scholarly journals Dressing and Feeding the Family, or Cakes and Garments for the Gods?

1970 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeannette Boertien
Keyword(s):  
Built Environment ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Near East ◽  
Ancient Near East ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Southern Levant ◽  
Sacred And Profane ◽  
The Family ◽  
Spindle Whorls

In the built environment of a past society it is often difficult to distinguish between sacred and profane objects and places. We struggle with the difficult tasks of recovering and understanding the behaviours that took place in domestic and public units. Baking, spinning and weaving can be traced very well in the archaeological record from artifacts such as ovens, spindle whorls, loom weights and other remnants representing a loom. Traces of weaving and baking are often found in domestic context. Weaving and backing for a temple and especially weaving clothes and backing bread for a deity are well-known phenomena in the ancient Near East. But in the archaeology of the Southern Levant weaving and baking in association with a temple or a shrine seems to be overlooked.Khirbet al Mudayna, Tell Deir Alla and Tell es-Saidiyeh, situated in Transjordan, with their huge and concentrated numbers of Iron Age loom weights and distinctive architecture, indicate production for others than the direct inhabitants, suggesting specialization and trade. But who were these others. By comparing the features of the three sites an answer to the above question can be indicated.

scholarly journals Wealth Inequality in the Ancient Near East: A Preliminary Assessment Using Gini Coefficients and Household Size

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 689-704
Author(s):  
Pertev Basri ◽  
Dan Lawrence
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Near East ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Wealth Inequality ◽  
Household Wealth ◽  
Household Size ◽  
Political Organization ◽  
Ancient Near East ◽  
Rural Sites

Investigating how different forms of inequality arose and were sustained through time is key to understanding the emergence of complex social systems. Due to its long-term perspective, archaeology has much to contribute to this discussion. However, comparing inequality in different societies through time, especially in prehistory, is difficult because comparable metrics of value are not available. Here we use a recently developed technique which assumes a correlation between household size and household wealth to investigate inequality in the ancient Near East. If this assumption is correct, our results show that inequality increased from the Neolithic to the Iron Age, and we link this increase to changing forms of social and political organization. We see a step change in levels of inequality around the time of the emergence of urban sites at the beginning of the Bronze Age. However, urban and rural sites were similarly unequal, suggesting that outside the elite, the inhabitants of each encompassed a similar range of wealth levels. The situation changes during the Iron Age, when inequality in urban environments increases and rural sites become more equal.

The Family in the Ancient Near East

1948 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 24-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
I. Mendelsohn
Keyword(s):  
Near East ◽  
Ancient Near East ◽  
The Family

TROPHY HUNTING – A BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE FROM THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST OF THE IRON AGE (CIRCA 1200–500 B.C.E.)

2017 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 769-787
Author(s):  
Johan Pretorius
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Near East ◽  
Ancient Near East ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Trophy Hunting ◽  
Sport Hunting ◽  
Archaeological Perspective

Humans have been hunting since time immemorial. In recent times, especially after the shooting of Cecil, a trophy-lion, various questions have surfaced about sport hunting. In this article, evidence from the Bible and archaeology from the Iron Age ancient Near East is presented to enable the reader to understand how and what was hunted. The article will conclude with the biblical Israelites’ and their neighbours’ attitude towards hunting, in particular trophy hunting.

The Coming of the Taboo: Pigs in the Iron Age

2020 ◽  
pp. 116-141
Author(s):  
Max D. Price
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Food Habits ◽  
Near East ◽  
Southern Levant ◽  
The Third ◽  
Traditional Diet

Zooarchaeological evidence from the Iron Age southern Levant allows the reconstruction of a taboo among the ancient Israelites, which developed in large part as a reaction against the food habits of the Philistines. This taboo emerged more powerfully during the writing of the Torah in Judah in the late 8th–7th century BC. Biblical writers strove to develop an image of a heroic Israelite past as part of a project to create a sense of ethnic togetherness among Hebrew-speaking peoples. They drew upon two, possibly three, sources of inspiration. The first was a traditional diet focused on ruminant products and lacking in pork; the second, the existing (but at that point waning) pig taboo. The third element, less clear, was the taboo on pigs that applied to priests and temples in other parts of the Near East. The biblical authors found these existing traditions helpful in creating a picture of a glorious pastoral ancestry.

Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer: Bronze Age Cities in Iron Age Context

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Yosef Garfinkel ◽  
Michael Pietsch
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Near East ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Ancient Near East ◽  
Royal Ideology ◽  
The City

Abstract The historical King Solomon has been discussed and debated by many scholars over the years. It is interesting, however, to see that the historicity of the city list of Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer has been accepted by traditional and more radical scholars alike, who have suggested historical contexts in the 10th, 9th, or 8th century BCE for it. In this article we examine the list from a primarily literary point of view, placing it in the broader context of royal ideology in the ancient Near East and arguing that it may preserve memories of great cities from the Canaanite era.

scholarly journals Between Rocks and ‘High Places’: On Religious Architecture in the Iron Age Southern Levant

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (9) ◽  
pp. 740
Author(s):  
Diederik J. H. Halbertsma ◽  
Bruce Routledge
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Social Action ◽  
Religious Practice ◽  
One Dimension ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Religious Behavior ◽  
Southern Levant ◽  
Religious Architecture

In this paper we examine why common methodologies for determining ‘religious architecture’ do not account for the diverse and fluid ways in which religious behavior can be expressed. We focus on religious architecture from the Iron Age Southern Levant highlighting certain sites that ‘fall through the cracks’ of current taxonomies. We propose a different way of approaching evidence for religious practice in the archaeological record, viewing religion as one dimension of social action made visible along a spectrum of ritualization.

A Short Note on an Unusual Artefact which May Constitute a Link between Urartu and Etruria

2016 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-23
Author(s):  
Roberto Dan
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Near East ◽  
Short Note ◽  
Central Italy ◽  
Precious Metals ◽  
Ancient Near East ◽  
Cylindrical Object

Not long ago, during excavation in the domestic area of the Urartian fortress of Ayanis, a cylindrical object made of gold was discovered. Objects of this kind were completely unknown in Urartu before this discovery and it is not possible to compare it with any other items in the Ancient Near East. However, a possible parallel can be found with some golden objects discovered in central Italy in the work of Etruscan metallurgists. These items from Iron Age Italy are made of precious metals, especially gold, and have been interpreted as clasps; they are generally considered to have been used mainly to secure the men’s cloaks on the shoulder. This type of object is generally dated to the 8th-7th century B.C. and comes mainly from a series of archaeological contexts in central Italy.

Metal Quivers from Western Asia

2021 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 294-327
Author(s):  
Manuel Castelluccia
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Near East ◽  
Ancient Near East ◽  
Western Asia ◽  
Cultural Sphere ◽  
Reciprocal Influences ◽  
Archaeological Excavations

Abstract This paper presents a review of metal quivers, which belong to a category of metal objects found in Iron Age archaeological contexts in the Ancient Near East, especially in the variegate cultures living in the mountainous highlands bordering Mesopotamia. Each cultural sphere is considered separately, focusing on material brought to light during archaeological excavations. An analysis of different traditions allows comparison of these artifacts in order to detect evidence of contacts and reciprocal influences between different cultural regions, which strongly interacted during the first half of the Iron Age.

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