Download or read book Urbanization and Land Ownership in the Ancient Near East written by Michael Hudson and published by Eisenbrauns. This book was released on 1999 with total page 508 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The second volume in an ongoing series sponsored by the Institute for the Study of Long-Term Economic Trends (ISLET), "Urbanization and Land Ownership in the Ancient Near East" examines the impact of debt, private land ownership, and urbanization on ancient societies. Evidence of privatization of land is supported by archaeological data, surviving documents, and financial records. This volume contains three sets of papers ranging from the Ice Age through early Egypt and Bronze Age Sumer, Babylonia, and Israel, given by archaeologists, economists, Assyriologists, and Egyptologists. The first set of papers deals with the social cosmology of early urban areas as ritual centers. The second set focuses on the physical archaeology of Near Eastern cities and reconstructs their land-use patterns. The final set examines what Assyriologists have been able to extract from the cuneiform record concerning urban land use, land tenure, and the emergence of real estate as something privately owned and transferable. One of the most valuable parts of this volume is the oral discussion of each paper by the participants. Highlighting the different methodologies used in each discipline and the difficulties in establishing a common vocabulary, these discussions raise universal questions concerning ancient economies and their relevancy to long-term economic trends. The first volume in this series was "Privatization in the Ancient Near East and Classical World," edited by Michael Hudson and Baruch A. Levine (Peabody Museum Bulletin 5, ISBN 0-87365-955-4).
Download or read book A Comparative Study of Six City state Cultures written by Mogens Herman Hansen and published by Kgl. Danske Videnskabernes Selskab. This book was released on 2002 with total page 148 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Sacred Economy of Ancient Israel written by Roland Boer and published by Westminster John Knox Press. This book was released on 2015-04-20 with total page 570 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Sacred Economy of Ancient Israel offers a new reconstruction of the economic context of the Bible and of ancient Israel. It argues that the key to ancient economies is with those who worked on the land rather than in intermittent and relatively weak kingdoms and empires. Drawing on sophisticated economic theory (especially the Régulation School) and textual and archaeological resources, Roland Boer makes it clear that economic “crisis†was the norm and that economics is always socially determined. He examines three economic layers: the building blocks (five institutional forms), periods of relative stability (three regimes), and the overarching mode of production. Ultimately, the most resilient of all the regimes was subsistence survival, for which the regular collapse of kingdoms and empires was a blessing rather than a curse. Students will come away with a clear understanding of the dynamics of the economy of ancient Israel. Boer's volume should become a new benchmark for future studies.
Download or read book A Companion to the Ancient Near East written by Daniel C. Snell and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2008-04-15 with total page 560 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Companion to the Ancient Near East offers students and general readers a comprehensive overview of Near Eastern civilization from the Bronze Age to the conquests of Alexander the Great. Covers the civilizations of the Sumerians, Hittites, Babylonians, Assyrians, Israelites and Persians Places particular emphasis on social and cultural history Covers the legacy of the Ancient Near East in the medieval and modern worlds Provides a useful bibliographical guide to this field of study
Download or read book The Development of Pre State Communities in the Ancient Near East written by Diane Bolger and published by Oxbow Books. This book was released on 2010-04-30 with total page 293 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the dynamics of small-scale societies in the ancient Near East by examining the ways in which particular communities functioned and interacted and by moving beyond the broad neo-evolutionary models of social change which have characterised many earlier approaches. By focusing on issues of diversity, scale, and context, it considers the ways in which economy, crafts, technology, and ritual were organised; the roles played by mortuary practices and households in the structure and development of ancient societies; and the importance of agency, identity, ethnicity, gender, community and cultural interaction for the rise of socio-economic complexity. The contributors to this volume are well-known archaeologists in the field of Near Eastern studies; all are currently engaged in fieldwork or research in Cyprus, the Levant, or Turkey. The variety and depth of the research they present here reflect the richness of the archaeological record in the 'cradle of civilisation' and convey the vibrancy of current interpretive approaches within the field of Near Eastern prehistory today.
Download or read book A Companion to the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East written by D. T. Potts and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2012-05-21 with total page 1509 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A COMPANION TO THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST A Companion to the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East is a comprehensive and authoritative overview of ancient material culture from the late Pleistocene to Late Antiquity. This expansive two-volume work includes 58 new essays from an international community of ancient Near East scholars. With coverage extending from Asia Minor, the eastern Mediterranean, and Egypt to the Caucasus, Central Asia, and the Indo-Iranian borderlands, the book highlights the enormous variation in cultural developments across roughly 11,000 years of human endeavor. In addition to chapters devoted to specific regions and particular periods, many contributors concentrate on individual industries and major themes in ancient Near Eastern archaeology, ranging from metallurgy and agriculture to irrigation and fishing. Controversial issues, including the nature and significance of the antiquities market, ethical considerations in archaeological praxis, the history of the foundation of departments of antiquities, and ancient attitudes towards the past, make this a unique collection of studies that will be of interest to scholars, students, and interested readers alike.
Download or read book Documentary Sources in Ancient Near Eastern and Greco Roman Economic History written by Heather D. Baker and published by Oxbow Books. This book was released on 2014-08-31 with total page 345 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume breaks new ground in approaching the Ancient Economy by bringing together documentary sources from Mesopotamia and the Greco-Roman world. Addressing textual corpora that have traditionally been studied separately, the collected papers overturn the conventional view of a fundamental divide between the economic institutions of these two regions. The premise is that, while controlling for differences, texts from either cultural setting can be brought to bear on the other and can shed light, through their use as proxy data, on such questions as economic mentalities and market development. The book also presents innovative approaches to the quantitative study of large corpora of ancient documents. The resulting view of the Ancient Economy is much more variegated and dynamic than traditional ïprimitivistÍ views would allow. The volume covers the following topics: Babylonian house size data as an index of urban living standards; the Old Babylonian archives as a source for economic history; Middle Bronze Age long distance trade in Anatolia; long-term economic development in Babylonia from the 7th to the 4th century BC; legal institutions and agrarian change in the Roman Empire; papyrological evidence for water-lifting technology; money circulation and monetization in Late Antique Egypt; the application of Social Network Analysis to Babylonian cuneiform archives; price trends in the ancient Near East and Mediterranean in the Hellenistic and Roman periods, as well as the effects of locust plagues on prices.
Download or read book Cities and the Shaping of Memory in the Ancient Near East written by Ömür Harmanşah and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2013-03-18 with total page 373 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book investigates the founding and building of cities in the ancient Near East. The creation of new cities was imagined as an ideological project or a divine intervention in the political narratives and mythologies of Near Eastern cultures, often masking the complex processes behind the social production of urban space. During the Early Iron Age (c.1200–850 BCE), Assyrian and Syro-Hittite rulers developed a highly performative official discourse that revolved around constructing cities, cultivating landscapes, building watercourses, erecting monuments and initiating public festivals. This volume combs through archaeological, epigraphic, visual, architectural and environmental evidence to tell the story of a region from the perspective of its spatial practices, landscape history and architectural technologies. It argues that the cultural processes of the making of urban spaces shape collective memory and identity as well as sites of political performance and state spectacle.
Download or read book Agency and Identity in the Ancient Near East written by Sharon R. Steadman and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-04-01 with total page 335 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Agency theory examines the relationship between individuals or groups when one party is doing work on behalf of another. 'Agency and Identity in the Ancient Near East' offers a theoretical study of agency and identity in Near Eastern archaeology, an area which until now has been largely ignored by archaeologists. The book explores how agency theory can be employed in reconstructing the meaning of spaces and material culture, how agency and identity intersect, and how the availability of a textual corpus may impact on the agency approach. Ranging from the Neolithic to the Islamic period, 'Agency and Identity in the Ancient Near East' covers sites located in Turkey, Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Palestine, and Israel. The volume includes contributions from philology, art, history, computer simulation studies, materials science, and the archaeology of settlement and architecture.
Download or read book The Age of Agade written by Benjamin R. Foster and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-12-14 with total page 590 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Age of Agade is the first book-length study of the Akkadian period of Mesopotamian history, which saw the rise and fall of the world’s first empire during more than a century of extraordinary political, social, and cultural innovation. It draws together more than 40 years of research by one of the world’s leading experts in Assyriology to offer an exhaustive survey of the Akkadian empire. Addressing all aspects of the empire, including its statecraft and military, territory and cities, arts, religion, economy, and production, The Age of Agade considers what can be said of Akkadian political and social history, material culture, and daily life. A final chapter also explores how the empire has been presented in modern historiography, from the decipherment of cuneiform to the present, including the extensive research of Soviet historians, summarized here in English for the first time. Drawing on contemporaneous written and artifactual sources, as well as relevant materials from succeeding generations, Foster introduces the reader to the wealth of evidence available. Accessibly written by a specialist in the field, this book is an engaging examination of a critical era in the history of early Mesopotamia.
Download or read book Settlement and Society written by Elizabeth C. Stone and published by Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press. This book was released on 2007-12-31 with total page 513 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume of essays dedicated to Robert McCormick Adams reflects both the breadth of his research and the select themes upon which he focused his attention. These essays written by his students and disciples focus on issues in Near Eastern archaeology but range as far afield as the Indus Valley and Mesoamerica. They are also concentrate on aspects of early complex society, but some refer back to the late Neolithic and others forward to Islamic times. The key foci of Adams' work are reflected in this collection: ecology, frontiers, urbanism, trade and technology are all explored. Yet in spite of the breadth of the scope of this volume, the various intellectual threads pioneered by Adams serve to tie the volume together. These include the use of multiple lines of evidence to attack problems, the use of a comparative approach - including the use of ethnographic analogy-as a means of understanding the development of early states, the importance of the continuum of settlement between city dwellers, farmers, marsh dwellers and pastoralists, and an overall appreciation of cultural ecology.
Download or read book Land of Our Fathers written by Francesca Stavrakopoulou and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2011-04-17 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The biblical motif of a land divinely-promised and given to Abraham and his descendants is argued to be an ideological reflex of post-monarchic, territorial disputes between competing socio-religious groups. The important biblical motif of a Promised Land is founded upon the ancient Near Eastern concept of ancestral land: hereditary space upon which families lived, worked, died and were buried. An essential element of concept of ancestral land was the belief in the post-mortem existence of the ancestors, who were venerated with grave offerings, mortuary feasts, bone rituals and standing stones. The Hebrew Bible is littered with stories concerning these practices and beliefs, yet the specific correlation of ancestor veneration and certain biblical land claims has gone unrecognized. The book remedies this in presenting evidence for the vital and persistent impact of ancestor veneration upon land claims. It proposes that ancestor veneration, which formed a common ground in the experiences of various socio-religious groups in ancient Israel, became in the Hebrew Bible an ideological battlefield upon which claims to the land were won and lost.
Download or read book In Pursuit of Meaning written by Baruch A. Levine and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 2011-06-23 with total page 892 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a career spanning almost five decades, Baruch Levine’s numerous publications reflect his wide-ranging interests and areas of expertise in the study of the Hebrew Bible, the ancient Near East, and early Judaism. In Pursuit of Meaning brings together 51 of the most important articles that Professor Levine produced during his years at Brandeis University (1962–69) and New York University (1969–2000, emeritus 2000–). The first volume, containing 27 articles, focuses on the study of religion in the biblical and ancient Near Eastern worlds from a number of perspectives, ranging from close philological analysis of written sources to anthropological studies of ancient cultic practices. In the 24 articles of the second volume, Levine engages broader aspects of ancient Near Eastern society, from legal institutions of various types to larger societal forms of organization. This volume also contains some of his more incisive lexicographical and philological contributions to the study of the Hebrew and Aramaic languages. The flavor of Prof. Levine’s work is captured in this paragraph from his introduction to these two volumes: “Looking back, and reviewing my writings, I realize what it is that I have been seeking all along. I have been in pursuit of meaning, employing scholarly methods, primarily philology and semantics, to the exegesis of ancient Near Eastern texts, preserved in several languages, principally the Hebrew Bible. I regard language as the key to meaning. This conclusion would appear to be self-evident, and yet, philology is often sidelined in favor of engaging larger frameworks. Most of all, I challenge the notion that we already know the meaning of the words and clauses central to the texts under investigation, and may proceed directly to other considerations without first re-examining the smaller units. Again and again, that policy has resulted in flawed interpretation, and in missed opportunities for learning. This is not to say that scholars should stop at the smaller units, and, indeed, the tendency to do so has been largely responsible for the reaction against Semitic philology so noticeable since the latter part of the 20th century. It is our challenge to move outward from focal points to the circumference, from text to context, from content to structure.”
Download or read book An Archaeology of Prehistoric Bodies and Embodied Identities in the Eastern Mediterranean written by Maria Mina and published by Oxbow Books. This book was released on 2016-10-11 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the long tradition of the archaeology of the eastern Mediterranean bodies have held a prominent role in the form of figurines, frescos, or skeletal remains, and have even been responsible for sparking captivating portrayals of the Mother-Goddess cult, the elegant women of Minoan Crete or the deeds of heroic men. Growing literature on the archaeology and anthropology of the body has raised awareness about the dynamic and multifaceted role of the body in experiencing the world and in the construction, performance and negotiation of social identity. In these 28 thematically arranged papers, specialists in the archaeology of the eastern Mediterranean confront the perceived invisibility of past bodies and ask new research questions. Contributors discuss new and old evidence; they examine how bodies intersect with the material world, and explore the role of body-situated experiences in creating distinct social and other identities. Papers range chronologically from the Palaeolithic to the Early Iron Age and cover the geographical regions of the Aegean, Cyprus and the Near East. They highlight the new possibilities that emerge for the interpretation of the prehistoric eastern Mediterranean through a combined use of body-focused methodological and theoretical perspectives that are nevertheless grounded in the archaeological record.
Download or read book An Introduction to the Ancient World written by and published by Routledge. This book was released on with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book An Introduction to the Ancient World written by Lukas de Blois and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2008-10-24 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Integrating the results of scholarly work from the past decade, the authors of An Introduction to the Ancient World, Lukas de Blois and R.J. van der Spek, have fully-updated and revised all sixteen chapters of this best-selling introductory textbook. Covering the history and culture of the ancient Near East, Greece and Rome within the framework of a short narrative history of events, this book offers an easily readable, integrated overview for students of history, classics, archaeology and philosophy, whether at college, at undergraduate level or among the wider reading public. This revised second edition offers a new section on early Christianity and more specific information on the religions, economies, and societies of the ancient Near East. There is extended coverage of Greek, Macedonian and Near Eastern history of the fourth to second centuries BC and the history of the Late Roman Republic. The consequences of Julius Caesar’s violent death are covered in more detail, as are the history and society of Imperial Rome. This new edition is: comprehensive: covers 3,000 years of ancient history and provides the basis for a typical one-semester course lavishly illustrated: contains maps, line drawings and plates to support and supplement the text, with updated captions clearly and concisely written: two established and respected university teachers with thirty years' experience in the subject areas well-organized: traces the broad outline of political history but also concentrates on particular topics user-friendly: includes chapter menus, an extensive and expanded bibliography organized by subject area and three appendices, an improved introduction and the addition of an epilogue.
Download or read book Methodologies Models and Instruments for Rural and Urban Land Management written by Mark Deakin and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-03-02 with total page 187 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Illustrated with empirical case studies from Europe, Africa and North America, this book provides an overview of the wide range of innovative methodologies, models and instruments currently being applied in the formation of and implementation of land management strategies. It examines techniques such as data acquisition, data modelling, the legal instruments of land management and structural theories and applications ranging from historic land use to current programmes of urban redevelopment. It then shows how these advance land management and development in practice.
