scholarly journals FURTHER EVIDENCE FOR A “LATE ASSYRIAN DRY PHASE” IN THE NEAR EAST DURING THE MID-TO-LATE SEVENTH CENTURY B.C.?

Iraq ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 78 ◽  
pp. 159-174 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam W. Schneider ◽  
Selim F. Adalı
Keyword(s):  
Climatic Change ◽  
Near East ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Textual Evidence ◽  
Proxy Records ◽  
Arid Conditions ◽  
First Millennium ◽  
Paleoclimatic Proxy ◽  
Different Parts

In a recent paper published in the journal Climatic Change, we put forward the hypothesis that drought and overpopulation played an important, if indirect, role in shaping the sudden decline of the Assyrian Empire during the mid-to-late seventh century b.c. This argument was partly predicated on five paleoclimatic proxy records for conditions in different parts of the northern Near East during the first millennium b.c., each of which indicates that relatively arid conditions affected much of the region during the seventh century b.c., especially during its middle decades. Here, we revisit the textual and paleoclimatic proxy evidence for a period of drought in more depth to examine whether this evidence does in fact support the climatic component of our hypothesis. In this paper, we show that the available proxy evidence supports the notion that there was some kind of regional climatic perturbation that affected much of the Near East during the latter half of the seventh century b.c., which caused conditions in many parts of the region to become more arid. The strongest signal for this short-term episode of aridification, which we have termed the “Late Assyrian Dry Phase,” is observed at approximately 650–600 b.c. These proxies thus corroborate and provide the background for the Neo-Assyrian textual evidence for drought during the mid-seventh century b.c.

The Origins of the Urartians in the light of the Van/Karagündüz excavations

1999 ◽  
Vol 49 ◽  
pp. 159-164 ◽  
Author(s):  
Veli Sevin
Keyword(s):  
Near East ◽  
Ninth Century ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
Eastern Anatolia ◽  
State Structure ◽  
13Th Century ◽  
Major Power ◽  
First Millennium ◽  
First Millennium Bc ◽  
Power Role

The Urartian Kingdom, as is well known, played a major power role on the stage of history in eastern Anatolia in the second half of the ninth century BC and remained powerful until the second half of the seventh century BC. With their highly advanced architectural traditions and organised state structure, the Urartians take their place among the most exciting civilisations of the first half of the first millennium BC in the Near East.Extensive detailed research and publication has been carried out on Urartian civilisation for over a hundred years, but the origin and dynamics of the development of this civilisation are still obscure. The Assyrian annals, which start from the 13th century BC, are at present the only source for understanding the early periods. These records were intended as propaganda and their accuracy is in many instances thus questionable.

Late Bronze Age Writing-Boards and their Uses: textual evidence from Anatolia and Syria

1991 ◽  
Vol 41 ◽  
pp. 111-123 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dorit Symington
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Near East ◽  
Ancient Near East ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Textual Evidence ◽  
First Millennium ◽  
The Subject

It has been known from textual sources for some time that besides clay tablets, the traditional writing material in the Ancient Near East, wooden writing-boards were also used by the scribes.M. San Nicolò first drew attention to the fact that writing-boards were widely employed in temple and palace administration in Mesopotamia in the first millennium B.C. and the textual evidence gathered by him was soon to be confirmed archaeologically by the discovery of several such writing-boards at Nimrud. Equally, the existence of wooden writing material in Hittite context has long been established, but no example has ever been found. It is generally thought that private and economic records which are almost totally lacking in the archives at Boǧazköy must have been written on perishable material.The elusive nature of wooden writing-boards manifests itself not only archaeologically by the unlikelihood of their survival but also by the fact that, as a rule, they deserved little mention in the cuneiform texts. Consequently, the quantity of wooden writing material that may have been in use and did not survive is impossible to gauge. Similarly, it would be unwarranted to deduce that centres whose archives have not contributed to the subject, were unfamiliar with writing on wood.

scholarly journals Time Is Running. Ancient Greek Chronography and the Ancient Near East

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Angelika Kellner
Keyword(s):  
Near East ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
Test Cases ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Textual Evidence ◽  
Time Gap ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Similarities And Differences

Abstract The article explores the question whether there was a possible dialogue between ancient Greek and Mesopotamian chronography. This is an interesting albeit challenging subject due to the fragmentary preservation of the Greek texts. The idea that cuneiform tablets might have influenced the development of the genre in Greece lingers in the background without having been the subject of detailed discussion. Notably the Neo-Assyrian limmu list has been suggested as a possible blueprint for the Athenian archon list. In order to examine this topic further, a thorough analysis of ancient Greek chronography starting in the second half of the fifth century BC, when eponymous dates in various literary compositions begin to appear, is required. A close examination of the fragmentary evidence shows how difficult it is to trace the supposed annalistic style in the local histories of Athens (Atthides). In the Neo-Assyrian Empire, the eponymous limmu officials served as the chronological backbone, but there remains a huge time gap between the seventh century cuneiform manuscripts and the Athenian archon list from the fifth century. A comparison of the Neo-Assyrian Eponymous Chronicles with the preserved Greek chronographic traditions in Eusebius’ chronicle (fourth century AD) shows that the similarity is mainly confined to an abbreviated style, as the entries clearly point to the different cultural and political settings. Apart from the Neo-Assyrian sources, the Neo- and Late-Babylonian chronicles deserve further attention in the present inquiry. Looking for a connection with ancient Greek chronography in the fifth century, the lack of wholly preserved texts on both sides in the corresponding time constitutes an unsurmountable obstacle. Presenting and scrutinising the textual evidence both for ancient Greek and for Mesopotamian chronography enables an improved understanding of similarities and differences alike. To exemplify this point, Greek and Akkadian temple histories serve as test cases.

The Machinery of the Andrew of Caesarea Tradition

2020 ◽  
pp. 74-120
Author(s):  
Garrick V. Allen
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Different Parts ◽  
Commentary Tradition

Although ubiquitous and informative, titles are not the only paratextual item that define Revelation’s manuscripts. An even more conspicuous force on the shape of Revelation’s interpretation and transmission is the commentary initially produced by the late sixth-/early seventh-century Archbishop of Cappadocian Caesarea, Andrew. This chapter maps the features of the late-antique Andrew of Caesarea commentary tradition, not only its explicit commentary, but also the prologue, kephalaia tables, epilogue, intertitles, and textual divisions. Different parts of the Andrew tradition appear in variegated ways in different manuscripts, but nearly half of all of Revelation’s Greek manuscripts maintain at least parts of the Andrew’s apparatus. Commentary manuscripts are a key part of the New Testament tradition that provide an array of information that informs reception-historical enquiry.

Conclusion to Part I

2020 ◽  
pp. 99-100
Author(s):  
Fanny Bessard
Keyword(s):  
Urban Economy ◽  
Near East ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
Investment Policy ◽  
Imperial Authority ◽  
Trading Zones ◽  
Urban Market ◽  
Late Roman

In certain respects, the development of urban retailing and crafts in the Near East from 700 to 950 was a natural response to the Muslim conquests, which joined up the late Roman and Persian trading zones. Still, it was not a self-generated process. Archaeological and textual sources reveal the prominent role that Muslim imperial authority played in the patronage of urban market and production spaces, possibly from as early as the late seventh century. While literary testimonies unanimously depict ‘Abbāsid sovereigns as more coercive in provincial life and the patronage of urban economy to support imperial propaganda, we can extrapolate from earlier accounts orally transmitted that caliphs and governors pursued an active investment policy as early as the rule of ‘Abd al-Malik in the late seventh and early eighth centuries....

Transformation at the Edges of Empire

2019 ◽  
pp. 267-300
Author(s):  
Robert G. Ousterhout
Keyword(s):  
Near East ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
The Caucasus ◽  
Architectural Production ◽  
New Religion

During the seventh century in the Caucasus, Armenia and Georgia witnessed a remarkable period of architectural production and creativity. The Ṭur ‘Abdin witnessed a flourishing at the same time, while architecture in other areas, such as Cyprus, Egypt, and Nubia, developed in relative isolation. With the emergence of Islam in the Near East, by the end of the seventh century, new architectural forms were developed to serve the new religion, dependent on the earlier Byzantine tradition and probably executed by Byzantine artisans.

The Archaeology of Nunge Site: An Ancient Salt Making Settlement and Trading Centre in Bagamoyo, Tanzania

Utafiti ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-52
Author(s):  
Emanuel T. Kessy
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Time Frame ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
Single Type ◽  
Limited Extent ◽  
Urban Centre ◽  
Swahili Coast ◽  
Conventional View ◽  
The North ◽  
First Millennium

Abstract The Bagamoyo area is among the Tanzanian coastal locations where evidence of intercontinental trade dates back to the last few centuries of the first millennium AD. Previous investigations have indicated that the region’s earliest settlement is represented by Early Triangular Incised Ware [TIW] around 600 to 700 AD, at Bwembweni site located two kilometres south of Kaole. During the Later TIW, the population shifted to Kaole Hill during the period noted by the use of Plain Ware, and later moved to the adjacent Kaole Ruins by the thirteenth century. Traditionally, the majority of earlier investigations for such conclusions have been restricted to Bwembweni and Kaole sites, and to a limited extent to Bagamoyo Town itself and its vicinity. However, recent reconnaissance and excavation of Nunge, a single type pottery tradition site located to the north, suggests that although Bagamoyo’s involvement in intercontinental exchange dates back to the seventh century AD, the narrative is more complicated than previously assumed. It appears that between the subsequent ninth to eleventh centuries, the area lost such links, before resurfacing again in the twelfth to thirteenth centuries. Within that time frame, Nunge developed into an extensive urban centre whose prosperity was based on salt production for exchange. This discovery suggests that the development to urbanism at (Later Iron Age phase) Nunge-Bagamoyo predates that of the Kaole town, when the area is known to have had a few links with the outside world. These findings contribute crucially to the debate regarding early urbanisation along the Swahili coast, by challenging the conventional view that Arab or Asian settlements were the earliest urban centres along the coast of East Africa.

scholarly journals The U.S. Embassy Move to Jerusalem: Mixed Messages and Mixed Blessings for Israel?

2019 ◽  
Vol 53 (01) ◽  
pp. 34-45
Author(s):  
Mick Dumper
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Tel Aviv ◽  
Mixed Messages ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The U.S ◽  
Different Parts

AbstractThe U.S. decision in December 2017 to move its embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem recognizes the latter as the capital of Israel. While violating several UN resolutions and international law, it has in the short-term impacted the negotiations between the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) and Israel. In the longer term we can see that the impact of the decision is also more complex and nuanced. There are three main areas which suggest this to be the case: First, the lack of clarity over the decision itself; second, the varying degrees of sovereignty exercised by Israel in different parts of Jerusalem due to the city's long and religiously diverse history; and thirdly, the contradictions inherent in imposing a nationalist ideology upon a cosmopolitan and heterodox city.

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