Rural Cult Centres in the Hauran: Part of the broader network of the Near East (100 BC-AD 300) challenges earlier scholars' emphasis on the role played by local identities and Romanisation in religion and religious architecture in the Roman Empire through the first comprehensive multidisciplinary analysis of rural cult centres in the Hauran (southern Syria) from the pre-Roman to the Roman period. The Hauran is an interesting and revealing area of study because it has been a geographical cross-point between different cultures over time. Inspired by recent theories on interconnectivity and globalisation, the monograph argues that cult centres, and the Hauran itself, are part of a human network at a macro level on the basis of analysis of archaeological, architectural, sculptural and epigraphic evidence and landscape. As a result of this multi-disciplinary approach, the text also re-assesses the social meaning of these sanctuaries, discusses the identity of the elite group that contributed financially to the building of sanctuaries, and attempts to reconstruct ritual and economic activities in cult centres. This book re-evaluates the significance of contacts between the elite of the Hauran and other cultures of the Near East in shaping cult sites; it includes a first catalogue of rural cult centres of the Hauran in the appendix.

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.

In Study on the Synchronistic King List from Ashur, CHEN Fei conducts a full investigation into that king list, which records all the kings of Assyria and Babylonia in contemporary pairs from the 18th to the 7th century BC. The texts of all the exemplars of the Synchronistic King List are reconstructed anew by the existing studies and the author's personal collations on their sources, and part of the text of the main exemplar is thus revised. The author also looks into the format of the Synchronistic King List and draws the conclusion that the Synchronistic King List was composed by Ashurbanipal, king of Assyria, to support his Babylonian policy.

The special session in 2013, Languages of Southern Arabia, was the fifth in the Seminar for Arabian Studies special session series. This was the first special session with an explicit linguistic focus to be held at the Seminar, and aimed to bring together experts on the extinct and extant languages of southern Arabia to pave the way for identifying cultural, lexical, morphological, syntactic, phonological, and phonetic links between the language families, and to discuss advances in the field and future avenues of research. With papers dealing with Ancient South Arabian, the Modern South Arabian languages, and the Arabic dialects of the southern part of the Peninsula, this session examined and re-examined links within and between the language groups and further afield.

In The City Gate in Ancient Israel and Her Neighbors, Daniel A. Frese provides a wide-ranging portrayal of one of the most prominent social institutions in the kingdoms of the southern Levant during the Iron II period: the use of the city gate as a hub for numerous and diverse civic functions. The book provides an up-to-date description of the architecture of gate complexes based on archaeological evidence, and a systematic description of the many functions of the gate seen in hundreds of texts from the Hebrew Bible and the broader ancient Near East. The final chapters of the book discuss the conceptual significance of gates in Israelite culture, based on idiomatic and symbolic gate terminology in the Hebrew Bible.

This volume collects 33 papers that were presented at the international conference held at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University in November 2015 to celebrate the centenary of Bedrich Hrozny's identification of Hittite as an Indo-European language. Contributions are grouped into three sections, "Hrozny and His Discoveries," "Hittite and Indo-European," and "The Hittites and Their Neighbors," and span the full range of Hittite studies and related disciplines, from Anatolian and Indo-European linguistics and cuneiform philology to Ancient Near Eastern archaeology, history, and religion. The authors hail from 15 countries and include leading figures as well as emerging scholars in the fields of Hittitology, Indo-European, and Ancient Near Eastern studies.

In The Amorite Dynasty of Ugarit Mary Buck takes a new approach to the field of Amorite studies by considering whether the site of Ugarit shares close parallels with other sites and cultures known from the Bronze Age Levant. When viewed in conjunction, the archaeological and linguistic material uncovered in this study serves to enhance our understanding of the historical complexity and diversity of the Middle Bronze Age period of international relations at the site of Ugarit. With a deft hand, Dr. Buck pursues a nuanced view of populations in the Bronze Age Levant, with the objective of understanding the ancient polity of Ugarit as a kin-based culture that shares close ties with the Amorite populations of the Levant. "The author covers a contentious area of scholarship with confidence and competence, and has produced a convincing case for the Amorite origins of Bronze Age Ugarit." -Nick Wyatt, Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 44.5 (2020) The Studies in the Archaeology and History of the Levant series publishes volumes from the Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East. Other series offered by Brill that publish volumes from the Museum include Harvard Semitic Studies and Harvard Semitic Monographs, https://hmane.harvard.edu/publications.

CONTENTS: Abdol Rauh Yaccob, British policy on Arabia before the First World War: an internal argument; Adrian G. Parker &. Jeffrey I. Rose, Climate change and human origins in southern Arabia; Alexandrine Guerin & Faysal Abdallah al-Na'imi, Nineteenth century settlement patterns at Zekrit, Qatar: pottery, tribes and territory; Anthony E. Marks, Into Arabia, perhaps, but if so, from where?; Audrey Peli, A history of the Ziyadids through their coinage (203- 442/818-1050); Aurelie Daems & An De Waele, Some reflections on human-animal burials from pre-Islamic south-east Arabia (poster); Brian Ulrich, The Azd migrations reconsidered: narratives of 'Amr Muzayqiya and Malik b. Fahm in historiographic context; Christian Darles, Derniers resultats, nouvelles datations et nouvelles donnees sur les fortifications de Shabwa (Hadramawt); Eivind Heldaas Seland, The Indian ships at Moscha and the Indo-Arabian trading circuit; Fabio Cavulli & Simona Scaruffi, Stone vessels from KHB-1, Ja'lan region, Sultanate of Oman (poster); Francesco G. Fedele, Wadi al-Tayyilah 3, a Neolithic and Pre-Neolithic occupation on the eastern Yemen Plateau, and its archaeofaunal information; Ghanim Wahida, Walid Yasin al-Tikriti & Mark Beech, Barakah: a Middle Palaeolithic site in Abu Dhabi Emirate; Jeffrey I. Rose & Geoff N. Bailey, Defining the Palaeolithic of Arabia? Notes on the Roundtable Discussion; Jeffrey I. Rose, Introduction: special session to define the Palaeolithic of Arabia; Julie Scott-Jackson, William Scott-Jackson, Jeffrey Rose & Sabah Jasim, Investigating Upper Pleistocene stone tools from Sharjah, UAE: Interim report; Krista Lewis & Lamya Khalidi, From prehistoric landscapes to urban sprawl: the Masn'at Maryah region of highland Yemen; Michael J. Harrower, Mapping and dating incipient irrigation in Wadi Sana, Hadramawt (Yemen); Mikhail Rodionov, The jinn in Hadramawt society in the last century; Mohammed A.R. al-Thenayian, The Red Sea Tihami coastal ports in Saudi Arabia; Mohammed Maraqten, Women's inscriptions recently discovered by the AFSM at the Awam temple/Mahram Bilqis in Marib, Yemen; Nasser Said al-Jahwari & Derek Kennet, A field methodology for the quantification of ancient settlement in an Arabian context; Remy Crassard, The "Wa'shah method": an original laminar debitage from Hadramawt, Yemen; Saad bin Abdulaziz al-Rashid, Sadd al-Khanaq: an early Umayyad dam near Medina, Saudi Arabia; Ueli Brunner, Ancient irrigation in Wadi Jirdan; Vincent Charpentier & Sophie Mery, A Neolithic settlement near the Strait of Hormuz: Akab Island, United Arab Emirates; Vincent Charpentier, Hunter-gatherers of the "empty quarter of the early Holocene" to the last Neolithic societies: chronology of the late prehistory of south-eastern Arabia (8000-3100 BC); Yahya Asiri, Relative clauses in the dialect of Rijal Alma' (south-west Saudi Arabia); Yosef Tobi, Salom (Salim) al-Sabazi's (seventeenth-century) poem of the debate between coffee and qat; Zaydoon Zaid & Mohammed Maraqten, The Peristyle Hall: remarks on the history of construction based on recent archaeological and epigraphic evidence of the AFSM expedition to the Awam temple in Marib, Yemen

Memory is a constructed system of references, in equilibrium, of feeling and rationality. Comparing ancient and contemporary mechanisms for the preservation of memories and the building of a common cultural, political and social memory, this volume aims to reveal the nature of memory, and explores the attitudes of ancient societies towards the creation of a memory to be handed down in words, pictures, and mental constructs. Since the multiple natures of memory involve every human activity, physical and intellectual, this volume promotes analyses and considerations about memory by focusing on various different cultural activities and productions of ancient Near Eastern societies, from artistic and visual documents to epigraphic evidence, and by considering archaeological data. The chapters of this volume analyse the value and function of memory within the ancient Near Eastern and Egyptian societies, combining archaeological, textual and iconographical evidence following a progression from the analysis of the creation and preservation of both single and multiple memories, to the material culture (things and objects) that shed light on the impact of memory on individuals and community.

In 2014, a collection of papers was found on eBay: a scrapbook, inside which was written 'Testimonial Book of Dragoman Solomon N. Negima'. The letters pasted into the testimonial book bear recommendations of Negima's services as dragoman - a combination of tourist guide and interpreter - in the Holy Land, from travellers of different nationalities, social classes, religions, genders and races. Using these reference letters, and the first-hand published and unpublished accounts of the travellers themselves, this book tells the stories of several such tourists, including the intrepid Victorian female traveller, Ellen E. Miller, and an African-American minister, Rev. Charles T. Walker, who had been born into slavery. Between the lines of others' letters, Solomon Negima's remarkable life story also emerges: from a German mission school in Jerusalem, to the British army in the Sudan, to a successful career as a dragoman in Palestine and Syria, and finally to comfortable retirement with his son, Aziz, and daughter, Olinda, at a Mormon mission in Jerusalem. The discovery of this unique scrapbook allows us an insight into the lives of individuals whose histories would otherwise be lost to us, and a new perspective on the history of travel in the Middle East.

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.

The flourishing civilisations of Mesopotamia, nowadays Iraq and Syria, imported all kinds of materials from the surrounding regions. Iron oxide rock (hematite, goethite and magnetite) was very popular for weight stones and cylinder seals around 2000 BC. This research aims to determine the region of origin for the raw material, what made people start using iron oxide rock, and what led them to stop using it. To answer these questions, a multidisciplinary approach was applied. Geology and archaeology were combined to identify Northern Syria as the region of origin. Archaeometric research of the production process showed that technological change concurred with the start and end of the use of iron oxide rock. Cuneiform texts yielded, among other information, the earliest description of magnetism known to mankind. Furthermore, element and mineral composition of 50 artefacts from three Dutch collections were determined with modern, non-destructive analysis techniques.

Bizat Ruhama is an Early Pleistocene site located on the fringe of the Negev Desert, Israel, in the southern coastal plain of the southern Levant. This book presents the results of recent excavations carried out at the site and technological analysis of its lithic industry. The excavations (2004-5) had three major goals: firstly to reconstruct the paleoenvironmental context of the site; secondly to provide large lithic assemblages for detailed technological and behavioral studies; and finally to verify the primary context of the lithic and faunal assemblages. The results of the new excavations suggest that Bizat Ruhama is a site complex containing a number of roughly contemporaneous occupations. The analysis of the lithic assemblages from different occupation areas are presented in this study.

Recent archaeobotanical results from early Neolithic sites on Cyprus have put the island in the forefront of debates on the spread of Near Eastern agriculture, with domestic crops appearing on the island shortly after they evolved. The results from these early sites changed what was known about the timing of the introduction of farming to the island. However, what happened after the introduction of agriculture to Cyprus has been less discussed. This book explores the role of new crop introductions, local agricultural developments, and intensification in subsequent economic and social developments on Cyprus corresponding with the island's evidence of ongoing social transformations and changing off-island patterns of contacts. In addition to contributing to discussions on the origins and spread of Near Eastern agriculture, it contributes to current archaeological debates on external contact and the influence of the broader Near East on the development of the island's unique prehistoric economy. This research is a chronological and regional analysis of the botanical record of Cyprus and a comparison of data from similarly dated sites in the Levantine mainland, Turkey, and Egypt. Further, it includes data from four recently excavated Cypriot prehistoric sites, Krittou Marottou-'Ais Yiorkis, Kissonerga-Skalia, Souskiou-Laona, and Prastion-Mesorotsos.

In the late 4th century AD, the site of Kourion, Cyprus was destroyed by an earthquake that struck with little or no warning, trapping victims and objects where they lay. Although much of the site was reoccupied and rebuilt, some areas were not, thus providing a unique example of a moment truly frozen in time. This work presents the results of a comprehensive study of the architecture, stratigraphy, and material culture assemblage recovered from the Earthquake House, a multi-roomed domestic structure destroyed during this seismic event. The architectural analysis revealed a number of modifications to the structure that increased its overall size and subdivided its internal spaces, although their timing and reasons remain unknown at present. Study of the artifact assemblage provided significant insights into the processes surrounding the use, re-use, and discard of artifacts. This analysis identified numerous behaviors including consumable and non-consumable storage, storage of material for reuse and/or recycling, food preparation, and waste disposal, including a partial reconstruction of the domestic waste stream. This study produced a more nuanced model for understanding the distribution of artifacts in ancient domestic contexts and demonstrates that even in cases of near instantaneous destruction without significant disturbance, a wide variety of variables must be considered when examining the artifacts of domestic assemblages.

First published in Rome in 1535,Leone Ebreo's Dialogues of Love is one of the most important texts of the European Renaissance. Well known in the Italian academies of the sixteenth century, its popularity quickly spread throughout Europe, with numerous reprintings and translations into French, Latin Spanish, and Hebrew. It attracted a diverse audience that included noblemen, courtesans, artists, poets, intellectuals, and philosophers. More than just a bestseller, the work exerted a deep influence over the centuries on figures as diverse as Giordano Bruno, John Donne, Miguelde Cervantes, and Baruch Spinoza. Leone's Dialogues consists of three conversations - 'On Love and Desire,' 'On the Universality of Love,' and 'Onthe Origin of Love' - that take place over a period of three subsequent days.They are organized in a dialogic format, much like a theatrical representation, of a conversation between a man, Philo, who plays the role of the lover andteacher, and a woman, Sophia, the beloved and pupil. The discussion covers a wide range of topics that have as their common denominator the idea of Love. Through the dialogue, the author explores many different points of view and complex philosophical ideas. Grounded in a distinctly Jewish tradition, and drawing on Neoplatonic philosophical structures and Arabic sources, the work offers a useful compendium of classical and contemporary thought, yet was not incompatible with Christian doctrine. Despite the unfinished state and somewhat controversial, enigmatic nature of Ebreo's famous text, it remains one of the most significant and influential works in the history of Western thought. This new, expertly translated and annotated English edition takes into account the latest scholarship and provides aninvaluable resource for today's readers.

Eight papers arising from a colloquium on Warfare and Society in the Ancient Eastern Mediterranean held at the University of Liverpool, 13th June 2008.

The first section of the present volume is a report of the Italian involvement in Southern Makr n and Khar n, its aims and objects, modus operandi. It is essentially restricted to the Islamic era and represents a discourse preliminary to the second section. The methodological approach of combining historical sources (written and manuscript, Persian and Arabic) with archaeological evidence and geo-morphological study has allowed for a re-reading of the traditional literature and the role played by Makr n and, in particular, the K j-u-Makr n region during the 10th-13th Centuries AD. Many questions put by this mystifying region still stand only partly answered, if not completely un-answered. After three seasons of archaeological field-work and research complemented with accurate geo-morphological surveys and studying we are still confronted with an elusive region and some crucial queries. Part Two of this study is the follow up of the archaeological and geo-morphological research-work: a historical study, which focuses on the 10th-13th Centuries AD."

The Camp David Peace Accords between Egypt and Israel initiated an archaeological salvage project in portions of the central and southern Negev (Israel). As a participant in the Negev Emergency Survey, Mordechai Haiman's field crew surveyed, from 1979-1989, 450 kilometers in the western Negev Highlands, and identified 1,500 sites. He also directed excavations at 33 sites. Funded by a grant from the Shelby White and Leon Levy Program for Archaeological Publications, this fieldwork was reanalyzed for publication. The contents of this final report touch upon various aspects of Haiman's excavations and surveys including methodologies, lithic material, pottery, fauna remains, petrographic analysis and more.

During recent years new excavations at a number of Neolithic locations in the Central Zagros by German, British and Iranian archaeologists have revealed a series of important results. Notable are the Early Neolithic sites of Choga Golan, Jani, Sheikh-e Abad, and East Chia Sabz, all discovered and excavated within the last ten years. In this volume Hojjat Darabi gives a survey of the discoveries on which our knowledge is based. The book is set in a chronological frame, in an environmental context, and in a regional and theoretical perspective. It is illustrated by a number of useful photos, drawings charts and diagrams. The book is a presentation of our knowledge about Neolithic Revolution as it appears right now; in addition, its provides an outline of further steps for future research.