The Levant and the Eastern Mediterranean formed a special sphere of activity for diverse specialists who navigated from one side to the other through extensive networks of interconnections in the ...Late Bronze Age. During the Amarna Period (fourteenth century BCE), Akkadian and Hittite texts attest a lethal epidemic that originated in Egypt and later spread to Canaan, Syria, Alashiya (Cyprus), and the land of Hatti. References to pestilence, plague, epidemic, and death, as well as metaphoric expressions alluding to the crisis, such as the ‘hand of Nergal,’ are widespread in diplomatic correspondence, prayers, magic spells, and medical texts as well. Specialists (such as physicians, exorcists, and omen experts) traveled between courts to perform acts of healing and to practice divination. Also, statues of gods and goddesses were commonly sent between courts of Great Kings as symbols of fertility, healing, and alliances. This essay analyzes the role of exorcists traveling between courts in the framework of the cross-cultural discourse of alterity in the Amarna Age.
This paper presents evidence relating to the Early Bronze Age combed vessels of southern Canaan, based mainly on data from Tel Yarmuth. Neglected in previous studies on 'Combed Ware', this evidence ...confirms that combing should be considered as merely a 'geste technique'. It further suggests that combing and 'Metallic Ware' are two distinct aspects with a different spatial and chronological distribution. The practice of combing emerged during EB II in its original core area of northern Canaan and the central Levant, in a milieu of incipient urbanism. In EB III, it spread to southern Canaan, in a context of growing inter-regional exchanges, and to the northern Levant, in the framework of the development of maritime connections between Egypt, Byblos and Ebla.
Modern international business has its origins in the overseas trade of the Middle Ages. Of the various communities active in trade in the Islamic countries at that time, records of only the Jewish ...community survive. Thousands of documents were preserved in the Cairo Geniza, a lumber room attached to the synagogue where discarded writings containing the name of God were deposited to preserve them from desecration. From them Professor Goitein has selected eighty letters that provide a fascinating glimpse into the world of the medieval Jewish traders.
As the letters vividly illustrate, international trade depended on a network of personal relationships and mutual confidence. Organization was largely through partnerships, based usually on ties of common religion but often reinforced by family connections. Sometimes the partners of Jews were Christians or Muslims, and the letters show these merchants working together in greater harmony than has been thought, even in partnerships that lasted through generations. The services rendered to a friend or partner and those expected from him were great, and the book opens with an angry letter from a merchant who believed he had been let down by his friend.
The life of a trader was full of dangers, as the letter describing a shipwreck illustrates, and put great strain on personal relationships. One of the most moving letters is that written to his wife by a man absent in India for many years while endeavoring to make the family's fortunes. Although never ceasing to love her and longing to be with her, he offers to divorce her if she feels she can wait for him no longer. A decisive event in the life of the great Jewish philosopher, Moses Maimonides, was the death of his brother David, who drowned in the Indian Ocean. Printed here is the last letter David wrote, describing his safe crossing of the desert and announcing his intention to go on to India, against his brother's instructions.
Professor Goitein has provided an introduction and notes for each letter, and a general introduction describing the social and spiritual world of the writers, the organization of overseas trade in the Middle Ages, and the goods traded. The letters demonstrate that although it reached from Spain to India, the traders' world was a cohesive one through which these men could move freely and always feel at home.
Originally published in 1974.
ThePrinceton Legacy Libraryuses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These paperback editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.
Cities, Monuments and Objects in the Roman and Byzantine Levant celebrates Gabriel Mazor and his lifetime of work at the monumental city of Nysa-Scythopolis, Bet Sheʼan Baysān. This metropolis, part ...of the storied Decapolis, or league of ten cities, that flourished during the Hellenistic, Roman-Byzantine and very early Islamic periods until the devastating earthquake of AD 748, has been the singular focus of Gabi Mazor for a generation. The excavations, conservation and reconstruction at the site, and the detailed publications all are deserving of praise and appreciation.Chapters by leading archaeologists in Israel and the Levant explore themes and sites, in most cases by the chief archaeologists themselves, providing the latest information and insights about cities and villages from the Hellenistic to early Islamic periods across the region. This rare assemblage of scholars offers new material and interpretations of many of the key archaeological sites active today. The result is a rich trove of up-to-date data and insights that will be a must read for scholars and students active in this part of the ancient Mediterranean world.
During spring migration, nocturnal migrants attempt to minimize their travel time to reach their breeding grounds early. However, how they behave and respond to unfavourable conditions during their ...springtime travels is much less understood. In this study, we reveal the effects of atmospheric factors on nocturnal bird migration under adverse conditions during spring and autumn, based on one of the most detailed bird migration studies globally, using radar data from 13 deployments over a period of seven years (2014–2020) in the Levant region. Using ERA5 reanalysis data, we found that migratory birds maintain similar ground speeds in both autumn and spring migrations, but during spring, when encountering unfavourable winds, they put more effort into maintaining their travel speed by increasing self-powered airspeed by 18%. Moreover, we report for the first time that spring migrants showed less selectivity to wind conditions and migrated even under unfavourable headwind and crosswind conditions. Interestingly, we discovered that temperature was the most important weather parameter, such that warm weather substantially increased migration intensities in both seasons. Our results enhance our understanding of bird migration over the Levant region, one of the world’s largest and most important migration flyways, and the factors controlling it. This information is essential for predicting bird migration, which—especially under the ongoing anthropogenic changes—is of high importance.
The spread of cuneiform writing and associated linguistic and literary traditions represents one of the key moments in the cultural history of the ancient Near East. This complex and multilayered ...process can indisputable be considered an excellent example of cultural transfer. Its long duration and the state of preservation of the sources allow us to follow this process in its entirety, but also to focus on specific details. The aim of this article is to identify the importance of cultural transfer in the Akkadian texts of Ugarit, more specifically with respect to the origins of the phrase “according to the loyalty of someone’s heart”.
This paper proposes an exploration of the connection between the recessive trend of the financial economy in the mid-14th century and the simultaneous organisation of the expeditions to the Levant. ...Specifically, it will measure the impact of the crisis of the Florentine merchant companies, on which the papal treasuries also depended, on the setting up of the Smyrna crusade, which had begun before their collapse and was forced to downsize in the making. Then, the diplomatic contacts between the forces involved will be examined and the relationship between Clement VI (1342-1352), promoter of the expedition, and the Venetian Senate: if the former can be seen as a strenuous attempt to react to the economic constraints, the council seems to be oriented towards limiting contributions, having perhaps lost faith in the success of the enterprise.
The impact of human-driven hunting on large carnivores has been an important factor in altering recent and sub-recent ecosystems. However, comprehending this vital interaction in ancient times is ...compromised by the scarcity of carnivore remains in archaeological records. To address this, we examined historical human carnivore hunting dynamics in the Judean Desert of the Southern Levant using archaeological leopard traps, a unique hunting device common throughout the Saharo-Arabian region which has never been subjected to comprehensive analytic research. In this research, we applied a multi-faceted approach involving OSL dating, distribution modeling, and ancient DNA techniques, that provide direct evidence to spatio-temporal trends in top predator hunting. Our investigation dates the oldest known traps and implies that human hunting has been directed towards the Arabian leopard (Panthera pardus nimr) population in the Judean Desert since the mid-Holocene. Leopard hunting, which was probably carried out mostly by nomadic herding communities, intensified during the late Holocene, resulting in a substantial decline in the leopard population. By the time conservation regulations were enforced in the region, the leopard population had already plummeted to unsustainable levels due to these historical hunting practices.
•We applied OSL dating, distribution modeling, and ancient DNA techniques to study leopard hunting in the Holocene Judean Desert.•Leopard trap construction dates suggest human hunting since the mid-Holocene.•Leopard hunting intensified during the late Holocene, stressing a relatively isolated population.•By the time conservation began, historical hunting had driven the leopard population to unsustainable levels.
