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Book The Variety of Local Religious Life in the Near East

Download or read book The Variety of Local Religious Life in the Near East written by Ted Kaizer and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2008-08-31 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A ‘Near Eastern religion’, along the lines of ‘Greek religion’ or ‘Roman religion’, is hard to distinguish for the Classical period, since the religious cultures of the many cities, villages and regions that constituted the Near East in the Hellenistic and Roman periods were, despite some obvious similarities, above all very different from each other. This collection of articles by scholars from different disciplines (Ancient History, Archaeology, Art-History, Epigraphy, Numismatics, Oriental Studies, Theology) contributes to our quest for understanding the polytheistic cults of the Near East as a whole by bringing out the variety between the different local and regional forms of worship in this part of the world.

Book A Companion to the Hellenistic and Roman Near East

Download or read book A Companion to the Hellenistic and Roman Near East written by Ted Kaizer and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2022-01-06 with total page 580 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Discover a comprehensive and cross-disciplinary handbook exploring several sub-regions and key themes perfect for a new generation of students A Companion to the Hellenistic and Roman Near East delivers the first complete handbook in the area of Hellenistic and Roman Near Eastern history. The book is divided into sections dealing with interdisciplinary source material, each with a great deal of regional variety and engaging with several key themes. It integrates discussions of the classical Near East with the typical undergraduate teaching syllabus in the Anglo-Saxon world. All contributors in this edited volume are leading scholars in their field, with a combination of established researchers and academics, and emerging voices. Contributors hail from countries across several continents, and work in various disciplines, including Ancient History, Archaeology, Art History, Epigraphy, Numismatics, and Oriental Studies. In addition to furthering the integration of the Levantine lands in the classical periods into the teaching canon, the book offers readers: The first comprehensively structured Companion and edited handbook on the Hellenistic and Roman Near East Extensive regional and sub-regional variety in the cross-disciplinary source material A way to compensate for the recent destruction of monuments in the region and the new generation of researchers’ inability to examine these historical stages in person An integration of the study of the Hellenistic and Roman Near East with traditional undergraduate teaching syllabi in the Anglo-Saxon world Perfect for undergraduate history and classics students studying the Near East, A Companion to the Hellenistic and Roman Near East will also earn a place in the libraries of graduate students and scholars working within Near Eastern studies, as well as interested members of the public with a passion for history.

Book The Religious Life of Nabataea

Download or read book The Religious Life of Nabataea written by Peter Alpass and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2013-06-13 with total page 332 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Flourishing in the centuries around the birth of Christ, the Nabataean kingdom covered a large swathe of the north-western Arabian Peninsula and was shaped by cultural influences from the Mediterranean, Arabian and wider Semitic worlds. The Religious Life of Nabataea examines the inscriptions, sculptures and architectural remains left by worshippers in every corner of the kingdom, from the spectacular remains of the desert city of Petra to the fertile plains of southern Syria. While previous scholarly approaches have minimised the diversity of cultic practices and traditions found in Nabataea, this study reveals a vibrant religious landscape dominated by a variety of local traditions.

Book Lived Religion in the Ancient Mediterranean World

Download or read book Lived Religion in the Ancient Mediterranean World written by Valentino Gasparini and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2020-04-06 with total page 622 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Lived Ancient Religion project has radically changed perspectives on ancient religions and their supposedly personal or public character. This volume applies and further develops these methodological tools, new perspectives and new questions. The religious transformations of the Roman Imperial period appear in new light and more nuances by comparative confrontation and the integration of many disciplines. The contributions are written by specialists from a variety of disciplinary contexts (Jewish Studies, Theology, Classics, Early Christian Studies) dealing with the history of religion of the Mediterranean, West-Asian, and European area from the (late) Hellenistic period to the (early) Middle Ages and shaped by their intensive exchange. From the point of view of their respective fields of research, the contributors engage with discourses on agency, embodiment, appropriation and experience. They present innovative research in four fields also of theoretical debate, which are “Experiencing the Religious”, “Switching the Code”, „A Thing Called Body“ and “Commemorating the Moment”.

Book Panth  e  Religious Transformations in the Graeco Roman Empire

Download or read book Panth e Religious Transformations in the Graeco Roman Empire written by and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2013-09-12 with total page 397 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Panthée presents a collective reflection relating to the changes that affected the Graeco-Roman Empire and over the long term altered its religious landscapes. Fifty years after the foundation of the series EPRO, the volume aims to avoid the division between the supposedly "Roman" or "Graeco-Roman" and the "Oriental" by linking the available information relating the different major areas, such as the relation between local and global, the place of emotions in relation to soteriological and initiatory aspects, strategies of integration and negotiation of identities. For the first time the leading specialists in every field bring their approaches into contact with one another, and jointly construct a picture of practices and conceptual frames, which, in their diversity and inter-action, model a religious universe whose complexity will help to understand our modern globalising world. Panthée propose une réflexion collective sur les mutations qui ont affecté l'Empire gréco-romain et ont progressivement remodelé ses paysages religieux. Cinquante ans après la création de la collection des EPRO, ce livre ambitionne de dépasser le clivage entre ce qui serait "romain", ou "gréco-romain", et ce qui serait "oriental" en articulant les données disponibles autour de quelques thèmes majeurs, comme les jeux d'échelle entre local et universel, la place du registre des émotions en relation avec les dimensions sotériologiques et mystériques, les stratégies d'intégration et de négociation des identités. Pour la première fois, les meilleurs spécialistes venus de tous les horizons croisent leurs approches et construisent ensemble un tableau des pratiques et des cadres de pensée qui, dans leur diversité et dans leur interaction, dessinent les contours d'un univers religieux dont la complexité aide à penser le monde moderne de la globalisation.

Book The Ituraeans and the Roman Near East

Download or read book The Ituraeans and the Roman Near East written by E. A. Myers and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2010-02-11 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Ituraeans, a little-known people of late first century BCE Syria/Palestine, are referred to briefly in a number of early texts, notably Pliny, Strabo and Josephus, and the principality of Ituraea is mentioned in Luke 3.1. There is, as yet, no consensus among archaeologists as to whether certain artefacts should be attributed to the Ituraeans or not. They form a mysterious backdrop to what we know of the area in the time of Jesus, which remains obstinately obscure despite the enormous amount of research in recent decades on the 'historical Jesus' and Greco-Roman Galilee. Through reference to the early texts, modern scholarship has contributed to a claim the Ituraeans were an Arab tribal group known mainly for their recurrent brigandage. Elaine Myers challenges these presuppositions and suggests a reappraisal of previous interpretations of these texts and the archaeological evidence to present a more balanced portrait of this ancient people.

Book Testing the Canon of Ancient Near Eastern Art and Archaeology

Download or read book Testing the Canon of Ancient Near Eastern Art and Archaeology written by Amy Gansell and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2020-01-06 with total page 448 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Testing the Canon of Ancient Near Eastern Art and Archaeology invites readers to reconsider the contents and agendas of the art historical and world-culture canons by looking at one of their most historically enduring components: the art and archaeology of the ancient Near East. Ann Shafer, Amy Rebecca Gansell, and other top researchers in the field examine and critique the formation and historical transformation of the ancient Near Eastern canon of art, architecture, and material culture. Contributors flesh out the current boundaries of regional and typological sub-canons, analyze the technologies of canon production (such as museum practices and classroom pedagogies), and voice first-hand heritage perspectives. Each chapter, thereby, critically engages with the historiography behind our approach to the Near East and proposes alternative constructs. Collectively, the essays confront and critique the ancient Near Eastern canon's present configuration and re-imagine its future role in the canon of world art as a whole. This expansive collection of essays covers the Near East's many regions, eras, and types of visual and archaeological materials, offering specific and actionable proposals for its study. Testing the Canon of Ancient Near Eastern Art and Archaeology stands as a vital benchmark and offers a collective path forward for the study and appreciation of Near Eastern cultural heritage. This book acts as a model for similar inquiries across global art historical and archaeological fields and disciplines.

Book Syrian Identity in the Greco Roman World

Download or read book Syrian Identity in the Greco Roman World written by Nathanael J. Andrade and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2013-07-25 with total page 443 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book proposes a new means of identifying how Greek and Syrian identities were expressed in the Hellenistic and Roman Near East.

Book Sacred Landscapes in Antiquity

Download or read book Sacred Landscapes in Antiquity written by Ralph Haussler and published by Oxbow Books. This book was released on 2020-07-31 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From generation to generation, people experience their landscapes differently. Humans depend on their natural environment: it shapes their behavior while it is often felt that deities responsible for both natural benefits and natural calamities (such as droughts, famines, floods and landslides) need to be appeased. We presume that, in many societies, lakes, rivers, rocks, mountains, caves and groves were considered sacred. Individual sites and entire landscapes are often associated with divine actions, mythical heroes and etiological myths. Throughout human history, people have also felt the need to monumentalize their sacred landscape. But this is where the similarities end as different societies had very different understandings, believes and practices. The aim of this new thematic appraisal is to scrutinize carefully our evidence and rethink our methodologies in a multi-disciplinary approach. More than 30 papers investigate diverse sacred landscapes from the Iberian peninsula and Britain in the west to China in the east. They discuss how to interpret the intricate web of ciphers and symbols in the landscape and how people might have experienced it. We see the role of performance, ritual, orality, textuality and memory in people’s sacred landscapes. A diachronic view allows us to study how landscapes were ‘rewritten’, adapted and redefined in the course of time to suit new cultural, political and religious understandings, not to mention the impact of urbanism on people’s understandings. A key question is how was the landscape manipulated, transformed and monumentalized – especially the colossal investments in monumental architecture we see in certain socio-historic contexts or the creation of an alternative humanmade, seemingly ‘non-natural’ landscape, with perfectly astronomically aligned buildings that define a cosmological order? Sacred Landscapes therefore aims to analyze the complex links between landscape, ‘religiosity’ and society, developing a dialectic framework that explores sacred landscapes across the ancient world in a dynamic, holistic, contextual and historical perspective.

Book Community and Identity at the Edges of the Classical World

Download or read book Community and Identity at the Edges of the Classical World written by Aaron W. Irvin and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2020-09-25 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A timely and academically-significant contribution to scholarship on community, identity, and globalization in the Roman and Hellenistic worlds Community and Identity at the Edges of the Classical World examines the construction of personal and communal identities in the ancient world, exploring how globalism, multi-culturalism, and other macro events influenced micro identities throughout the Hellenistic and Roman empires. This innovative volume discusses where contact and the sharing of ideas was occurring in the time period, and applies modern theories based on networks and communication to historical and archaeological data. A new generation of international scholars challenge traditional views of Classical history and offer original perspectives on the impact globalizing trends had on localized areas—insights that resonate with similar issues today. This singular resource presents a broad, multi-national view rarely found in western collected volumes, including Serbian, Macedonian, and Russian scholarship on the Roman Empire, as well as on Roman and Hellenistic archaeological sites in Eastern Europe. Topics include Egyptian identity in the Hellenistic world, cultural identity in Roman Greece, Romanization in Slovenia, Balkan Latin, the provincial organization of cults in Roman Britain, and Soviet studies of Roman Empire and imperialism. Serving as a synthesis of contemporary scholarship on the wider topic of identity and community, this volume: Provides an expansive materialist approach to the topic of globalization in the Roman world Examines ethnicity in the Roman empire from the viewpoint of minority populations Offers several views of metascholarship, a growing sub-discipline that compares ancient material to modern scholarship Covers a range of themes, time periods, and geographic areas not included in most western publications Community and Identity at the Edges of the Classical World is a valuable resource for academics, researchers, and graduate students examining identity and ethnicity in the ancient world, as well as for those working in multiple fields of study, from Classical, Hellenistic, and Roman historians, to the study of ethnicity, identity, and globalizing trends in time.

Book Rome in the East

    Book Details:
  • Author : Warwick Ball
  • Publisher : Routledge
  • Release : 2016-06-10
  • ISBN : 1317296346
  • Pages : 895 pages

Download or read book Rome in the East written by Warwick Ball and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-06-10 with total page 895 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This new edition of Rome in the East expands on the seminal work of the first edition, and examines the lasting impact of the near Eastern influence on Rome on our understanding of the development of European culture. Warwick Ball explores modern issues as well as ancient, and overturns conventional ideas about the spread of European culture to the East. This volume includes analysis of Roman archaeological and architectural remains in the East, as well as links to the Roman Empire as far afield as Iran, Central Asia, India, and China. The Near Eastern client kingdoms under Roman rule are examined in turn and each are shown to have affected Roman, and ultimately European, history in different but very fundamental ways. The highly visible presence of Rome in the East – mainly the architectural remains, some among the greatest monumental buildings in the Roman world – are examined from a Near Eastern perspective and demonstrated to be as much, if not more, a product of the Near East than of Rome. Warwick Ball presents the story of Rome in the light of Rome’s fascination with the Near East, generating new insights into the nature and character of Roman civilisation, and European identity from Rome to the present. Near Eastern influence can be seen to have transformed Roman Europe, with perhaps the most significant change being the spread of Christianity. This new edition is updated with the latest research and findings from a range of sources including field work in the region and new studies and views that have emerged since the first edition. Over 200 images, most of them taken by the author, demonstrate the grandeur of Rome in the East. This volume is an invaluable resource to students of the history of Rome and Europe, as well as those studying the Ancient Near East.

Book Phoenician Aniconism in Its Mediterranean and Ancient Near Eastern Contexts

Download or read book Phoenician Aniconism in Its Mediterranean and Ancient Near Eastern Contexts written by Brian R. Doak and published by SBL Press. This book was released on 2015-11-05 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A close look at Phoenician religion The Hebrew Bible contains a prohibition against divine images (Exod 20:2-5a). Explanations for this command are legion, usually focusing on the unique status of Israel's deity within the context of the broader Near Eastern and Mediterranean worlds. Doak explores whether or not Israel was truly alone in its severe stance against idols. This book focuses on one particular aspect of this iconographic context in Israel's Iron Age world: that of the Phoenicians. The question of whether Phoenicians employed aniconic (as opposed to iconic) representational techniques has significance not only for the many poorly understood aspects of Phoenician religion generally, but also for the question of whether aniconism can be considered a broader trend among the Semitic populations of the ancient Near East. Features: More than fifty images and illustrations Examination of textual and archaeological evidence Application of art historical methods

Book Gods and Humans in the Ancient Near East

Download or read book Gods and Humans in the Ancient Near East written by Tyson L. Putthoff and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2020-11-05 with total page 269 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this book, Tyson Putthoff explores the relationship between gods and humans, and between divine nature and human nature, in the Ancient Near East. In this world, gods lived among humans. The two groups shared the world with one another, each playing a special role in maintaining order in the cosmos. Humans also shared aspects of a godlike nature. Even in their natural condition, humans enjoyed a taste of the divine state. Indeed, gods not only lived among humans, but also they lived inside them, taking up residence in the physical body. As such, human nature was actually a composite of humanity and divinity. Putthoff offers new insights into the ancients' understanding of humanity's relationship with the gods, providing a comparative study of this phenomenon from the third millennium BCE to the first century CE.

Book Temples and Sanctuaries in the Roman East

Download or read book Temples and Sanctuaries in the Roman East written by Arthur Segal and published by Oxbow Books. This book was released on 2013-10-31 with total page 394 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This lavishly illustrated volume presents a comprehensive architectural study of 87 individual temples and sanctuaries built in the Roman East between the end of the 1st century BCE and the end of the 3rd century CE, within a broad region encompassing the modern states of Syria, Lebanon, Israel and Jordan. Religious architecture gave faithful expression to the complexity of the Roman East and to its multiplicity of traditions pertaining to ethnic and religious aspects as well as to the powerful influence of Imperial Rome. The source of this power lay in the uniformity of the architectural language, the inventory of forms, the choice of styles and the spatial layout of the buildings. Thus, while temples have an eclectic character, there is an underlying unity of form comprising the podium, the stairway between the terminating walls (antae) and the columns along the entrance front - in other words, the axiality, frontality and symmetry of the temple as viewed from outside. The temples and sanctuaries studied in this volume demonstrate individual nuances of plan, spatial design, location in the sanctuary and interrelations with the immediate vicinity but can be divided into two main categories: Vitruvian temples (derived from Hellenistic-Roman architecture) and Non-Vitruvian temples (those with plans and spatial designs that cannot be analysed according to architectural criteria such as those defined by Vitruvius). The individual descriptions presented focus solely upon the analysis of the external and internal space of the temples of all types and do not involve any cultural or ethnic discussion.

Book The Letter of Mara bar Sarapion in Context

Download or read book The Letter of Mara bar Sarapion in Context written by Annette Merz and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2012-09-14 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Letter of Mara bar Sarapion to his son – preserved in a single Syriac manuscript (7th. cent. CE) – still speaks to its readers, evocatively depicting the dramatic situation of a nobleman imprisoned after the Roman capture of Samosata, capital of Commagene. The letter is best known today for a passage on the “wise king of the Jews,” which may be one of the earliest pagan testimonies concerning Jesus Christ. Ongoing controversy over the letter’s date, nature, and purpose has, however, led to the widespread neglect of this intriguing document. In the present volume, Merz and Tieleman have brought together cutting-edge research from an interdisciplinary team of leading experts that significantly advances our appreciation of the letter and its historical context.

Book A Companion to the Archaeology of Religion in the Ancient World

Download or read book A Companion to the Archaeology of Religion in the Ancient World written by Rubina Raja and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2020-01-09 with total page 518 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Companion to the Archaeology of Religion in the Ancient World presents a comprehensive overview of a wide range of topics relating to the practices, expressions, and interactions of religion in antiquity, primarily in the Greco-Roman world. • Features readings that focus on religious experience and expression in the ancient world rather than solely on religious belief • Places a strong emphasis on domestic and individual religious practice • Represents the first time that the concept of “lived religion” is applied to the ancient history of religion and archaeology of religion • Includes cutting-edge data taken from top contemporary researchers and theorists in the field • Examines a large variety of themes and religious traditions across a wide geographical area and chronological span • Written to appeal equally to archaeologists and historians of religion

Book Roman Palmyra

    Book Details:
  • Author : Andrew M. Smith II
  • Publisher : Oxford University Press
  • Release : 2013-01-02
  • ISBN : 0199861110
  • Pages : 320 pages

Download or read book Roman Palmyra written by Andrew M. Smith II and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2013-01-02 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In social, economic, and cultural terms, the eastern frontier of the Roman Empire was vastly complex, which has fueled considerable debate among scholars concerning the nature of the interactions between Romans and natives in the Near East. Notions of imperialism, specifically "cultural" imperialism, frame much of the debate. Through a detailed analysis of Palmyrene identity and community formation, Andrew M. Smith II presents a social and political history of Roman Palmyra, the oasis city situated deep in the Syrian Desert midway between Damascus and the Euphrates river. This city-state is unique in the ancient world, since it began as a humble community, probably no more than an isolated village, and grew--due in part to its role in the caravan trade--into an economically powerful, cosmopolitan urban center of Graeco-Roman character that operated outside of Roman rule, yet under Roman patronage. The book therefore focuses on two aspects of Palmyrene civilization during the first three centuries of the Common Era: the emergence and subsequent development of Palmyra as a commercial and political center in the desert frontier between Rome and Parthia (and later Persia), and the "making" of Palmyrenes. This study is thus concerned with the creation, structure, and maintenance of Palmyrene identity and that of Palmyra as an urban community in a volatile frontier zone. The history of Palmyra's communal development would be wholly obscure were it not for the archaeological and epigraphic materials that testify to Palmyrene achievements and prosperity at home and abroad. These, complemented by the literary evidence, also provide insight into the relatively obscure historical process of sedentarization and of the relationships between pastoral and sedentary communities in the Roman Near East. In addition to examining Palmyra as a frontier community, the book will move beyond Syria to explore the development and maintenance of Palmyrene identity in diaspora settings in Italy, north Africa, and Europe. This study is thus concerned with the creation, structure, and maintenance of Palmyrene identity and that of Palmyra as an urban community in a volatile frontier zone.