English summary: Was the individual in ancient Egypt without protection against demons, sickness or other threats, or could people use various practices in order to keep these dangers at bay? Christopher Theis has researched the written and archeological evidence that provides information about magical protection in different circumstances in ancient Egypt. He presents an extensive study and a commentary about this evidence as it relates to the protection of the land of Egypt, the city, the temple, the house, the bedchamber as well as the grave and provides details with regard to the...

Throughout its history, the Kingdom of Israel had strong connections with the Aramaean world. Constantly changing relations, from rivalry and military conflicts to alliances and military cooperation, affected the history of the whole Levant and left their marks on both Biblical and extra-Biblical sources. New studies demonstrate that Israelite state formation was contemporaneous with the formation of the Aramaean polities (11th-9th centuries BCE). Consequently, the Jordan Valley (and especially its northern parts and its extension to the valley of Lebanon) was a constantly changing border...

The late W.G. Lambert (1926-2011) was one of the foremost Assyriologists of the latter part of the twentieth century. His principle legacy is a large number of superb critical editions of Babylonian literary compositions. Many of the texts he edited were on religious and mythological subjects. He will always be remembered as the editor of the Babylonian Job (Ludlul bel nemeqi, also known as the Poem of the Righteous Sufferer), the Babylonian Flood Story (Atra-hasis) and the Babylonian Creation Epic (Enuma elish). The present book is a collection of twenty-three essays Lambert published...

This collective volume, originating from an interdisciplinary conference at Heidelberg University, deals with the expansion of the so-called oriental cults in the Roman Empire. The concept of oriental cults' itself has come under discussion in recent years because it has been questioned whether the cults in question really formed a coherent group and to what degree they might be called oriental' at all. This discussion is reflected throughout the papers of the volume which focus on the three cults of Isis (and Osiris), Mithras and Jupiter Dolichenus. Of special interest are the (alleged)...