This book is the result of more than a dozen years of research in the field of the hitherto unstudied medieval settlement pattern of the Syrian coastal region in the 12th and 13th centuries. The conclusions presented in this work were reached with the combined use of several source types including medieval documents, travellers' accounts, former research, map evidence, toponymy, archive and satellite photographs, oral sources and extensive archaeological field surveys accompanied by documentation between the years 2000 and 2015. After enumerating the historical events that influenced the settlement pattern of the coast, its centres, including the towns and castles (with special regard to the smaller fortifications of the countryside that seem to have been a Frankish introduction to the area) are analysed. Following the detailed examination of the written sources and the architectural material preserved at these lesser sites, a closer look at the villages and their environment aims to draw a general picture on the density of settlements and their basic characteristics. The book also discusses communication lines and provides an assessment of the medieval population that inhabited the region in the 12th and 13th centuries. The text is accompanied by a collection of maps, plan drawings, tables and illustrations on a selected number of sites visited during the field surveys.

Literary sources suggest that Mt. Carmel was a sacred site for the pagans, for the veneration and worship of Ba'al, as practiced there since the 9th century BCE through the erection of altars and temples/shrines in his honour. According to Iamblichus, the Greek philosopher Pythagoras, on his way to Egypt, visited the mountain in the second half of the 6th century BCE and sought solitude in a temple, or perhaps in a temenos. In the days of the Achaemenid king of Persia Darius I (521-486 BCE), the mountain seems to have been sacred to Zeus. Artistic and epigraphic evidence suggest that Elijah's Cave, on the western slope of Mt. Carmel, had been used as a pagan cultic place, possibly a shrine, devoted to Ba'al Carmel (identified with Zeus/Jupiter) as well as to Pan and Eros as secondary deities. The visual representation of the cult statue (idol) of Ba'al Carmel, a libation vessel (kylix?) and the presumed figure of the priest or, alternatively, the altar within the aedicula, strengthen the assumption that the Cave was used in the Roman period, and perhaps even earlier. In addition, one of the Greek inscriptions, dated to the Roman period, indicates the sacred nature of the Cave and the prohibition of its profanation. When Elijah's Cave ceased to be used for pagan worship it continued to be regarded as a holy site and was dedicated to Prophet Elijah, presumably in the Early Byzantine period. Following the tradition linking Elijah (so-called el-Khader) with Mt. Carmel, it became sacred to the Prophet and was used by supplicants (Jews, Christians, Muslims and Druze) to Elijah for aid, healing and salvation, a tradition that still persists to this day. There are no literary or historical sources which are recording the existence of Elijah's Cave on Mt. Carmel prior to the 12th century. The earliest written testimony is that of the laconic description of the Russian Abbot Daniel, who made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 1106-1107, followed by Rabbi Benjamin of Tudela, who visited the Land of Israel in 1165. Any earlier written material must have been lost over time, since it is unlikely that the Cave and its surroundings were entirely ignored before the 12th century.

Cited by al-Muqaddasi in c.985 and then by al-Idrisi in c.1150, the medieval port of Sharma was discovered in 1996 at the extremity of the Ra's Sharma, 50km east of al-Shihr on the Hadramawt coast of Yemen; it was excavated in 2001-2005. This unique site was actually a transit entrepot, a cluster of warehouses probably founded by Iranian merchants and entirely devoted to the maritime trade. It knew a rather short period of activity, between around 980 and the second half of the 12th century, which may be acknowledged as the Sharma horizon. Excavations proved that this settlement experienced six occupation phases, which are closely related to the political and economic developments in the region at that time. The material is mainly transit merchandises, small objects, resins, glass and pottery; some of the ceramics were locally made, in the nearby kilns of Yadghat, but most (70%) were imported, from all parts of the Indian Ocean from China to East Africa. The typo-chronological study of this closed assemblage brings very precise information on the dating and evolution of the various types recorded, and the historical analyse sheds new light on the history of the Islamic maritime trade in the 10th to 12th centuries. French text throughout.

This volume presents the results of the Italian excavations and surveys carried out in Transjordan between 1927 and 1938. After a first excavation campaign conducted in 1927 on the Amman Citadel by Giacomo Guidi, the excavations were resumed in 1929 by Renato Bartoccini (Rome 1893-Rome 1963), who carried out four campaigns on the Citadel in 1929, 1930, 1933 and 1938. He also travelled across modern Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, taking photos and writing reports on several archaeological sites. Bartoccini published a few notes and reports, but almost all the original documentation of his work was still unpublished at the time this study was conducted. The main source of data is the Fondo Renato Bartoccini, i.e. the private archive of Bartoccini, today held by the University of Perugia, while other useful documents are kept in other archives in Macerata and in Rome. Furthermore, some decorated Islamic pottery from the excavations on the Citadel is held at the Museo Internazionale delle Ceramiche in Faenza. The retrieved photos, excavation journals, letters, and administrative documents make it possible to understand, after almost a century, how the Citadel of Amman appeared at the time of its first excavation.

The story of the duel of David and Goliath, the Philistine champion, is narrated in the Bible in several versions. While its symbolic importance in Judaism and later in Christianity gradually came to represent the battle between good and evil, true faith and paganism, attempts were made since ancient times to solve its ambiguities. In modern research, the story arouses many disputes. There is controversy about the degree of realism and fantasy in it and there is also no agreement as to the time it was composed. Some claim that this was close to the time when the event occurred at the beginning of the monarchy period. Others postpone the time of its writing to the end of the Judaean monarchy and even to Second Temple times by pointing out its similarities to Greek literature and the characteristics of Goliath as an Aegean hoplite. The purpose of the study is not only to shed light on the enigmas about the protagonists and the time of the story, but also to understand why the importance of its message did not lessen and in what circumstances the interest in it was prolonged. The study employs a textual analysis (literary and philological) of the story together with its comparison to Greek, Egyptian and Mesopotamian literary sources, historical analysis, and also a comparative analysis with archaeological findings. It examines sources which until now have not been included in research and suggests a new date, place and motive for the compilation of the duel story.

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 years 1983-2013, an archaeological expedition under the auspices of the Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology of Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, was active on Mount Carmel, Israel. The expedition comprised archaeologists, team members, students and other professionals, as well as pupils from schools in the Sharon and Daliyat el-Carmel. This book describes ten rural mountain sites through which it seeks to reconstruct the character of all the settlements on the mountain and at its foot, from the Persian through the Byzantine periods.

The present volume is concerned with some of the work done in the Hellenistic period cemetery at Pichvnari between 1965 and 2004, as well as at Zemopartskhma and other sites of the Supsa-Natanebi basin, where pithos burials of the Hellenistic period were discovered in the 1950s.

Contents: Introduction: The development of Arabic as a written language (Christian Julien Robin); Ancient Arabia and the written word (M.C.A. Macdonald); Mount Nebo, Jabal Ramm, and the status of Christian Palestinian Aramaic and Old Arabic in Late Roman Palestine and Arabia (Robert Hoyland); A glimpse of the development of the Nabataean script into Arabic based on old and new epigraphic material (Laila Nehme); The evolution of the Arabic script in the period of the Prophet Mu ammad and the Orthodox Caliphs in the light of new inscriptions discovered in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia ('Ali Ibrahim Al-Ghabban); In search of a standard: dialect variation and New Arabic features in the oldest Arabic written documents (Pierre Larcher); The codex Parisino-petropolitanus and the ijazi scripts (Francois Deroche); The relationship of literacy and memory in the second/eighth century (Gregor Schoeler); The Use of the Arabic script in magic (Venetia Porter); The Old Arabic graffito at Jabal Usays: A new reading of line 1 (M.C.A. Macdonald).

Archaeological investigations in the north-western part of the Arabian Peninsula has increased during the last 15 years. One of the major sites in the region is the ancient oasis of Taym�’, known as a commercial hub on the so-called Incense Road connecting South Arabia with the Eastern Mediterranean. In the context of this new research a multidisciplinary project by the Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage (SCTH) and the Orient Department of the German Archaeological Institute (DAI) has been investigating the archaeology and ancient environment of Taym�’ since 2004. A major aim of this project was the development of new perspectives of the site and the region, characterised by elaborating the local socio-cultural and economic contexts. So far, Taym�’ has been known mainly through exogenous sources. The present volume is the first of the publication series of the Saudi-German archaeological project and focuses on three fundamental aspects of research at Taym�’: the current archaeological exploration of the oasis is contextualised with previous and ongoing research within the region, while at the same time offering a first overview of the settlement history of the site, which may have started as early as more than 6000 years ago. New information on the palaeoenvironment has been provided by multiproxy- analysis of sediments from a palaeolake immediately north of the settlement. The results indicate an Early Holocene humid period in the region that is shorter than the so-called African Humid Period. The abrupt aridification at around 8 ka BP, known from other regions in the Near East, is also attested in north-western Arabia. The reconstruction of the past vegetation of the site and its surroundings demonstrates that oasis cultivation at Taym�’ started during the 5th millennium BCE with grapes and figs, rather than with the date palm. According to hydrological investigations on water resources, groundwater aquifers provided the main source of local water supply. These were exploited through wells, some of which have been identified in the area of the ancient oasis. Finally, since the time of early travellers to Northwest Arabia evidence of cultural contacts has been observed in the records from the site, which had been occupied by the last Babylonian king, Nabonidus (556–539 BCE) for ten years. A historical-archaeological essay on Egypt and Arabia as well as a study on the ambiguous relationship between Assyria and Arabia – characterised by conflict and commerce – shed new light on the foreign relations of ancient Taym�’.

Stone containers have been made and used in the Middle East for over eleven millennia where they pre-dated the invention of pottery and were widely traded. The appearance or properties of the stone helped govern how stone vessels were valued or used and many classes were strictly utilitarian, being used for storage, cooking or lighting. Others were decorated and at times they were considered valuable exotica, particularly in regions far removed from their source areas. The subject of stone vessels is attracting growing attention but this is the first attempt to bring together different approaches to the study of softstone vessels, particularly but not exclusively those carved from varieties of chlorite, and covering all periods from prehistory to the present.

Syria has been a major crossroads of civilizations in the ancient Near East since the dawn of human kind. Until the current crisis began in 2011, Syria was one of the foremost pioneers in the investigation of past human knowledge, diversity, and identity. However, due to the ongoing war, archaeological excavations came to an abrupt halt. Since then, there have been countless alarming reports of damage or destruction inflicted on archaeological, historical, and museum sites. The International Syrian Congress on Archaeology and Cultural Heritage (ISCACH), held December 3-5, 2015 in Beirut, Lebanon, was designed to bring together international scholars who have directed or participated in archaeological expeditions in Syria, and colleagues from Syria. By doing so, not only could the results of years of archaeological investigations and cultural heritage management in Syria be shared and discussed, but also a spirit of friendship and collaboration could be fostered and strengthened during this turbulent period. The Congress focussed on the scientific aspects of each explored site and region allowing researchers to examine in detail each heritage site, its characteristics and identity. Archaeological Explorations in Syria 2000-2011: Proceedings of ISCACH-Beirut 2015 consists of two parts. The first part presents the results of archaeological investigations conducted between 2000 and 2010. The second part comprises abstracts of papers and posters presented during the Congress. It is hoped that this book will represent an important contribution to the scientific dialogue between international and Syrian scholars, and will appeal to the general public interested in the culture and history of Syria.

This year, 2017, marks 70 years since the discovery of the famous Dead Sea Scrolls at Khirbet Qumran by the Dead Sea in 1947. The Dead Sea Scrolls are one of the most well-known archaeological discoveries of the 20th century. This book addresses the proto-history and the roots of the Qumran community and of the Dead Sea Scrolls in the light of contemporary scholarship in Alexandria, Egypt. Alexandria, as the centre for Hellenistic Jews and the location of the Library of Alexandria, forms a key to understanding the theme of the book. The relationship of this context to the thoughts of the Essenes, the Jewish philosopher Philo of Alexandria, the Jewish Therapeutae of Egypt living in the neighbourhood of Alexandria and the Pythagoreans are especially studied in this work. Historical sources (both Jewish and Classical authors) and archaeological evidence are taken into account in the wider Graeco-Roman context. The connection between the Jewish Therapeutae in the Lake Mareotis region and the Palestinian Essenes is explained by the 'Jewish Pythagoras' based on the idea that the movements share the same philosophical tradition based on Judaism and Pythagoreanism. The prototypes of the Dead Sea Scrolls are explained in their Egyptian context, in association with the Library of Alexandria, the Egyptian temple manuals, and the formation of libraries in the Hellenistic period including that of Qumran.

There is a long-held feeling in Russia that Moscow is the true heir to the Christian Byzantine Empire. In 1894, Imperial Russia opened one of the world's leading centres for Byzantine archaeology in Istanbul, the Russian Archaeological Institute - its purpose was to stake the claim that Russia was the correct heir to 'Tsargrad' (as Istanbul was referred to in Russian circles). This then is the history of that institute, and the history of Russia's efforts to reclaim its Middle East - events since in the Crimea, Syria and Georgia are all, to some extent, wrapped up in this historical framework. Ure looks at the founding of the Russian Archaeological Institute, its aims, and its place in the 'digging-race' which characterised the late Imperial phase of modern history. Above all, she shows how the practise of history has been used as a political tool, a form of "soft power".

This volume contains 23 articles written by 26 authors in order to express the extent of their respect and friendship for Christine Kepinski. The topics addressed in their papers reflect the scientific work of Christine Kepinski, who always promoted interdisciplinary approaches and developed multi-scale analysis from the object itself to regional study. Several papers are directly connected to fieldwork she conducted in Iraq and in Turkey: Haradum and the Middle Euphrates area, Tilbeshar and Kunara. Others are devoted to material study, notably glyptic, seals and sealing practices. Others evoke Syria: she never directed archaeological excavation there but she always integrated Syria in her studies. Finally, some are inspired by Christine Kepinski's interest for urban life. The chronological time span of the book as well as the various specialisations of the authors clearly show the great value of her scientific background guided by her taste for the Orient.

Volume 1 of the series Arabia Orientalis presents the first comprehensive study of two Umm an-Nar (2700-2000 BC) burial pits from the UNESCO World Heritage site Bat in the Sultanate of Oman. They were excavated between 2010 and 2012 by the University of Tubingen. Each burial pit represents one of the largest closed finds of the Early Bronze Age in the region. Finds largely include beads and other items of personal adornment, as well as pottery and human bones. Detailed typologies of all objects are the basis for in-depth statistical analyses of the different categories of finds and the reconstruction of burial customs at Bat. Furthermore, imports and imitations from other regions including the Indus Valley, Iran, and Mesopotamia illuminate Bat's foreign relations and integration into the interregional exchange and communication system. The interpretation of the unearthed human remains conducted by Steve Zauner offer, not only the number of individuals, sex, and age of the deceased, but also insights into lifestyle, diseases, and stress of the people in the past.

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.

Game drives of the Aralo-Caspian region is a translated and revised edition of Yagodin's Strelovidnye Planirovki Ustyurta, originally published in Tashkent in 1991. Based on extensive fieldwork, the volume investigates arrow-shaped structures used for hunting in remote areas of Central Asia between the seventh and 14th centuries AD. This classic study of game drives remains one of the most significant works in Ustyurt archaeology and one of the few that integrates geoarchaeological, ecological and ethnographic data. This first English edition of Game drives of the Aralo-Caspian region has been amended with new material, including the study of satellite imagery, and enriched with many new illustrations.

While mortuary ruins have long fascinated archaeologists and art historians interested in the cultures of the Near East and eastern Mediterranean, the human skeletal remains contained in the tombs of this region have garnered less attention. In Bioarchaeology and Behavior, Megan Perry presents a collection of essays that aim a spotlight on the investigation of the ancient inhabitants of the circum-Mediterranean area. Composed of eight diverse papers, this volume synthesizes recent research on human skeletal remains and their archaeological and historical contexts in this region. Utilizing an environmental, social, and political framework, the contributors present scholarly case studies on such topics as the region's mortuary archaeology, genetic investigations of migration patterns, and the ancient populations' health, disease, and diet. Other key anthropological issues addressed in this volume include the effects of the domestication of plants and animals, the rise of state-level formations, and the role of religion in society. Ultimately, this collection will provide anthropologists, archaeologists, and bioarchaeologists with an important foundation for future research in the Near East and eastern Mediterranean.

Recent studies on the Anatolian archaeology in this volume shows the great importance of the cultural and archaeological heritage of the Turkey. This volume includes data from surveys and excavations, in addition to the analysis of unpublished materials preserved in local museums. The geographical region covered in by the papers included in this volume covers the whole of Asia Minor, from the west coast to the central and northern part, up to the east. The temporal coverage ranges from the Neolithic to the nineteenth century. Scholars from various parts of the world, but especially young and promising Turkish researchers, have contributed papers to this volume which discuss the important archaeological heritage of Anatolia and contribute a great deal to archaeological knowledge and practice in this part of the world.

Everyone who investigates pre-modern concepts of nature cannot avoid a critical reflection on the ancient understandings of it. Here, "nature" is understood in the sense of a seemingly untouched space, largely independent of human culture. While this concept of "nature" is prevalent in modern times, the reconstruction of ancient ideas is difficult in that concepts of nature, if at all present, emphasize other aspects. For example, the Greek term in pre-Hellenistic times defines the nature of a thing rather than an untouched environment. A word for "nature" in this sense has not been handed down to us in the remaining texts of the Ancient Near East and Classical Antiquity. Nevertheless, such concepts can certainly be reconstructed from descriptions of nature to be found in literature and the representations of natural elements in art. The present volume aims at identifying these concepts of nature in texts as well as in archaeological remains of the Ancient Near Eastern and the Greek culture from the Archaic to the Hellenistic period. Contributions from the fields of archaeology and philology are juxtaposed for each time period in chronological order. This arrangement provides a good overview of the concepts of nature prevailing throughout different period and cultures. | Der Begriff "Natur" wird in modernen, mitteleuropaischen Gesellschaften meist im Sinne eines vermeintlich unberuhrten Raumes verstanden, der weitgehend unbeeinflusst von menschlicher Kultur ist. Fur vormoderne Kulturen lassen sich solche Vorstellungen bzw. Konzepte sehr viel schwieriger nachweisen, da beispielsweise ein Wort fur "Natur" mit der eben genannten Bedeutung in den erhaltenen Texten des Alten Orients und der griechischen Antike so nicht uberliefert zu sein scheint. Gleichwohl werden durchaus Naturelemente in der antiken Literatur, der Flachenkunst sowie in antiken Monumenten beschrieben bzw. abgebildet sowie als integrative Bestandteile genutzt und funktionalisiert. Daraus lassen sich Konzepte von "Natur" herausarbeiten und rekonstruieren. Der vorliegende Band moechte solche "Naturkonzepte" in Texten, Artefakten und Denkmalern des Alten Orients und des griechischen Kulturraumes von der Archaik bis in den Hellenismus identifizieren und einen UEberblick uber die jeweils in einem bestimmten Zeit- und Kulturraum vorherrschenden Vorstellungen sowie deren diachrone Entwicklung geben.

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.

Set along the Sahara's edge, Sijilmasa was an African El Dorado, a legendary city of gold. But unlike El Dorado, Sijilmasa was a real city, the pivot in the gold trade between ancient Ghana and the Mediterranean world. Following its emergence as an independent city-state controlling a monopoly on gold during its first 250 years, Sijilmasa was incorporated into empire-Almoravid, Almohad, and onward-leading to the "last civilized place" becoming the cradle of today's Moroccan dynasty, the Alaouites. Sijilmasa's millennium of greatness ebbed with periods of war, renewal, and abandonment. Today, its ruins lie adjacent to and under the modern town of Rissani, bypassed by time. The Moroccan-American Project at Sijilmasa draws on archaeology, historical texts, field reconnaissance, oral tradition, and legend to weave the story of how this fabled city mastered its fate. The authors' deep local knowledge and interpretation of the written and ecological record allow them to describe how people and place molded four distinct periods in the city's history. Messier and Miller compare models of Islamic cities to what they found on the ground to understand how Sijilmasa functioned as a city. Continuities and discontinuities between Sijilmasa and the contemporary landscape sharpen questions regarding the nature of human life on the rim of the desert. What, they ask, allows places like Sijilmasa to rise to greatness? What causes them to fall away and disappear into the desert sands?

Hierapolis (Phrygia) is located in Turkey in the territory of Pamukkale-Denizli. The city was known in antiquity for the cult of Cyble, patron goddess of the colony since its foundation. Hierapolis experienced a period of extraordinary prosperity both economically and politically throughout the 2nd century A.D. and into the early years of the 3rd century A.D., corresponding to the phase of monumentalization of the city. On the hill overlooking the east of the city is an imposing octagonal building, built in the late 4th and early 5th centuries A.D, erected as a 'martyrion' in honour of Saint Philip. Among other key monuments of this important ancient city, this study concentrates on the martyrion with the main objective of increasing knowledge of the building from an architectural point of view and aimed at retrieving a data set useful for planning a future restoration project. In addition, an aim of the research was to contribute to the knowledge of religious architecture between the 4th and 6th centuries in Asia Minor within the field of the history of late antique architecture. Most of the work was dedicated to the realization of plans and prospects which have allowed detailed analysis of each part of the building. It is hoped this work on the topographical-historical framework of Hierapolis will contribute to the study of similar architectural structures by presenting a seriation of masonry structures and technical solutions applicable also to other regions.