Grave Marking and Wailing: Ritual Responses to the Babylonian Crisis in Jeremiah’s Poetry (Jer 31, 21)

This article explores Jer 31,15-22, which recapitulates the history of the Babylonian crisis from invasion to exile to manumission. Against traditional “triumphalistic” approaches to this poem that view the restored Israel in its repatriation as a victorious warrior (vv. 21-22), this article argues for a ritual reading of the text. It demonstrates that the need for a ritual response to the Babylonian crisis was so strong that Jeremiah prescribes mourning rites to Judah not only at the time of its demise (v. 15) but also at the time of its manumission from captivity (v. 21). Since the use of laments and other mourning rites in the restoration of “collapse societies” was well attested in the ANE, their appearance in the Book of Consolation as part of the poetic vision of Judah’s reconstitution can also be construed as a socio-religious necessity.     

The Decline of the Shepherd Metaphor as Royal Self-Expression1

In the Old Testament, shepherd is a common metaphor of kingship, and this metaphor is sometimes also used to denote the Israelite god as a ruler (See for instance HALOT entry ??? ). In Assyrian, Babylonian, Egyptian and Greek works this metaphor is remarkably more common in pre-exilic literature than in the later Greek and Roman literature, where it is almost absent. In this article I argue that shepherding was central to Assyrian and Babylonian ruling class identity, while absent as royal self-expression in the Persian, Achaemenid Empire. The imageries of these empires were influential as models for court life throughout the Ancient Near East, and beyond.     

Optically stimulated luminescence dating of the city wall system of ancient Tayma (NW Saudi Arabia)

In addition to a series of chronological markers (artefacts, pottery) in the archaeological contexts of ancient Tayma (NW Saudi Arabia), optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) and radiocarbon dating techniques were applied to generate reliable ages for the city wall system of the oasis. A massive aeolian sand deposit burying the oldest part of the outer wall of Tayma was sampled to obtain a minimum age for the construction of this wall. The sequence of OSL ages from the inactive dune (ID) (4900 ± 300 a, 5100 ± 400 a, 4400 ± 300 a, 3900 ± 200 a, 4000 ± 200 a) is in full accordance with ¹⁴C-AMS ages of charcoal embedded into the same dune (4190–4420 cal BP, 3870–4080 cal BP). Underlying alluvial samples from the inactive gravel sheet (IGS) in contrast give maximum ages for the construction which scatter between 6600 ± 300 a and 4900 ± 400 a. The new dating sequence provides evidence that the oldest part of the ancient city wall system already existed in the 2nd half of the 3rd mill. BC which is earlier than expected thus far from archaeological and architectural interpretation.     

SOCIAL NETWORKS AND CROSS-CULTURAL INTERACTION: A NEW INTERPRETATION OF THE FEMALE TERRACOTTA FIGURINES OF HELLENISTIC BABYLON

Summary.   In the study of the Hellenistic period in Babylon, cross-cultural interactions between Greeks and native Babylonians have been primarily interpreted using colonialist theories of Hellenisation, domination, and cultural isolation. This paper finds, however, that such theories cannot adequately explain the types of cross-cultural combinations seen in the archaeological record of female Hellenistic Babylonian terracotta figurines. The forms and functions of these terracotta figurines were substantially altered and combined throughout the Hellenistic period, resulting in Greek-Babylonian multicultural figurines as well as figurines that exhibited new features used exclusively in Hellenistic Babylonia. In order to facilitate a greater understanding of the full complexity of these Greek–Babylonian interactions, a new interpretation of cross–cultural interaction in Hellenistic Babylon is developed in this paper. This Social Networks model provides an alternative framework for approaching both how a hybrid material culture of terracotta figurines was developed and how Hellenistic Babylon became a multicultural society.     

古巴比伦婚姻习俗若干问题的再考察

长期以来,法制史家和亚述学家分别依据《汉穆拉比法典》有关婚姻的条款和古巴比伦时期有关婚姻的文献来研究古巴比伦时期的婚姻习俗,然而,他们的研究方法以及某些结论值得商榷。童养媳、婚约、聘金以及离婚权等问题的研究表明,只有将《汉穆拉比法典》有关婚姻的条款与古巴比伦时期的婚姻文献相结合,才能研究古巴比伦时期的婚姻习俗问题。上述问题的研究还表明,古巴比伦妇女在婚姻中处于被动地位,商品经济对婚姻影响很大。     

The early history of the Hejaz: a response to Garth Bawden

Despite Dr. Bawden's criticisms - some of which seem to be based on his misunderstanding of previous arguments - the author reaffirms his view that the development of "oasis urbanism" in the Hejaz at the end of the 2nd millennium was at least in part the result of Egyptian trading contacts with the region. The available evidence does not allow us to conclude that this phenomenon survived into the early 1st millennium, however, and it is more likely that the area became nomadized for several centuries, perhaps until the Neo-Babylonian occupation of Tayma in the mid-sixth century.     

Titus's Tinnitus

Historical approaches to tinnitus have depended highly on cultural factors. While ancient Oriental mysticism regarded it as sensitivity to the divine, Roman medicine associated it with depressive and seizure disorders on the basis of presumed common pathophysiology shared by the three conditions. In the Babylonian Talmud, tinnitus appears as Titus's curse: a gnat buzzing in the brain, responding to sound therapy, and then habituating. Various sources show varied emphases with common attention for contextual and emotional aspects that have become an important focus in modern management of tinnitus.     

Titus's tinnitus

Historical approaches to tinnitus have depended highly on cultural factors. While ancient Oriental mysticism regarded it as sensitivity to the divine, Roman medicine associated it with depressive and seizure disorders on the basis of presumed common pathophysiology shared by the three conditions. In the Babylonian Talmud, tinnitus appears as Titus's curse: a gnat buzzing in the brain, responding to sound therapy, and then habituating. Various sources show varied emphases with common attention for contextual and emotional aspects that have become an important focus in modern management of tinnitus.     

Probing the provenance of archaeological glaze colorants: Polychrome faunal reliefs of the Ishtar Gate and the Processional Way of Babylon

The polychrome glazes from the Processional Way and the Ishtar Gate of Babylon are among the best preserved from antiquity. Yet, little is known about the logistical choices involved in their production. Variations in isotope ratios can be useful for complementing an archaeological investigation of potential geological sources of raw materials. Consistent with archaeological evidence and ancient texts on trade in metals, Turkish ore deposits are thus tentatively proposed as possible sources of the metal oxide colorants used for the investigated polychrome glazes of three Neo‐Babylonian faunal reliefs that are now part of the collection of the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen.     

AUTHORITY, POLITY, AND TENUOUS ELITES IN IRON AGE EDOM (JORDAN)

Summary.   The strategies political elites implement to garner political authority and legitimacy in emergent polities are scrutinized in a case study from Iron Age Edom, located in modern southern Jordan and the south-east corner of the State of Israel. Edom provides a productive context in which to conduct this investigation as local elites managed a fractious polity consisting of unstable segmentary identities, while at the same time, remaining loyal to the successive Assyrian, Babylonian, and Persian empires that dominated them. This tenuous position required elites to maintain a flexible elite identity while promoting broader metaphors of attachment (e.g. Edomite) among their disparate constituents. This case study ultimately moves toward an understanding of political polities, not as disembodied entities (e.g. States), but as embedded phenomena within the societies they comprise.     

Amorite names and old testament onomastics 1

Abstract

Amorite personal names, particularly those attested in texts from the Old Babylonian period, provide most valuable evidence for research in dia‐chronic aspects of Old Testament onomastics. The paper presents a general introduction to research on these names and to their grammatical structure. It further discusses possible Amorite parallels to the divine name Yahweh and lists a large number of names and name elements paralleled in the Hebrew Bible. Most prominent among the Hebrew cognates are names appearing in narratives with reference to the so‐called proto‐history and the Patriarchal period.     

Between science and empire: the diplomatic struggle over Mesopotamian antiquities in Lisbon (1914–1926)

A powerful curiosity to discover the ancient world – reaching its peak in the nineteenth century – led to British, French, and German museums to enhance their collections with a great number of Mesopotamian antiquities. Most of these were the product of excavation work, which took years, followed by a shipping process fraught with hurdles and delays – much as when Babylonian and Assyrian antiquities were stranded in Portugal over the period 1914–26. In that case Portuguese officials seized the hoard of Babylonian and Assyrian items due to be sent to Germany at the beginning of the First World War by the German Oriental Society, which had carried out excavation works in Ottoman territories in the name of Kaiser II Wilhelm. The extensive British efforts and diplomatic exchanges aimed at bringing the pieces to London after the war, presents us with important clues regarding ownership disputes over antiquities, and the imperial struggle to acquire the cultural heritage of the near east. This study reveals that, under the existing legal framework, the items eventually taken to Berlin actually belonged to the Imperial Museum in Istanbul, and analyzes the discourse of ‘scientific concern’ constructed by British diplomacy.     

From Babylon to Christianity: William Foxwell Albright on Myth,Folklore, and Christian Origins

The American Orientalist William F. Albright (1891–1971) is remembered as a leading voice of twentieth‐century “biblical archaeology,” a field that aimed to demonstrate empirically the Hebrew Bible's substantial historicity. Less well known is Albright's research on Christian backgrounds, which by contrast reflected modernist theology's scepticism about the gospel narratives' literal truth. Drawing ideas from the “Pan‐Babylonian” school of biblical criticism, Albright invoked the influence of ancient Near Eastern myth and folklore on the Christ story, this being the culminating theme of his magnum opus From the Stone Age to Christianity (1940). Originally Albright believed that this mythological interpretation would reestablish Christianity's intellectual credibility in the twentieth century and thus help revive New Testament theology. Yet in the latter part of his career he omitted the mythological thesis from his writings, apparently having concluded that it was harmful to orthodox Christian faith.     

How Christianity Won the World

ABSTRACT

This article traces the ideology that allowed Christian civilization to conquer the world. It opens with a view of biblical “national” foundation myths, the Exodus and the Babylonian Exile, and shows how this ideology also allowed for ethnic cleansing, if not genocide, and how those played a dominant role in the mind of western Christians who simply adopted the biblical attitude to foreign nations as their own. A changing perspective including a not so historically dominated reading of the Bible may put an end to the western idea of a God given right to oppress all the nations of the world.     

The Imperial End: How Empire Overtakes Refugees in Jeremiah

ABSTRACT

Refugee studies, postcolonial studies, as well as political theory is used to argue that the portrayal of the Judeans who flee to Egypt, rather than those deported to Babylon, occupy the social space of the everyday conception of refugees in Jeremiah. By examining the narratives of chapters 42–44 in relation to the oracles against the nations (chs. 46–51), I show how the exclusion of the Egyptian group shores up the imperial turn represented in the OANs. After explaining the oracles' imperial character, a discussion follows of how reading them as imperial produces the Egyptian group as refugees in chs. 42–44. An exploration of contemporary discussions regarding refugees follows, enabling the claim that refugees are produced by the state. Finally comes, a broader discussion on how various discursive strategies excludes the Egyptian group of refugees in favor of the Babylonian deportees, supportive of an imperialized agenda.     

Book Reviews

Hans M. Barstad, The Babylonian Captivity and the Book of Isaiah. “Exilic” Judah and the Provenance of Isaiah 40–55. Oslo 1997. Pp 120.

Else K. Holt (ed.), Alle der ånder skal lovprise Herren! Det Gamle Testamente i tempel, synagoge og kirke, Frederiksberg 1998. Pp 304.     

从民间契约看古巴比伦时期的借贷利率——兼论《汉穆腊比法典》中借贷利率的非现实性

古巴比伦是一个商业较发达的社会,存在着较多的动产借贷行为。大量民间借贷契约显示,古巴比伦时期存在着多种多样、复杂多变的借贷利率。这些借贷利率大多与《汉穆腊比法典》中规定的借贷利率不一致,法典中所规定的借贷利率并不能反映当时借贷活动的实际。古巴比伦时期不存在一个统一的借贷利率,而是多种借贷利率共同使用。在研究古巴比伦时期借贷活动时,不能盲从《汉穆腊比法典》的条文规定,而要结合更多的民间借贷契约进行综合研究,这样才能够更加准确地、更加深入地还原历史、认识历史。