Article

Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times

Authors:
To read the full-text of this research, you can request a copy directly from the authors.

No full-text available

Request Full-text Paper PDF

To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the authors.

... The impact of Egypt on the southern Levant, however, is not always beneficial. Egypt demands tributes, takes labour forces, imposes taxes, and confiscates land (Knapp, 1987;Redford, 1992). On the other hand, the new elite established by Egypt, which includes civilians and military functionaries, means some people could benefit from a new social status with came with economic benefits (Panitz-Cohen, 2014). ...
Thesis
Full-text available
The Bronze (3,600 BCE – 1,200 BCE) and Iron (1,200 – 586 BCE) Ages in the southern Levant witnessed major social, political, and cultural changes. These include the first development of complex urban-based settlements, and the genesis of new cultural identities. Such changes are deeply entangled with, and often driven by, developments in agriculture. Although many pub- lished botanical and faunal reports are available for sites dating to this period, there is a shortage of syntheses searching for general trends in subsistence developments, and to what extent such trends are related to cultural and/or environmental factors. Moreover, botanical and faunal re- mains are usually analysed independently from each other, limiting our understanding of agri- cultural practices and subsistence in past societies. This separation of animal husbandry and crop cultivation in archaeological research is an artefact of methodological differences between disciplines, which needs to be overcome to gain a more holistic understanding of how economic developments drove, and were driven by, major socio-political and environmental change. I investigate the development of subsistence practices in the southern Levant from the Bronze through the Iron Age in three steps. First, I analyse the faunal material from two sites, Tell Lachish and Tell el-Burak, using traditional zooarchaeological methods to understand diet and animal husbandry strategies on a regional scale. Second, I establish a reference database con- sisting of the abundance data of published faunal reports. Third, I use correspondence analysis to investigate trends in animal-based subsistence strategies, and to integrate faunal and botani- cal data for obtaining a holistic view of subsistence and agriculture. My results show changes in diet through time in the southern Levant, caused by cultural and environmental factors. There is a clear difference between the diet of people inhabiting sites dating to the Early and Middle Bronze age, and those dating to the Late Bronze and Iron Age. The former are associated with high numbers of pigs, wild faunal taxa, and emmer wheat. The latter are characterised by the appearance of zebu, camelids, and an increasing focus on free- threshing wheats. I reveal differences between the diet of people at sites of high and lower mean annual precipitation zones, and between those of sites located at lower and higher elevations. My dissertation shows the value of site-specific analysis to reconstruct local subsistence pat- terns, the merit of using metadata to reconstruct trends in diet through time and space, and the benefits and potential of an integrative analysis to obtain a holistic understanding of subsistence developments of past societies.
... 1350 BCE) and Psalm 104. (Walton, 1989;Curried, 1997;Redford, 1992) Sharing the same religious background, many other scholars tried to establish more connections with AE funerary texts, like the Book of the Dead, a text consisting of several magic spells intended to assist the dead person through the underworld journey to reach the afterlife paradise safely. The Biblical scholar Peter Lewis established a comparison of the accounts in Samuel 3 and the Sixth Chapter of the Egyptian Book of the Dead. ...
Article
Full-text available
The paper offers literature review of the three suggested approaches that answer the question of ancient Egyptian meter. These theories reflect the constant contradictions between the dominant European Imperial languages of the 19 century (German - French - English). The paper also investigates the religious motivations that prompt Euro-American scholars to compare ancient Egyptian with Biblical texts. The rediscovered thematic affinities formed the main objective of these studies in order to restore historical hypothesizes that approve the legitimacy of several Biblical thoughts. Moving beyond the theoretical parameters of Eurocentric modernity, this paper argues that medieval Arabic literary criticism can be used as a foundation for understanding the literary nature of ancient Egyptian literary devices in order to recognize the various internal forces of the ancient Egyptian literary reproductions. Premodern Arabic poetics, represented in the theory of balāghah (literally ‘eloquence’ and roughly ‘poetics’), can offer the ideal path to take advantage of the linguistic affinities between the two languages in the realm of literary studies. This work has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program under ERC-2017-STG Grant Agreement No 759346 and is part of the “Global Literary Theory” project at the University of Birmingham.
... Egyptian historical records mention the Israelites in the Great Karnak Inscription of Merneptah (Kitchen 1982a) and the Philistines (the "Sea Peoples" group Peleset) in the confederation of peoples (Kitchen 1983) at Ramesses III's mortuary temple, Medinet Habu (Redford 1992). The periods of Merneptah and Ramesses III's are dated to the end of the 13 th and the beginning of the 12 th century BC respectively (Shaw 2000;). ...
... This way for travelers without camels (Brondz, 2018a) as the luggage carriers was impossible to overcome. Terah had chosen the way which later has been used by Hyksos (Redford, 1992), (Holy Bible, King James Version, 2010) and (The Torah, 2010). ...
Article
Full-text available
Abstract In previous paper Circumcision: History, Scope, and Aim: Part I (Brondz & Aslanova, 2019), was clearly presented by archeological and mythologic-historical evidences that custom of circumcision existed in Ancient Egypt for thousand years or more before Abraham’s time. It also was evidence from Semitic mythology that God Il or El (abbreviation for (ʼĒl or ʼIl, Hebrew: אל; Syriac: ܐܠ ; Arabic: إل or إﻟﮫ; Romanized: ilu) is a Northwest Semitic word with meaning is “God”, “Lord” or “Deity”. God Il have appeared in Northwest Semitic tradition from Ugarit (maybe even earlier from the one of Phoenician traditions). The word ʼila, is the derivative form the old Akkadian and has roots in the Proto-Semitic archaic biliteral ʼ‑l, meaning “God”. The Hebrew form אל is a word meaning God, it could be used for any God, including Hadad, Moloch, or Yahweh. The name Ēl, used in the singular, it means the supreme God, and by this it is referred to Yahweh. Yahweh for Jews is the supreme God, because other gods are supposed to be either nonexistent or insignificant, even they are existing. Yahweh have not denied existence of other Gods or Goddesses. Semitic Gods or Goddesses had not required from their followers to be circumcised before it has happened with Abraham. Abraham was circumcised, if he was at all was circumcised, by the order of God Il or El, or other Semitic Gods or Goddesses. In the present paper will also be explained the real meaning Goi (גוי), presented analysis will support the theory why the choice of Abraham as Patriarch by Jews was done, why in the Old Testament was described his circumcision and the arguments in opposition to the description of Abraham’s circumcision by order given by God Il or El, or other Semitic Gods or Goddesses at the time. The name used in the paper Abram and Abraham is referred to the same man as it is in the Torah, or in the Bible, or in the Koran.
... A topographical list, during the reign of Amenhotep III (1391-1353 B.C.) and retrieved from Amon in Nubia, includes the inscription t3 ssw yhw3 meaning "Yahweh of the Land of the Shasu", an area east of the Egyptian Delta. 53,55,[82][83][84] In addition, Column XA.2 features the inscription iswr or Asher, possibly a reference to activities of the Israelite tribe, Asher, noted in Joshua 19:24-31. 53 As the tribe of Asher was only prominent enough to be mentioned in an Egyptian topographical list after the Exodus, this inscription was most likely written after the event. ...
Book
Full-text available
Archaeologist Joel Klenck notes the Exodus from Egypt has been as source of controversy for millennia as different groups of scholars have debated both the historicity and the date of the event. Due to a lack of Egyptian inscriptions that mention the Exodus, during the 15th Century B.C., most scholars have abandoned the Biblical timeline, shifted the event to another period, attempted to radically change Egyptian chronologies, or declared the event a myth or fabrication. This manuscript compares the timelines between the Biblical narrative and Conventional Egyptian chronologies and reviews data from archaeological, bio-anthropological, philological, and historical sources in Egypt and Canaan. The analysis suggests that the Exodus occurred as the Biblical narrative suggests, in the 15th Century B.C., specifically during the reign of Thutmose II.
... The Levant however is known for disparate processes occurring unevenly in space and time. Its diverse regions and environmental conditions fostered different human adaptation strategies and gave rise to numerous mechanisms of interaction that have inevitably instigated unique social, economic and political organizations (Savage and Falconer, 2009;Chesson and Philip, 2003;Greenberg, 2002;Horden and Purcell, 2000;Falconer, 1994;Redford, 1992). The heterogeneity of the Levant makes it difficult to put forth a complete account of the ancient history of the area, nor can it be fully embraced in this thesis. ...
Thesis
Full-text available
This dissertation evaluates the natural affordances of Bronze Age and Iron Age harbours located in central and southern Phoenicia, on the coast of modern-day Lebanon. It looks at two factors that characterise a harbour location: its maritime accessibility and protection, in light of its physical topography. The evaluation is carried out through an enhanced framework of analysis that includes modelling of winds along the Levantine basin, and of wave heights for each harbour site. A review of the maritime developments and activities during the Bronze and Iron Age, and of the maritime environment of the eastern Mediterranean, suggests that localised and enhanced frameworks of studies are substantial in order to bypass general observations and trends. Through the modelling of winds, regional differences in mean wind speed and direction are distinguished. These shed insight on the potential of sailing along the Levantine basin, particularly on the Lebanese coast. Moreover, in accordance with the topography of harbour sites, the wind models highlight their maritime accessibility: direction of sailing from and to each site, and their protection from predominant winds. Congruently, the modelling of wave heights for each harbour site reveals the level of protection they afford for ships and boats. The framework of analysis constitutes an approach through which an evaluation of the study area at large, and a comparison on a local scale between harbour sites was carried out. Based on the results of analysis, their level of accessibility and protection, a suggestive hierarchy of harbours was devised. It reveals differences between the sites, and their potential scale of usage whether local or international. It also allows to discern those cases where human agency and the needs of the ancient inhabitants are more significant than what the environment affords. Finally, above all, this dissertation puts forth a detailed approach that testifies to the local character of the Mediterranean, and proves the necessity of integrating enhanced and localised analysis within a holistic study of ancient harbours. It also presents a new model by which to examine ancient harbours in general. IV ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
... Most of the cultural findings are stone tools that belong to Pre-historic culture, which are dating back to the Paleolithic and Mesolithic ages of the Egypt. After the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic phases, the Neolithic Era starts from 9000 B.C [32]. Later on, in the land of Lower Egypt, from around 5000-4200 B.C, Merimde culture flourished, which was resembled 'Faiyum A' culture. ...
Article
Full-text available
The history of ancient Harappan and Egyptian civilizations was and still an area of interest attracting researchers and scholars all over the world, to investigate the constituents and the hidden secrets of such great civilizations. Undoubtedly, archaeology is standing as the main science concerned with studying the cultural products of ancient societies, especially the material culture represented by all physical remains whether organic or inorganic ones. However, there are certain drawbacks associated with the extensive use of archaeological methods only. Consequently, this project seeks to use additional tools, methods, and approaches that would open new dimensions of investigation and analysis. This could be attained by adopting the anthropological perspective as the main entrance for revisiting the ancient Harappan and Egyptian civilizations differently. This does not mean that anthropology is an alternative to archaeology, but both are complementary to each other. Owing to various approaches used under the umbrella of anthropology like; ethno-archaeology, bio-archaeology, bio-culture, ethnography approaches etc. Anthropological perspectives have the ability to study cultural, social and biological dimensions of different societies like Harappan and Egyptian, whether recent or ancient. Consequently, the present study objective is to utilize the anthropological methods to help filling these gaps, which are persisted in the knowledge of ancient Harappan and Egyptian civilizations. Especially those issues related to; kingship, administration, kinship, political and socio-cultural life, environment, religion, dress, gender, human body in funerary and medical treatments, funerary populations, grave gods, fertility, birth, child-care, health, hygiene, studies on human skeletons, and everyday life. That is to mean that all human- mediated processes and events would be included within the scope of this project regarding anthropology.
... Unfortunately, it has not been possible to identify accurately the specifi c sites mentioned in the Inscription, despite the fact that many researchers have proposed the identifi cation of Iasy with Alasiya, i.e. Cyprus (Helck 1989;Redford 1992;Quack 1996; see discussion in Marcus 2007, 144). Other references are extremely general as they refer to "Lebanon" or "Asia". ...
Article
The representation of travel beyond the established borders of Egypt has been conceived as one of many markers of literary fictionality. One of the few texts that showcase this is the Middle Kingdom Tale of Sinuhe. Many have examined the Tale’s literary qualities through its portrayal of characters and activities associated with border traversal. But how novel was its representation of travel to the northeast? This paper focuses on travel and travellers as portrayed mainly in Old to Middle Kingdom textual material relating to Egyptian-Near Eastern relations. Examining similarities and differences across time, it questions whether Old Kingdom transregional agents and activities, as well as their representations, influenced the emergence of tropes on transborder movement. It also discusses how periods of increased long-distance connectivity may have shifted concepts of travel, likely contributing to an emphasis on the pertinence of a safe return to Egypt. Available for Download: https://egyptianexpedition.org/articles/theres-no-place-like-home/
Chapter
Full-text available
The article aims at questioning the Egyptological communal opinion that “in ancient Egypt, there was no artist in the proper sense of the word”, as stated in the Lexikon der Ägyptologie (III, 833). It starts with a brief historiography of this assumption before addressing the issue of the definition of art and artist, in general, and more specifically from an ancient Egyptian point of view. After a broad statistical overview of the numerous Egyptological data which allow us to trace members of the trades recognized as artistic by ancient Egyptians themselves, it analyses how one may study their social profile and perception in Antiquity, before concluding on the necessity to re-integrate the concept of artist in the discourse of Egyptology
Book
Full-text available
Michael E. Habicht: Das Imperiale Ägypten. Die Geschichte des Neuen Reiches und der dritten Zwischenzeit Eine der umfangreichsten historischen Darstellungen des Neuen Reiches und der daran anschließenden ersten Hälfte der 3. Zwischenzeit. Beginnend mit der Vertreibung der Fremdherrscher entsteht um 1550 v. Chr. das Neue Reich. Das Buch behandelt die grandiosen Bauprojekte und Feldzüge, welche aus Ägypten eine Weltmacht der damaligen Zeit machten. Ausführlich wird von der Puntexpedition der Königin Hatschepsut und den Feldzügen des Thutmosis III. berichtet. Die seit 2014 erneut vermutete Koregentschaft von Amenhotep III. und Echnaton werfen ein neues Licht auf die Amarnazeit und den ersten Monotheismus der Menschheitsgeschichte. Eine neue Theorie vermutet, daß es unentdeckte Kammern im Grab von Tutanchamun geben könnte. Sind weitere märchenhafte Schätze zu entdecken? Die Schlacht von Kadesch und die Herrschaft von Ramses II. prägten die Ramessidenzeit (19. Dynastie). Die komplexe Dreieckbeziehung zwischen König Siptah, Kanzler Baj und Königin Tausret wird detailliert besprochen, ebenso wie der langsame Niedergang der Königsmacht in der 20. Dynastie, dessen letzter großer Herrscher Ramses III. die Invasion der Seevölker abwehren konnte. Wann ist der Exodus der Hebräer zu datieren? Auch für diese spannende Frage liefert das Buch einen neuen Denkansatz. Quellentextauszüge aus der Schlacht von Megiddo, dem Sonnenhymnus des Echnaton, dem Rechtsdekret des Haremhab, der Schlacht von Kadesch, der Haremsverschwörung gegen Ramses III., den Grabräuberprozessen, dem ersten rapportierten Streik der Menschheit in Deir el-Medina, der Geschichte von Wenamun und andere wichtige Texte machen das Buch zu einem wichtigen Nachschlagewerk. 4. Edition, https://www.amazon.de/-/en/Michael-Habicht/dp/375491300X/
Article
Full-text available
This study aims to shed light on the Political- Commercial Relations between Egypt and Southern Levant (Jordan and Palestine), during the period extending from the Stone Ages to the end of the Second Intermediate Period of Egypt, which is contemporaneous from the Stone Ages to the end of the Middle Bronze Age in the Levant (10.000 – 1.550 B.C). The majority of studies claim that the relationship between Egypt and Southern Levant existed during the direct Egyptian control over the southern Levant during the New Kingdom Period (Late Bronze Age). This study, however, reasserts that the interest of the Ancient Egyptians in the southern Levant had begun early as the stone ages, namely because of the importance of this region to Egypt strategically and economically. Keywords: Egypt, Southern Levant, Jordan, Palestine, Political- Commercial Relations, Stone Ages, Bronze Ages. تهدفُ هذه الدراسة إلى تسليط الضوء على العلاقات السياسية والتجارية المصرية مع جنوبي بلاد الشام (الأردن وفلسطين)، خلال الحقبة الممتدة من العصور الحجرية إلى نهاية عصر الانتقال الثاني، والتي يعاصرها في بلاد الشام الحقبة الممتدة من العصور الحجرية إلى نهاية العصر البرونزي المتوسط (10.000 -1.550 ق.م). فعلى الرغم من أن غالبية الدراسات تميل إلى اعتبار أن هذه العلاقات لم تظهر إلا خلال مرحلة السيطرة المصرية المباشرة على جنوبي بلاد الشام في عهد الدولة الحديثة (العصر البرونزي المتأخر)، إلا أن هذه الدراسة تؤكد على أن اهتمام المصريين القدماء بجنوبي بلاد الشام بدء مبكراً منذ العصور الحجرية؛ لما لهذه المنطقة من أهمية لمصر سواء من الناحية الأمنية والإستراتيجية، أو من الناحية الاقتصادية (التجارية).
Thesis
Full-text available
Initial formative spinning without mechanical aids led to the gradual adoption in the Neolithic period of spindles with crude whorls initially of stone and later of fired clay resulting in qualitative and quantitative improvement in yarn production. The evolution of the hand spinning process culminated in the use of lightweight sherd whorls and the dropped spinning technique. Sporadic evidence for its use appears at Neolithic sites with universal acceptance in the Chalcolithic period. Experimentation in Western Asia during the Neolithic period with flaxen yarn gave rise to labour intensive utilitarian fabrics in twined and soumak technniques and decorative looped and knotted structures primarily restricted to loci of ideology. Darning the only technique suitable for mechanization gave rise to various tensioning devices initially with shed rod only and ultimately with heddle technology. In the Southern Levant during the course of the 5 th millennium, interaction between increasing skill in spinning and the development of heddle technology, access to adequate raw materials and the appropriate economic environment led at Teleilāt Ghassūl, Gilat and Bir es-Safadi to the adoption of textile economy. Material evidence indicates that at most sites it was a gradual process and only at these three sites a major change. The presence of innovatory, fibre wetting bowls at Neve Ur and Abu Hamid in the Jordan Valley, an area of flax cultivation and the magnitude of the whorl repertoire at Teleilāt Ghassūl, a whorl repertoire that exceeds all other in the Southern Levant suggests an information dissemination route of fibre technology along this axis. The large whorl repertoire at Bir es-Safadi and Gilat both sites beyond the range of rain-fed flax suggests low intensity exchange with the growers possibly via the intermediaries of the Judean Desert. The large textile repertoire and number of whorl recovered from the Judean Desert cave sites indicates familiarity with both the product and production methods. It is possible that these cave dwellers, optimizing their negotiating base for staples were the impetus for the development of the textile industry beyond the Jordan Valley. In the Beersheba valley sites and at Gilat without access to local raw material the industry must have been a minor aspect of the economy. Despite the large number of whorls there is no evidence for concentrations, which would suggest textile activity beyond the household level. Spinning whorls, the most prolific the most durable and often the only archaeological evidence of fibre activity has been delegated in most archaeological reports to the miscellaneous category of 'varia.' This study has shown that this untapped source of information can be judiciously integrated to advantage into archaeological II synthesis as a robust marker for socio-technological change. Conservatism, which characterizes the textile industry, particularly spinning the bottommost rung of the industry, permits the use of ethnographic observations and analogies for understanding the mechanical performance of traditional artifacts and the formative stages of the industry. Comparative, photographic documentation of paramount importance from the late 19 th Century and early 20 th Century which brings into focus archaeological findings is still accessible, albeit with difficulty, but academic standards do not permit its inclusion in this study. III
Article
Full-text available
This article proposes to read the Babylonian Chronicle as historical literature. It argues that the text was composed in response to Babylonia’s integration in the Persian Empire. The text presents itself as a self-conscious departure from the chronographic tradition by tracing the roots of Babylon’s fate to the mid-eighth century, when a triangle of power is said to have emerged between Assyria, Babylonia and Elam—a configuration that reduced the Babylonian monarch to inaction and incompetence from the very start.
Chapter
Full-text available
The Midianite-Kenite hypothesis, the idea that the pre-Israelite roots of Yahwism can be traced back to the areas south and southeast of Palestine, has a long pedigree in biblical scholarship. Analyses supporting this view generally agree in three main points. First, they assume that the influence of the southern cultic practices on Yahwism occurred during a restricted period of time, traditionally dated to the Early Iron Age. Second, theysee the origins of Yahwism through the lenses of diffusionist perspectives, characterizing this process as a movement or migration of one or a few determined groups to Canaan. And third, adequate analyses of the archaeological evidence of the arid areas to the south of Palestine are few. In this article I will turn the interpretation of the epigraphic and archaeological evidence upside down. Instead of looking to the (mostly biblical) evidenceon the origins of the cult of Yahweh and assuming its genesis lies in movements of peoplefrom the southern regions to Canaan in the Early Iron Age, I will focus attention on the historyof the cultic practices in the Negev, southern Transjordan, and northern Hejaz during the entire Iron Age, and how this information is related to the religious practices known in Judah and Israel during the biblical period, shedding new light on the prehistory of the cult of Yahweh. I will evaluate the evidence not as a single, exceptional event, but as a long-term process within the several-millennia history of cultic practices and beliefs of the local peoples.
Chapter
Full-text available
This article studies the exchange networks in northern Negev during the Early Iron Age (12th-early 10th centuries BC), after the collapse of the Egyptian hegemony over Palestine. The site of Tel Masos performed an important role both as main intermediary in the circulation of goods between the Negev and the Mediterranean, and as workshop place for the copper extracted in the Arabah mines. It is suggested that the Early Iron exchange networks were highly influenced by the pastoralist, tribal nature of the local society. The political vacuum left by the Egyptians was filled by several polities that competed for the local supremacy.
Article
Full-text available
Though the Negev desert is the nearest eastern land area to Egypt, this proximity very often has not benefited the understanding of the chronology of the region. The main problem for the study of the Negev in the Iron Age is that local written sources are almost non-existent for this period. In addition, the recurrent political and economic contraction experienced by Assyria and Babylonia after the 12th century BC crisis implies that Mesopotamian sources concerning the Early Iron Southern Levant are extremely scarce. For the period since the end of the Egyptian 20th Dynasty until the first archaeological synchronisms with the Assyrian Empire (late-8th century BC), archaeologists working in the Negev have relied mainly on relative chronologies, based especially on sequences of strata, objects and ceramic types. In this paper we will deal only with the Egyptian evidence of the 12th-10th centuries BC, inasmuch as Assyrian synchronisms can be used since the middle of the 9th century BC and Assyrian or Assyrian-like archaeological artifacts since the late 8th century BC.
Article
Full-text available
During the Early Iron Age (ca. 1200-1000 BC), New Kingdom Egypt maintained an active presence in the Negev area. Egyptian interest in the region was focused on two main factors: firstly, Negev’s pivotal geographic position between Egypt and the lands farther north of Palestine, Syria, and beyond; secondly, the exploitation of the copper mines of the southern Arabah valley, particularly Timna. Egyptian texts of that time speak about the shasu peoples, seminomadic pastoral groups living in the Negev and southern Jordan, with whom the Egyptians usually adopted a militaristic approach, although at times a more peaceful relationship can be discerned. The break-up of the Egyptian hegemony in the mid-12th century BC triggered the development of a local polity based on the site of Tel Masos, located in the Beersheba valley.
Article
Full-text available
Among the geographical narratives of the book of Numbers stand two toponym descriptions that include place-names in the Sinai Peninsula and the Negev Desert: Num 33:5-49, an account of the itinerary of the Exodus with new toponym material; and Num 34:1-12, a description of the borders of the land of Canaan as told by Yahweh. Both texts have been largely regarded as having very different historica value. While Num 34:1-12 is traditionally viewed as a good source of information for the historical geography of Palestine, Num 33:5-49 is often seen as a toponym description composed for purely theological or ritual reasons, with little primary historical information. This short article will attempt a hermeneutical exercise by studying two southern toponyms from both lists and test out their historical reliability in the light of a 7th century BCE Akkadian source, Rassam Cylinder (Prism A), the most important of Neo-Assyrian king Assurbanipal's descriptions of his wars against the Arabs in the Syro-Arabian Desert. The analysis of this inscription suggests, for the first time, plausible parallels in two Aramized/Arabianized southern Transjordanian place-names for two toponyms in Numbers (Haradah in 33:24, and Hazar Addar in 34:4), strongly suggesting that the origin of these biblical site-names fits well into a specific historical-geographical setting: the arid margins of the southern Levant during the time of the Neo-Assyrian hegemony over the area. The historicity of both geographical descriptions in Numbers, then, should be re-considered in the light of this new interpretation.
Book
Full-text available
El objetivo de la presente obra es estudiar la evolución de la estructura sociopolítica y económica del Negev, el triángulo desértico ubicado en el sur del actual estado de Israel, y muy especialmente los vínculos de intercambio de esta zona con áreas vecinas. El período comprendido por este estudio abarca la fase final de la Edad del Bronce Tardío, y la Edad del Hierro I-II, período que abarca aproximadamente algo más de 700 años, entre c. 1300 a.C. y 586 a.C. Este trabajo se abocará al estudio de la evolución sociopolítica y económica de las sociedades locales del Negev en vista de sus relaciones con las sociedades urbanas vecinas. Se intentará responder varias cuestiones: ¿Qué tipo de relación establecieron las sociedades del Negev, predominantemente pastorales, con sus pares urbanos vecinos? ¿Cómo influyeron dichos vínculos en el desarrollo de la estructura socioeconómica local?
Book
Full-text available
This study attempts to provide an eco-theological exploration of Genesis 1:1-2:4a in view of the question to what extent this texts bears the footprints of anthropocentrism, on one hand, and to what extent this texts offers ecological wisdom for modern readers, on the other hand.
Article
Ostrakon DeB/F.608 was found in the area of the Temple of Tuthmosis III at Deir el-Bahari. There are good reasons, however, to link it to the building of the Temple of Queen Hatshepsut and more precisely to the transport of stone blocks by a crew of eight men. Five of them can be identified as foreigners, presumably Asiatic slaves brought to Egypt as a result of military campaign(s) in the early Eighteenth Dynasty.
Article
Full-text available
This paper has been accepted and presented as a poster, in the: International Symposium: "History, Technology and Conservation of Ancient Metals, Glasses and Enamels", N.C.S.R. Demokritos, in the American School of Archaeology, November 16-19, 2011, Athens, Greece; the proceedings are (still) to be published. During the late 15th ce. BC - early 14th ce. BC, Hittite and Egyptian material evidence refer to well known names from ancient sources: T/Danaja/Danaoi, Aḥḥiyawa etc. In this paper, the cutting-edge know-how of high level technology for production of bronze, silver and iron and the construction of high originality and intuition in engineering are examined in relation to archaeological finds. Moreover, this paper attempts to relate the aforementioned data to the possible dating of the Trojan War.
Article
Full-text available
Collapse is a term that has attracted much attention in social science literature in recent years, but there remain substantial areas of disagreement about how it should be understood in historical contexts. More specifically, the use of the term collapse often merely serves to dramatize long-past events, to push human actors into the background, and to mystify the past intellectually. At the same time, since human societies are complex systems, the alternative involves grasping the challenges that a holistic analysis presents, taking account of the many different levels and paces at which societies function, and developing appropriate methods that help to integrate science and history. Often neglected elements in considerations of collapse are the perceptions and beliefs of a historical society and how a given society deals with change; an important facet of this, almost entirely ignored in the discussion, is the understanding of time held by the individuals and social groups affected by change; and from this perspective ‘collapse’ depends very much on perception, including the perceptions of the modern commentator. With this in mind, this article challenges simplistic notions of ‘collapse’ in an effort to encourage a more nuanced understanding of the impact and process of both social and environmental change on past human societies.
Article
Full-text available
This contribution argues that forced migration and forced labour have been comparatively understudied topics in Egyptology. In this context, it introduces recent research on Egyptian Late Bronze Age deportation policies and paints a comprehensive picture of their political economy, including the geographic scope and societal and individual impacts on both the Egyptian and affected societies. Using this case study, the author highlights how Egyptologists can connect with scholars from other disciplines, which like International Relations and Migration Studies are more concerned with modern history and contemporary developments, to move the field forward and contribute to present-day issues. http://ppct.caicyt.gov.ar/index.php/claroscuro/issue/view/1013
Chapter
This Companion offers a concise and engaging introduction to the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament. Providing an up-to-date 'snapshot' of scholarship, it includes essays, specially commissioned for this volume, by twenty-three leading scholars. The volume examines a range of topics, including the historical and religious contexts for the contents of the biblical canon, and critical approaches and methods, as well as newer topics such as the Hebrew Bible in Islam, Western art and literature, and contemporary politics. This Companion is an excellent resource for students at university and graduate level, as well as for laypeople and scholars in other fields who would like to gain an understanding of the current state of the academic discussion. The book does not presume prior knowledge, nor does it engage in highly technical discussions, but it does go into greater detail than a typical introductory textbook.
Article
Full-text available
Current views of Cyprus during the Middle Bronze Age (or Middle Cypriot period) depict an island largely isolated from the wider eastern Mediterranean world and comprised largely if not exclusively of “egalitarian,” agropastoral communities. In this respect, its economy stands at odds with those of polities in other, nearby regions such as the Levant, or Crete in the Aegean. The publication of new excavations and new readings of legacy data necessitate modification of earlier views about Cyprus’s political economy during the Middle Bronze Age, prompting this review. We discuss at some length the island’s settlement and mortuary records, materials related to internal production, external exchange and connectivities, and the earliest of the much discussed but still enigmatic fortifications. We suggest that Middle Bronze Age communities are likely to have been significantly more complex, mobile, and interconnected than once envisaged and that the changes that mark the closing years of this period and the transition to the internationalism of Late Bronze Age Cyprus represent the culmination of an evolving series of internal developments and external interactions.
Book
Full-text available
Michael E. Habicht Das Imperiale Ägypten Die Geschichte des Neuen Reiches und der dritten Zwischenzeit [dritte Taschenbuchausgabe] Inhalt Eine der umfangreichsten historischen Darstellungen des Neuen Reiches und der daran anschließenden ersten Hälfte der 3. Zwischenzeit. Beginnend mit der Vertreibung der Fremdherrscher entsteht um 1550 v. Chr. das Neue Reich. Das Buch behandelt die grandiosen Bauprojekte und Feldzüge, welche aus Ägypten eine Weltmacht der damaligen Zeit machten. Ausführlich wird von der Puntexpedition der Königin Hatschepsut und den Feldzügen des Thutmosis III. berichtet. Die seit 2014 erneut vermutete Koregentschaft von Amenhotep III. und Echnaton werfen ein neues Licht auf die Amarnazeit und den ersten Monotheismus der Menschheitsgeschichte. Eine neue Theorie vermutet, daß es unentdeckte Kammern im Grab von Tutanchamun geben könnte. Sind weitere märchenhafte Schätze zu entdecken? Die Schlacht von Kadesch und die Herrschaft von Ramses II. prägten die Ramessidenzeit (19. Dynastie). Die komplexe Dreieckbeziehung zwischen König Siptah, Kanzler Baj und Königin Tausret wird detailliert besprochen, ebenso wie der langsame Niedergang der Königsmacht in der 20. Dynastie, dessen letzter großer Herrscher Ramses III. die Invasion der Seevölker abwehren konnte. Wann ist der Exodus der Hebräer zu datieren? Auch für diese spannende Frage liefert das Buch einen neuen Denkansatz. Quellentextauszüge aus der Schlacht von Megiddo, dem Sonnenhymnus des Echnaton, dem Rechtsdekret des Haremhab, der Schlacht von Kadesch, der Haremsverschwörung gegen Ramses III., den Grabräuberprozessen, dem ersten rapportierten Streik der Menschheit in Deir el-Medine, der Geschichte von Wenamun und andere wichtige Texte machen das Buch zu einem wichtigen Nachschlagewerk. 453 Seiten, diverse Abbildungen, teilweise in Farbe. https://www.michaelhabicht.info/ https://www.amazon.de/Das-Imperiale-%C3%84gypten-Geschichte-Zwischenzeit/dp/3750271038/
Article
Full-text available
Fourteen glass objects recovered from excavations at the ancient city of Tall Zirā‛a, Jordan, were analysed using laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA‐ICP‐MS) to determine the period and origin of manufacture. The composition of glasses manufactured in the Late Bronze Age (LBA) and Iron Age are distinctly different, therefore major element analysis can be used to distinguish between the groups relatively easily. The LA‐ICP‐MS analysis provided quantitative trace element data which were used to determine the provenance of those glasses identified as LBA. This research discusses the implications of the presence of both Egyptian and Mesopotamian LBA glasses and examines the varying compositions and colour strategies employed in both the LBA and Iron Age objects. Specifically, glass in the LBA was considered to be one of the highest status items attainable, playing an instrumental role in diplomatic gift‐giving. When considered with the archaeological information, the significance of these finds at Tall Zirā‛a indicates that this city was a settlement of high status, not primarily a convenient trading stop on the Transjordan route.
Chapter
Evidence for Aegean visitors to Libyan shores is slight until the seventh century when people from Thera founded Cyrene, and with other Greeks established new settlements to the west, mixing with and displacing local Libyan pastoralists and farmers. Conflicts with Libyans, Egyptians, and Persians, as well as serious civil strife, hindered but did not prevent these settlements from prospering, dominated by Cyrene. The Battiad dynasty of kings at Cyrene was overthrown finally in the mid‐fifth century, and replaced by a more democratic government dominated by large landowners. Historical and archaeological information for the first two centuries of Greek settlement is unusually rich, especially from Herodotus.
Chapter
Money and trade can be approached as topics for their own sake, usually within the scope of ancient economy, or as a quest for context from which to better view Ancient Near Eastern literature and myth. Archaeology and textual evidence attest that money was used in the third millennium BCE. In form it consisted mainly of weights of precious metal, semi‐precious metal, and barley. Money and trade met in the figure of the moneyman, an individual with lots of currency who sought to increase it by local trading, foreign trading, or lending silver or barley at interest. Many studies of ancient trade are concerned with defining the routes by which prized commodities flowed between regions. The history of the Ancient Near East could be written in terms of the constant competition and cooperation to attain resources that were distributed unequally throughout the region.
Chapter
The peoples of the Ancient Near East remain a source of fascination to moderns. Ancient Israel, which was never the home of a great ruling power or of monumental architecture, is the ultimate birthplace of the monotheistic religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Scholars must resist the temptation to explain away elements in Israelite religion, child sacrifice for example, if they find them abhorrent. The best known of the early modern Bible critics, the German scholar Julius Wellhausen, employed analytical literary criticism, called source criticism, to distinguish earlier from later writings within the Hebrew Bible. Based on his system of dating biblical texts, Wellhausen reconstructed Israelite religious development, and concluded that monotheism had evolved gradually out of polytheism, passing through a stage of monolatry, the worship of a single god at the same time that other gods are believed to exist.
Article
Full-text available
This article examines imperial and economic forces of colonisation surrounding post-exilic Israel, specifically the late Persian period (334-330 BCE) transitioning into the Hellenistic era (332-64 BCE), to do a suspicious reading of Daniel 1 as a text of imperial resistance. Using a paradigm constructed from elements of James Scott's theory of hidden transcripts from "Domination and the arts of resistance ", Daniel 1 becomes a Hellenistic text capable ofplacating and appeasing as much as (or perhaps more than) opposing and resisting empire. This work emphasises suspicious tensions to examine socio-economic class structures in and around the composition of the book of Daniel to interpret Daniel 1 through a hermeneutic of suspicion with a focus on postcolonial theory.
Article
Yaklaşık olarak MÖ 1200’lerin başlarında meydana gelen büyük bir kavimler göçü, Anadolu’nun ve Yakındoğu’nun sosyal ve siyasi yapısında büyük değişimlere sebep olmuştur. Bu göçler sonrasında MÖ 2. binyılın monarşik birçok devleti (Hitit, Mitanni, III. Babil, ’’Kaşga’’) ortadan kalkmıştır. Anadolu coğrafyasındaki bu kargaşalarla birlikte yazılı kaynakların kesilmesi, burada yaşayan topluluklar hakkında kısıtlı bilgilerin ele geçmesi bu dönemin Karanlık Çağ olarak adlandırılmasına sebep olmuştur. Zaman içinde Boğazköy Hattuşa, Gordion Yassı Höyük, Alişar, gibi yerleşmelerde yapılan kazılarda açığa çıkarılan seramiklerden elde edilen bulgular Orta Anadolu Demir Çağı’nın aydınlatılmasına önemli katkılar sunmuştur. Boğazköy-Hattuşa, Gordion ve Kaman Kale Höyük’te son dönemde temiz tabakalardan çıkarılan seramikler üzerinde yapılan C14 analiz sonuçları Orta Anadolu Demir Çağı’nın daha anlaşılır bir hale gelmesini sağlamıştır. Konya Ovasında ise kapsamalı bir kazı çalışması olmadığından bölgenin Erken Demir Çağı hakkındaki bilgilerimiz yüzey araştırmalarından gelen sonuçlardan elde edilmektedir. Konya Ovası’nın güney batısında bulunan Gökhöyük Bağları Höyüğünde yapılan kazılarda ortaya çıkarılan bir grup Erken Demir Çağ seramiği bu çalışmanın konusunu oluşturmaktadır. İncelenen çanakların bir kısmı üzerinde ip baskı bezeme bulunurken kalan parçalarda herhangi bir bezeme görülmez. Burada çalışılan seramiklerden yola çıkarak Gökhöyük Bağları Höyüğün de Erken Demir Çağı’na geçişte kültürel devamlılığın devam edip etmediğinin anlaşılmasına katkı sağlamak amaçlanmıştır.
Article
Full-text available
Article
Full-text available
Environmental changes, either expressed as periodical phenomena with moderate character or as sudden, violent, and highly dangerous events, transform the natural ecosystems, rebuild the landscapes and forge new dynamics in human societies, by influencing the demographic stability, the socioeconomic profile, the cultural trends and many investment strategies. This paper aims at : a) the filtration of various geological data / information before they reach the questionnaires of Disaster Archaeology's topics, b) the elaboration of a flexible and reciprocal methodological framework within which both parts may function separately as well as synergistically. This framework should consist of several common hermeneutic 'tools' shared by both disciplines (stratigraphies, accretion, taphonomy, destruction layers, destruction markers/indicators). Complex geological mechanisms (i.e. volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, subsidence, soil liquefaction, landslides, pedogenesis, lacustrine, fluvial and deep-sea deposits) along with hydrometeorological and hydrogeological phenomena (i.e. tsunami, storms and hurricanes, glaciations, formation of peat bogs, sapropels, loess and karst, alluvia) either function as sedimentation's formers, or as triggering factors for sediments' redistribution into extended geographical areas. Finally, the authors suggest a more thoroughly organized approach and evaluation of disaster information hidden within the formation, spatio-temporal distribution and transformation of sediments, which may be of varied origin. This information should be grouped into four main categories (geological, paleontological, biochemical-physical). The fourth (archaeological-philological and historic-artistic-mythological) deserves special mention because past disasters have been totally ignored by the majority of archaeologists and used in an uncritical way without being related to cultural change.
Chapter
Full-text available
Every person is equipped with both the Dionysian or life force soul (in Greek Eros), and the Apollonian or death force soul (in GreekThanatos). Dionysus was a Greek fertility god from c. 580 BCE associated with wine, music, and choral dance (Csapso 2016). In Attic art, Dionysus was often depicted as a slumping god on a ship, which had a vineover laden with grapes as a mast, surrounded by a sea with a pod of dolphins; the dolphins being the rescuers of sailors (life force) (Carpenter 1990). Dionysus, who was resurrected from death, repre- sented hedonism, happiness, and the good life that he celebrated with a glass of wine. His half-brother Apollo was in many respects his polar opposite. Apollo was a cerebral god associated with the sun, light, and intellectual pursuit. Dio- nysus symbolized the ability of (wo) man to submerge him- or herself in a greater whole, the ecstatic, and the chaotic emotions. Apollo, on the contrary, symbolised his or her formally rational and reasoning mind. The Dionysian and Apollonian natural forces are complementary and one needs both to be a balanced person; one needed to be capable of creating form and struc- ture as well as being passionate and vital. Brown believed that a utopian society would primarily consist of such balanced persons who are at home in both the world of rationality and logic and of symbols and emotions.
ResearchGate has not been able to resolve any references for this publication.