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Books > Humanities > Archaeology > Archaeology by period / region > Middle & Near Eastern archaeology
For the past hundred years, much has been written about the
early editions of Christian texts discovered in the region that was
once Roman Egypt. Scholars have cited these papyrus
manuscripts--containing the Bible and other Christian works--as
evidence of Christianity's presence in that historic area during
the first three centuries AD. In "Early Christian Books in Egypt,"
distinguished papyrologist Roger Bagnall shows that a great deal of
this discussion and scholarship has been misdirected, biased, and
at odds with the realities of the ancient world. Providing a
detailed picture of the social, economic, and intellectual climate
in which these manuscripts were written and circulated, he reveals
that the number of Christian books from this period is likely fewer
than previously believed.
Bagnall explains why papyrus manuscripts have routinely been
dated too early, how the role of Christians in the history of the
codex has been misrepresented, and how the place of books in
ancient society has been misunderstood. The author offers a
realistic reappraisal of the number of Christians in Egypt during
early Christianity, and provides a thorough picture of the
economics of book production during the period in order to
determine the number of Christian papyri likely to have existed.
Supporting a more conservative approach to dating surviving papyri,
Bagnall examines the dramatic consequences of these findings for
the historical understanding of the Christian church in Egypt.
Representations and inscriptions on tomb and temple walls and
individual stelae have provided considerable knowledge of ancient
Egyptian daily life, religious custom and military achievements.
However, as visual or eulogistic textual evidence they are unable
to provide the insight into the people themselves, their
personalities and the events and issues they were concerned with,
insight which can be found in personal correspondence. Daily Life
in Ancient Egyptian Personal Correspondence addresses a selection
of letters from the Old Kingdom up to and including the
Twenty-first Dynasty. Under the topic headings of problems and
issues, daily life, religious matters, military and police matters,
it will show the insight they provide regarding aspects of belief,
relationships, custom and behaviour, evidencing the distinctiveness
of the data such personal correspondence can provide as a primary
source of daily life in ancient Egypt - the extra dimension.
From about 2000 BCE onward, Egypt served as an important nexus for
cultural exchange in the eastern Mediterranean, importing and
exporting not just wares but also new artistic techniques and
styles. Egyptian, Greek, and Roman craftsmen imitated one another's
work, creating cultural and artistic hybrids that transcended a
single tradition. Yet in spite of the remarkable artistic
production that resulted from these interchanges, the complex
vicissitudes of exchange between Egypt and the Classical world over
the course of nearly 2500 years have not been comprehensively
explored in a major exhibition or publication in the United States.
It is precisely this aspect of Egypt's history, however, that
Beyond the Nile uncovers. Renowned scholars have come together to
provide compelling analyses of the constantly evolving dynamics of
cultural exchange, first between Egyptians and Greeks-during the
Bronze Age, then the Archaic and Classical periods of Greece, and
finally Ptolemaic Egypt-and later when Egypt passed to Roman rule
with the defeat of Cleopatra. Beyond the Nile is milestone
publication on the occasion of a major international exhibition and
one that will become an indispensable contribution to the field.
With gorgeous photographs of more than two hundred rare objects,
including frescoes, statues, obelisks, jewellery, papyri, pottery,
and coins, this volume offers an essential and interdisciplinary
approach to the rich world of artistic cross-pollination during
antiquity.
This book presents a detailed overview of the firearms used in Oman
over the last four centuries. Portable firearms were brought into
the Arabian Gulf by the Portuguese, but there is no trace of these
early weapons the region. In Oman, the typical matchlock guns with
decorated Indian barrels were highly esteemed and they were passed
from generation to generation as a family heritage. Matchlock guns
were replaced only by breech-loading Martini Henry rifles at the
end of the 19th century, when Muscat became the major firearms'
entrepot in the Arabian Gulf with hundreds of thousands of breech
loading rifles re-exported throughout the whole region up to
Afghanistan and Persia. The Martini Henry rifle and its variants
were by far the most common weapon and Belgian made Martini Henry
were specifically engraved for the Muscat market. Cannon entered
the country in great number mostly as ordnances on Royal Navy ships
and they are now kept in forts, towers and fortified buildings
across the entire Oman. The weapons described in this book are
mostly from the National Museum and Bait al Zubair Museum in
Muscat.
Sean A. Adams and Seth M. Ehorn have drawn together an exciting
range of contributors to evaluate the use of composite citations in
Early Jewish, Greco-Roman, and Early Christian authors (up through
Justin Martyr). The goal is to identify and describe the existence
of this phenomenon in both Greco-Roman and Jewish literature. The
introductory essay will help to provide some definitional
parameters, although the study as a whole will seek to weigh in on
this question. The contributors seek to address specific issues,
such as whether the quoting author created the composite text or
found it already constructed as such. The essays also cover an
exploration of the rhetorical and/or literary impact of the
quotation in its present textual location, and the question of
whether the intended audiences would have recognised and 'reverse
engineered' the composite citation and as a result engage with the
original context of each of the component parts. In addition to the
specific studies, Professor Christopher Stanley provides a summary
reflection on all of the essays in the volume along with some
implications for New Testament studies.
Analysis of the scroll fragments of the Qumran Aramaic scrolls has
been plentiful to date. Their shared characteristics of being
written in Aramaic, the common language of the region, not focused
on the Qumran Community, and dating from the 3rd century BCE to the
1st century CE have enabled the creation of a shared identity,
distinguishing them from other fragments found in the same place at
the same time. This classification, however, could yet be too
simplistic as here, for the first time, John Starr applies
sophisticated statistical analyses to newly available electronic
versions of these fragments. In so doing, Starr presents a
potential new classification which comprises six different text
types which bear distinctive textual features, and thus is able to
narrow down the classification both temporally and geographically.
Starr's re-visited classification presents fresh insights into the
Aramaic texts at Qumran, with important implications for our
understanding of the many strands that made up Judaism in the
period leading to the writing of the New Testament.
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 is the first full biography of James Rendel Harris
(1852-1941), Bible and patristic scholar, manuscript collector,
Quaker theologian, devotional writer, traveller, folklorist, and
relief worker. Drawing on published and unpublished sources
gathered in the United States, Europe, and the Middle East, many of
which were previously unknown, Alessandro Falcetta tells the story
of Harris's life and works set against the background of the
cultural and political life of contemporary Britain. Falcetta
traces the development of Harris's career from Cambridge to
Birmingham, the story of his seven journeys to the Middle East, and
of his many campaigns, from religious freedom to conscientious
objection. The book focuses upon Harris's innovative contributions
in the field of textual and literary criticism, his acquisitions of
hundreds of manuscripts from the Middle East, his discoveries of
early Christian works - in particular the Odes of Solomon - his
Quaker beliefs and his studies in the cult of twins. His enormous
output and extensive correspondence reveal an indefatigable genius
in close contact with the most famous scholars of his time, from
Hort to Harnack, Nestle, the 'Sisters of Sinai', and Frazer.
Dedicated to Professor Antonio Sagona on the occasion of his 60th
birthday, this Festschrift commemorates his many contributions to
the archaeology of the ancient Near East. Featuring 64 chapters,
Context and Connection is focused largely but not exclusively on
work conducted in eastern Anatolia and the southern Caucasus, those
regions to which Professor Sagona has devoted his career. With
contributions from his colleagues, students and mentors - and much
collaboration between them - the volume is divided into six
sections: Reflections, Cultural connections, Landscape studies,
Artefacts and architecture, Scientific partnerships and
Retrospectives and overviews. Containing reports on recent
archaeological studies, as well as expositions of long-researched
materials and sites, the chapters are intended to be of use to the
specialist scholar and student alike. Comprehensively illustrated,
and with abstracts in both Turkish and Georgian, this book
addresses established and emerging questions facing Near Eastern
archaeologists today.
The present volume brings together papers by internationally
renowned specialists in Jewish history in the Roman period. Most of
them were read at a conference at Tel Aviv University in 2009 in
honour of Aharon Oppenheimer. The volume focuses on a number of
well-defined key topics in the history of the Jews both in Judea
and in the diaspora: first of all the image of Jews among non-Jews
and of non-Jews among Jews; questions of social and intellectual
history, mostly those dealing with the transformation that took
place as a result of the failed Jewish revolts against Rome and
urgent issues in modern scholarship. Studies to be mentioned here
are: the relationship and cultural differences between Palestinian
and Babylonian Jews; the relationship between Jews and early
Christians; the evolving image of first century Judaism as
projected in the early Christian sources and modern scholarship;
the role of the sages in this period, conversion to Judaism, and
Jewish resistance and martyrdom under Roman rule. Many of the
papers provide a new assessment of the relevant subjects in the
light of changing views of social and religious history. Central to
many of the papers is a focus on attitudes toward others and
collective image: the Jews as seen by others; Jews looking at
others and at internal groups. Another category of articles are
chapters in social and intellectual history with a sensitive and
controversial ideology in the background, some of them providing
provocative re-assessments.
Flakes, and small flakes in particular, are usually seen as
by-products or debris of the knapping process, rather than as
desired end-products with a specific potential use. In recent
years, this particular category of small tools has attracted
increasing interest among researchers, especially when focusing on
technological aspects in Lower Palaeolithic contexts, while the
functional role of these tools is still poorly investigated.
'Understanding Lithic Recycling at the Late Lower Palaeolithic
Qesem Cave, Israel: A functional and chemical investigation of
small flakes' examines Late Lower Palaeolithic Qesem Cave, Israel,
where a particular lithic trajectory directed towards the
production of small flakes by means of recycling and exploiting old
discarded flakes as cores has been recognised. The high density of
this production throughout the stratigraphic sequence of the cave
demonstrates that this was a conscious and planned technological
choice aimed at providing small and sharp items to meet specific
functional behaviours, and that this lithic behaviour persisted for
some 200 kyr of human use of the cave. The exceptional conservation
of use-wear signs and residues has made it possible to reconstruct
the functional role of this specific production system,
highlighting its specialised nature mostly related to the
processing of the animal carcasses through accurate and careful
actions and in a very specific way. The application of functional
analysis based on the determination of wear on artefacts by means
of optical light microscope, scanning electron microscopy and
chemical analysis (FTIR and EDX), provides a useful and effective
approach for understanding the adaptive strategies of the Qesem
Cave hominins while facing various situations and solving different
needs.
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.
From the Fjords to the Nile brings together essays by students and
colleagues of Richard Holton Pierce (b. 1935), presented on the
occasion of his 80th birthday. It covers topics on the ancient
world and the Near East. Pierce is Professor Emeritus of Egyptology
at the University of Bergen. Starting out as an expert in Egyptian
languages, and of law in Greco-Roman Egypt, his professional
interest has spanned from ancient Nubia and Coptic Egypt, to
digital humanities and game theory. His contributions as scholar,
teacher, supervisor and informal advisor to Norwegian studies in
Egyptology, classics, archaeology, history, religion, and
linguistics through more than five decades can hardly be
overstated.
This is the first volume in a four-book set covering all Egyptian
pottery, ranging from the earliest (Fayum A) ceramics to pottery
made in Egypt today, organized by historical periods. The manuals
are quick identification guides as well as starting points for more
extensive research. For each period, ceramic types are illustrated
with a line drawing, accompanied by a description that includes
information on the pot's material, manufacturing techniques,
surface treatment, and shape. Color plates of representative
ceramic types are included to give the clearest sense of the color,
composition, and surface treatment. All four volumes provide an
extensive list of suggested readings as well as a bibliography for
each period. Introductory chapters in each book discuss the basics
of pottery manufacture and analysis. This second edition boasts a
new, expanded introduction. The first comprehensive guide to
Egyptian pottery, this set will prove valuable to students as well
as experienced field archaeologists. The volumes come in paperback
and spiral-bound versions. The spiral bound versions, with hard
laminated covers and tabs, are designed especially for the field
and lab.
Cracking the Egyptian Code is the first biography in English of
Jean-Francois Champollion, the impoverished, arrogant and brilliant
child of the French Revolution who made the vital breakthrough in
deciphering the Egyptian hieroglyphs. This finely illustrated
account charts Champollion's dramatic life and achievements: by
turns a teenage professor, a supporter of Napoleon, an exile, a
fanatical decipherer and a curator at the Louvre, he lived life to
the full but drove himself into an early grave. Andrew Robinson's
full-blooded account brings the man, his setbacks and his ultimate
triumphs vividly to life.
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.
This volume explores the long, rich traditions of viticulture and
wine production in Anatolia and Thrace, from the Neolithic era to
the present day. Chapters by ten contributing authors illustrate
the important and varied roles that viticulture has played in the
Anatolian region, and how the vine and wine have shaped the
civilizations of Anatolian peoples for millennia. Examining
archaeological remains, archival and historical texts, works of
art, the records of chroniclers, ethnographic data, migration and
demographic patterns, and contemporary legislation and advertising,
the ten authors collectively reveal the importance of wine
production and consumption in Anatolia's past, and demonstrate why
its legacy of tangible and intangible cultural heritage should be
valued in the present, and protected in the future.
The ancient Egyptians had very definite views about their
neighbours, some positive, some negative. As one would expect,
Egyptian perceptions of 'the other' were subject to change over
time, especially in response to changing political, social and
economic conditions. Thus, as Asiatics became a more familiar part
of everyday life in Egypt, and their skills and goods became
increasingly important, depictions of them took on more favourable
aspects. The investigation by necessity involves a
multi-disciplined approach which seeks to combine and synthesize
data from a wider variety of sources than drawn upon in earlier
studies. By the same token, the book addresses the interests of,
and has appeal to, a broad spectrum of scholars and general
readers.
Beneath the waters of Abukir Bay, at the edge of the Nile Delta,
lie the submerged remains of the ancient Egyptian cities Canopus
and Thonis-Heracleion, which sank over 1,000 years ago but were
dramatically rediscovered in the 20th century and brought to the
surface by marine archaeologists in the 1990s. These pioneering
underwater excavations continue today, and have yielded a wealth of
ancient artefacts, to be exhibited in Britain for the first time in
2016. Through these spectacular finds, this book tells the story of
how two iconic ancient civilizations, Egypt and Greece, interacted
in the late first millennium bc. From the foundation of Naukratis
and Thonis-Heracleion as trading posts to the conquest of Alexander
the Great, through the ensuing centuries of Ptolemaic rule to the
ultimate dominance of the Roman Empire on the world stage, Greeks
and Egyptians lived alongside one another in these lively cities,
sharing their politics, religious ideas, languages, scripts and
customs. Greek kings adopted the regalia of the pharaoh; ordinary
Greek citizens worshipped in Hellenic sanctuaries next to Egyptian
temples; and their ancient gods and mythologies became ever more
closely intertwined. This book showcases a spectacular collection
of artefacts, coupled with a retelling of the history by
world-renowned experts in the subject (including the sites'
long-term excavator), bringing the reader face-to-face with this
vibrant ancient society. Accompanies the most sensational
exhibition of ancient Egyptian and Greek discoveries to be held in
the UK for decades, opening at the British Museum.
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