In this important and timely publication, top international scholars present current research and developments about the art, archaeology, and history of the ancient city of Palmyra, a UNESCO World Heritage site located in Syria. Palmyra became tragic headline news in 2015, when it was overtaken by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), which destroyed many of its monuments and artifacts. The essays in this book include new scholarship on Palmyra's origins and evolution as well as developments from both before and after its damage by ISIS, providing new information that will be relevant to current and future generations of art historians and archaeologists. The book also includes a moving tribute by Waleed Khaled al-Asa'ad to his father, Khaled al-Asa'ad, the Syrian archaeologist and head of antiquities at Palmyra, who was brutally murdered by ISIS in 2015 for defending the site.

Whether on a national or a personal level, everyone has a complex relationship with their closest neighbors. Where are the borders? How much interaction should there be? How are conflicts solved? Ancient Israel was one of several small nations clustered in the eastern Mediterranean region between the large empires of Egypt and Mesopotamia in antiquity. Frequently mentioned in the Bible, these other small nations are seldom the focus of the narrative unless they interact with Israel. The ancient Israelites who produced the Hebrew Bible lived within a rich context of multiple neighbors, and this context profoundly shaped Israel. Indeed, it was through the influence of the neighboring people that Israel defined its own identity-in terms of geography, language, politics, religion, and culture. Ancient Israel's Neighbors explores both the biblical portrayal of the neighboring groups directly surrounding Israel-the Canaanites, Philistines, Phoenicians, Edomites, Moabites, Ammonites, and Arameans-and examines what we can know about these groups through their own literature, archaeology, and other sources. Through its analysis of these surrounding groups, this book will demonstrate in a direct and accessible manner the extent to which ancient Israelite identity was forged both within and against the identities of its close neighbors. Animated by the latest and best research, yet written for students, this book will invite readers into journey of scholarly discovery to explore the world of Israel's identity within its most immediate ancient Near Eastern context.

The author is an important but controversial figure in the history of Palestinian archaeology. This volume celebrates the centennial of the publication of his excavations at Tel Gezer (1912), conducted under the auspices of the PEF. This excavation was the most ambitious one of its time in the land, yielding important architectural remains and thousands of artefacts, including the well-known Gezer Calendar. The contributions of several eminent scholars reflect on the man and his work, and also report on how his work influenced the understanding of the sites he excavated in Palestine, all of which are currently being re-investigated. It is also richly illustrated with images from the PEF archives. Evaluations of Macalister's work vary tremendously and are reflected here. Many learnt from him, others deplored his methods and record keeping. As one contributor puts it, 'an industrious archaeologist but an awful excavator', and a man who was both admired and intensely disliked: regarded as both a villain and a visionary. But it is generally agreed that he is a figure who cannot be ignored, and anyone interested in Palestinian archaeology will find a great deal to learn from this book.

In this sweeping and lavishly illustrated history, Katharina Galor and Hanswulf Bloedhorn survey nearly four thousand years of human settlement and building activity in Jerusalem, from prehistoric times through the Ottoman period. The study is structured chronologically, exploring the city's material culture, including fortifications and water systems as well as key sacred, civic, and domestic architecture. Distinctive finds such as paintings, mosaics, pottery, and coins highlight each period. Their book provides a unique perspective on the emergence and development of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and the relationship among the three religions and their cultures into the modern period.

Assyria was one of the most influential kingdoms of the Ancient Near East. In this Very Short Introduction, Karen Radner sketches the history of Assyria from city state to empire, from the early 2nd millennium BC to the end of the 7th century BC. Since the archaeological rediscovery of Assyria in the mid-19th century, its cities have been excavated extensively in Iraq, Syria, Turkey and Israel, with further sites in Iran, Lebanon, and Jordan providing important information. The Assyrian Empire was one of the most geographically vast, socially diverse, multicultural, and multi-ethnic states of the early first millennium BC.Using archaeological records, Radner provides insights into the lives of the inhabitants of the kingdom, highlighting the diversity of human experiences in the Assyrian Empire. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

Arising from a conference organized by the British Archaeological Association in Palermo in 2012, this book includes 16 papers that explores points of contact across the Latin, Greek and Islamic worlds between c. 1000 and c. 1250.

A free ebook version of this title is available through Luminos, University of California Press's open access publishing program. Visit www.luminosoa.org to learn more. Archaeological discoveries in Jerusalem capture worldwide attention in various media outlets. The continuing quest to discover the city's physical remains is not simply an attempt to define Israel's past or determine its historical legacy. In the context of the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, it is also an attempt to legitimate-or undercut-national claims to sovereignty. Bridging the ever-widening gap between popular coverage and specialized literature, Finding Jerusalem provides a comprehensive tour of the politics of archaeology in the city. Through a wide-ranging discussion of the material evidence, Katharina Galor illuminates the complex legal contexts and ethical precepts that underlie archaeological activity and the discourse of "cultural heritage" in Jerusalem. This book addresses the pressing need to disentangle historical documentation from the religious aspirations, social ambitions, and political commitments that shape its interpretation.

The Assyrian Empire was the first state to achieve durable domination of the Ancient Near East, enduring some seven centuries and, eventually, controlling most of the region. Yet, we know little about how this empire emerged from a relatively minor polity in the Tigris region and how it managed to consolidate its power over conquered territories. Textual sources, often biased, provide a relatively limited source of information. In this study, Bleda S. During examines the rich archaeological data of the early Assyrian Empire that have been obtained over the past decades, together with the textual evidence. The archaeological data enable us to reconstruct the remarkably heterogeneous and dynamic impact of the Assyrian Empire on dominated territories. They also facilitate the reconstruction of the various ways in which people participated in this empire, and what might have motivated them to do so. Finally, During's study shows how imperial repertoires first developed in the Middle Assyrian period were central to the success of the Neo-Assyrian Empire.

Since its publication in 1982, the Archaeological Gazetteer of Afghanistan has become the main reference work for the archaeology of Afghanistan, and the standard sites and monuments record for the region; archaeological sites are now referred to under their Gazetteer catalogue number as routine in academic literature, and the volume has become a key text for developing research in the area. This revised and updated edition has been significantly expanded to incorporate new field-work and discoveries, as well as older field-work more recently published, and presents new cases of synthesis and unpublished material from private archives. New discoveries include the Rabatak inscription detailing the genealogy of the Kushan kings, a huge archive of Bactrian documents, Aramaic documents from Balkh on the last days of the Persian empire, a new Greek inscription from Kandahar, two tons of coins from Mir Zakah, a Sasanian relief of Shapur at Rag-i Bibi, a Buddhist monastic 'city' at Kharwar, new discoveries of Buddhist art at Mes Aynak and Tepe Narenj, and a newly revealed city at the Minaret of Jam. With over 1500 catalogue entries, supplemented with concordance material, site plans, drawings, and detailed maps prepared from satellite imagery, the Archaeological Gazetteer of Afghanistan: Revised Edition is the most comprehensive reference work on the archaeology and monuments of the region ever undertaken. Cataloguing all recorded sites and monuments from the earliest times to the Timurid period, this volume will be an invaluable contribution to the renewed interest in Afghanistan's cultural heritage and an essential resource for students and researchers.

This volume is a compilation of results from sessions of the Second International Conference on the Replacement of Neanderthals by Modern Humans, which took place between November 30 and December 6, 2014, in Hokkaido, Japan. Similar to the first conference held in 2012 in Tokyo, the 2014 conference (RNMH2014) aimed to compile the results of the latest multidisciplinary approaches investigating the issues surrounding the replacement of Neanderthals by modern humans. The results of the sessions, supplemented by off-site contributions, center on the archeology of the Middle and Upper Paleolithic of the Levant and beyond. The first part of this volume presents recent findings from the Levant, while the second part focuses on the neighboring regions, namely, the Caucasus, the Zagros, and South Asia. The 13 chapters in this volume highlight the distinct nature of the cultural occurrences during the Middle and Upper Paleolithic periods of the Levant, displaying a continuous development as well as a combination of lithic traditions that may have originated in different regions. This syncretism, which is an unusual occurrence in the regions discussed in this volume, reinforces the importance of the Levant as a region for interpreting the RNMH phenomenon in West Asia.

Ash-sharq is a journal devoted to short articles on the archaeology, history and society of the Ancient Near East. Contents of Vol 3 No 1 2019: Unequal in Life but Equal in Death? The Mortuary Evidence for Social Stratification in the Ubaid Polities - by Konstantinos Kopanias and Giota Barlagianni; Tell Shemshara 2018: Emerging and Floating Evidence - by J. Eidem, M. Merlino, E. Mariotti and R. Kalim Salih; Investigating Late Chalcolithic Period settlement on the Marivan Plain, western Iran. First insights from the Marivan Plain Survey project - by Morteza Zamani Dadane, Sirvan Mohammadi Ghasrian and Tim Boaz Bruun Skuldbol; Animals in War in Historical Mesopotamia - by Laura Battini; Luxuries Lost: Wood and Other Ligneous Materials for Interior and Architectural Decoration in Ancient Mesopotamia (Chalcolithic and Bronze Age) - by Philippe Quenet; Temple of Amrith / The Fifth Field Season of Archaeological Excavations in 1960 `Field Written Notes' by Nassib Saliby - by Michel Al-Maqdissi and Eva Ishaq; A Preliminary Analysis of the Toponymy in and around the So-Called Jerusalem Corridor - by Ran Zadok

Starting from the issues of globalisation and recent studies about the mechanisms of absorption of cultures into the Roman Empire, this book focuses on the Near East, an area that has received much less attention than the Western part of the Roman empire in the context of the Romanisation debate. Cimadomo seeks to develop new understandings of imperialism and colonialism, highlighting the numerous and multiple cultural elements that existed in the eastern provinces and raising many questions, such as the bilingualism of ancient societies, the relationship between different cultures and the difficulty of using modern terminologies to explain ancient phenomena. The first focus lies on the area of Galilee and collecting all the evidence for reconstructing the history of the region. The theme of the ethnicity of the Galileans is very complex, as even the literary evidence of the first centuries BC and AD regarding Galilee doesn't specify anything about their ethnic identities. The question of the Arabs, their origins and ethnicity is also raised, with a particular focus on the Itureans and the Nabateans. Alongside a complete analysis of the territories they occupied, Cimadomo explores the different artefacts: from the sculptures to the pottery, from the temples to the coins, a picture emerges of an area influenced by different cultures where the inhabitants were able to create their own culture, different from all other parts of the Roman empire. A chapter is devoted to the Decapolis, paying attention to the literary and architectural evidences of each city and their urban development in a little-studied period. An important feature that clearly emerges is the religious nature of the earlier settlements: most of them were probably sanctuaries during the Hellenistic time, and developed only after the coming of the Romans. It was during this development that theatres took a principal role, seemingly the first structures built in every city under Roman rule. It becomes clear that the problems of homogenization and differentiation were present even in the past. Local inhabitants challenged their identity, adapting and modifying foreign impulses, creating new societies and new ways of being Roman.

European adventurers began exploring Palmyra's priceless Roman ruins in the 17th century, but it wasn't until the advent of photography that the public became aware of its scale and majesty. In 1885, the sight of Palmyra astounded members of the Wolfe Expedition as they journeyed home from Mesopotamia. The group's photographer, John Henry Haynes, documented the monumental temples, tombs and colonnades in more than a hundred invaluable images. Since then, Haynes and his work have largely been forgotten, and the forces of the self-styled Islamic State have destroyed the key monuments of this world-renowned site, including the glorious Temple of Bel. Haynes's images of Palmyra - published here for the first time - are all the more poignant. The Syrian city of Palmyra - known as 'the Pearl of the Desert' - was one of the most important cultural centres of the ancient world. A key stop on the Silk Road, it was a vital link between the East and the West, and a prize fought over by successive conquering armies.

This volume presents a vivid record in words and pictures of a dig on the Anatolian borders of Mesopotamia that ended recently after nearly two decades. Designed in the format of a survey book, Ziyaret Tepe: Exploring the Anatolian frontier of the Assyrian Empire captures the sense of intimacy and immediacy of the project. Ziyaret Tepe, the ancient city of Tushan, was a provincial capital of the Assyrian Empire, in its day the greatest empire the world had ever seen. The excavations captured in this innovative book uncovered the palace of the governor, the mansions of the elite and the barracks of the rank and file, charting the history of the empire from its expansion in the early 9th century BC to its fall three centuries years later. The great mound of Ziyaret Tepe, with its accumulated layers rising 22 metres above the surrounding plain, is a record of thousands of years of human occupation. In the course of 18 seasons of fieldwork, both the lower town and the mound looming up over it yielded the secrets of Tushan, today in southeast Turkey, near the border with Syria. This has always been frontier country. Elaborate wall paintings, a hoard of luxury items burned in a cremation ritual 2,800 years ago, and a cuneiform tablet that hints at a previously unknown language are among the team's exceptional finds. The story of the project is told by the specialists who dedicated years of their lives to it. Geophysicists, ceramicists, readers of cuneiform, experts in weaving, board games and Neo-Assyrian politics joined archaeologists, zooarchaeologists, archaeobotanists and many others. But this is no dry field book of dusty digging. Both accessible and scholarly, it is a lively, copiously illustrated record of excavations involving the whole team, a compelling demonstration of the collaboration - the science, artistry and imaginative reconstruction - that makes modern archaeology so absorbing.

The history of cane sugar from its origins in the east to its status as a luxury foodstuff and even medicine in the medieval period to a commodity produced and consumed globally in today's world is well known. Yet archaeologically, sugar is an invisible commodity, its presence usually being inferred from the humble sugar pots used in the last stages of its sophisticated production process. This book attempts to redress the imbalance between history and archaeology by reporting on the excavation of a medieval sugar refinery, Tawahin es-Sukkar near Safi, situated south of the Dead Sea in Jordan. There it was possible to explore many of the steps in the sugar-making process. The book's title refers to the industrial waste whose study has shed light on those steps. To place this refinery in chronological and economic context, excavation was extended to the adjacent 'support town' of Khirbet Shaykh 'Isa; the book presents its results. The available archaeological evidence for sugar production across the Mediterranean is reviewed. There is particular emphasis on the sugar vessels and the light they can shed on the poorly understood relationship between primary production centres, refining, storage and consumption centres. The book, which is fully illustrated, can be profitably read by archaeologists, archaeological scientists, historians and visitors to Jordan alike.

This book is an archaeological and art-historical study of the images and monuments of Roman 'client' kings in the Near East from the Taurus to Edom (modern South East Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, and Jordan) in the important transitional period between the downfall of the Seleucid empire and Rome's establishment of provincial administration across the entire region. In this volume, Kropp treats royal portraits, tombs, palaces, coins, and temples as historical documents and aims at uncovering royal identities and ideological aspirations. In particular, he focuses on the six major players: the Kommagenian, Emesan, Ituraean, Nabataean, Hasmonaean, and Herodian dynasties. The images and monuments discussed show an endless variety of eclectic styles, shapes, and types - a result of individual, deliberate choices from an array of cultural and artistic options, such as Hellenistic, Roman, and Persian. The study of their origins and importance therefore places monuments, like the Khazneh at Petra or the Temple at Jerusalem, in their proper context and allows a more nuanced understanding of their creation as expressions and constructions of royal personas.

Ancient Textiles Modern, Science II follows the success of the first proceedings, published in 2013, that catalogued the Forum's formative years. This proceedings highlights the range of subjects and approaches, from improved forms of notation for nalbinding and terminology for non-woven fabric structures, to presentation and practical interpretation of new and unique discoveries from Lengberg Castle and of Roman leather underpants. The significance of unrealised assumptions and unappreciated historic decisions is shown through the discovery of weaving tablets unrecognised during their excavation and the effects of water supply on the outcome of dyeing in Pompeii. Practical investigations of historic resist dyeing, methods to selectively colour early Byzantine embroidery after its completion, and how the choice of metal in dyeing kettles influences dyeing outcomes make up the rest of this volume. The European Textile Forum provides a place where ideas can be exchanged and aims to give a good practical foundation for further research. The end result is an understanding of each aspect of historic textiles that is greater than the sum of its individual parts., The Forum continues to explore textile artefacts, tools, methods of production, recording notation and the historic and contemporary meaning of textiles.

The Natufian culture, first recognized by Dorothy Garrod in 1928, is one of the best recorded archaeological examples of foragers at the end of the Ice Age. The many unique material finds and social aspects of this culture found their place in different hypotheses concerning the emergence of cultivation in Southwest Asia that heralds the Neolithic Revolution. In the heart of the Levant, Natufian sites are early examples for sedentism that apparently led to changes of socio-economic strategies in this region. Given the quality and quantity of its archaeological record, it is better known than most other Terminal Pleistocene cultures across Eurasia. This volume, the result of a large, international meeting on the Natufian culture, brings together a series of new discoveries and studies of sites from areas not previously investigated, thus substantially enlarging the geographic scope of this culture along the north-south axis of the Levant. Field and laboratory research reported in this book was conducted by different teams of archaeologists, archaebotanists, zooarchaelogists, and other experts both local and international. This comprehensive book adds a considerable amount of new information to our knowledge. It demonstrates the ongoing interest among numerous scholars whose efforts widen and deepen the understanding of the Natufian culture and will remain as a source of data and interpretations for years to come, just as its predecessor that was published in 1991.

The Natufian culture, first recognized by Dorothy Garrod in 1928, is one of the best recorded archaeological examples of foragers at the end of the Ice Age. The many unique material finds and social aspects of this culture found their place in different hypotheses concerning the emergence of cultivation in Southwest Asia that heralds the Neolithic Revolution. In the heart of the Levant, Natufian sites are early examples for sedentism that apparently led to changes of socio-economic strategies in this region. Given the quality and quantity of its archaeological record, it is better known than most other Terminal Pleistocene cultures across Eurasia. This volume, the result of a large, international meeting on the Natufian culture, brings together a series of new discoveries and studies of sites from areas not previously investigated, thus substantially enlarging the geographic scope of this culture along the north-south axis of the Levant. Field and laboratory research reported in this book was conducted by different teams of archaeologists, archaebotanists, zooarchaelogists, and other experts both local and international. This comprehensive book adds a considerable amount of new information to our knowledge. It demonstrates the ongoing interest among numerous scholars whose efforts widen and deepen the understanding of the Natufian culture and will remain as a source of data and interpretations for years to come, just as its predecessor that was published in 1991.

Though immediately recognizable in public discourse as a modern state in a political "hot zone," Armenia has a material history and visual culture that reaches back to the Paleolithic era. This book presents a timely and much-needed survey of the arts of Armenia from antiquity to the early eighteenth century C.E. Divided chronologically, it brings into discussion a wide range of media, including architecture, stone sculpture, works in metal, wood, and cloth, manuscript illumination, and ceramic arts. Critically, The Art of Armenia presents this material within historical and archaeological contexts, incorporating the results of specialist literature in various languages. It also positions Armenian art within a range of broader comparative contexts including, but not limited to, the ancient Mediterranean and Near East, Byzantium, the Islamic world, Yuan-dynasty China, and seventeenth-century Europe. The Art of Armenia offers students, scholars, and heritage readers of the Armenian community something long desired but never before available: a complete and authoritative introduction to three thousand years of Armenian art, archaeology, architecture, and design.

This two part volume brings together over 60 specialists to present 31 papers on the latest research into archaeozoology of the Near East. The papers are wide-ranging in terms of period and geographical coverage: from Palaeolithic rock shelter assemblages in Syria to Byzantine remains in Palestine and from the Caucasus to Cyprus. Papers are grouped into thematic sections examining patterns of Palaeolithic and Neolithic subsistence in northern Mesopotamia, Anatolia and the Iranian plateau; Palaeolithic to Neolithic faunal remains from Armenia; animal exploitation in Bronze Age urban sites; new evidence concerning pastoralism, nomadism and mobility; aspects of domestication and animal exploitation in the Arabian peninsula; several case studies on ritual animal deposits; and specific analyses of patterns of animal exploitation at urban sites in Turkey, Palestine and Jordan. This important collection of significant new work builds on the well-established foundation of previous ICAZ publications to present the very latest results of archaeozoological research in the prehistory of this formative region in the development of animal exploitation.

Antiquities have been pawns in empire-building and global rivalries; power struggles; assertions of national and cultural identities; and cross-cultural exchanges, cooperation, abuses, and misunderstandings-all with the underlying element of financial gain. Indeed, "who owns antiquity?" is a contentious question in many of today's international conflicts. About Antiquities offers an interdisciplinary study of the relationship between archaeology and empire-building around the turn of the twentieth century. Starting at Istanbul and focusing on antiquities from the Ottoman territories, Zeynep Celik examines the popular discourse surrounding claims to the past in London, Paris, Berlin, and New York. She compares and contrasts the experiences of two museums-Istanbul's Imperial Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art-that aspired to emulate European collections and gain the prestige and power of owning the material fragments of ancient history. Going beyond institutions, Celik also unravels the complicated interactions among individuals-Westerners, Ottoman decision makers and officials, and local laborers-and their competing stakes in antiquities from such legendary sites as Ephesus, Pergamon, and Babylon. Recovering perspectives that have been lost in histories of archaeology, particularly those of the excavation laborers whose voices have never been heard, About Antiquities provides important historical context for current controversies surrounding nation-building and the ownership of the past.

Dura-Europos is one of Syria's most important archaeological sites. Situated on the edge of the Euphrates river, it was the subject of extensive excavations in the 1920s and 30s by teams from Yale University and the Academie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres. Controlled variously by Seleucid, Parthian, and Roman powers, the site was one of impressive religious and linguistic diversity: it was home to at least nineteen sanctuaries, amongst them a Synagogue and a Christian building, and many languages, including Greek, Latin, Persian, Palmyrene, and Hebrew which were excavated on inscriptions, parchments, and graffiti. Based on the author's work excavating at the site with the Mission Franco-Syrienne d'Europos-Doura and extensive archival research, this book provides an overview of the site and its history, and traces the story of its investigation from archaeological discovery to contemporary destruction.

This volume explores early complex society and nascent urbanism, based in studies of Mesopotamia during the fifth-fourth millennia bc. Urbanism in the Near East has traditionally been located in late fourthmillennium bc southern Mesopotamia (south Iraq); but recent excavations and surveys in northeast Syria and southeast Turkey have identified a distinctively northern Mesopotamian variant of this development, which can be dated to the early fourth millennium bc. The authors use multiscalar approaches, including material culturebased studies, settlement archaeology and regional surveys, to achieve an understanding of the dynamics of early urbanism across this key region. The book reveals the variety of social, economic and political relationships that are implicit within an urban centre and an urbanized society.