We are happy to share some of the new books and new journal volumes that are now available in our library:
Summaries are taken from publishers websites.
Kahramanmaras'ta Bulunmus Yeni Asurca Tabletler
2020
Cahit Gunbati, Salih Cecen, L. Gurkan Gokcek and Faruk Akyuz
Neo-Assyrian tablets found in Kahramanmaraş. Akkadian transcriptions of tablets, with Turkish text. Forward and introduction in Engiish.
Explaining Disaster: Tradition and Transformation of the "Catastrophe of Ibbi-Sin" in Babylonian Literature
(2019)
Hanspeter Schaudig
The aim of this study is to investigate the philosophy and the reasoning that transformed the plain historical fact of the destruction of the empire of the Third Dynasty of Ur under its king Ibbi-Sîn (ca. 2028–2004 BCE) into a balanced and logical model of crime and divine punishment in the course of Babylonian historiography. The study presents nearly 80 excerpts and new editions of Babylonian texts dealing with the fall of the “great city” under an “ill-starred king” by divine disfavour or wrath, among them full new editions of numerous historical omens, the Esaĝil Chronicle, the Book of Prodigies and the Religious Chronicle. It also contains excerpts from cultic lamentations, the Royal Correspondence of Ur, the Marduk Prophecy, Chronicle P, the Chedorlaomer Texts and various royal inscriptions.
Near Eastern Lithic Technologies on the Move. Interactions and Contexts in Neolithic Traditions
(2019)
H. Laurence Astruc, Carole McCartney, François Briois and Vasiliki Kassianidou (eds.)
Our understanding of the Neolithic transition and its development has expanded greatly in recent years due, in part, to the ongoing analysis of the manufacture and use of stone tools. This volume represents the eighth in a series of workshops initiated in 1993 with the aim of documenting lithic technology across this pivotal era of social and economic change, while enhancing the correlation between analytical vocabularies and methodologies.0The volume contains 42 chapters by both established and emerging scholars. They present data from new sites that challenge prior perspectives on the timing and direction of Neolithic expansion across Southwest Asia. While the origins of the earliest Neolithic (PPNA) lithic technology in the preceding Epi-Palaeolithic (Natufian) illustrate continuities in the different regions of the Levant, these new data support polycentric or non-centric perspectives of Neolithic development, and contribute to a more complex, multi-linear assessment of diffusion. The range of papers present recently discovered evidence documenting an earlier Neolithic expansion to the Southern Levant along routes including the desert interior, and the PPNA expansion to Cyprus, highlighted by parallel lithic traditions and dependent on Neolithic advances in seafaring. Neolithisation of the Caucasus and the Aegean is examined in terms of the spread of complex pressure modalities at the end of the PPN and in the early PN period. The pace and direction of Neolithic change preserved in accumulated corpuses of lithic data in all areas of the Near East begin to show more complex timing in the adoption of Neolithic technologies, distinctions in local contexts and tool adaptation to advances in agriculture. Together these studies provide an up-to-date and multifaceted perception of this transformative period of change.
Adornment: Jewelry and Body Decoration in Prehistoric Times
(2022)
Ahiad Ovadia (ed.)
Although it may seem very recent, adorning the body is an age-old human need going back tens of thousands of years. Prehistoric jewelry had a variety of meanings and purposes and was used to signal both individual and group identity. In this lavishly illustrated catalogue, exhibition curator AhiadOvadia surveys the fascinating examples of prehistoric adornment discovered in our region.
Texts by other researchers extend our understanding of the ancient phenomenon in various ways, such as a study of the forms adornment takes in traditional societies in our time. The publication includes detailed information about selected objects in the exhibition and ends with Israeli novelist Dror Burstein’s story inspired by a unique piece of prehistoric jewelry.
The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization
Volume 1: Ancient Israel, from Its Beginnings through 332 BCE
(2021)
Jeffrey H. Tigay and Adele Berlin (eds.)
The Posen Library's groundbreaking anthology series—called "a feast of Jewish culture, in ten volumes" by The Chronicle of Higher Education—offers with Volume 1 an exploration of the culture of ancient Israel, including its literature, legal documents, and visual arts.
The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, Volume 1, covers the earliest period of Jewish civilization, from the second millennium BCE through 332 BCE. Organized by genre, this book presents a collection of some of the earliest products of Jewish culture, including extensive selections from the Tanakh and the Hebrew Bible; extrabiblical inscriptions and documents by and about Israelites and Jews, found by archaeologists in the lands of Israel, Egypt, and Mesopotamia; and images representing the visual culture of ancient Israel. Combining genres that have never been presented together in a single publication, Volume 1 illustrates ancient Israel’s cultural innovations and commonalities with neighboring societies.
Das Personliche Gebet Bei Den Hethitern: EineTextlinguistische Untersuchung
Alexandra Daues and Elisabeth Rieken
As testimonies of deep religiosity, Hittite personal prayers from the 2nd millennium BC document human suffering and the hope for help from the gods. In addition to the simpler prayers from an indigenous Anatolian ritual tradition, a new type of text emerged since the Middle Hittite period - initially in close imitation of Mesopotamian models - whose highly developed literary expression increasingly developed independently. On the basis of a new edition of the Hittite prayer texts, including a German translation, this volume offers a comprehensive linguistic and stylistic analysis of the text types. While at the level of the macrostructure each prayer text is understood as a coherent individual text that allows a classification of its structural elements and their argumentative relationships to each other, the analysis of the microstructure shows on which linguistic levels the Hittite authors followed predetermined text patterns and where they found room for individual design. Thus, Hittite prayers reveal themselves as a central component of Hittite literature, which has a rich assortment of stylistic devices as well as a high degree of poetic depth and intertextual references. This leads to a fundamental re-evaluation of Hittite prayers as a type of text and literary genre.
Altagyptische Amulette und ihre Handnabung
(2022)
Joachim Friedrich Quack
Obgleich es aus dem alten Ägypten sowohl zahlreiche erhaltene Amulette als auch Texte mit Hinweisen für ihre Anwendung gibt, fehlt bislang eine angemessene übergreifende Untersuchung dazu. Joachim Friedrich Quack bietet eine detaillierte Behandlung dieser Artefakte und (Meta) texte von der Vorgeschichte (4. Jtsd. v. Chr.) bis in die römische Kaiserzeit (ca. 3.-4. Jhd. n. Chr.). Die Darstellung erfolgt einerseits chronologisch, andererseits thematisch, indem zusammengehörige Sachgruppen übergreifend vorgestellt werden. Bei der Behandlung der Amulette wird ein besonderes Gewicht auf archäologisch gut dokumentierte Gräberfelder gelegt, um chronologische Entwicklungen besser zu fassen. Dadurch kann z.B. eine sehr diesseitsorientierte Amulettausstattung der Dritten Zwischenzeit klar von einer am Vorbild des Osiris orientierten, spezifisch funerären ab der 26. Dynastie differenziert werden.
Chalcis/Qinnasrin (Syrie): De l’âge du Bronze à l’époque mamelouke. Qinnasrin II
(2021)
Marie-Odile Rousset (ed.)
The syro-french archaeological research mission of Qinnasrin has worked between 2008 and 2010 on the site of al-‘Iss (Northern Syria, Aleppo region), in the village itself and in the imediate surroundings. These fieldworks have been funded by the French Commission of excavations from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Fundation Max van Berchem, the French National Center of Scientific Research and the General Directory of Antiquities and Museums of Syria.
Established since the end of the 3rd millennium BC, Qinnasrin is an important road and military junction, dominating a fertile plain on the edge of the steppe and irrigated agricultural areas. Renamed Chalcis by the Greeks, it was, in Roman times, the seat of a kingship and minted coins. It plays an essential role in the fortification system of Northern Syria set up by Justinian against the Persians and then during the conquest of Northern Syria by the armies of Islam. Closely linked to Aleppo, it declined, to its benefit, from the middle of the 10th century and fell into oblivion around the 14th century.
This book provides an overview and synthesis of the textual and archaeological sources. It presents the documentation constituted by the pedestrian and geophysical surveys, the first archaeological excavations ever carried out on the site, the inventory of architectural elements and the gathering of material. Several discoveries allow us to account for the importance acquired by the city, both in the most ancient times and in the Greek, Roman and Islamic periods. For the first time, a scenario of the morphological evolution of the city and its transformations is proposed. This second volume in the series devoted to Qinnasrin provides an original portrait of an outstanding and largely unknown site.
Under the Yoke of Ashur: The Assyrian Century in the Land of Israel
(2021)
Mordechai Cogan
A new enlightening introduction for all who seek to understand the impact of Assyria on the Israelite kingdoms during the late monarchic period.
The Assyrian Empire, in its thrust for economic aggrandizement, reached the Land of Israel, first on razzias, later staying as occupier. The vigorous campaigns of Tiglath-pileser III in the mid-8th century BCE forced the kingdoms of Israel and Judah to bear the imperial yoke. But in short order, Israel’s recurring insubordination led to its dismantling and exile. Judah fared better and continued on as a subjugated vassal until the fall of Nineveh over a hundred years later. The maritime city-kingdoms of Philistia were not skipped over during the imperial expansion. This critical review of the major events of the era offers new insights into the development of Assyrian imperialism and its lasting impact on the southern Levant.
The Landfill of Early Roman Jerusalem: The 2013‒2014 Excavations in Area D
(2022)
Yuval Gadot
This is the story of the landfill that operated in Jerusalem during the first century CE and served as its garbage dump during the ca. 50-year period that followed Jesus’s crucifixion through to the period that led to the great revolt of the Jews just prior to the city’s destruction.
The book presents an extensive investigation of hundreds of thousands of items that were systematically excavated from the thick layers of landfill. It brings together experts who conducted in-depth studies of every sort of material discarded as refuse—ceramic, metal, glass, bone, wood, and more. This research presents an amazing and tantalizing picture of daily life in ancient Jerusalem, and how life was shaped and regulated by strict behavioral rules (halacha). The book also explores why garbage was collected in Jerusalem in so strict a manner and why the landfill operated for only about 50 years. Half a century of garbage from Early Roman–period Jerusalem provides an abundance of new data and new insights into the ideological choices and new religious concepts emerging and developing among those living in Jerusalem at this critical moment. It is an eye-opener for archaeologists, historians, anthropologists, and theologians, as well as for the general reader.
Totenkult und Ahnenverehrung im hethitischen Anatolien: Vorstellungen, Rituale undInstitutionen
(2021)
Chiara Cognetti
Der Toten- und Ahnenkult bei den Hethitern hat bisher keine zusammenfassende Behandlung gefunden. Daher ließen sich die in den hethitischen Texten bezeugten Vorstellungen einer Weiterexistenz der Verstorbenen nicht zu einem einheitlichen Bild zusammenfügen. Mit diesem Buch liegt erstmals eine umfassende Studie vor, die sämtliche den Textbelegen aus Boğazköy zu entnehmenden Informationen zusammenführt und ausführlich untersucht, um die Grundstrukturen des Themenkomplexes herauszuarbeiten. Aufbauend auf der philologischen Bearbeitung der Textquellen und der lexikographischen Analyse der zu betrachtenden Termini wird die Präsenz der Toten im Alltag der Lebenden untersucht: Insbesondere lassen sich die Bedeutung von Ahnen und königlichen Vorgängern für ihre Nachkommen sowie die daraus resultierenden Formen des Ahnen- und Totenkults und ihr Stellenwert für die Gemeinschaft veranschaulichen.
Experimental Archaeology: Making, Understanding, Story-telling
(2019)
Christina Souyoudzoglou-Haywood and Aidan O’Sullivan (eds.)
Experimental Archaeology: Making, Understanding, Story-telling is based on the proceedings of a two-day workshop on experimental archaeology at the Irish Institute of Hellenic Studies at Athens in 2017, in collaboration with UCD Centre for Experimental Archaeology and Material Culture. Scholars, artists and craftspeople explore how people in the past made things, used and discarded them, from prehistory to the Middle Ages. The papers include discussions of the experimental archaeological reconstruction and likely past experience of medieval houses, and also about how people cast medieval bronze brooches, or sharpened Bronze Age swords, made gold ornaments, or produced fresco wall paintings using their knowledge, skills and practices. The production of ceramics is explored through a description of the links between Neolithic pottery and textiles, through the building and testing of a Bronze Age Cretan pottery kiln, and through the replication and experience of Minoan figurines. The papers in this volume show that experimental archaeology can be about making, understanding, and storytelling about the past, in the present.
Why Those Who Shovel Are Silent: A History of Local Archaeological Knowledge and Labor
(2021)
Allison Mickel
For more than 200 years, archaeological sites in the Middle East have been dug, sifted, sorted, and saved by local community members who, in turn, developed immense expertise in excavation and interpretation and had unparalleled insight into the research process and findings—but who have almost never participated in strategies for recording the excavation procedures or results. Their particular perspectives have therefore been missing from the archaeological record, creating an immense gap in knowledge about the ancient past and about how archaeological knowledge is created.
Why Those Who Shovel Are Silent is based on six years of in-depth ethnographic work with current and former site workers at two major Middle Eastern archaeological sites—Petra, Jordan, and Çatalhöyük, Turkey—combined with thorough archival research. Author Allison Mickel describes the nature of the knowledge that locally hired archaeological laborers exclusively possess about artifacts, excavation methods, and archaeological interpretation, showing that archaeological workers are experts about a wide range of topics in archaeology. At the same time, Mickel reveals a financial incentive for site workers to pretend to be less knowledgeable than they actually are, as they risk losing their jobs or demotion if they reveal their expertise.
הספר הלא נכון
2022
נעה ידלין
לרונה גלזר־גלנטי יש תינוק בן עשרה חודשים, רומן שהיא לא כותבת ובעל גבה־מצח, שבז לכולם מלבדה: הוא משוכנע שהיא עומדת להיות סופרת גדולה, והוא יעשה הכל כדי לעזור לה לממש את ייעודה. אבל מאז הלידה רונה לא מצליחה לקרוא כלום, שלא לדבר על לכתוב; עד שהיא נתקלת בתחרות פייסבוק טיפשית ומחליטה לנסות: מה כבר יכול לקרות?
הספר הלא נכון הוא סיפור על בגידה: לא עם גבר אחר, אלא עם זהות חדשה. זה סיפור על אישה שמגלה את עצמה מחדש כקוראת ואז ככותבת – והכל מאחורי גבו של בן זוגה.
ספרה החדש של נעה ידלין הוא רומן מבריק, נוגע ללב ומעורר מחשבה על מערכות יחסים עכשוויות ועל הסודות שאנחנו מסתירים; על זכותנו להשתנות לנגד עיניהם של הקרובים לנו ביותר; על גבוה ועל נמוך, על טעם טוב וטעם רע.
Artifax
Volume 38 (3)
2022
Table of Contents:
Farmstead in Eastern Galilee Suddenly Abandoned
Aqueduct Served Jerusalem for 2000 Years
Rural Estate and Mosque Uncovered in the Negev
Israel Archaeology News
Herod the Great’s Royal Alabaster Bathtubs Quarried Locally
Isaiah and Associates, Biblical Connections by Bryant Wood
The Greek and Roman World Digest: Remains of the Great Sea Battle of Aegates, Genom of Vesuvius Sequenced
The Ancient Near East Archaeology Digest
Egypt Archaeology Digest
4D Tech Provides Tour of Jerusalem’s History
Shelby White and Leon Levy Lod Mosaic Archaeological center Inaugurated
Biblical Archaeology Review
Volume 48 (3)
2022
Table of Contents:
Yahweh’s Desert Origins
by Juan Manuel Tebes
Journey to Jerusalem
by Jodi Magness
Taking a Sling
by Boyd Seevers and Victoria Parrott
Magdala’s Mistaken Identity
by Joan E. Taylor
