First Millennium BC Research Papers (original) (raw)

2025, Alzahra University

Qanat is one of the most important human-developed technologies that played a significant role in the growth and development of the communities residing in Iran. Most researchers believe that the first qanats were built in the first half of the first millennium BC. Iran is considered the most important candidate for the emergence, and spread of this valuable technology due to the large number of qanats the advanced construction technology and the culture associated with them. Nevertheless, independent archaeological research on the origins of the earliest qanats in Iran is very limited, and the Qazvin Plain is no exception to this. From the written records and the available archaeological evidence, it can be deduced that this technology was utilized by the communities residing in the Qazvin Plain during the Achaemenid period. Although there is no direct evidence of pre-Achaemenid qanats in the region, factors such as a climatic drought event, population growth, intensified political competition, the expansion of livestock farming (particularly horse breeding), the development of orchards, and the construction of paradises (royal gardens) suggest that the necessary motivations and incentives for the construction of this technology were present in the second half of the 7th century BC in the region.

2024, Andes

Este trabajo presenta el estudio antracológico de muestras de carbón procedentes del piso
de ocupación y de siete oquedades sub-superficiales detectadas en la Unidad 4 del sitio
Mortero Quebrado. Se trata de una estructura residencial correspondiente al Primer milenio de la Era, ubicada en la cuenca de Anfama (Tucumán, Argentina). Los análisis de identificación taxónomica —mediante lupa de bajos aumentos y microscopía óptica de
barrido—, los grados de combustión identificados, la información etnográfica-etnohistórica, y la realización de modelos de distribución de especie permitieron correlacionar los registros antracólogicos de cada pozo con hipótesis funcionales de su uso pretérito. Se identificaron tres géneros combustionados: Alnus sp., Schinus sp. y Lithraea sp. que corresponden a
especies vegetales conocidas para la región y que presumiblemente tienen implicancias
que exceden a su uso como combustible, entre ellas, la movilidad de las poblaciones y la
ritualidad doméstica.

2023

Various crises and "Dark Ages" in the history and archaeology of the ancient world have received extensive attention in the literature; yet, the related problems which are manifested in different Mediterranean regions in the mid-1st millennium BCE have hardly received any comprehensive coverage. Indeed, histories and archaeologies of the Mediterranean present a largely linear model of historical development for the 1st millennium BCE, which is characterized by socio-political fragmentation and material impoverishment around 1000 BCE and rising sociocultural complexity, growing connectivity, and increasingly elaborate material culture in the following centuries.

2023, Antiquity

Key locations identified with the lives of important religious founders have often been extensively remodelled in later periods, entraining the destruction of many of the earlier remains. Recent UNESCO-sponsored work at the major Buddhist centre of Lumbini in Nepal has sought to overcome these limitations, providing direct archaeological evidence of the nature of an early Buddhist shrine and a secure chronology. The excavations revealed a sequence of early structures preceding the major rebuilding by Asoka during the third century BC. The sequence of durable brick architecture supplanting non-durable timber was foreseen by British prehistorian Stuart Piggott when he was stationed in India over 70 years ago. Lumbini provides a rare and valuable insight into the structure and character of the earliest Buddhist shrines.

2023, Prehistory Papers III, Third Millennium Publishing, ISBN: 978-0-9525029-6-8

The possibility of an eclipse reference recorded in the Bible [Isiah 38:5-8] has attracted considerable interest in the past, but the discussion seems to have generated more heat than sunlight. However, it is only one among many references from historical sources that can be investigated to verify the stability of the Earth’s rotation and the length of day back into the first millennium BC. In theory the circumstances of any eclipse can be retro calculated to a precise date and time of day that could tie the historical chronology to the Julian calendar. Much of the older discussion is now moribund since the realisation that tidal slowing affects where the moon’s shadow would actually fall on the surface of the earth. Whereas other ancient eclipses, both before and after this period, have been shown to correspond to retro-calculations, this one has ‘gone missing’.

2023, Archaeological Research in Asia

Bronze working is a nonnative technical craft which was incorporated relatively late in southern China and Southeast Asia. Debates about the origins of the Bronze Age in these regions hinge on finding the "missing" geographic linkages facilitating the cultural transfer of knowledge during the second millennium BCE. We provide the first series of AMS assays from Bronze Age sites in the Lake Dian basin in Yunnan and definitively connect the timing of tin-bronze metalworking in southwestern China with sites in Northeast Thailand to the 11th to 10th c. BC. Using Bayesian modeling to calibrate dates from stratified deposits, we propose a revised chronology for the Bronze Age and present a division spanning three phases (early, middle, and late). The findings indicate the establishment of settlements beginning in the early 12th c. BC, accompanied by the incorporation of copper-base metallurgy (1100/1000-800 BCE), a middle (800-600 BCE) and late 'Dian' period (600-250 BCE) that is identified with the emergence of a bronze drum culture. The revised chronology not only pushes back the timing of copper-base technology in central Yunnan by at least five centuries before the material medium was co-opted by elites as a means of wealth production. Temporal correspondences between the Dian sequence and other prehistoric complexes in the region also strengthen arguments for a potential technological link between Yunnan and Mainland Southeast Asia (MSEA) and the transfer of tin-bronze metallurgical knowledge across geographic regions.

2022, BAAL Hors-Série XVIII

The study of Phoenician religion, and to be more specific the study of Phoenician
iconography and art generally, forces us to face the very difficult question of Phoenician
identity in the Iron Age Mediterranean, a query that does not admit simple answers.
Rather than abandoning the pursue to understand Phoenician iconography or insisting on
firm standards for Phoenician identity, we must remain content to observe recognisable
trends and incorporate new material into a broad framework as it becomes available.

2022, Nouvelles Assyriologiques Brèves et Utilitaires

250-"Since my return to England an inhabitant of the village…uncovered a pair of colossal human-headed bulls, and two figures of the Assyrian Hercules slaying the lion, similar to the one in the Louvre… These remains will probably prove to be of the time of Esarhaddon (687-669 BCE)." This comment indicates that carved royal emblems originally flanked an entrance of a palace wall at Nebi Yunus. Furthermore, uncovered at the site during 1986 and re-excavated in1989 was a winged bull, as well as fragments of a second bull and the exposed foot of a human figure (Scott and MacGinnis (1990: pl. XII a; Internet: open access photo). The absence of an inscription on the bull makes it difficult to assign the specific Assyrian reign in which the fragmentary sculptures were created. There is no evidence of the huge iconic emblem among the stone wall reliefs in the North Palace of Ashurbanipal (668-627 BCE). But it has not disappeared entirely. Rather its components are hidden cleverly in the bas-relief scene showing the royal couple in a garden (Albenda 2014: no. 98; Curtis and Reade 2000: p. 122). The reclining king replaces the hero-type figure, and the back-to-back winged bulls, as well as lions, are reduced to decorative forms. Accepting this interpretation, one may surmise that the traditional rendering of the royal emblem went into decline.

2022, African Archaeological Review

Archaeological research carried out between 1998 and 2003 on the Asmara Plateau of Eritrea has provided new insights concerning the development of early-to-mid first millennium BC settled agropastoral communities in the northern Horn of Africa. The settlement, subsistence, and material culture of these communities in the greater Asmara area, referred to as the "Ancient Ona culture," bear both unique qualities and striking similarities to coeval communities in Tigray, Ethiopia. This article provides an overview of regional settlement data and ceramic and lithic traditions from the greater Asmara area, drawing comparisons to other contexts of this period in the archaeology of the wider northern Horn. It is argued that we can see among the Ancient Ona sites distinct localized cultural expressions and development as well as strong links to a wider first millennium BC macrocultural identity. Résumé Des recherches archéologiques conduites entre 1998 et 2003 dans le plateau d'Asmara en Érythrée ont produit des nouvelles informations sur le développement des communautés agro-pastorales dans la première moitié du premier millenaire av. J.-C. dans la Corne de l´Afrique. Le mode d´occupation du territoire, les moyens de subsistance, et la culture matérielle des communautés de la région d´Asmaraque l'on appelle 'culture Ona ancienne'ressemblent, malgré leurs particularités, aux communautés vivant à la même époque dans le Tigray (Ethiopie). Cet article présente une revue des données sur l´occupation de l'espace au niveau régional et des traditions lithiques et céramiques de la région d´Asmara, qui sont comparées à lumière d´autres contextes archéologiques de la Corne de l'Afrique datant de la même période. On suggère que les sites de la culture Ona

2022, 'Ashurbanipal, the King Who Is Resplendent like a Bright Light': Gyges’ Dream in Ashurbanipal’s E Prisms Revisited

This closer look at the extant E Prism material of Ashurbanipal, the Gyges narrative(s) in particular, reveals that the current understanding of the E Prisms needs to be significantly revised since both the Prism E₁ and Prism E₂ inscriptions very likely contain one and the same description of Gyges’ extraordinary first contact with Ashurbanipal. This new interpretation makes it clear (1) that there were (at least) three E Prism inscriptions and (2) that the Prism E₂ inscription was composed earlier than the Prism E₁ text, and not the other way around as scholars have assumed for over the last forty years. This paper will re-evaluate Ashurbanipal’s E Prisms in light of a previously unrecognized parallel in the earliest accounts of the Gyges narrative.

2022, Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology (Springer)

The Dian culture describes the remains of a wealthy Bronze Age society (late 1st millennium BCE) excavated in Yunnan, southwest China. Tens of thousands of grave-goods from hilltop cemeteries show that the material culture was that of southeast Asia, but there are also signs of early interaction with China in the field of metallurgy. Dian was conquered by China’s Han Empire in 109 BCE and the distinctiveness of its material culture diminished thereafter.

2021, Coping With and Preventing Collective Fear in the Ancient Near East: Perspectives from Texts and Material Culture, Die Welt des Orients

This paper will investigate the role fear plays in the account of the conquest of the land (Jos 1–12), in the light of a general sketch of the role it plays in ANE sources according to the following categories: “freeze”, “follow”, “flight” or “fight”. Fear drives the separate episodes of the conquest, as well as its general setting. It strikes both the Israelite attacking forces and the local inhabitants of the land. Fear also appears in the encouraging formula “fear not” from oracles promising victory before battle. In Assyrian royal inscriptions the king does not fear, while fear of the Assyrians and their god’s splendor prevents the conflict – the enemy either submits to the conquering king or runs away. Fighting is never described as a reaction to fear. Rather, it is attributed to the enemy’s hubris and reliance on false power. In the book of Joshua flight is not a valid option because of the ḥerem ideological framework of the conquest. Fear of the Israelites either causes paralysis (Jericho) or motivates surrender (Rahab and the Gibeonites). In the light of the role fear plays in the Neo-Assyrian royal inscriptions, initiation of coalitions and fighting the Israelites are an unlikely reaction to fear. In the one case that fear prompts action (10:2), the verse is an addition to the account.

2021, In: A Companion to the Achaemenid Persian Empire (ed. B. Jacobs, R .Rollinger), vol. 2. Wiley: 2021: pp.993–1004

Temple Economy Babylonian temples were the cultic focus and economic centers for their regions. Far from being autonomous, self-sufficient institutions operating an autarkic redistributive system (as was often assumed), the temples of... more

2021, la revue phenicienne

Brief history of Southern Phoenicia in the first millennium BCE (Sidon and Tyre) with new insights.

2021, Giuseppe Garbati - Tatiana Pedrazzi (ed. by), Transformations and Crisis in the Mediterranean. ‘Identity’ and Interculturality in the Levant and Phoenician West during the 5th-2nd centuries BCE, Supplemento alla Rivista di Studi Fenici

Political and commercial relationships between Egypt and Lebanon have always been so prosperous that they generated a mutual exchange of knowledge, culture and people. Even if past studies focused essentially on Egyptian artefacts discovered in the Phoenician area, recent archaeological research has shown that several categories of records found in the Nile Valley should be attributed to a Levantine production. Studying these artefacts provides a helpful opportunity to discuss the phenomena of identitarian construction during the Persian domination period in the Nile Valley. The primary question is how were Phoenicians in Egypt able to express their individual identity while living in a country with such a strong cultural presence.

2021, Royal Inscriptions of the Neo-Assyrian Period (RINAP) Project

http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/rinap/
Numerous royally commissioned texts were composed between 744 BC and 609 BC, a period during which Assyria became the dominant power in southwestern Asia. Eight hundred and fifty to nine hundred such inscriptions are known today. The Royal Inscriptions of the Neo-Assyrian Period (RINAP) Project, under the direction of Professor Grant Frame of the University of Pennsylvania, will publish in print and online all of the known royal inscriptions that were composed during the reigns of the Assyrian kings Tiglath-pileser III (744-727 BC), Shalmaneser V (726-722 BC), Sargon II (721-705 BC), Sennacherib (704-681 BC), Esarhaddon (680-669 BC), Ashurbanipal (668-ca. 631 BC), Aššur-etel-ilāni (ca. 631-627/626 BC), Sîn-šumu-līšir (627/626 BC), Sîn-šarra-iškun (627/626-612 BC), and Aššur-uballiṭ II (611-609 BC), rulers whose deeds were also recorded in the Bible and in some classical sources. The individual texts range from short one-line labels to lengthy, detailed inscriptions with over 1200 lines (4000 words) of text. These Neo-Assyrian royal inscriptions (744-609 BC) represent only a small, but important part of the vast Neo-Assyrian text corpus. They are written in the Standard Babylonian dialect of Akkadian and provide valuable insight into royal exploits, both on the battlefield and at home, royal ideology, and Assyrian religion. Most of our understanding of the political history of Assyria, and to some extent of Babylonia, comes from these sources. Because this large corpus of texts has not previously been published in one place, the RINAP Project will provide up-to-date editions (with English translations) of Assyrian royal inscriptions from the reign of Tiglath-pileser III (744-727 BC) to the reign of Aššur-uballiṭ II (611-609 BC) in seven print volumes and online, in a fully lemmatized and indexed format. The aim of the project is to make this vast text corpus easily accessible to scholars, students, and the general public. RINAP Online will allow those interested in Assyrian culture, history, language, religion, and texts to efficiently search Akkadian and Sumerian words appearing in the inscriptions and English words

2021, Ehulhul, Egipar, Emelamana, and Sîn's Akītu House. A Study of Assyrian Building Activities at Harrān

2021, Archival Texts of the Assyrian Empire

Website: http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/atae/ Numerous legal and administrative texts have been discovered at numerous site across the Assyrian Empire. These include the principal Assyrian cities Nineveh (Kuyunjik), Assur (Qalat Sherqat)... more

2021, The Royal Inscriptions of Tiglath-pileser III (744–727 BC) and Shalmaneser V (726–722 BC), Kings of Assyria

2021, The Royal Inscriptions of Esarhaddon, King of Assyria (680–669 BC)

2021, From the Foundations to the Crenellations. Essays on Temple Building in the Ancient Near East and Hebrew Bible

This collection of studies on temple building honors Richard Ellis. The first part explores the richness of textual evidence in Ancient Near East cultures: among others Sumerian, Babylonian, Assyrian, Elamite, Hittite, Achaemenid. The second part is devoted to various passages of the Hebrew Bible dealing with the building of temples: among others, the building of the First Temple, the Chronicler’s Temple Building account, temple reform in Ezekiel, and the instructions for building the tabernacle in Exodus 25ff. The volume is supplemented by an extensive collection of short descriptions of ancient Near Eastern and Biblical Hebrew texts dealing with temple building and will thus serve as a comprehensive and useful reader.

2021, The Royal Inscriptions of Sennacherib, King of Assyria (704–681 BC), Part 1

2021, A Previously Unrecognized Version of Esarhaddon’s ‘Annals’

This paper provides evidence for the existence of a new inscription of Esarhaddon from Nineveh: A 16926, a piece now in the Oriental Institute (University of Chicago), is not an exemplar of Nineveh B, but rather part of an edition of Esarhaddon’s ‘annals’ from Nineveh that was composed before Esarhaddon’s 5th year (676). The paper will also present evidence for reassigning 83-1-18,601, a small fragment in the British Museum, as an exemplar of Nineveh C or an early copy of Nineveh A.

2021, New Proposed Chronological Sequence and Dates of Composition of Esarhaddon’s Babylon Inscriptions Revisited

The Babylon Inscriptions of Esarhaddon, perhaps the best-known group of texts in the extant corpus this seventh-century Assyrian king, have for decades presented a real challenge in cracking the various levels of ideology imbedded in their contents, as well as the chronological order in which they were written. The latter issue is closely tied to the fact that several clay prisms inscribed with these texts are all dated by the formula šanat rēš šarrūti, "accession year. " This paper will argue that the intentional dating of the Babylon Inscriptions reflects historical reality and that Esarhaddon's did not deliberately falsify the dates of inscriptions. It will also closely examine the contents of the known texts in this small subcorpus of this Assyrian king's official inscriptions and suggest new dates of composition for each text (especially Babylon A and Babylon D), as well as a new chronological sequencing of the inscriptions. Lastly, this paper will present updated editions of Babylon G and Babylon F based on an old nonphysical join proposed by A. R. Millard and a new international join discovered by the author.

2021, On the šēdus, lamassus, and rābiṣus mentioned in Esarhaddon’s Babylon Inscriptions

2021, The Sîn-šarra-iškun Stone Block Inscription in the Ashur Site Museum

2021, The Royal Inscriptions of Sennacherib. An At-A-Glance Akkadian Dictionary of the RINAP 3 Corpus

2021, The Royal Inscriptions of Tiglath-pileser III and Shalmaneser V. An At-A-Glance Akkadian Dictionary of the RINAP 1 Corpus

2021, The Royal Inscriptions of Esarhaddon. An At-A-Glance Akkadian Dictionary of the RINAP 4 Corpus

2021, Assurbanipal Inscriptions in the Oriental Institute. Prisms E, H, and J

2021, A Fragment of Assurbanipal Prism G

2021, Zaḫalû-Metal for Marduk’s Paramaḫu and the Date of Assurbanipal’s E-Prisms

2021, Temple Building in Assyria. Evidence from Royal Inscriptions

2021, Family Ties. Assurbanipal’s Family Revisited

2021, Classifying Assurbanipal’s Inscriptions. Prisms C, Kh (= CND), and G

In 1996, Rykle Borger did the Assyriological community a great service by publishing concise, conflated "edi tions" of Assurbanipal's res gestae and handwritten transliterations of several hundred clay prism and tablet ments. There is little doubt that Beitrage zum lnschriftenwerk Assurbanipals is an extremely useful research tool for scholars and students of Near Eastern history and languages, and that it has begun filling the astonishingly large gap in our knowledge of late Neo-Assyrian inscriptions (721-612 B.C.). 1 Borger's contribution has made it possible for other Assyriologists to examine the various prism editions, as well as numerous previously unpublished tablet frag ments. This paper presents information on Prisms C, Kh (:= CKalach), and G that has come to light since Borger's publication, specifically on their classification and dates of composition (647 and 646 B.C.).

2021, A Note on the Akītu-House at Ḫarrān

2021, Daughters and Sisters of Neo-Hittite and Aramaean Rulers in the Assyrian Harem

-La présente étude s'intéresse à la composition ethnique du harem assyrien entre 934 et 745 ay. J.-C.; l'auteur en profite pour s'interroger à nouveau sur les origines de la fameuse reine assyrienne Sammuramat (Sémiramis). De nombreuses références relatives à l'appropriation de filles, de soeurs et de femmes de rois hittites et araméens se trouvent dans le corpus des inscriptions royales assyriennes. Un examen de ces inscriptions révèle que durant les règnes des deux plus puissants rois assyriens, Assurnasirpal II et Shalmanasar III, 96 à 100% des femmes nobles reçues comme tribut ou prises de force vinrent des territoires situés à l'ouest de l'empire (comprenant la Syrie). Alors que ce pourcentage est beaucoup plus bas durant les périodes qui précèdent et qui suivent. La reine Sémiramis serait peut-être venue de ces régions à l'ouest de l'empire, notamment de Syrie? ABSTRACT-This brief study investigates the ethnographic composition of the Assyrian harem in the early first millennium BC (934-745 BC) as well as reassesses the origin of the famous Assyrian queen Sammuramat (Semiramis). Numerous references to the approp riation of daughters, sisters, and «women of the palace» of Neo-Hititte (Luwian) and Aramaean ruters are found in the extensive corpus of Assyrian royal insc riptions. An examination of these insc riptions reveats that during the reigns of the two most powerful Assyrian monarchs of the Earty Neo-Assyrian Period, Ashurnasirpal II (883-859 BC) and Shalmaneser III (858-824 BC), 96 to 100% of the «royal» and/or «noble» women received as tribute or taken by force came from territories west of Assyria proper. However, in the periods immediately preceding (934-884 BC) and following (823-747 BC) these two kings, the percentage is much lower, ranging between 6 to 67%. In addition, the origin of sammuramat (Semiramis) is reassessed in light of the approp ri ation of «royal» and «noble» women during the reign of Shalmaneser III (858-824 BC). This statement could also apply to the Early Neo-Assyrian Period (934-745 BC), the period being considered in this manuscript. 1 A.K. Grayson, G. Frame and P.E. Dion kindly served as readers for this manuscript and made numerous valuable comments. In addition, J. Jones, serving as a non-specialist reader, proofed the final edition of this paper and offered helpfut suggestions. Their time and care is greatly appreciated. Moreover, I woutd also like to thank Dr. L. Shiff, as well as the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada who suppo rt the Royal Inscriptions of Mesopotamia Project, whose archives were an invaluable resource in the preparation of this article. Harem, derived from Arabic harem, meaning "unlawful," "protected," or "forbidden," is taken in its secular meaning, referring to a separate, protected pa rt of a household where women, children, and se rvants reside in maximum seclusion and protection, and to the women themselves. In India it is referred to as purdah, as it 'ing in Chinese, and as enderun or zenane in Persian.

2021, Esarhaddon’s Babylon E Once Again

This paper presents a new study and edition of Esarhaddon Babylon E in light of a recent international join and examinations of the known exemplars.

2021, Revisiting the Identities of the Four Foreigners Represented on Ashurbanipal Relief BM ME 124945-6. Unravelling the Mystery of an Unrecorded Event

This joint study of Novotny and Watanabe deals with the personal and ethnic identity of four foreigners depicted on a wall relief of the North Palace in Nineveh as submitting to Ashurbanipal after the fall of Babylon. The study analyzed... more

2021, Late Neo-Assyrian Building Histories. Tradition, Ideology, and Historical Reality

This paper critically analyses the building accounts of the late Neo-Assyrian royal inscriptions by interrelating and comparing those from various periods. The book chapter shows that the “building history” given in the royal inscriptions... more

2021, Ashurbanipal's Campaigns

Short summary of Ashurbanipal's most important military campaigns. This book chapter accompanies the BP exhibition I am Ashurbanipal: king of the world, king of Assyria.

2021, Contextualizing the last days of the kingdom of Israel. What can Assyrian official inscriptions actually tell us?

Considerable scholarly effort has been made trying to lift the heavy veil shrouding the details of the history of the final two decades of the kingdom of Israel, including the identity of the Assyrian ruler who conquered its capital Samaria and captured its last king Hoshea. Because there are significant discrepancies in extant primary sources, in particular between the Old Testament and Assyrian inscriptions, scholars have yet to satisfactorily answer the most important questions about this crucial period of history of the Levant. Assyrian sources, especially royal inscriptions, may provide some key pieces to the puzzle, but what can they tell us about the last twenty to thirty years of the kingdom of Israel, the fall of Samaria, and the fate of Hoshea? This paper will examine the available inscriptions of the eighth- and seventh-century Assyrian kings in order to elucidate what information that genre of Akkadian text can and cannot provide with regard to the history of Israel. Special attention will be given to potential lost sources to determine if new Assyrian texts could really help scholars solve some of the mysteries of the Bible. This paper will serve as a general introduction to the more topic-specific papers given in Part I of this book. Nevertheless, I do hope to say a few things not covered in the other presentations. As a word of warning, at least one section of this paper will be purely speculative. However, these conjectures will be deeply rooted in the extant source material of Tiglath-pileser III and Sargon II.

2021, Texts, Scribes and Literary Traditions. A General Introduction

This general paper provides a very brief introduction to the textual sources and the scribes who wrote them, as well as give some information on historical events and personal interests of the kings that appear to have impacted the content and nature of the source material. Although the Neo-Assyrian period starts in earnest with Ashurnsirpal II, this contribution covers only the very end of the eighth century and most of the seventh century, thus limiting itself to the reigns of Sennacherib, Esarhaddon, and Ashurbanipal, as well as their four lesser-known successors.

2021, Vestnik Permskogo Universiteta. Istoriya

A feature of the Near Eastern history, observed in antiquity and in the Middle Ages in the first millennium B.C., is the emergence of vast centralized interregional states succeeding one another. In the late 19th century, the French Egyptologist Gaston Maspero showed that this was a gradual stage of integration of the microregion (following the interaction of the superpowers of the Late Вronze Age), and this point of view was shared by the Russian pre-revolutionary scholars N. Kareev and B. Turaev. Soviet research could not ignore the phenomenon, but had to put it in the context of the Marxist categories of the socio-economic “basis” and the political “superstructure”; oddly, an approach to the problem in the 1930s - 1950s was affected by Stalin’s own words about the transience of “Cyrus’ and Alexander’s empires”. However, starting with the work on the multivolume World History in the mid-1950s, the Near Eastern empires were treated as an important, moreover, a diagnostic feature of the second part of antiquity following the transition to the Iron Age. The paramount role in formulating this point belonged to Igor Diakonoff and his colleagues, who explained the emergence of empires by the processes within the oldest societies of the region (their alleged “crisis” in the late second millennium B.C.) and by the need to integrate the region between the center (irrigational societies) and periphery (regions supplying raw materials). Post-Soviet research has developed the theme rather meagerly. A factor strangely overlooked in the forwarded schemes is the rapid economic development of the Near Eastern societies having entered the Iron Age, which backed the demand for their firm political integration.

2020, Contextualizing Jewish Temples, Holtz S and Ganzel T (eds).

The paper examines concepts of service and duty within Babylonian temples as reflected in the administrative letters from the archive of the Eanna temple in Uruk. It discusses the use of the Babylonian term maṣṣartu (“guard/watch”) in the letters and examines aspects of professional identity and bureaucratic mentality of Neo-Babylonian temple officials. The final section examines persuasion strategies employed by the Neo-Babylonian temple officials, and the implication of such analysis on the professional identity of temple personnel.

2020, S. Celestino y E. Rodríguez (eds.), Un viaje al Oriente y al Occidente del Mediterráneo. Actas del IX Congreso Internacional de Estudios Fenicios y Púnicos (22-26 de octubre de 2018). Mytra 5, IV

As is well known, Phoenicians were among the principal traders in the Mediterranean during the First Millennium BC. The vast amount of artefacts considered to have been produced by Levantine people testify to the amplitude of Phoenician trade, which reached the entire Mediterranean basin. Even if past literature focused essentially on the Central and Western parts of the Mare Nostrum, archaeological researches in the Nile Valley continue to uncover objects showing an evident connection to the Phoenician and Levantine world.
The aim of this paper is to present some luxury items suggesting a Levantine style found in the Napata region in order to explore the contact system between Nubia and Phoenicians during the Third Intermediate Period. Mainly by analysing the geographical distribution of these materials and their parallels, we will try to contribute to delineating characteristics of the Levantine presence in Nubia during the First Millennium BC.

2020, JANEH

The paper examines the cuneiform evidence from sixth-century Babylonia (and beyond) for information on the form and aims of Neo-Babylonian imperial rule over its western provinces. While new texts, which hitherto have not been considered in this context, can be brought to bear on the issue, direct evidence from these provinces is still scarce. These documents will thus be supplemented by drawing on the rich information concerning state institutions and resource extraction in the imperial centre. It is argued that in the first half of the Neo-Babylonian period, until ca. 585 BCE, Babylonian imperial rule in the western periphery can be conceptualized primarily as a straightforward exploitative tributary regime. From about the mid-reign of Nebuchadnezzar onwards, however, there is a shift towards a more sustainable resource extraction through the creation of stable pockets of Babylonian presence in the periphery. This diachronic shift was meant to steady and organize the initial ad hoc Babylonian approach. These measures, however, did not prevail, and the chaotic years which followed the 43 years reign of Nebuchadnezzar illustrate the fragility of the relatively short-lived Babylonian imperial age.

2020, Méditerranées n° 10-11, 1997, p. 147-161