This study of the history of the Philistines during the first quarter of the first millennium B.C.E. has a twofold aim: First, to examine in detail a number of ancient texts, mainly biblical until the rise of the neo-assyrian empire, while evaluating each text in its own right as a potential historical source. Second, to offer a synthetic reconstruction of the course of Philistine history between 1000 - 730 B.C.E., employing the results of the textual study in conjunction with those of recent archaeological excavations in Philistia.
This is the first monograph to be devoted to the...

A state-of-the-art presentation on a people/nation of Transjordan known to readers of the Bible as a neighbor, and often an enemy, of first millennium B.C. Israel. Topics covered in the book's ten chapters include a review of archaeological research in Ammon (R.W. Younker); the emergence of the Ammonites (R.W. Younker); Ammonite territory and sites (B. MacDonald); Ammonite "monumental" and domestic architecture (M. Najjar and P.M.M. Daviau respectively), as well as burial customs and practices (K. Yassine); the ceramic traditions of Central Transjordan (G. London); Ammonite texts and language...

The relations between Carthago and Greece are the subject of this new book by Veronique Krings, author of the Brill handbook La Civilisation Phenicienne et Punique (Handbook of Oriental Studies I, 20 (1995)). It covers the period from the expedition of Pentathlos of Cnidos to Sicily until the battle of Himera (580-480 B.C.). In many (Greek) sources material can be found on the subject, e.g.: Herodotus, Diodorus of Sicily, Pausanias, Justinus and Orosius. All these sources are carefully examined, giving due attention to their specific contexts. The texts are consequently confronted with...

In how far do the traditions in historical writing reflect history in the Hebrew Bible? This momentarily hot-debated question is the central issue of the current volume, in which the author takes a firm stand against the sceptical approach to the unity and historicity of biblical traditions. Part One of the book opens with a systematic examination of twenty-seven lists of the original inhabitants of the Promised Land who were doomed to be dispossessed by the Israelites. Two essays are devoted to a historical investigation into the political leaders sopet and nagid. In the following...

In 701 B.C. the Assyrian king Sennacherib launched his campaign against, a.o., Judah. This event has been recorded in the Hebrew Bible (Isaiah, the Biblical war narratives) and, as a consequence, has decisively influenced Jewish and Christian thought. The war, though, has remained obscure for modern historians. The author of this latest volume in Brill's monograph series Studies in the History and Culture of the Ancient Near East brings together both Biblical and Assyrian sources on the campaign. Part of these abundant Assyrian materials are new, and consequently enable the author to...