November 2015
Vol. 3, No. 11
Welcome to The Ancient Near East Today Vol. III, No. 11! In this issue we go from Israel to Rhodes, from Turkey to Denmark, with a stop in Syria.
We begin with Richard Freund’s discussion of the ancient and modern Jewish presence on the island of Rhodes. Mara Horowitz then brings us up to date on the renewed excavations at the enormous site of Alalakh in Turkey, then Flemming Kaul and Jeanette Varberg discuss tiny finds – glass beads – that open entirely new perspectives on trade, between Denmark and Egypt.
As part of our continuing coverage of the cultural heritage crisis in Syria and Iraq, we present a page of important new reports and news links. We also are proud to link to ASOR’s journals, and, as always, to reports from students supported by ASOR scholarships.
As always, please forward articles from The Ancient Near East Today to family and friends, post links to Facebook, and be in touch with the editor. Remember, being a Friend of ASOR is free!
Between Ancient Rhodes and Israel: Comparing Literary and Material Cultures
By: Richard Freund
The ancient Mediterranean world was formed of countless interconnections. I have been working at Bethsaida, a city by the north shore of the Sea of Galilee for the past 25 years. Part of our work has been to map the roads system connecting Bethsaida to the coast and to the Mediterranean beyond.
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Introducing the Lanier Theological Library
By: Mark Lanier
What do Madame Gertrude Bell, Cappadocian Fathers, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, Nuzi tablets, Dead Sea Scroll fragments, Moshe Goshen-Gottstein, and William Hallo have in common? They have all found a home, of sorts, at the Lanier Theological Library (“LTL”) in Houston, Texas.
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A Call for the Preservation of Heritage Landscapes in the United Arab Emirates
By: Ronald Hawker
I always say that the best semester of my academic career was my sabbatical, when I spent six months combing through the dusty abandoned farms and hamlets of Ras al-Khaimah on a research project funded by Zayed University and an Emirates Foundation grant in the winter of 2011.
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Narrative Literature of Hurrian Origin: Moving Treasures from the Ancient Near East
By: Mauro Giorgieri
The Hurrians were one of the most important civilizations of the Ancient Near East but we have far less linguistic, historical and archaeological information about them than the Sumerians, Babylonians, Assyrians, or Hittites. Hurrian epic poems are also a fascinating but lesser known aspect of Ancient Near Eastern literary traditions. Read more
Who’s the Fairest of them all? Feminine Beauty in the Hebrew Bible and Iron Age Ivory Sculpture
By: Amy Rebecca Gansell
From fairy tales to fashion magazines, notions of feminine beauty pervade the world we live in. But what does the Hebrew Bible have to say about this topic? And how might archaeological artifacts help us to see and understand ancient beauty?
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The Ancient Near East Today features contributions from diverse academics, a forum featuring debates of current developments from the field, and links to news and resources. The ANE Today covers the entire Near East, and each issue presents discussions ranging from the state of biblical archaeology to archaeology after the Arab Spring.
