This book contains a new epigraphic, philological, legal and historical analysis of the Aramaic manuscripts from the Wadi Daliyeh written in the city of Samaria in the fourth century B.C.E., and shed new light on the history of Samaria and Judaea in the Persian period.

This pioneering study surveys all 446 Lower Stratum families in the period under review (800-600 B.C.). It is the most important and the most responsible study of the lower stratum of the Neo-Assyrian society proposed to date.

This volume covers, for the first time, the interaction of a major historical event with the development of the Egyptian Solar-Osirian theology. Pharaoh Ramesses II visited the sacred area of Abydos soon after his recognition of power at Luxor in Thebes. With him were many high officials, one of whom would be soon appointed to be the high Priest of Amun at Thebes, Nebwenenef. During his visit, the king stressed his personal relationship with his father, Seti I as well as ordering the completion of his temple. By analyzing certain passages within Ramesses' official acccount, the Dedicatory...

Exploring the military, legal, social and literary aspects of ancient warfare, this study examines the multifaceted nature of the siege phenomenon in the Ancient Near East. The book is based on Akkadian and biblical (and, to lesser degree, Greek, Aramaic, Egyptian, Hittite and Ugaritic) sources as well as on the depictions on reliefs from Assyrian palaces and Egyptian temples. The analysis incorporates lexical study and military thinking and focuses on the technology of warfare and human behavior in a state of emergency. This volume is a co-publication between Brill and The Hebrew University...

This two volume work is a collection of articles spanning the distinguished career of Irene J. Winter. The articles represent a cross-section of Winter's study of visual culture in the ancient Near East and cover the time period from the third to the first millennium BCE, with excursions into the contemporary. These two works will be useful to scholars and students interested in art history, cultural studies, architecture, archaeology, language, and ethnography of ancient Mesopotamia and its surrounding areas. Each volume may be purchased separately or as a set. "These beautifully produced...

Literature begins at Sumer, we may say. Given that this ancient crossroads of tin and copper produced not only bronze and the entire Bronze Age, but also by neccesity, the first system of record-keeping and the technique of writing. Scribal schools served to propogate the new technique and their curriculum grew to create, preserve and transmit all manner of creative poetry. In a lifetime of research, the author has studied multiple aspects of this most ancient literary oeuvre, including such questions as chronology and bilingualism, as well as contributing fundamental insights into specific...

This book examines modes of economic contribution in the ancient world through taxes, tribute, or so-called gifts. Specialists in the field of the ancient Near East, Egypt, classical Greece, Rome, and Israel, joined by an economic anthropologist, present a fresh evaluation of the textual and archaeological evidence. A prime question explored is the extent to which these disparate sources complement or contradict each other. State-imposed transactions were often recorded with an ideological bias, much dependent on whether the donors and recipients were viewed as in- or outsiders. The present...

The book presents the results of a complete and detailed archaeological survey in the area of ancient Shechem and Samaria. This survey is being conducted since 1978, and it relates to some 400 square kilometers of the heartland of the central hill country of Israel/Palestine. It is a detailed and thorough archaeological and historical work, which deals with the most important area for Biblical and other researches. This territory and its survey is a most valuable tool for every scholar involved in Bible, Theology, Ancient Near Eastern history and other schools concerned.

Essays in memory of William J. Murnane (1945-2000) honor his life-long dedication to Egyptian epigraphy and history. Studies offered here reflect his interests in Egyptian history, especially the Amarna period, and in the epigraphic documentation and historical analysis of the monuments of ancient Thebes.

Through her published works and in the classroom, Irene J. Winter has served as a mentor for the latest generation of scholars of Mesopotamian visual culture. The various contributions to this volume in her honor represent a cross section of the state of scholarship today. Topics by the twenty authors include palatial and temple architecture, royal sculpture, gender in the ancient Near East, and interdisciplinary studies that range from the fourth millennium BCE to modern ethnography and cover Sumer, Assyria, Babylonia, Iran, Syria, Urartu, and the Levant. Reflections on Winter's scholarship...