Who is afraid of case literature? In an influential article ("Thinking in Cases", 1996), John Forrester made a case for studying case literature more seriously, exemplifying his points, mostly, with casuistic traditions of law. Unlike in modern literatures, case collections make up a significant portion of ancient literary traditions, such as Mesopotamian, Greek, and Chinese, mostly in medical and forensic contexts. The genre of cases, however, has usually not been studied in its own right by modern scholars. Due to its pervasiveness, case literature lends itself to comparative studies to which this volume intends to make a contribution. While cases often present truly fascinating epistemic puzzles, in addition they offer aesthetically pleasing reading experiences, due to their narrative character. Therefore, the case, understood as a knowledge-transmitting narrative about particulars, allows for both epistemic and aesthetic approaches. This volume presents seven substantial studies of cases and case literature: Topics touched upon are ancient Greek medical, forensic, philosophical and mathematical cases, medical cases from imperial China, and 20th-century American medical case writing. The collection hopes to offer a pilot of what to do with and how to think about cases.

Did an invasion of the Sea Peoples cause the collapse of the Late Bronze Age palace-based economies of the Levant, as well as of the Hittite Empire? Renewed excavations at Tell Tayinat in southeast Turkey are shedding new light on the critical transitional phase of the Late Bronze/Early Iron Age (ca. 1200-1000 B.C.), a period that in the Northern Levant has until recently been considered a "Dark Age," due in large part to the few extant textual sources relating to its history. However, recently discovered epigraphic data from both the site and the surrounding region suggest the formation of an Early Iron Age kingdom that fused Hieroglyphic Luwian monumental script with a strong component of Aegeanizing cultural elements. The capital of this putative/erstwhile kingdom appears to have been located at Tell Tayinat in the Amuq Valley. More specifically, this formal stylistic analysis examines a distinctive painted pottery known as Late Helladic IIIC found at the site of Tayinat during several seasons of excavation. The assemblage includes examples of Aegean-style bowls, kraters, and amphorae bearing an array of distinctive decorative features. A key objective of the study distinguishes Aegean stylistic characteristics both in form and in painted motifs from those inspired by the indigenous culture. Drawing on a wide range of parallels from Philistia through the Levant, Anatolia, the Aegean Sea, the Greek Mainland, and Cyprus, this research begins to fill a longstanding lacuna in the Amuq Valley and attempts to correlate with major historical and cultural trends in the Northern Levant and beyond. "In Sea Peoples of the Northern Levant, Janeway ably navigates the complex context within which these data must be historically and archaeologically situated and provides a first look at the Aegeanizing ceramics from the Tell Tayinat assemblage that is both comprehensive and invaluable.... For researchers and scholars working within the complex material and historical tapestry of the Late Bronze-Early Iron Age transition in the eastern Mediterranean, this volume is highly recommended." - Jeffrey P. Emanuel, Harvard University, in: American Journal of Archaeology 123.3 (2019)

This volume aims to present the current state of research on Roman roads and their foundations in a combined historical and archaeological perspective. The focus is on the diverse local histories and the varying degrees of significance of individual roads and regional networks, which are treated here for the most important regions of the empire and beyond. The assembled contributions will be of interest to historians, archaeologists and epigraphers, since they tackle matters as diverse as the technical modalities of road-building, the choice of route, but also the functionality and the motives behind the creation of roads. Roman roads are further intimately related to various important aspects of Roman history, politics and culture. After all, such logistical arteries form the basis of all communication and exchange processes, enabling not only military conquest and security but also facilitating the creation of an organized state as well as trade, food supply and cultural exchange. The study of Roman roads must always be based on a combination of written and archaeological sources in order to take into account both their concrete geographical location and their respective spatial, cultural, and historical context.

The art of ancient Egypt that has been handed down to us bears no names of its creators, and yet we value the creations of these unknown masters no less than the works of later centuries, such as statues by Michelangelo or the paintings by Leonardo da Vinci. This book introduces some of the most important masterpieces, ranging from the Old Kingdom during the Third millennium BC to the Roman Period. The works encompass sculptures, reliefs, sarcophagi, murals, masks, and decorative items, most of them now in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, but some occupying places of honor as part of the World Cultural Heritage in museums such as the Louvre in Paris, the British Museum in London, the Egyptian Museum in Berlin, and the Metropolitan Museum in New York. Featured works include: Seated statue of King Djoser Wood relief of Hesire on a dining table Statue of a scribe made of various materials Funerary relief of Aschait Sphinx of Sesostris III Robed statue of Cherihotep Reliefs from the Temple at Carnac Sarcophagus of Queen Hatshepsut Murals from Thebes Seated figure of the goddess Sachmet Statue of Queen Teje Head of Akhenaten (Amenophis IV) Queen Nefertiti Golden mask of Tutankhamun Ramses II from Abu Simbel Horus falcon made of granite Stone relief from the temple ambulatory at Edfu About the series Born back in 1985, the Basic Art Series has evolved into the best-selling art book collection ever published. Each book in TASCHEN's Basic Art History series features: approximately 100 color illustrations with explanatory captions a detailed, illustrated introduction a selection of the most important works of the epoch, each presented on a two-page spread with a full-page image and accompanying interpretation, as well as a portrait and brief biography of the artist

Lamastu was one of the most important Mesopotamian demons, playing a dominant role in the magico-religious and magico-medical beliefs and practices of ancient Mesopotamia for nearly two millennia. Yet, she has never been the subject of a scholarly monograph dedicated to the textual and visual evidence for her, her activities, and the measures that ancient magical specialists took to counter her. This volume also falls short of this description, because it covers only one part of the material: it is an edition of the textual record only, which is, however, collected here as completely as seems possible today. Walter Farber, who has studied these materials for decades, presents a comprehensive collection of all of the known texts, the texts of the primary incantations in a "score" format, and transliteration and translation of a number of ancillary texts. This much-awaited volume will fill the void in the literature on this aspect of the life and thought of ancient Mesopotamian peoples regarding the character of this malevolent creature and the means of warding off the threat that she posed.

Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

The late 7th and 6th centuries B.C. were a period of tremendous upheaval and change in ancient western Asia, marked by the destruction of the Assyrian Empire, the rise and collapse of the Neo-Babylonian state, and the stunning ascent of what was to become the Achaemenid Persian Empire, the largest polity the world had yet seen. Of the major cultural entities involved in these far-reaching events, Elam has long remained the least understood. The essays contained in this book are part of a continuing reassessment of the nature and significance of Elam in the early 1st millennium B.C., with a focus on the relationship between "Elamite" culture of the Neo-Elamite period and the emerging "Persian" culture in southwestern Iran in the 7th and 6th centuries B.C. The conception of this volume goes back to the 2003 meeting of the American Schools of Oriental Research that took place in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where two sessions were dedicated to the rich cultural heritage of ancient Iran. It was also the first time that Iranian archaeology was represented at ASOR since the Iranian Revolution. This volume contains 14 contributions by leading scholars in the discipline, organized into 3 sections: archaeology, texts, and images (art history). The volume is richly illustrated with more than 200 drawings and photographs.

In the light of recent scholarly work on tragic patterns and allusions in Flavian epic, the publication of a volume exclusively dedicated to the relationship between Flavian epic and tragedy is timely. The volume, concentrating on the poetic works of Silius Italicus, Statius and Valerius Flaccus, consists of eight original contributions, two by the editors themselves and a further six by experts on Flavian epic. The volume is preceded by an introduction by the editors and it concludes with an 'Afterword' by Carole E. Newlands. Among key themes analysed are narrative patterns, strategies or type-scenes that appear to derive from tragedy, the Aristotelian notions of hamartia and anagnorisis, human and divine causation, the 'transfer' of individual characters from tragedy to epic, as well as instances of tragic language and imagery. The volume at hand showcases an array of methodological approaches to the question of the presence of tragic elements in epic. Hence, it will be of interest to scholars and students in the area of Classics or Literary Studies focusing on such intergeneric and intertextual connections; it will be also of interest to scholars working on Flavian epic or on the ancient reception of Greek and Roman tragedy.

The second volume of the Handbook describes different extractive economies in the world regions that have been outlined in the first volume. A wide range of economic actors - from kings and armies to cities and producers - are discussed within different imperial settings as well as the tools, which enabled and constrained economic outcomes. A central focus are nodes of consumption that are visible in the archaeological and textual records of royal capitals, cities, religious centers, and armies that were stationed, in some cases permanently, in imperial frontier zones. Complementary to the multipolar concentrations of consumption are the fiscal-tributary structures of the empires vis-a-vis other institutions that had the capacity to extract, mobilize, and concentrate resources and wealth. Larger volumes of state-issued coinage in various metals show the new role of coinage in taxation, local economic activities, and social practices, even where textual evidence is absent. Given the overwhelming importance of agriculture, the volume also analyses forms of agrarian development, especially around cities and in imperial frontier zones. Special consideration is given to road- and water-management systems for which there is now sufficient archaeological and documentary evidence to enable cross-disciplinary comparative research.

This volume centres on a detailed analysis of the whole corpus of Horace s work by Edward Courtney ("Satires"), Elaine Fantham ("Epistles" I and "Odes" IV), Hans-Christian G nther ("Epodes," "Odes" I III, "Carmen Saeculare" and "Epistles" II) and Tobias Reinhardt ("Ars Poetica"). The latter is preceeded by a detailed account of Horace s life and work in general by H.-C. G nther. Two appendices on the transmission of the text (E. Courtney) and style and metre (Peter Knox) conclude the volume. It is aimed at students and scholars of classical and modern literature who seek comprehensive orientation on all aspects of Horace s work. All quotations from Latin and Greek are translated.

Voices from Ancient Greece: Sources for Greek History, Society, and Culture provides students with an engaging exploration of one of the most influential ancient civilizations of the world. Through translated ancient text discussing historical events and social and cultural practices, readers learn about aspects of ancient Greece that are often overlooked, including traveling practices, the interaction between different social groups, and the perception of foreigners, and also gain insight into the ancient Greeks' hopes, dreams, fears, and prejudices. The sources within this book are organized thematically, allowing readers to easily explore Greek authors' responses to important cultural and social issues, many of which remain top of mind today, including gender equality, sexual discrimination, the value of education, and the role religion plays in our daily lives. Introductory paragraphs to each ancient source add rich context to the readings and also offer a number of clues that students may use to assess the ancient source's historical reliability. Presenting the ancient Greeks in a highly relatable and humanistic light, Voices from Ancient Greece is ideal for courses on the history, culture, and writings of ancient Greece.

Processes of Cultural Change and Integration in the Roman World is a collection of studies on the interaction between Rome and the peoples that became part of its Empire between c. 300 BC and AD 300. The book focuses on the mechanisms by which interaction between Rome and its subjects occurred, e.g. the settlements of colonies by the Romans, army service, economic and cultural interaction. In many cases Rome exploited the economic resources of the conquered territories without allowing the local inhabitants any legal autonomy. However, they usually maintained a great deal of cultural freedom of expression. Those local inhabitants who chose to engage with Rome, its economy and culture, could rise to great heights in the administration of the Empire.

Among the very few papyri devoted to the work of the Attic orator Lysias, one of the most interesting is certainly P. Oxy. XXXI 2537. Dated palaeographically to the late 2nd-early 3rd century CE, it contains the summaries of 22 Lysianic speeches, 18 of which were formerly unknown or known just by the title and brief quotations in lexicographers. And yet, despite the undeniable richness of this collection, the papyrus has generally received little attention from modern scholarship, and no complete survey of its many aspects of significance has been yet produced. This work aims to fill this gap: along with a new transcription and critical edition based on autopsy of the papyrus, this book provides a translation and the first exhaustive commentary of the text. Through careful textual and juridical analysis, the author examines both the relationship between summaries and speeches, with a discussion of the significant legal features of each procedure, and the overall importance of this papyrus for the history of the corpus of Lysias. The book will thus be of interest for papyrologists, legal historians, students of Attic oratory, and researchers in the field of the history of the material culture of Graeco-Roman Egypt alike.

Die Universitatsbibliothek in Basel ist im Besitz einer kleinen Papyrussammlung von 63 Papyri aus ptolemaischer, roemischer sowie spatantiker Zeit in uberwiegend griechischer, aber auch hieratischer, lateinischer, koptischer und mittelpersischer Sprache. Der Freiwillige Museumsverein der Stadt Basel erwarb sie im Jahre 1899 fur die Universitatsbibliothek und machte damit Basel zur einer der ersten Universitaten, die im Besitz einer Sammlung griechischer Papyri war. Im fruhen 20. Jahrhundert nahm sich zwar der an der Universitat Basel als Professor fur Rechtsgeschichte lehrende Ernst Rabel (Basel 1906-1910) der Sammlung an und bearbeitete einige ausgewahlte Texte. Doch er beliess es bei einer Auswahl von 26 Papyri, die er als "Papyrusurkunden der OEffentlichen Bibliothek der Universitat zu Basel" wahrend des 1. Weltkriegs im Jahre 1917 publizierte. Dieser Band bietet nun eine Reedition der bereits bekannten Stucke und eine Erstedition aller weiteren Basler Papyri.

This comprehensive exploration of language and literacy in the multi-lingual environment of Roman Palestine (c. 63 B.C.E. to 136 C.E.) is based on Michael Wise's extensive study of 145 Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, and Nabataean contracts and letters preserved among the Bar Kokhba texts, a valuable cache of ancient Middle Eastern artifacts. His investigation of Judean documentary and epistolary culture derives for the first time numerical data concerning literacy rates, language choices, and writing fluency during the two-century span between Pompey's conquest and Hadrian's rule. He explores questions of who could read in these ancient times of Jesus and Hillel, what they read, and how language worked in this complex multi-tongued milieu. Included also is an analysis of the ways these documents were written and the interplay among authors, secretaries, and scribes. Additional analysis provides readers with a detailed picture of the people, families, and lives behind the texts.

Sicker explores the political history of the Middle East from antiquity to the Arab conquest from a geopolitical perspective. He argues that there are a number of relatively constant environmental factors that have helped "condition"-not determine-the course of Middle Eastern political history from ancient times to the present. These factors, primarily, but not exclusively geography and topography, contributed heavily to establishing the patterns of state development and interstate relations in the Middle East that have remained remarkably consistent throughout the troubled history of the region.

In addition to geography and topography, the implications of which are explored in depth, religion has also played a major political role in conditioning the pattern of Middle Eastern history. The Greeks first introduced the politicization of religious belief into the region in the form of pan-Hellenism, which essentially sought to impose Greek forms of popular religion and culture on the indigenous peoples of the region as a means of solidifying Greek political control. This ultimately led to religious persecution as a state policy. Subsequently, the Persian Sassanid Empire adopted Zoroastrianism as the state religion for the same purpose and with the same result. Later, when Armenia adopted Christianity as the state religion, followed soon after by the Roman Empire, religion and the intolerance it tended to breed became fundamental ingredients, in regional politics and have remained such ever since. Sicker shows that the political history of the pre-Islamic Middle East provides ample evidence that the geopolitical and religious factors conditioning political decision-making tended to promote military solutions to political problems, making conflict resolution through war the norm, with the peaceful settlement of disputes quite rare. A sweeping synthesis that will be of considerable interest to scholars, students, and others concerned with Middle East history and politics as well as international relations and ancient history.

The OS Historical Map series comprises of Ancient Britain and Roman Britain. Each archaeological period is identified using different symbols and colours to show sites from the Stone Age through to the early Middle Ages against a modern map base, double-sided to cover the whole country. The Ancient Britain map and guide is complemented by a timeline that shows British events in relation to wider history. Key sites of significant historical interest are highlighted using photographs, text and thumbnail mapping from the OS Landranger map series. Additional information, such as a list of archaeological terms, suggested reading and museums to visit, is also included.