust and suspicion between countries and nations. Based on the analysis of data from the survey carried out among Muscovites aged 16-29, the article is aimed at showing the scale and nature of interethnic interaction between the Russian population of the capital and representatives of other ethnic groups in Moscow, attitude towards such contacts in different spheres of life (including interethnic marriages), young people’s evaluation of the interethnic situation in the city and opinion on the reasons for its instability.


2018 ◽  
Vol 108 (1) ◽  
pp. 10-21
Author(s):  
A. R. George

Abstract This article presents a newly deciphered Old Babylonian fragment of the Epic of Gilgameš. The passages of text preserved on it tell of Enkidu’s encounter with the prostitute and of his arrival in the city of Uruk, and clarify the relationship between other sources for the same episode. The perceived difference between the Old and Standard Babylonian poems’ treatment of Enkidu’s seduction disappears. The extant versions can be reconciled in a single narrative, common to all versions, that holds two different weeks of sexual intercourse. The different narrative strategies deployed in describing them are one of the ways in which the poem explores Enkidu’s psychological development as he changes from wild man to socialized man.


This chapter provides an overview of Book V of Augustine's The City of God. It analyzes how Rome has extended her imperial sway throughout Europe and the Near East in spite of the moral bankruptcy of the Roman state. It also reviews the solution offered by some philosophers about the expansion and consolidation of empire as the outcome of chance or fate. The chapter discusses how providence has endowed Roman leaders with traditional virtues that the aims of glory and honour for the individual, and dominion for the state that are at odds with Christianity's application of the virtues. It reviews the key to Augustine's philosophy of history, in which the Roman empire has spread and is maintained in existence by divine providence.


Author(s):  
Trevor Bryce

What did the city of Babylon look like? There are very few material remains of the royal city from this period, but more can be discovered about Old Babylonian cities from other urban sites in the kingdom, notably Ur and Uruk in its southern part. ‘Old Babylonian cities’ explains that each city had a major temple, or temple precinct, dedicated to its patron or tutelary deity, but the most striking monument in a number of Babylonian cities was a ziggurat: a sacred, stepped building, of between three and seven levels, ascending pyramid-like towards the heavens. The ziggurat of Babylon became notorious in biblical tradition as the ‘tower of Babel’.


2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 28-51

Abstract In the years 2015 through 2017, archaeological excavations were conducted to the Gujun Site in Xingtang County, which recovered burials, chariot-and-horse pits and sacrificial pits, house foundations, water wells, ash pits, kilns, ash ditches and other features, from which artifacts made of gold, bronze, jade, stone, bone, horn and antler, shell and cowry, pottery, etc. were unearthed. The date of this site was from the late Spring-and-Autumn Period to the mid and late Warring-States Period, in which the city site, burials and residential areas were existing together; their dates, locations and cultural connotations are all closely related to the Xianyu tribe and Zhongshan State, especially the chariot-and-horse and animal victim pits with unique form were the first archaeologically discovered remains of this type. The discovery of the Gujun Site reflected the convergence and evolutions of the cultures of the ethnic groups in the Northern Frontier Zone and the Huaxia System, and provided important materials for the researches on the processes of the Sinicization of the northern ethnic groups such as Rong and Di and the configuration of the Chinese nation as a pluralistic integration.


2018 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 185-199
Author(s):  
Philip J. Boyes

Ugarit was a highly cosmopolitan, multilingual and multiscript city at the intersection of several major Late Bronze Age political and cultural spheres of influence. In the thirteenth centurybc, the city adopted a new alphabetic cuneiform writing system in the local language for certain uses alongside the Akkadian language, script and scribal practices that were standard throughout the Near East. Previous research has seen this as ‘vernacularization’, in response to the city's encounter with Mesopotamian culture. Recent improvements in our understanding of the date of Ugarit's adoption of alphabetic cuneiform render this unlikely, and this paper instead argues that we should see this vernacularization as part of Ugarit's negotiation of, and resistance to, their encounter with Hittite imperialism. Furthermore, it stands as a specific, Ugaritian, manifestation of similar trends apparent across a number of East Mediterranean societies in response to the economic and political globalism of Late Bronze Age élite culture. As such, these changes in Ugaritian scribal practice have implications for our wider understanding of the end of the Late Bronze Age.


2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 41-67
Author(s):  
Annunziata Rositani

Abstract This article presents some reflections on slavery in the Ancient Near East during the Old Babylonian period. Particular attention is paid to an analysis of the sources for prisoners of war originating from Uruk in which the bīt asīrī, “the house of prisoners of war” is mentioned. These texts from the bīt asīrī date to the short reign of Rīm-Anum, who held power in Uruk for about eighteen months, between 1742 and 1740 BC. The use of war prisoners as labor force and slaves is examined in detail. It is suggested that the bīt asīrī was an institutional entity, managed by the state, and moreover that it was connected with the production of flour. This investigation also makes comparisons with other references to prisons in the Ancient Near East and especially in the Bible. Lastly, the ways in which war captives could be freed are discussed.


2008 ◽  
Vol 79 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 239-271 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ad de Bruijne ◽  
Aart Schalkwijk

Analyses ethnic residential patterns, in terms of spatial segregation, in Paramaribo, as these developed historically, and their correlation to the changing socioeconomic position of the various ethnic groups. Authors first point out how Paramaribo is at present one of the most multiethnic and multicultural cities of the Caribbean, and discuss the continuing importance of ethnic identity and boundaries. They further describe the history of Paramaribo's development since the period of slavery and after abolition, when many Creoles migrated to the city. Hindustani started migrating in higher numbers to Paramaribo since the early 20th c., mainly to the urban periphery, and since the 1960s also more Javanese. More recently (since the 1980s) migrants to Paramaribo include Maroons, Amerindians, Chinese, and Brazilians. Authors examine in how far the residential patterns were determined by socioeconomic factors, and/or by ethnicity. They conclude that socioeconomic factors have overall become more influential in residential patterns than ethnicity. They point out that residential ethnic mixing has increased, as almost half of Paramaribo's neighbourhoods are mixed, with no dominant ethnic group, although some ethnic concentration continues, as a quarter of the neighbourhoods can be called Creole, one-fifth of them Hindustani, and Creoles (and Maroons) reside for a higher percentage in the city centre, and Hindustani and Javanese more in the urban periphery.


2015 ◽  
Vol 59 (3) ◽  
pp. 673-690
Author(s):  
Martina Ožbot

This article addresses the question of weak translation activity in bilingual settings. It presents an analysis of the situation in the city of Trieste and its surroundings, where a substantial Slovene minority has lived for centuries alongside the Romance-speaking (mainly Italian) population as well as various other smaller ethnic groups. The Italian and the Slovene communities have had different histories and at various points conflicts between them have arisen, sparked by national issues and complicated further by political circumstances. To a large extent, the two ethnic groups have lived parallel lives, often showing only minimal interest in each other’s culture. This has had an impact on literary translation, the output of which has been rather modest until recently, and often even more so on the reception of translated works – in spite of the city’s rich literature in both Italian and Slovene. This article seeks to identify and explore the nature of this translational relationship, taking into account the underlying social, political, cultural, literary, and linguistic factors. It argues that the situation began to change in the early 1990s when the asymmetries between the two ethnic groups started to diminish and the Slovene culture and language gained greater recognition, which in turn opened new prospects for translation.


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