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This volume presents a collection of studies by international experts on various aspects of ancient Israel’s society, economy, religion, language, culture, and history, synthesizing archaeological remains and integrating them with discussions of ancient Near Eastern and biblical texts. Driven by theoretically and methodologically informed discussions of the archaeology of the Iron Age Levant, the 47 chapters in The Ancient Israelite World provide foundational, accessible, and detailed studies in their respective topics. The volume considers the history of interpretation of ancient Israel, studies on various aspects of ancient Israel’s society and history, and avenues for present and futu...
This volume focusses on ashlar masonry, probably the most elaborate construction technique of the Eastern Mediterranean Bronze Age, from a cross-regional perspective. The building practices and the uses of cutstone components and masonries in Egypt, Syria, the Aegean, Anatolia, Cyprus and the Levant in the 3rd and 2nd millennium BC are examined through a series of case studies and topical essays. The topics addressed include the terminology of ashlar building components and the typologies of its masonries, technical studies on the procurement, dressing, tool kits and construction techniques pertaining to cut stone, investigations into the place of ashlar in inter-regional exchanges and craft dissemination, the extent and signifi cance of the use of cut stone within the communities and regions, and the visual eff ects, social meanings, and symbolic and ideological values of ashlar.
This English translation of the second edition of Christian Frevel’s essential textbook Geschichte Israels (Kohlhammer, 2018) covers the history of Israel from its beginnings until the Bar Kokhba revolt (132–135 CE). Frevel draws on archaeological evidence, inscriptions and monuments, as well as the Bible to sketch a picture of the history of ancient Israel within the context of the southern Levant that is sometimes familiar but often fresh and unexpected. Frevel has updated the second German edition with the most recent research of archaeologists and biblical scholars, including those based in Europe. Tables of rulers, a glossary, a timeline of the ancient Near East, and resources arranged by subject make this book an accessible, essential textbook for students and scholars alike.
This multidisciplinary study takes a fresh look at Judean history and biblical literature in the late fourth and third centuries BCE. In a major reappraisal of this era, the contributions to this volume depict it as one in which critical changes took place. Until recently, the period from Alexander’s conquest in 332 BCE to the early years of Seleucid domination following Antiochus III’s conquest in 198 BCE was reputed to be poorly documented in material evidence and textual production, buttressing the view that the era from late Persian to Hasmonean times was one of seamless continuity. Biblical scholars believed that no literary activity belonged to the Hellenistic age, and archaeologis...
This indispensable monograph synthesizes current debates and offers a new historical and literary analysis of the book of Deuteronomy “In this exciting addition to the Anchor Yale Bible Reference Library, Stackert offers something genuinely new: he brilliantly weaves together biblical scholarship, cuneiform literature, and contemporary literary theory. This clearly written and engaging volume examines how the concept of scripture shaped ancient readers’ understanding of Deuteronomy.”—Bernard M. Levinson, University of Minnesota The book of Deuteronomy introduces and develops many of the essential ideas, events, and texts of both Judaism and Christianity, and it has thus been a resour...
Insightful Archaeological Context. Illuminated Historicity. While the historical accuracy of the Bible has long been a topic of debate and has fallen under increased scrutiny in recent decades, new archaeological discoveries from an expanding host of ancient sites found in Bible lands continue to provide evidence pertinent to questions of reliability. The Essential Archaeological Guide to Bible Lands offers the most geographically extensive overview of archaeological sites from all of the regions relevant to the biblical narratives. With information from excavations and research both old and new, this thorough guide from archaeologist and professor Dr. Titus Kennedy features more than 200 fu...
A synthetic reconstruction of women’s religious engagement and experiences in preexilic Israel “This monumental book examines a wealth of data from the Bible, archaeology, and ancient Near Eastern texts and iconography to provide a clear, comprehensive, and compelling analysis of women’s religious lives in preexilic times.”—Carol Meyers, Duke University Throughout the biblical narrative, ancient Israelite religious life is dominated by male actors. When women appear, they are often seen only on the periphery: as tangential, accidental, or passive participants. However, despite their absence from the written record, they were often deeply involved in religious practice and ritual ob...
The Two Houses of Israel: State Formation and the Origins of Pan-Israelite Identity bridges the gap between the biblical narrative of the great united monarchy ruled by David and Solomon and archaeological and historical reconstructions of a gradual, independent formation of Israel and Judah. Based on a thorough examination of the material remains and settlement patterns in the southern Levant during the Late Bronze Age and the Iron Age and on a review of the relevant historical sources, this book provides a detailed reconstruction of the ways in which Israel and Judah were formed as territorial polities and specifically how the house of David rose to power in Jerusalem and Judah. Omer Sergi further situates the stories of Saul and David in their accurate social and historical context in order to illuminate the historical conception of the united monarchy and the pan-Israelite ideology out of which it grew. Sergi provides a new history of the early Israelite monarchies, their formation, and the ways in which these social and political developments were commemorated in the cultural memory of generations to come.
This volume offers a groundbreaking reassessment of the destructions that allegedly occurred at sites across the eastern Mediterranean at the end of the Late Bronze Age, and challenges the numerous grand theories that have been put forward to account for them. The author demonstrates that earthquakes, warfare, and destruction all played a much smaller role in this period than the literature of the past several decades has claimed, and makes the case that the end of the Late Bronze Age was a far less dramatic and more protracted process than is generally believed.
The focus of this book is on temples in the Southern Levant during the Iron Age (ca. 1200-600 BC) and their transformations. In order to capture the long-term context, some significant sites with temples from the Late Bronze Age are also presented and discussed. The author traces both material culture related to the temples and the way in which the same themes are treated in Old Testament texts concentrated primarily on Israel and Judah. From the analysis of these texts, he deduces a threefold transformation of the form of memory in relation to the temples and the cult. The first concerns a contrastive reshaping (Philistia and other neighbouring political entities), the second an external (Israel) and the third an internal (Judah) silencing of the actual form of religious practice in the Iron Age.