scholarly journals Ways of Being: Hittite Empire and Its Borderlands in Late Bronze Age Anatolia and Northern Syria

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 3-27
Author(s):  
Muge Durusu-Tanrıöver

In this paper, I take identity as a characteristic of empire in its periphery, denoting the totality of: 1) the imperial strategies an empire pursues in different regions, 2) the index of empire in each region, and 3) local responses to imperialism. My case study is the Hittite Empire, which dominated parts of what is now modern Turkey and northern Syria between the seventeenth and twelfth centuries BCE, and its borderlands. To investigate the identities of the Hittite imperial system, I explore the totality of the second millennium BCE in two regions. First, I explore imperial dynamics and responses in the Ilgın Plain in inner southwestern Turkey through a study of the material collected by the Yalburt Yaylası Archaeological Landscape Research Project since 2010. Second, I explore the identity of the Hittite Empire in the city of Emar in northern Syria by a thorough study of the textual and archaeological material unearthed by the Emar Expedition. In both cases, I argue that the manifestations of the Hittite Empire were mainly conditioned by the pre-Hittite trajectories of these regions. The strategies that the administration chose to use in different borderlands sought to identify what was important locally, with the Hittite Empire integrating itself into networks that were already established as manifestations of power, instead of replacing them with new ones.

Author(s):  
Alexis T. Boutin ◽  
Benjamin W. Porter

This chapter draws on bioarchaeology and mortuary archaeology to investigate three adult men in a brief case study from Early Dilmun, a Bronze Age polity that spanned the western edge of the Arabian/Persian Gulf at the end of the third and the beginning of the second millennium BCE. We draw our evidence from the Peter B. Cornwall Collection at the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology on the University of California, Berkeley campus. Cornwall (1913–1972) excavated this evidence from Bahrain during his expedition to the region in 1940 and 1941. Cornwall later analyzed these mortuary contexts in several works—including his doctoral dissertation and a handful of articles—and then eventually deposited the skeletal remains and objects in the Hearst Museum. Since 2008, we have been analyzing and publishing materials from this collection under the auspices of the Dilmun Bioarchaeology Project. Using this evidence, we demonstrate both the possibilities and limitations of investigating masculinity in one specific ancient Near Eastern society.


2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 225-263
Author(s):  
Michael J. Stahl

Abstract Who was the goddess known anciently as the “Lady of Byblos”? Typically, scholars have tried to answer this question by identifying the goddess’s “true” proper name. By contrast, this article emphasizes the goddess’s primary identification by the city of Byblos as a social-political community in order to analyze the Lady of Byblos’s role in shaping Late Bronze Age Byblos’s political landscape, which included imperial, royal, and collective modes of governance. The goddess’s place in Byblos’s political-religious economy thus serves as a fruitful case study for better conceptualizing through the lens of religion the complex range of potential interactions in the ancient world between centralizing and decentralizing political forces as parts of a single social-political system. In this way, the Lady of Byblos may “stand up” not only as an integral member of Byblos’s social order and religious life, but also as an example of the fundamental role that deities played in shaping ancient political realities.


2014 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Allan J. Hall ◽  
Lyn Wilson ◽  
Maureen E. Young

A hard whitish precipitate was observed on the lower part of the sandstone sidewalls and as pebble coatings in a Bronze Age cist burial near Forteviot, Strathearn, Scotland. The cist was discovered on excavation of a Neolithic henge in August 2009 during the joint Glasgow and Aberdeen Universities [Strathearn and Environs Royal Forteviot (SERF)] archaeological landscape research project and summer field school. Similar cists have not been found in this area. Scrapings of the precipitate proved on examination by powder X-ray diffraction to be hydroxyapatite. The mamillary material proved on examination by scanning electron microscopy to be calcium carbonate, calcite which had grown as groups of mm-size spheroids consisting of bundles of acicular crystals. Both components of the precipitate were also identified using oil immersion microscopy. Much organic material was preserved in the cist but neither (inorganic) bone nor teeth has been located to date (November 2010). The phosphatic mineral-precipitates provided the first confirmation that there had been bone and therefore an inhumation. Computational aqueous geochemistry using Geochemist’s Workbench confirms that the inorganic calcium phosphate component of human bone is soluble in acidic fluid and demonstrates how it can reprecipitate with change in fluid chemistry. Bone dissolution should be anticipated as being an expected early process when a human body produces an acidic fluid rich in organic molecules as it decays in an essentially closed, but wet, anoxic environment. Any precipitates on grave stonework should be identified as such material could represent human remains and could also provide evidence of environmental processes in the archaeological setting of a burial.


2014 ◽  
Vol 57 (1) ◽  
pp. 225-245 ◽  
Author(s):  
JIM TOMLINSON

ABSTRACTEconomic globalization has been a key force shaping British society since the mid nineteenth-century. This article uses a case-study of Dundee and its jute industry to examine the major issues that have arisen as the effects of those global forces have been responded to. Dundee was especially prone to detrimental effects from globalization because of its character as ‘juteopolis’, a one industry town with that industry subject to powerful competitive pressures from Calcutta producers from the 1880s onwards. In the 1930s these pressures became overwhelming, as cheap jute goods from India undercut the Dundee industry's home as well as export markets, and mass unemployment ensued. The local responses to this pressure were sharply divergent. There was both a ‘United Front’ between many elements in the local labour movement, mirroring the much-contested national calls for joint Labour and Communist party efforts, and a quite different ‘front’ bringing together jute employers, jute unions, local MPs, and the city council to call for protection for the industry. It is argued that this divergence can be used to explore key issues in the nature of the forces, national as well as local, operating on industrial cities and their populations.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 30-43
Author(s):  
Saras Ayu Faradita ◽  
Vinky Rahman

The fire incident in karaoke buildings in Indonesia which claimed many lives has occurred several times. According to the National Academy of Science US, the smoke toxins that come out of the fire disaster cause 50-80% of deaths. Refers to the data, it is necessary to check further about the building material response to fire during a fire incident. Masterpiece Signature Karaoke is a karaoke building that classified as large and magnificent in the city of Medan which has various material so that it is necessary to study the interior material as passive fire protection. The purpose is to find out how to assess the reliability of fire passive protection regard to the interior materials and recommendations or descriptions of right interior material planning using the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP). This method is efficacious to solve the problem of reliability in using interior materials as passive fire protection in Masterpiece Signature Family KTV Medan building with the results of an Adequate Level of reliability. Then, design recommendations were given for the use of interior materials in karaoke building to improve the reliability results to be better.The results are useful as information for other researchers and karaoke buildings regarding passive fire protection systems at the Masterpiece Signature Family KTV Medan.


2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard B. Apgar

As destination of choice for many short-term study abroad programs, Berlin offers students of German language, culture and history a number of sites richly layered with significance. The complexities of these sites and the competing narratives that surround them are difficult for students to grasp in a condensed period of time. Using approaches from the spatial humanities, this article offers a case study for enhancing student learning through the creation of digital maps and itineraries in a campus-based course for subsequent use during a three-week program in Berlin. In particular, the concept of deep mapping is discussed as a means of augmenting understanding of the city and its history from a narrative across time to a narrative across the physical space of the city. As itineraries, these course-based projects were replicated on site. In moving from the digital environment to the urban landscape, this article concludes by noting meanings uncovered and narratives formed as we moved through the physical space of the city.


2013 ◽  
Vol 62 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-84
Author(s):  
Anna Trembecka

Abstract Amendment to the Act on special rules of preparation and implementation of investment in public roads resulted in an accelerated mode of acquisition of land for the development of roads. The decision to authorize the execution of road investment issued on its basis has several effects, i.e. determines the location of a road, approves surveying division, approves construction design and also results in acquisition of a real property by virtue of law by the State Treasury or local government unit, among others. The conducted study revealed that over 3 years, in this mode, the city of Krakow has acquired 31 hectares of land intended for the implementation of road investments. Compensation is determined in separate proceedings based on an appraisal study estimating property value, often at a distant time after the loss of land by the owner. One reason for the lengthy compensation proceedings is challenging the proposed amount of compensation, unregulated legal status of the property as well as imprecise legislation. It is important to properly develop geodetic and legal documentation which accompanies the application for issuance of the decision and is also used in compensation proceedings.


2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 153-179
Author(s):  
Angie Chung ◽  
Johng Song ◽  
Carolyn Choi

Based on the experiences of a Koreatown scholar, the executive director of a Koreatown nonprofit, and a longtime resident student, the article advocates for greater attention to the complex and dynamic power structures of ethnic enclaves in community-academic partnerships. We discuss the changing landscapes of Koreatown as the global nexus of the Pacific Rim economy, the city of Los Angeles’s urban redevelopment plans, and growing diversity and inequality. Programs that aim to engage effectively with ethnic communities must reassess how knowledge is produced and conveyed, how we structure partnerships within stratified communities, and how to grow from issue-based partnerships to broader communities of interest.


Author(s):  
Albert Saló ◽  
Laia López

Research Question: This analysis arises from the decision of the current local council of Barcelona regarding the postponement of the sporting mega-event ‘World Roller Games’, due to a lack of a social and sportive implication in this event. This research tries to shed some light on the matter and give evidence to the local council to become the world capital of skating. The research question is to analyse whether non-economic impacts could be relevant enough to organise a mega-event.Research Methods: The methodology is based on the perception and experience of spectators and participants on four main impacts (social, economic, sports city image and sports practice) using a survey from a National Roller Skating Championship in Spain, considering that this profile of respondents have a better knowledge of the current situation of this sport.Results and Findings: There are positive expected future consequences of this mega-event to be held in Barcelona in social and sportive terms. We can also conclude that the local council must still introduce some social and sportive policies in the city in order to improve the chances of success in social, sports practice and sportive brand image development.Implications: It is demonstrated that a mega-event should not be seen purely from a perspective of business generation, especially with minority sports like roller skating. There is a clear opportunity to develop social and sportive practice initiatives that can push social cohesion throughout the city thanks to a mega-event such as this one.


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