Published by De Gruyter

Volume 1 Issue 2 -

Issue of Journal of Ancient Near Eastern History

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Contents
Journal Overview

Publicly Available November 4, 2014

Frontmatter

Page range: i-iii

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October 16, 2014

The Historicality of the King: An Exercise in Reading Royal Inscriptions from the Ancient Levant

Matthew James Suriano

Page range: 95-118

Abstract

The problem with using royal inscriptions as historical sources is their inherent bias. The interests of the king drive the narratives of royal inscriptions. Yet this essential feature reveals their underlying concept of history. In royal inscriptions, historical thought is defined by the life and experience of the king. This article will present a hermeneutic for reading royal inscriptions that focuses on the individual king. The article will first look at the concept of historical time in epigraphic Hebrew and Old Aramaic sources before examining the complicated ways in which this concept is rendered in the principal genres of royal writings, the memorial and the dedicatory inscription. A survey of features found in memorial inscriptions from Dibon (the Mesha Stele) and Sam’al (Kulamuwa), followed by a study of the Old Byblian dedicatory inscriptions, will explore the complex process of configuring time and narrative around the king. In each genre of royal inscription, the linear time of the ruler intersects with cyclical traditions of kingship, revealing the historicality of respective king.

November 4, 2014

Judeans in Sippar and Susa during the First Century of the Babylonian Exile: Assimilation and Perseverance under Neo-Babylonian and Achaemenid Rule

Yigal Bloch

Page range: 119-172

Abstract

The present study discusses the attestations of persons of Judean origin in Neo-Babylonian cuneiform tablets (of the period between 550 and 490 bce ) as possible evidence of some aspects of the social history of the community of Judeans exiled to Babylonia by Nebuchadnezzar II. Although the number of such attestations is very small, it is nonetheless possible to single out two groups which display different patterns of personal name giving across generations. In one instance, a group of merchants in the city of Sippar (belonging mostly to a single family) uses, in part, distinctly Judean personal names in the first generation of the exile, but abandons them completely in favor of Babylonian theophoric names in the next generation. In another instance, a group of individuals active mostly in Susa and probably belonging to the families of royal officials (as suggested by names and patronymics of the type of Beamtennamen – names expressing a pious wish for the well-being of the king) displays the use of Yahwistic personal names even though the fathers of those individuals bore Babylonian theophoric names. It is suggested that the persistence of Yahwistic – hence distinctly Judean – names among royal officials or their direct offspring, even after the previous generation bore Babylonian names, reflects a considerable measure of tolerance toward ethnically foreign elements in the royal administration (the relevant examples date from the period after the establishment of the Achaemenid empire). In contrast, the progressing adoption of Babylonian names among the Judean merchants in Sippar in the first half of the sixth century bce seems likely to reflect assimilation into the native Babylonian society, fostered by the necessity to pursue commercial dealings with the Ebabbar temple of Šamaš and the social circles centered around the temple, which consisted of conservatively minded upper strata of the native Babylonian society. Editions of the cuneiform tablets discussed in the present study are provided in the Appendix.

July 8, 2014

The Casualty Figures in Darius’ Bisitun Inscription

John O. Hyland

Page range: 173-199

Abstract

The Babylonian and Aramaic versions of the Bisitun inscription give precise enumerations of enemies killed and captured by the armies of Darius I in 522–521 bc . But the figures are absent from Bisitun’s other versions, and their accuracy and historical value remain in question. This study reviews their textual reliability and modern reconstructions and argues that they do not reflect accurate counts of battlefield dead or prisoners. It proposes that the Babylonian text offered more space for additional material than its Elamite or Persian counterparts and that its casualty figures enhanced Darius’ military narrative by quantifying his superiority to subordinates: enemy losses are highest when the King commands in person, less for generals in separate commands, and lowest for Darius’ non-Persian lieutenants. Explanations are considered for a possible exception, the victory of the satrap Dadaršiš in Margiana.

October 17, 2014

Religious Continuity and Change in Parthian Mesopotamia: A Note on the Survival of Babylonian Traditions

Lucinda Dirven

Page range: 201-229

Abstract

During the period of Arsacid domination, Mesopotamia was characterized by an extraordinarily varied religious landscape. Religion in Arsacid Mesopotamia has not received much attention so far and an all-encompassing study dealing with religious continuity and change in the region is still lacking. For most Assyriologists, religion in the Parthian period is quite different from the preceding periods. Graeco-Roman historians have not shown a great interest in the period either. In short, the study of religion in Parthian Mesopotamia is still split up in diverse cultural and linguistic traditions that are the result of the academic training of the researchers. A profound study of religion in Mesopotamia during this period has to break free from these traditional confines and study the various religious traditions in their social, cultural, and religious context, with a keen eye for religious interaction and diversity on a local level. In present-day research, the focus is on continuity of Babylonian culture and religion. In the first part of this article, I shall argue that the case for continuity has been overstated of late. In fact, change was equally important and this change set in as early as the Achaemenid period. In the second part I shall argue that Babylonian culture was never confined to temples and cuneiform and that the Babylonian deities always had led a life outside their traditional homes as well.

Area Review

Publicly Available July 5, 2014

Recent Developments in the Social and Economic History of Ancient Egypt

Juan Carlos Moreno García

Page range: 231-261

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Abstract

Recent developments in Pharaonic social and economic history help provide a more balanced interpretation of ancient Egypt. Landscape research shows the succession of several micro-regions in the Nile Valley. The conditions prevailing in some of these regions show that cattle rearing played a crucial economic role, while mobile populations from Egypt and abroad could lead lifestyles alternative to cereal cultivation. Trade also appears as a largely underestimated activity, where markets, private merchants and agricultural “entrepreneurs” fuelled exchanges not only within Egyptian borders but also abroad. Their role was crucial in the transformation of agrarian produce into wealth while their activities were in many ways autonomous from any institution, including temples or the crown itself. Not surprisingly, the social structure appears less rigidly organized than previously thought. Elites and peasantry, for instance, actually encompassed very distinct social groups whose goals and interests were not always coincident. While the former included not only officials and high dignitaries but also local potentates and chiefs of villages, the latter encompassed a variety of conditions, from poor rural workers and forced labourers to wealthy cultivators and rich peasants. The local power of such sub-elites enabled them to head extensive patronage networks. Their cooperation with the royal administration was crucial for the stability of the monarchy, even if their appearance in official sources is rather elusive. Politics, the negotiation between factions and groups for power, between the core of the kingdom and the provinces, were common practice, quite far in fact from the supposedly autocratic power of pharaohs.

About this journal

Objective
The Journal of Ancient Near Eastern History seeks to encourage and stimulate the study of the history of the ancient Near East, which is broadly defined to include areas from Iran to the western Anatolian coast and the Black Sea to Southern Arabia from its prehistoric foundations to the Late Antique period. The journal is also interested in interactions with other regions and cultures, such as Ancient Egypt, the Mediterranean World, the Indian Ocean and Central Asia. Articles may focus on any aspect of history (political, social, economic, cultural, intellectual, etc.) and of modern historiography. The journal seeks to integrate the study of the ancient Near East firmly in the historical discipline in general and encourages its authors to take into account current methodological debates and approaches.

Topics

Near Eastern History
Ancient Cultures
Political, social, economic, cultural, intellectual and other aspects of history
Modern Historiography

Article formats
Original research articles